1. Personal Knowledge Management
Laura Larsson
Cedar Collaboration
November 6, 2004

2. Agenda Personal Knowledge Management (7 competencies)
Comparing competencies
PKM Competencies Instrument - How good are your PKM competencies?
Agenda: In this short session we will be discussing the 7 PKM competencies, comparing PKM with other lists of competencies and asking the question: How good are your PKM competencies?

3. What Do We Need to Know To…
Be a competent and literate member of the information society?
Find, organize, retrieve and disseminate the information we need/have?
Cope with the vast amounts of information we are bombarded with each day (InfoGlut) ?
Manage our own knowledge efficiently?
What Do We Need to Know To…: Basically we will be discussing how to find, organize, use and convey information using a variety of software applications and suggestions that hopefully will help us retrieve that information down the road and cope with the large amounts of information (infoglut) we find and often save to our computers. We must be competent in retrieving information. We want to be successful in managing personal and enterprise information effectively and efficiently.
Manage out own knowledge efficiently?

4. What is Personal Knowledge Management?
It is a system or strategy designed by individuals to
Organize and integrate personally important information
transform random pieces of information into something that can be systematically applied and that expands our personal knowledge
Similar to information literacy
What is Personal Knowledge Management?
It is a system or strategy designed by individuals to
organize and integrate information that we, as individuals, feel is important so that it becomes part of our personal knowledge base.
It provides a strategy for transforming what might be random pieces of information into something that can be systematically applied and that expands our personal knowledge.
PKM is best described as a set of skills and practices that allows an individual to effectively and efficiently process data, information and knowledge that have come into his/her possession.  In theory, these skills will allow one to be able to make better-informed decisions and more rapidly solve problems.  PKM provides a way for an individual to utilize the resources of the Information Age to their full potential.  The core of PKM is comprised of seven interdependent skills that help one harness and put to work the information around them.

5. Seven PKM Competencies
Based on work done by Paul Dorsey, et al., Millikin University
Acquiring information and ideas
Evaluating information and ideas
Organizing information and ideas
Analyzing information and ideas
Dorsey’s PKM Competencies schema made a lot of sense to me so this is what I use to organize my thoughts around the subject of PKM.
Acquiring information is a complex process involving asking questions about what information you want to find. Questions may be directed at yourself or at others. Listening is a critical information-retrieval skill. It also involves being able to search for information using online search engines and hand-searching print resources; performing searches of electronic databases such as PubMed and CHID using Boolean logic and iterative search processes until you locate the information you need. It can also be described as information discovery.
Evaluating information requires that you be able to judge the quality of the content you retrieve and be able to determine if it pertains to the question, problem or research you are doing.
The ability to organize information through the use of desktop folders or through the use of software applications that enable you to capture content in a structured way for future retrieval is critical.
Once you have the information you need, how do you turn that content into something that you can use for decision-making, sharing with others or for re-use. Many public health practitioners use such tools as spreadsheets and statistical software to extract meaning from data. Analyzing data and information is a core practice of public health practitioners. We prefer not to make decisions based on inadequate data.

6. Seven Areas, continued…
Cpnveying information and ideas
Collaborating around information and ideas; and
Securing information and ideas
Source:Paul Dorsey, Millikin University, Decatur, IL. Dorsey (
Once information has been examined, often the next step is to convey it to others. You take data or information and using your knowledge base, turn it into something that others can learn from. PHPs often present their findings to others using text, PowerPoint, graphs/charts, or HTML or by some other method.
As we all well know, creating new knowledge is rarely done individually any more. Increasingly work is done collaboratively and often at a distance via electronic means. Knowing how to collaborate in face-to-face and via or other means have become critical skills.
Because public health practitioners often work with human/personal data the need to securely store data and ensure its safety is another skill that we need to have in our skill set. We need to know how to manage passwords, back up our data securely and understand and use encryption where necessary. And comply with HIPAA regulations.

7. Basis of Information Literacy
a set of abilities
"[I]nformation literate people are those who have learned how to learn
…”they know how knowledge is organized, how to find information, and how to use information in such a way that others can learn from them. They are people prepared for lifelong learning."
Source: American Library Association Presidential Committee on Information Literacy: Final Report. (Chicago: ALA), 1989.
Let’s talk about information literacy for a moment. We’ll use the American Library Association’s definition given in the slide.
Note the emphasis on lifelong learning and the emphasis on how information is organized, knowing where to go to find information and how to efficiently and effectively use information such that others can benefit from your knowledge.

