Library Portal : A Knowledge Management Tool

Abstract

Describes the pivotal role being played by the Central Library, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay in supporting its march towards its vision. The library has applied knowledge management practices in organizing and providing the seamless access to the knowledge resources to help users, and in doing so has acquired core competencies in several areas. Discusses the critical factors for success of knowledge management in the library, viz., knowledge resources, knowledge (dissemination) services, human resources, sustained strategic commitment, and technology. The library portal has been described as the most popular form of the technology that provides networked information about library’s collections, digital resources, web sites, and services. Explains in detail the salient features of the library portal of IIT Bombay to provide single window shopping for users. Underlines the need for an aggregator to facilitate broadcast searching across databases and search engines. Concludes that the knowledge management technologies have helped the Central Library, IIT Bombay to systematically synchronize all the critical components and to serve its users more effectively and efficiently, and thus to contribute to organizational goals.