Digital Information and Knowledge Management: New Opportunities for Research Libraries

Digital Information and Knowledge Management examines how academic librarians can use knowledge management to provide an increasing amount of electronic information to an expanding user base. Several of the country’s leading library administrators analyze these vital issues from the perspectives of both information providers and library users, exploring the challenges of selecting and managing electronic information and resources, making the most of knowledge management, and improving digital access to their users.

Electronic resources have given the library new roles to fill and created a demand for librarians skilled in the acquisition, retrieval, and dissemination of digital information. Libraries and librarians have met the challenges presented by digital resources and have moved from building collections of print materials into the growing field of knowledge management. Digital Information and Knowledge Management offers insights into how librarians are making that transition to enhance the resources and services they can offer library users.

Topics examined in Digital Information and Knowledge Management include:

• cooperative collection development
• the balance of print and electronic resources
• the evolution of digital resources in libraries
• the concept of knowledge management
• changes in research libraries
• knowledge management in academic libraries
• factors that influence the selection of electronic resources
• disseminating information about scholarly collections
• the need for a standardized method of information presentation
• successful approaches to managing digital information
• the digitalization of collections and historical materials
• how to maintain the connections between academic disciplines and libraries
• and much more!

Digital Information and Knowledge Management is an essential professional resource for senior- and mid-level library administrators, and for acquisitions, reference, and collections librarians.

Sul H. Lee, PhD, has served as Dean of University Libraries and Professor of Library and Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma since 1978 and is the university's Senior Dean on its Norman campus. He directs Oklahoma's largest research library with a collection exceeding 4.5 million volumes and is an internationally recognized scholar, editor, and consultant on librarianship. He was appointed to the Peggy V. Helmerich Chair in 2005.

Dean Lee's academic background is in political science, international relations, and library and information science, and he holds graduate degrees in those disciplines. He is the author of more than 30 books in the field of librarianship, along with numerous articles and professional presentations. In addition to his current positions at the University of Oklahoma, Dean Lee has taught at Oxford University in England, and the University of Michigan. He has served on important national and regional professional organizations and consortiums, including the Association of Research Libraries board of directors; the board of governors for the Research Libraries Group (RLG); the Council of American Library Association; and as Chair of the Greater Midwest Research Library Consortium.

Dean Lee serves regularly as a consultant to academic book vendors and publishers, and advises state and local governments on library affairs. His outstanding career spans more than 40 years in academic libraries and he has witnessed the transition of libraries from the era of card catalogs to the proliferation and general acceptance of digital information.