Knowledge Management: An Emerging Interdisciplinary Field of Research, Education and Professional Practice

As an emerging field, knowledge management (KM) has become one of the most frequently discussed topics in the scholarly literature of a number of disciplines. Based on the qualitative content analysis of scientific literature, this paper explores KM as an interdisciplinary field of research, education and professional practice. It is argued that despite the link between knowledge management and information management, they differ from each other. The findings suggest that KM is an interdisciplinary field which is getting matured through a number of academic and professional activities including growing number KM-related research and academic journals, incorporation of KM academic programmes, and introducing KM into professional practice. It further investigates that KM has created new job opportunities and career options for library and information science (LIS) professionals. LIS people can also make contribution to KM with their existing skills and experiences, however, they need to acquire new skill sets of KM to be competitive in the job market.