The Library Leading: Knowledge Management Supporting Community College Institutional Strategy

abstract

This case study demonstrates how librarians at LaGuardia Community College led a college-wide knowledge management project to implement Ask LaGuardia, an online knowledge base where users can find answers to common questions on navigating this large urban college. Students had been experiencing difficulty receiving clear, correct, and consistent answers to their questions while staff had been challenged by information silos. LaGuardia’s president chose the Library for a leadership role in this initiative supporting a broader strategy of better alignment between Academic and Student Affairs. The Library’s positive reputation and knowledge organization expertise made it a natural fit. Four years in, available data and observations indicate that Ask LaGuardia is meeting its goal of easing students’ difficulties around finding college information while earning campus-wide support in the process. LaGuardia librarians demonstrated one way in which libraries can lead a knowledge management effort, thus, increasing their value to their parent institutions.

Keywords:

• Collaboration
• knowledge management
• leadership
• strategy
• students