KM: Your Next Career?

Charles Darwin did not, as some assume, assert that the strongest would survive -- nor even the most intelligent. Rather, he said, it is those species best able to adapt that will outlive the others. Survival through environmental adaptation, however, applies not only to plants and animals but also to institutions, cultures, and professions. When we hear phrases such as "adapt or die," do we realize how closely these words might apply? This issue of the Journal focuses on an exciting opportunity for growth-through-adaptation, but one that may also seem threatening: knowledge management (KM).

In the course of its development, information and records management has faced three significant challenges calling for adaptation, each more formidable than the one before. In order of their emergence, these challenges have been micrographics, computer-based records systems, and KM. The emergence of microformats constituted the least problematic challenge because microfilming is an essentially reprographic application where the records' original formats and appearance did not change extraordinarily.

The discipline's encounter with computer-based systems, however, has been far more difficult. In some respects, information technology (IT) continues to challenge the discipline with a complex and increasingly diverse set of tools, with a constantly changing terrain of new products, new features, updates, and, sometimes, with an intimidating technology culture. Continuing difficulty in communicating and sharing roles with those who "own" the technology (e.g., IT and information systems) has made some functions, such as creating and applying records schedules, more contentious than before. We can take heart, however, that electronic records -- regardless of the technology -- are still recognizable and still have value as records.

KM is a horse of a very different color. Micrographics and electronic records have not forced us to abandon the very premises under which we work. KM, however, does ask that we go beyond -- even ignore -- some of the discipline's basic premises, such as the information life cycle, the records series, and the record as a (valuable) tangible byproduct of a transaction.

While KM may seem a bit remote, it is comforting that there is little new in the concept of "knowledge" and the can-do knowledge of KM. Taking refuge in the familiar, however, is not part of adaptation. We must learn the difference between "knowledge" and "information"...