an assessment of the enabling role of information technology in knowledge sharing and retention in academic libraries: a case study of makerere university library

Description

The changes brought about by the dynamic information technology (IT) environment today are a clear signal to academic libraries to move towards adoption of IT developments in knowledge sharing and retention in order to remain competitive. This is because knowledge sharing widens knowledge bases which promotes reuse and retention of knowledge. Unfortunately, knowledge sharing and retention have not been fully adopted by academic libraries which leaves a lot to be desired. This study, therefore, sought to assess the enabling role of information technology in knowledge sharing and retention in academic libraries with a case study of Makerere University Library. The study adopted a qualitative research approach which lends itself to the interpretive research paradigm and employed interviews and document content analysis as the methods of data collection. A total of six IT staff and six librarians were purposively selected based to avail information for the study. The major findings of the study revealed that there are various information technologies in Makerere University Library with minimal application of such technologies in knowledge sharing and retention because there is no formal recognition of such knowledge management initiatives. The study, therefore, mainly recommends formal recognition of knowledge sharing and retention as well as continual staff training in the application of IT in knowledge sharing and retention. Keywords: Information technology, Knowledge sharing, Knowledge retention, Academic libraries.