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Moving Forward with KM, Specialized Librarianship, and Knowledge Sharing in Africa

February 7, 2012 By Guy St. Clair

The latest issue of Information Outlook, the publication of the Special Libraries Association (SLA), includes a profile of Nerisa Kamar, who is with UN-HABITAT, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. She works with UN-HABITAT’s Knowledge Management Unit as Assistant Librarian for the Sergio Vieira de Mello United Nations Library at Nairobi .

In his introduction to the interview, author Stuart Hales writes:

“Books, journals, and other media are the lifeblood of libraries and information centers, and many librarians have their hands full organizing their collections of these resources and making them available to clients when and where they are needed. But for some librarians, simply procuring resources is a daunting task. These librarians may face a variety of obstacles – political restrictions, financial constraints, and institutional neglect, to name just a few.

“Librarians in much of Africa are familiar with these barriers, but SLA is helping raise their level of professionalism by connecting them with colleagues and providing them with leadership opportunities. One such librarian is Nerisa Kamar, who recently became president of SLA’s Sub-Saharan Chapter. … Information Outlook interviewed Nerisa late last year and asked her about the challenges that librarians in Africa face, how SLA can help them, and what she hopes to learn during the next few years to move her career forward.”

Later in the interview, Hales asks Kamar about KM, and the KM concepts she applies in her work. Kamar responds:

“My personal interest in knowledge management is very strong, because it is my belief that KM and knowledge services make up the foundation and substance of modern librarianship. … [They have been] useful for me in a number of ways. One is personal knowledge management, which occurs through information needs assessments and information alerts; another is knowledge sharing, by developing a rapport with information seekers to understand their actual information needs and meet them. Then there’s knowledge services – creating an awareness of e-resources to which UN-HABITAT subscribes and sharing basic access skills to use with these resources. As an example of this activity, I developed a 15-minute presentation, ‘E-Resource Awareness and Basic Search and Navigation Skills Training,’ targeting all UN-HABITAT projects. Our presentations so far have been very successful, and satisfying to me as an information and knowledge professional.”

Congratulations to Nerisa Kamar, Stuart Hales, and SLA for providing this fine example of how specialized librarianship, knowledge management, and knowledge sharing come together. It is a remarkable synergy.

About Guy St. Clair

Guy St. Clair is the Series Editor for Knowledge Services, from Verlag Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin, the scholarly publishing house specializing in academic literature. The series subject is knowledge services, the approach to managing intellectual capital that merges information management, knowledge management (KM), and strategic learning, presenting and discussing new and innovative approaches to knowledge sharing in all fields of work.

With Barrie Levy, Guy  is the author of The Knowledge Services Handbook: A Guide for the Knowledge Strategist (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2020). He is also the author of Knowledge Services: A Strategic Framework for the 21st Century Organization (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016). [Note: Go here for the free PDF version of this book: https://bit.ly/3msI27V. ]

Guy is also the author of Knowledge Services: Five Free Webinars from Guy St. Clair, available to anyone who wants to learn more about knowledge services. The webinars are offered at no charge.

Guy’s other professional writings are listed in SMR International’s corporate website, at SMRShare. 

Comments

  1. Guy St. Clair says

    February 8, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    At the SLA Knowledge Management LinkedIn Group, Cindy Romaine (immediate past president of SLA) wrote:

    Guy, I have been so impressed by your executive sponsorship in working with Nerissa to reinvigorate the Sub-Sahara chapter of SLA. My hat is off to you!

    Nerissa, You are just the tonic we all need. Please let us know what we can do to accelerate your mission.

    Reply
  2. Guy St. Clair says

    February 8, 2012 at 9:57 pm

    Posted by Colin Dube on the Strategic Librarians LinkedIn Group:

    Great News and Story!

    Reply
  3. Guy St. Clair says

    February 12, 2012 at 12:25 pm

    Sylvia Matovu writing at the KM/Knowledge Services Group of LinkedIn asks:

    Is there any work on Knowledge Management in Uganda you might know about? Nerisa Kamar, is Uganda part of the SLA Sub Saharan Chapter?

    Guy responds:

    Thanks, Sylvia, for that good question. I’ll connect with Nerisa Kamar about the Sub-Sahara Chapter of SLA and perhaps we can get some discussion going here and at the SMR site. Appreciate your taking the time to write.

    If any other members of the the KM/Knowledge Services Group have a comment, please share with all of us. Thanks.

    I’ll also post this on the SLA Sub-Sahara Group on LinkedIn.

    Reply

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