Migrating LIS Professionals into Knowledge Management Roles: What are the Major Barriers?

Knowledge management (KM) is a multi-dimensional field of study and practice,which requires a wide range of capabilities amongst its contributors, who comefrom a variety of professional groups. This paper examines claims that the Libraryand Information Services (LIS) profession should make and, indeed, is making asignificant contribution to organizational knowledge management. It outlines KMknowledge and skills and reviews the major barriers to LIS engagement in KM:the profession's focus on external information resources, as distinct from internalorganizational knowledge assets; lack of business knowledge; content ignorance;an image problem; a name problem; lack of visibility in the corporateenvironment; personality issues; and relative lack of the required managementskills. The paper concludes with some suggested directions for LIS practitioners,educators and researchers.