User awareness of knowledge management practices of public university libraries in Bangladesh

A study

Background of the study: Users of university libraries frequently have high expectations for the support services offered by the library. The goals of KM are to enhance library services, generate more with fewer resources, prevent duplication of effort, and take advantage of already existing knowledge.

Purpose: The main aim of this research is to recognize the user awareness of Knowledge Management (KM) Practices of public university libraries in Bangladesh.

Method: The present research used quantitative methods. A total of 1,060 printed questionnaires were distributed among undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) students of five public university libraries in Bangladesh using a simple random sampling technique. Out of 1,060 questionnaires, 811 usable questionnaires were returned, giving a response of 76.5%.

Findings: The study found that users' familiarity with KM is moderately low. They learned about KM through courses provided by their respective departments and independent study through research literature. It was also found that lack of awareness, problems with organizational culture, improper technology deployment, and inadequate support from management are the challenges related to KM practice in public university libraries in Bangladesh.

Conclusion: Finally, the research presented managerial and practical implications with further research directions.

Introduction

Bangladesh is a developing country with better prospects for sharing knowledge and managing resources in its knowledge-driven institutions like libraries and information centers(Igbinovia & Ikenwe, 2017). KM in organizations includes planning, initiation, development, and integration(Arrau, 2015). As(Akter & Banik, 2019)mentioned, KM in an organization plays a significant role in the organization’s success. There is a need to reshape university libraries' structures to improve user services. The primary goal of KM is to encourage university libraries to be more intelligent in their activities and internal operations.(A. et al., 2014)claimed that KM improves library operational effectiveness by facilitating more accessible access to information resources. Implementing KM also makes it easier to innovate services(Goyal & Sharma, 2014). University libraries have a unique chance to help reimagine library services in the future.

Users of university libraries frequently have high expectations for the support services offered by the library. A type of collaboration that improves services, gives users more organizational learning abilities, and adds value is user feedback on library services. The goals of KM are to enhance library services, generate more with fewer resources, prevent duplication of effort, and take advantage of already existing knowledge(A. et al., 2015). In digital environments, the role of information and KM in library services has grown significantly. According to(Igbinovia & Ikenwe, 2017), KM practices are currently being carried out by non- governmental and private organizations in Bangladesh, particularly on social networks. However, in LIS, this technique is still in the theoretical stage. However, research on KM practices and the development of a strategic KM for developing countries in libraries is absent(Abah et al., 2022). Therefore, it is necessary to understand the value and significance of the KM from the viewpoint of a developing nation. Unlike developed countries, not much research has been published on Bangladesh’s perspective on KM practices and implementation in the library sector. It has also not been discovered what the users’ awareness and familiarity with KM are and how the service value of the libraries can be improved by implementing KM in public university libraries. In addition, most library users in Bangladesh are unaware of the potential impact of KM. As a result, they are not actively participating in making this a worthwhile endeavor. Therefore, it is necessary to discover the relevance and importance of KM for public university libraries in Bangladesh and identify the challenges of KM practices. These were the motivations that prompted this research.

Therefore, this research aims to identify the user's awareness of KM practices for public university libraries in Bangladesh. Due to the relative novelty of KM in Bangladesh's and other developing nations' LIS contexts, this research makes an important contribution(Igbinovia & Ikenwe, 2017). Predictable research findings will help higher authorities decide on effective KM strategies and policies to employ in university libraries. Additionally, the data collected from public university libraries may be applied to contribute to the various university libraries in Bangladesh, which would facilitate to success of this research. In this regard, this research is expected to add to the users understanding of KM in libraries. The present study also assists the authorities in determining the current practices of KM in their libraries. This research is also significant because it identifies various challenges of KM practices and recognizes the needs of KM in the university libraries in Bangladesh.

This research aims to recognize the user awareness of KM practices in public university libraries in Bangladesh. Based on this objective the following research questions guided this research.

RQ1: To what extent are users aware of KM practiced in public university libraries in Bangladesh?

RQ2: What are the challenges related to KM practice in public university libraries in

Bangladesh?

RQ3: To what extent are users' demographics associated with their characteristics, awareness, and KM familiarity issues?

For addressing RQ3, we have used non-parametric “Mann-Whitney” and “Kruskal- Wallis” tests to see the differences between variables.

Literature Review

(Batista & Quandt, 2017)in their study define “KM as the process of creating, sharing, using and managing the knowledge and information of an organization.” They found over a hundred definitions of knowledge management from various areas. They gathered these definitions from 23 disciplines and 13 different nations, reflecting the opinions of the authors on the definitions according to their fields and cultural backgrounds.(Mohajan, 2017).(Krejcie & Morgan, 1970), in his review paper, stated that there is no single definition for KM, and it is understood differently depending on the industry. For commercial organizations in the twenty- first century KM is a recognized, standardized organizational policy(Mostofa & Sultana, 2019). Experts in library and information science (LIS) will still be involved in KM. Nevertheless, KM needs to integrate and adjust to the shifting organizational environments to endure and prosper(Jain, 2014). KM in higher education could support the development of learned-centered knowledge and the shift from closed to open knowledge systems in action learning(Kakhki et al., 2021). To assist businesses, recover and use data to increase access to information sources, knowledge management (KM) can be defined as methods for gathering, communicating, coordinating, and locating knowledge sources(Dei, 2021). Value growth through the creation and provision of fresh, enhanced services is a component of service-based value(Girard & Girard & , 2015). To succeed in KM, organizations need