Government Information Quarterly
Volume 15, Number 2, 1998
DISCUSSION FORUM
The Government Performance and Results Act
Peter Hernon
........................................................................................................ 153
ARTICLES
Maximizing the Results of Federally-funded
Research and
Development through Knowledge Management: A Strategic
Imperative for Improving U.S. Competitiveness
Thomas E. Pinelli and Rebecca O. Barclay
................................................................................. 157
Public Archives: Heritage Happiness or Horror
Story
Rachel Lilburn
....................................................................................................... 173
Information Policies in Spain
Alfons Cornella
....................................................................................... 197
Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems
Aimee C. Quinn and Michaelyn Haslam
.................................................................................... 221
REVIEWS ........................................................................................ 229
ABOUT THE AUTHORS ............................................................................................ 241
Federally-funded research and development (R&D) represents a significant annual investment (approximately $79 billion in fiscal year 1996) on the part of U.S. taxpayers. Based on the results of a 10-year study of knowledge diffusion in the U.S. aerospace industry, the authors take the position that U.S. competitiveness will be enhanced if knowledge management strategies, employed within a capability-enhancing U.S. technology policy framework, are applied to diffusing the results of federally-funded R&D. In making their case, the authors stress the importance of knowledge as the source of competitive advantage in today's global economy. Next, they offer a practice-based definition of knowledge management and discuss three current approaches to knowledge management implementation--mechanisticm "the learning organization," and systemic. The authors then examine three weaknesses in existing U.S. public policy and policy implementation--the dominance of knowledge creation, the need for diffusion of the results of federally-funded R&D. To address these shortcomings, they propose the development of a knowledge management framework for diffusing the results of federally-funded R&D. The article closes with a discussion of some issues and challenges associated with implementing a knowledge management framework for diffusing the results of federally-funded R&D.
The fate of the 1995 proposal to restructure the National Archives of New Zealand, using th functional model discussed in a previous article, is reviewed. The article looks at the Secretary of Internal Affaris' latest restructuring scheme, to establish a Heritage New Zealand group within the Department which will encompass the national Archives. In order to place the scheme in an historical context, the following issues are examined: independence for National Archives; the institution's problems in fulfilling a records management role; and the relationship between historic\ans and arhivists in New Zealand. The political motives, and funding and legal implications of this restructuring are also analyzed, as is the connection of the scheme to the debate over the tension between the evidential versus cultural/heritage role of archives. Some comparisons are made with the state of public archives management in the United States and Australia.
This article describes information policies in Spain from three perspectives: legislation on information contents, actions to promote and stimulate information exchange, and information management in government agencies. Spanish legislation has been aligned with European Union laws and is, therefore, fairly up-to-date, as is shown by severalspecific examples. Nevertheless, the country suffers from a certain lack of information ease of access, which is particularly evident when seeking to gain access to government information. Currently, there is no public debate as to how to turn Spain into an information society, whatever this term is to mean, and what little there is is focused moe on infrastructure than on the more important infostructure. The article poses the question "can Spain's current model of 'economic development' continue to be valid without a superseding model of 'information development' that provides vital support to the educational system, libraries, and the local information industry?"
Storage of growing collections is an ongoing problem for libraries. Past attempts at using the industrial solution of automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS) ended in failure. However, improvements in these mechanisms, especially computer control and the ability to interface with online library catalogs, make them a viable option for libraries. Questions remain about the appropriateness of treating intellectual material like industrial parts. In addition, access is still an issue especially in regard to government depository documents. A literature review shows that while there is a tremendous amount of research available on the design of AS/RS, little is written about its aplication in libraries.
Rebecca O. Barclay (barclay@knowledge-at-work.com) is president of Knowledge Management Associates, Inc., and managing editor of Knowledge at Work, an online journal devoted to the practical aspects of knowledge management in business (http://www.knowledge-at-work.com). She is co-author of The Practice of Knowledge Management, a comprehensive market report commissioned by CAP Ventures of Norwell, MA. Ms. Barclay is also co-author of Knowledge Diffusion in the U.S.Aerospace Industry and Managing Knowledge for Competitive Advantage (Ablex, 1997), a landmark two-volume work that presents the results of a decade of research conducted under the auspices of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. Her research interests include knowledge management methodologies and metrics, development of a knowledge management reference model, intellectual property issues in an electronic environment, and U.S. and international technology and information policy.
Alfons Cornella is Professor of Information Resources Management at ESADE, a business school in Barcelona, Spain. He is also Head of ESADE's Business Information Center. He has written three books on information issues and is the author and editor of EXTRA!-NET, an electronic newsletter in Spanish that deals with online and digital information and that is distributed to some 5,000 information professionals in Spain and South America. The newsletter's archives are available at http://www-acad.esade.es/~cornella.
Michaelyn Haslam is the Physical Sciences Librarian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She received her M.L.I.S. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her B.S. from California State University, Los Angeles. She worked on specifications and on materials selection for the Automated Storage and Retrieval System planned for the new library building.
Rachel Lilburn is Lecturer in the School of Communications and Information Management, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. She specializes in the teaching of archives and records management. She holds a MA in History (Archives) from Western Washington University, Bellingham. Before joining the School in 1992, she was Head Archivist, Appraisal Services at the National Archives of New Zealand, and had worked in the organization since 1983. She is currently a member of the Council of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand and edits the Council's quarterly newsletter.
Thomas E. Pinelli is a co-principal investigator of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Project. He is the instructional technology and distance learning officer in the Office of Education at the NASA Langley Research Center. From 1992 to 1996, he was the Head of the Visual Imaging Branch, Research Information and Applications Division. He received his M.S.L.S. from Catholic University and his Ph.D. degree from Indiana University, Bloomington.
Aimee C. Quinn is the Head Government Publications Librarian at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Prior to going there in 1995, she was at Eastern Washington University and Texas A&M University. Ms. Quinn received her M.L.I.S. degree from Louisiana State University and a B.F. degree from the University of New Mexico. Over the past year, she worked on collection assessment and created a collection development policy for the extensive collections which comprise government publications.
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