Nerisa Kamar: Knowledge Sharing in Africa

Visitors to this site have often read about Nerisa Kamar, my great friend in Kenya. 

Now there's more.

The latest issue of Information Outlook, the publication of the Special Libraries Association (SLA), includes a profile of Nerisa Kamar, who is with UN-HABITAT, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme. She works with UN-HABITAT's Knowledge Management Unit as Assistant Librarian for the Sergio Vieira de Mello United Nations Library at Nairobi.

In his introduction to the interview, author Stuart Hales writes:

"Books, journals, and other media are the lifeblood of libraries and information centers, and many librarians have their hands full organizing their collections of these resources and making them available to clients when and where they are needed. But for some librarians, simply procuring resources is a daunting task. These librarians may face a variety of obstacles - political restrictions, financial constraints, and institutional neglect, to name just a few.

"Librarians in much of Africa are familiar with these barriers, but SLA is helping raise their level of professionalism by connecting them with colleagues and providing them with leadership opportunities. One such librarian is Nerisa Kamar, who recently became president of SLA's Sub-Saharan Chapter. ... Information Outlook interviewed Nerisa late last year and asked her about the challenges that librarians in Africa face, how SLA can help them, and what she hopes to learn during the next few years to move her career forward."

Later in the interview, Hales asks Kamar about KM, and the KM concepts she applies in her work. Kamar responds:

"My personal interest in knowledge management is very strong, because it is my belief that KM and knowledge services make up the foundation and substance of modern librarianship. ... [They have been] useful for me in a number of ways. One is personal knowledge management, which occurs through information needs assessments and information alerts; another is knowledge sharing, by developing a rapport with information seekers to understand their actual information needs and meet them. Then there's knowledge services - creating an awareness of e-resources to which UN-HABITAT subscribes and sharing basic access skills to use with these resources. As an example of this activity, I developed a 15-minute presentation, 'E-Resource Awareness and Basic Search and Navigation Skills Training,' targeting all UN-HABITAT projects. Our presentations so far have been very successful, and satisfying to me as an information and knowledge professional."

Congratulations to Nerisa Kamar, Stuart Hales, and SLA for providing this fine example of how specialized librarianship, knowledge management, and knowledge sharing come together. It is a remarkable synergy.

Fighting AIDS in Africa: Knowledge Sharing Works

Two recent references to the Red Campaign - designed to eliminate AIDs in Africa - drive home the incredibly critical role of KM/knowledge services in today's society.

In the latest edition of The Gurteen Knowledge-Letter, David Gurteen describes the strong emotional impact he had when watching the campaign's latest video.

At about the same time, SMR Int'l colleague Dale Stanley - remembering my affection for the people of Africa and my modest involvement with ICT and KM training and development for African youth - called the video to my attention.

My reaction almost exactly matched David's: "one of the most moving videos I have seen in a long time."

Watch the video - then come back and read on:

Could there be any better example of how we bring KM/knowledge services into the "real" world?

I see two things happening here.

First, by sharing what they know, the people in this film take a hands-on approach to knowledge development and knowledge sharing, that process we like to call KD/KS. Just by getting people to talk about AIDS, breaking down the resistance and getting them to recognize that there is value just in speaking about a subject that, if not confronted, will literally kill them, is an amazing accomplishment. The people shown here are managing and sharing knowledge to save lives. And they are all totally committed to what they are doing. Watch the film and try not to be impressed with how these people are moving forward. And pay attention especially to Constance Mudenda who is (in one way) the focus of the story as she describes her work in three clinics, distributing antiretroviral medication to AIDs victims. It's a powerful, very powerful paradigm we're seeing here.

At the same time, the film itself is an impressive example of just how much information and knowledge can be packed into a single vehicle, and shared with anyone who wants to see. I challenge anyone to view this film and say he or she didn't learn anything new; it is full of revelations and concepts that - I would assert - most people in Western societies don't even think about. So we have KD/KS alive and well in this work, and we could even go so far as to relate this to what we try to do with KM/knowledge services, if we can keep our professional jargon from overwhelming the message.

Take another look and then share this blog. This is what strategic knowledge management is all about and if it leads to tears before the film is finished, so much the better.