Knowledge sharing practices among African health sciences librarians.

Olalekan Moses Olayemi,Kemi Jummai Olayemi

doi:10.5195/jmla.2021.1183

Abstract

Objective:The objective of this study was to investigate knowledge sharing practices among health sciences librarians in African countries.Methods:A cross-sectional survey design was employed. The study population consisted of African health sciences librarians that attended the 16th Biennial Conference of the Association for Health Information and Libraries in Africa on October 14–18, 2019, at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. Data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results:The types of knowledge most commonly shared by respondents were information on conferences, workshops, and seminars as well as information on new trends and technologies in librarianship. The main avenue of knowledge sharing was face-to-face interaction. Unwillingness to share knowledge and a lack of awareness about current trends and issues were the top identified challenges to knowledge sharing.Conclusion:These survey results establish the existence of a low level of knowledge sharing among health science librarians in Africa and suggest that concerted efforts should be made to overcome barriers to knowledge sharing within and across African countries.

Highlights

Knowledge is crucial for the development and competitive advantage of individuals and organizations
We found that health sciences librarians in Africa have different understandings of knowledge sharing, but most perceived knowledge sharing as a combination of communication of knowledge, exchange of knowledge, and transmission and absorption of knowledge
We found that the main types of knowledge shared by African health sciences librarians were information on conferences, workshops, and seminars as well as information on new trends and technologies in librarianship

Summary

Introduction

Knowledge is crucial for the development and competitive advantage of individuals and organizations. We define knowledge as a set of insights, experiences, values, and skills embedded in an individual. Knowledge—whether tacit or explicit—can only be useful when it is carefully harnessed and shared among individuals, colleagues, groups, organizations, or collaborative parties [2]. According to Yu, Wilkins, and Ma [3], knowledge sharing is a process through which people transmit their knowledge interactively so that individual knowledge turns into organizational knowledge, allowing the acquisition of new skills, experiences, and insights to enhance job output. Lin [4] defines knowledge sharing in terms of its benefits, including helping communities and groups of people with similar objectives work together, jmla.mlanet.org

Methods

Results

Conclusion