Research shows that the top strategies used in seeking information are to “ask a friend, acquaintance and or the relevant agency” such as a library or information center. Thirteen other sources of information includes other gatekeepers or opinion leaders, telephone directory, newspapers, family member, libraries, acquaintances working at agencies, and politicians (Case, 2002, p. 268). People are very important source of information because, as I discussed in previous articles, they possess tacit knowledge amounting to 80% of the total knowledge.

Information seeking involves verbal and non-verbal communication within a social group or culture. In information seeking mode, the individual usually recognises that the source he approaches has more to tell him or her than he has to tell the source. Thus the sources used to seek information purposefully include professionals, organisations, magazines, government departments, and information agencies. