A study of KM critical success factors in Greek academic libraries

In the library environment, knowledge management (KM) has been recognized as improving overall performance, facilitating the creation of innovative services and assisting libraries in better serving the needs of their parent organizations. The purpose of the present study is to explore the level of presence of and possible associations among knowledge management critical success factors in Greek academic libraries,even if they do not consciously practice KM. The factors examined are: knowledge management strategy, organizational culture, organizational structure, human resources management, and information and communication technology infrastructure. The results indicate that, while academic libraries make wide use of information and communication technology tools and their organizational structure facilitates open communication, team-working is not widely practiced. However, libraries seem to have taken some steps toward building a knowledge-conducive culture and formulating a knowledge-centered strategy. Finally, the strong associations that were identified between knowledge management strategy and all the other factors suggest that library managers should focus on building a clear knowledge management strategy, which will determine the appropriate framework for the implementation of knowledge-conducive practices and the adoption of information and communication technology tools, while buttressed by a knowledge-friendly culture