In my upcoming book on promoting knowledge management initiatives within the corporate world, I warn against focusing too much on technology, which is a very common problem. But you will ultimately need to use technology for your KM program, so it’s important to understand it and use it in the optimal way. A critical component of successful technology procurement and rollout is a thorough understanding of how technology products are reviewed and approved.

Most librarians (and indeed, most professionals) think of networking as a personal, face-to-face activity. Most also look forward to meeting their fellow librarians and to making new friends, all while learning together about new ideas and trends in the library field. The challenge for solo librarians is that they often cannot leave their libraries to attend live conferences and meetings.

Pilots can’t fly unless they have instruments that tell them what the plane is doing at all times, and where it’s heading. KM professionals need instruments too, in order to assess whether the products and services they are providing are valued, and to understand what additional products and services might be needed.

Many librarians choose to work on their own, inside many different types of organizations. All library skills—whether reference, cataloging, or collection development—are useful and valuable to both solo librarians and their users. However, there are challenges (both budgetary and organizational) to going it alone which require one-person library managers to seek out both a network and a professional “support system.”

Solo librarians need powerful time management tools, since they are running their libraries without paraprofessional staff to assist. I’ve learned that many solo librarians (as well as other professionals) use their smartphones to manage and organize their time. Technology to the rescue!

In my upcoming book on promoting knowledge management initiatives within the corporate world, I share a number of tips on how to identify organizational barriers to knowledge sharing, and how to overcome them as you build the necessary culture for KM to thrive.

American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS) volunteer surgeons operate on thousands of patients worldwide, and they and their teams use Inmagic Presto and DB/TextWorks in very innovative ways to document patient data and outcomes. Read on to learn more about the FACE TO FACE database.

It used to be considered inappropriate for library staff to monitor the usage patterns of their end users, but for today’s special libraries, tracking and acting upon the insights gained is essential for delivering the best in content, tools and services. Learn how to make a successful case for end user tracking.

During my career as a KM practitioner, I developed a profile of the most effective knowledge managers. It’s included in my upcoming book on promoting knowledge management initiatives within the corporate world.

I was speaking with a client about faceted search. (For more information on that subject see my blog post “A Firm Foundation for Faceted Search”). We discussed the need for well-organized and well-structured data to support useful faceted searching. The client challenged that need, and stated she had read and been told that some forms of guided navigation require no data preparation—and will work with completely unstructured data. In this post I’ll compare and contrast two approaches to searching.

You’ve got an imagination. You’re creative. Librarians often say they’re not—so typically modest—but generally acknowledge that the magic in getting answers and insights from information is a creative act. Librarians are experts in that. If you’re too self-effacing to present yourself as an expert, can you simply admit to your expertise?

In this first post (of many) for Lucidea’s Think Clearly Blog, I’ll put forward two frameworks for thinking about how to successfully present creative ideas for innovation and change within your organization.

In my upcoming book on promoting knowledge management initiatives within the corporate world, I share a number of useful KM components that can be mixed and matched to suit an organization’s specific needs. Please read on for a sneak preview.

As discussed in my last post, special libraries now exist in a highly competitive information marketplace, where business users of content have lots of options. Michael Porter—in his seminal book Competitive Strategy—stated that in a competitive marketplace there are three strategies that make sense: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. What does this imply for special library strategies?

In my upcoming book on promoting knowledge management initiatives within the corporate world, I include a chapter on communication. Timely communication is critical to successfully introducing a new KM initiative and keeping the organization informed of implementation progress.

In my last post, I wrote about how I learned a difficult lesson: hard work and quality output must be in service of a solid business strategy if individuals, roles and departments are to thrive. As you know, keeping your special library vibrant and sustainable requires adaptation and lots of hard work. In addition, are you thinking strategically about how to make your library the best that it can be? Please read on for some ideas.

My first job was at Data Resources Inc. (DRI) working as a consultant with a large Fortune 25 conglomerate. My role was to provide industry information and sales forecasting via timesharing to its various business units by building a model that the customer would run (ideally) for years to come. Whenever the customer ran the model, DRI generated revenue. Sounds great, right? But I learned a difficult lesson about how things really work.

In his upcoming book on promoting KM initiatives within the corporate world, author and KM expert Stan Garfield shares a number of useful KM methodologies that enable colleagues to take advantage of proven practices and see the value of knowledge management to the organization. Read on for a sneak preview.

This is the sixth and final post in our series about the major challenges to library success. The same challenges to sustainability keep surfacing during our conversations with information management professionals, no matter the organization size, sector or geography. Please read on for our thoughts on the sixth most pressing issue special librarians are facing today—the perception that all ILS options are too costly, and still generic.