Monday, September 25, 2017

Call for Chapters: Managing Your Libraries’ Organizational Knowledge (ALA Book)

Managing Your Libraries’ Organizational Knowledge
ALA Book Call for Chapters:

We are accepting chapter proposals for an upcoming book published by ALA Editions, Managing Your Libraries’ Organizational Knowledge. We welcome proposals from librarians, faculty, and administrators working at academic and public libraries in the United States and Canada.

Theme of the Book
For this book, knowledge management (KM) refers to intentional implementation of a plan where unique human knowledge from employees is captured, leveraged, and preserved to provide long-term operational benefits to an organization. KM theory and practice is an expanding area of interest in many academic and large public libraries. Although librarians and information professionals are well versed at providing resources to their external users, the management of knowledge created within their organizations can be a challenge. Identifying, preserving, and disseminating internal intellectual and experiential knowledge is important for library and information organization management because it saves time, money, and duplicated effort. This book provides 1) an introduction of basic KM theory as it applies to information organizations, including definitions and history of the field; 2) a literature review of key articles, books, and other resources in KM and; 3) targeted, real life case studies of KM applications in academic and public libraries.

Proposals for chapter-length case studies are welcomed on any KM projects from academic and public libraries in the United States and Canada. We especially welcome proposals from large institutions with demonstrated organizational challenges of managing internal information and knowledge that have implemented thought-provoking, innovating, and successful solutions.

Details
Proposals should include the names of all intended authors and institutional affiliations, identification of primary contact with e-mail address, proposed title of chapter, and an abstract of no more than 500 words. Proposals should be submitted to both book editors, Jennifer Bartlett and Spencer Acadia, by e-mail on or before October 15, 2017.

Authors of accepted proposals will be asked to write a chapter within the range of 12-15 pages, double-spaced, including all text, references, tables, images, and photographs. Each chapter must address the following points:

  • Describe your library and its larger institutional setting. 
  • Describe your organization’s knowledge management need. What is the purpose and focus of your KM project? How have you integrated theoretical or methodological concepts to better inform your project? 
  • What resources were required for the project, including human resources, financial resources, and technological resources? How and why were they sufficient or not? 
  • In your view, was the project successful, and why or why not? What have been its challenges and how were those overcome? 
  • What are the implications of the project to other academic, public, or other libraries? What is the applicability of the project outside of your institution? 
Timeline

  • October 15, 2017: Chapter proposals due to editors 
  • November 3, 2017: Authors notified of acceptance 
  • February 2, 2018: Chapter drafts due to editors 
  • March 2, 2018: Editors’ comments provided to authors 
  • April 13, 2018: Revised drafts due to editors 
We look forward to reading your submissions. If you have questions, please contact us.

Jennifer Bartlett, Editor
jenniferbartlett33@gmail.com

Spencer Acadia, Editor
acadias1@gmail.com

About the Editors

Jennifer Bartlett is an assistant professor and the Interim Associate Dean for Teaching, Learning, and Research at the University of Kentucky Libraries. She has worked in academic and public libraries for over 20 years and focuses on public services, access services, and academic library management and administration. Since 2011, she has authored the “New and Noteworthy” column in Library Leadership and Management, the journal of ALA’s Library Leadership and Management Association (LLAMA). She is also a member of the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA) Knowledge Management Standing Committee. Jen can be reached at jennifer.bartlett33@gmail.com.


Spencer Acadia is the Social Sciences Librarian at the University of Kentucky Libraries and has worked in academic libraries for ten years. He has published peer-reviewed and professional articles and chapters—several on knowledge management—for such publishers as ALA, Elsevier, Taylor & Francis, Gale, and de Gruyter Saur. He is a standing committee member in the knowledge management section of the International Federation of Library Organizations (IFLA), and is an active member in the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) and the International Association for Social Science Information Services and Technology (IASSIST). He has been active in conferencing by presenting papers and posters at ACRL and IFLA, as well as chairing an IFLA pre-conference on knowledge management. In addition to an MLS, he holds a PhD in sociology and a master’s degree in psychology. Spencer can be reached at acadias1@gmail.com.