8. Comments
Many of the information literacy resources stop at presenting methods for assuring that you can keep information and ideas
But, PKM gives you tools and hints for finding, evaluating, organizing, analyzing, presenting, collaborating and securing information and ideas
Comments: Many of the information literacy resources stop at presenting methods for assuring that you can keep information and ideas but personal knowledge management gives you some tools to use to finding, evaluating, organizing, analyzing, presenting, collaborating and securing information and ideas. So, what we will be concentrating on when I talk is applications that can be successfully used to keep us organized and able to retrieve and use the information we collect.

9. Information Literacy vs Informatics Competencies
Council on Linkages Competencies Project
Public Health Informatics Competencies
The Public Health Informatics Competencies are based on the work done by the Council on Linkages.

10. Council on Linkages
The Council on Linkages competencies are based on the 10 Public Health Essential Services as listed on this page.

11. Council Competencies
This image shows the sub-competencies listed in the Analytic Assessment skills section.

12. Council Competencies Highlighted Today
Defines a problem (acquiring)
Identifies relevant and appropriate data and information sources (acquiring)
Partners with communities to attach meaning to collected quantitative and qualitative data (collaborating)
Makes relevant inferences from quantitative and qualitative data (evaluating)
Source: Council on Linkages Competencies Project. [online] Site URL:
Just to give you some comparison with what we are doing today, I have highlighted public health competencies from this list that are similar to the PKM competencies. The content in parentheses is the PKM competency)

13. Competencies, continued…
Obtains and interprets information regarding risks and benefits to the community (acquiring)
Applies data collection processes, information technology applications, and computer systems storage/retrieval strategies (organizing)
Recognizes how the data illuminates ethical, political, scientific, economic, and overall public health issues (evaluating)
Obtains and interprets information regarding risks and benefits to the community (acquiring)
Applies data collection processes, information technology applications, and computer systems storage/retrieval strategies (organizing)
Recognizes how the data illuminates ethical, political, scientific, economic, and overall public health issues (evaluating)

14. Informatics Competencies
Some of you may remember seeing this set of competencies from Patrick O’Carroll and colleagues posted at the NWCPHP (University of Washington) Web site. These competencies are based on the Council on Linkages Competencies Project but are extended into the informatics domain. This is a sample page. I view informatics as the intersection of information, computers and the public health domain.

15. Informatics Competencies Highlighted Today
(1) Digital literacy (acquiring, organizing)
(2) Electronic communications (collaborating)
(3) Selection and use of IT tools (today’s focus)
(4) Online information utilization (acquiring)
(9) Information and knowledge development (analyzing, conveying)
Source: Public Health Informatics Competencies. [Online] Site URL: Site visited: 08/09/04.
The competencies that overlap with the PKM competencies are listed on the slide by number of the O’Carroll competency and include:
1. Utilizes personal computers and other office information technologies for working with documents and other computerized files (acquiring, organizing)
2. Utilizes modern information technology tools for the full range of electronic communication appropriate to one's duties and programmatic area. (today’s focus)
3. Appropriately selects and utilizes state-of-the-art software tools in support of public health data acquisition, entry, management, analysis, planning, and reporting.
4. Utilizes modern information technology tools to identify, locate, access, assess, and appropriately interpret and use on-line public health-related information and data.
9. Combines data and information from multiple sources, to create new information to support public health decision-making
There is not really a good overlap with Dorsey’s personal knowledge management.

16. So What?!?
We will be learning about resources that we will want to keep going back to and use
My role is to discuss some relatively simple and inexpensive techniques and tools to manage information
Steve Barth, one of the key experts on the topic of personal knowledge management, has pointed out that: "PKM involves a range of relatively simple and inexpensive techniques and tools that anyone can use to acquire, create and share knowledge, extend personal networks and collaborate with colleagues without having to rely on the technical or financial resources of the employer." The emphasis is on the phrase: simple and inexpensive techniques and tools.
My role in today’s workshop is to teach you about some of those tools and techniques without negating the importance of face-to-face personal interactions and social networking as you hunt for and use information.
Don’t use this quote below. Just a reminder.
David Gurteen has said, “In order to be effective both at personal and at organisational level, knowledge exploitation activities need to be supported by tools that make both the collection and the organisation and distribution of information seamless enough for the single individual to empower his/her knowledge creation, organisation and sharing activities.”

17. AM/PM AM
Look at applications for finding, organizing, using and conveying/disseminating information PM
Retrieving and using the information you’ve already found

18. How Good Are Your PKM Competencies?
Baseline PKM competencies
Take the survey home with you
Fill it out and determine your skill level
Ask for training materials if you need additional help
Plan on learning constantly
The PKM Competencies assessment document is a means of assessing your information management skills. It is a work in progress.
Look it over quickly and see if you have any questions. Any questions?
Take the survey home with you and fill it out to determine your skill level. Ask for training materials if you need additional help and plan on spending the rest of your life learning.
Contact me if you have training materials needs.

19. Contact Information
Laura Larsson
Cedar Collaboration or