My classmate Alex answered this question (Would you consider knowledge management as an emerging trend in the information profession? Discuss the drivers behind the development of knowledge management...

My classmate Alex answered this question (Would you consider knowledge management as an emerging trend in the information profession? Discuss the drivers behind the development of knowledge management and its impact on both information science and library science. )in our discussion panel. Discuss his answer by providing references from the articles that I have attached.Alex response:"I don’t believe that knowledge management is new to the library field. The library has always been part of spreading the correct information to individuals or groups that need it. Since the beginning of education and research, the librarian has had to adapt to the growing field. There has never been a stable time in which the library has stopped acquiring new ways to help the public. Michael Buckland (2017) explained that “we can think of the scholar librarian of general libraries in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when collections were so much smaller than now and the knowledgeable librarian mediated access”. But what happened when that librarian was sick, could no knowledge be passed on. What if the library grew and that one librarian couldn’t remember everything? This did happen which is why growth and forward thinking needed to be instituted and continues to this day and will be going on in the future.

Thomas Frey (2012) explained it best, “Libraries are not about books. In fact, they were never about books”. Libraries are a vessel for people to access accurate information. The library previously provided printed material because that was the best way to acquire the information needed, but now it’s going towards digital material. This change doesn’t mean libraries will no longer important, it just means that the information that is accessed will be in a different form.

If librarians stay ahead of the game by educating new recruits in different areas, we will be an asset to the community. ACRL Research Planning and Review Committee (2014) states that “new demands on libraries for cross-disciplinary expertise in data collection access, metadata, curation, and preservation”. The digital trend is still evolving and will continue."