Information Seeking, Knowledge Management, and the NPS KP

1
Information Seeking, Knowledge Management, and
the NPS KP

• Professor Maxine H. Reneker
• Associate Provost for Library and Information
  Resources
• Naval Postgraduate School
• mreneker_at_nps.navy.mil
• 28 November 2000

2
Lecture Outline

• User Centered Information Paradigm
• Knowledge management (KM) as a tool for
  facilitating organizational information gathering
  and use
• NPS Information Environment Issues and Problems
• NPS KP Promise and Problems.

3
Dervin Nilan Paradigm Shift

• Objective vs. Subjective Information
• Mechanistic, Passive vs. Constructivist, Active
  Users
• Trans-Situationality vs. Situationality
• Atomistic vs. Wholistic sic Views of Experience
• External Behavior vs. Internal Cognition
• Chaotic vs. Systematic Individuality

4
Knowledge Management Concepts

• Common cognitive ground in the NPS community
• Tacit versus explicit knowledge
• Communities of practice
• Culture of the organization as it affects
  knowledge sharing
• Diffusion of knowledge within the organization

5
Information UseEnvironment

• Definition of Information Environment
• Importance of Studying IUE

6
Premise of Study

• Identification of information needs of
  individuals within an organization can facilitate
  the understanding of the information environment
  of the organization
• This understanding can lead to
• improvements in the flow of information
• the organizations ability to adopt rapidly
  changing communication technologies, to adapt to
  change in the external environment, and to
  assisting the organization in structuring an
  information environment which facilitates
  successful information seeking

7
Selected Research Questions

• What are the information needs of NPS students,
  faculty, and staff?
• What are the barriers to information seeking on
  the NPS campus? What causes failure in searches
  for information at NPS?
• Does the data allow for a characterization of the
  NPS information environment?
• Can the data be used to improve the information
  environment at NPS?
• How do the results inform our understanding of
  the information seeking process?

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Impetus for and Objectives of the Study

• Better understand the information environment at
  NPS
• Identify information needs of NPS students,
  faculty and staff.
• Understand the Librarys role in providing
  information to fill these needs
• User assessment for the development of an NPS
  Knowledge Portal

9
Methodology

• Grounded theory methodology
• Divorced 1998 data gathering from purview of the
  Library to obtain more generalized set of needs
• Focus groups to solicit information needs and
  conduct user assessment
• Facilitation by Library and non-Library staff
  experienced in focus group facilitation and with
  broad knowledge of NPS

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Issues Emerging -1998 Data Analysis
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Issues Emerging -1998 Data Analysis - Slide 2
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Sources Cited in 1998 by Respondent Group
13
Sources 1998 - Slide 2
14
Uniqueness of NPS Institutional Environment

• Curricula developed and reviewed every two years
  by Navy curriculum sponsor
• Communication flow is downward through chain of
  command
• Three distinct cultures military, academic,
  civil service staff

15
Barriers to Successful Searches

• ? Mentioned occasionally or emerged as an
  underlying issue
• ?? Mentioned frequently or emerged as an
  important underlying issue

16
Issues Emerging -2000 Data Analysis
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Issues Emerging -2000 Data Analysis
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Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning

• Second generation knowledge management
• Organizational learning
• Improvement of organizational performance
• Uniqueness of the NPS environment as it affects
  successful implementation of KM concepts

19
Characterization ofthe Environment

• Student skills, as perceived by the faculty, as
  excellent
• Seekers are frustrated by lack of understanding
  of the environment
• Fragmented information data sources
• Stove-piped systems

20
Knowledge Portal Development

• Data clearly revealed desire to locate
  information in one place
• Explosion in knowledge management technique and
  software in past 18 months
• Two Navy KM projects funded
• End of the year funds received for NPS Knowledge
  Portal

21
Knowledge Portal Capabilities
Peer and expertise finder
Communities of Interest
Connection to other users
Visualization of retrieval results
Management knowledge base
Lessons Learned
Training and curricula support
Scholarly journals
Electronic Documents
Business news and information
E-Business
IT news and information
Virtual librarians
Relevant web sites
22
NPS Knowledge Portal
External
Internal
Collaboration

• More than 2000 E-Journals
• Harvard Business Review
• Wall Street Journal
• New Feeds
• Periscope
• ComputerSelect
• General Reference Sources
• Best Web Sites
• K-Store

• E-Mail
• Office files and documents
• Naval/DOD Publications
• Naval/DOD Databases
• Policy and Directives
• Navy/Marine Corps Library Catalogs

• Librarian Advisory Service
• People and Expertise Locator
• Communities of Practice
• Communities of Interest
• Content Contribution Tools

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Portal Integration--DONCIO and NPS

• Both portal projects run in parallel
• Differences in user demographics, content focus
• Leveraging strengths of both projects for the
  other
• NPS reference librarians will mine for relevant
  web sites, provide some virtual librarians
  (advisory service)
• DoNCIO provides bargaining power for licenses
• Lab for portal-to-portal integration (N6,
  SPAWAR, etc.)

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Understanding the Information Seeking Process

• Perception of the environment
• Mental models of specific information sources
• Where and from whom to seek information
• Richness of the resources
• Affective response to queries
• Experience with information system feedback
• Expectations of communication flow
• Previous experience with resources and human
  information providers