The Design and Development of an Online Knowledge Base for Librarians Teacher Librarian, Lo-Tung Senior High School, Taiwan Po Han, Chiu IASL-2005

Rationale and background 1.There are more than 2000 librarians in high schools, they can form a powerful information-offering group. 2.The concept of virtual community is feasible by the IT technology today. 3.The concept of knowledge management can be implemented by web tools.

Researching Purpose 1.Gathering the librarians from high schools to build a (network) virtual community. 2.Designing a “school librarians on line counseling service” by virtual community and principles of knowledge management. 3.Pointing out the difficulties of running the website, and figuring out the accessible solutions.

Literature Review Virtual community of librarians Knowledge Management

Virtual community of librarians A virtual community is a group whose members are connected by means of information technologies, typically the Internet.

Virtual community of librarians The characteristics of the virtual community of our site –1. It meet the 4 demands of a virtual community (interest 、 relationship 、 fantasy and transaction) –2. It is a discussing type virtual community –3. The participating motivations of our community members –4. Community management

The 4 demands of a virtual community 1.interest: the members all want to elevate library service quality. 2.relationship: the members of the community frequently visit each other (such as seminars), this website can enhance the connection among the members. 3.fantasy: the member's usually bring about some creative ideas on managing a library. 4.transaction: the members usually "share tips“ on managing a library.

Discussing type virtual community According to the definition of Stanoevska-Slaveva （ 2002 ）, our community can be categorized into discussing type because we –aim to establish a discussing ground which allows knowledge be arranged orderly and be found easily –make new participants review existing discussing contents efficiently. –the discussing content be explicit for being communicated and exchanged without difficulties.

Motivations of the members 1.Experienced librarians participate of theirs own accord. 2.Government’s encouragement.

Community management 1.Our community has explicit goals and motivations. 2.Our opinion leaders are enthusiastic. 3.Promoting one by one to potential members. 4.Persuade potential type members into contributing type members.

Knowledge Management Classification of knowledge –tacit knowledge –explicit knowledge Davenport, T. H. declared his knowledge management in 1997

Steps in knowledge management Davenport, T. H. declared his knowledge management in 1997 –1. Extract knowledge –2. Edit knowledge –3. Create methods to classify knowledge –4. Convey knowledge and apply it to infrastructures –5. Teach staff to innovate and use knowledge

What role does knowledge management play in high school libraries 1.Operation and management 2.Library Instruction 3.Lecturing and research activities 4.Self-learning 5.Design a portal website connecting to diverse subjects website for instruction use. 6.Design library pages, with teaching activities and librarian resources, including information and knowledge management.

Design the website Functional design of the website Three platforms of the website System descriptions

Functional design of the website Functional design according to the concepts of virtual community the basic functions can be divided into “instant communication” and “non instant communication”. –Instant communication includes: chat-room, instant on-line message etc. –Non instant communication includes: forum, messaging board, , and vote.

Functional design of the website The tools for an enterprise’s e-knowledge management should base on group software, messages exchange and database technology. What’s more, it should meet the minimum demands of knowledge collection, storage, transference, sharing. Papows (1999)

1.A cross-platform computer environment 2.Information network: includes Internet, local area network, and Intranet. 3.Database 4. server 5.Analyzing software to produce knowledge 6.Groupware 7.Internet management software, includes browser and search engine. 8.Files management system 9.Schedule management software

Three platforms of our website Knowledge platform Knowledge collecting/sharing platform Groupware platform

Platform1:Knowledge platform Let librarians or community users to acquire desirable information and knowledge. It includes: –1.Knowledge base system: a. Technique file of a library. b. Governmental policies and rules. c. Library vocabularies search.

Platform1:Knowledge platform （ Cont. ） –2. Index service: This enables users to search rapidly the desirable information or technique files in database. –3. Expert-map ： Edit a yellow book of community technicians by editing personal expertise, which enables community users to find relative domain experts for knowledge sharing and technique consulting while facing difficulties. –4. E-learning: E-learning enables users to select his own courses on line and moreover to get the slides (or audio data) of relative seminars.

Platform2:Knowledge collecting/sharing platform This website contains the “knowledge collecting/sharing platform” its main role is the “e-papers processor”.

Platform2:Knowledge collecting/sharing platform （ Cont. ）

Platform3:Groupware platform “Work together” and knowing each other on the net. The functions of groupware include: –1. Document-sharing management: group members are able to maintain and classify uploading files by this function which also helps achieve files sharing and information standardizing. –2. Community schedule: through public schedule, users can understand the daily routines and schedules among members so as to arrange relative plans.

Platform3:Groupware platform （ Cont. ） 3. Website links –Enable community to set relative website links by themselves. 4. Project introduction ： –Introduce the basic data of projects, which enables those who participate in the cases to figure out immediately the executive issues and goals. 5. Mission schedule control: –Mission schedule controlling allows library superior officers to control the process of mission.

System description Operating system and internet environment Database system Program language : ASP Operation management and security mechanic

Operating system and internet environment Server side: –Operating System:Microsoft Windows 2000 Server (Chinese version), –WWW server:IIS 5.0 Client side –Operating System:Microsoft Windows98/Windows 2000 or Windows XP (Chinese version) 。 –Browser:IE5.0 or even superior. support WWW （ World Wide Web ） internet environment

DBMS Microsoft SQL Server 2000(Chinese version)

Program language HTML Java script ASP(active server page)

Operation management and security mechanic

Conclusion and Suggestions Conclusion Future development and suggestions

Conclusion This research is base on knowledge management, combining with the advantages and characteristics of virtual community, to build information sharing environment and knowledge integration for librarians, so called “knowledge base of high school library system.” Our website contains knowledge platform, sharing/collecting platform, groupware platform, and uses community strategy to improve the efficiency of library knowledge sharing so that librarians can acquire desirable information instantly without limitation of time and space. The participation of knowledge community and website activity accelerates the circulation of knowledge and information of a library, and makes library knowledge be managed, practiced, shared and updated efficiently. This is how community members acquire desirable information rapidly, even improve working efficiency.

Thank You Q&A or Comments?

Suggestions 1. Encouragement strategy of an enterprise, evaluation of grades and efficiency, organized culture, and information technology are all vital elements to support a successful knowledge management, which should be considered simultaneously while running knowledge management. 2. Collect more library management knowledge and experiences so as to enrich the web site’s content. 3. Integrate the internal and external resources of knowledge community, which makes more complete of the knowledge management system.

Suggestions(Cont.) 4. Install security protection system to avoid the attack of hackers and files stolen. 5. With the function of intelligent learning system, users can adjust themselves according to their habits and demands. It offers spontaneously useful messages and knowledge to users so as to improve the speed of knowledge passing and the value. 6. Expectedly we will test the service quality by the new librarians who start operating this system.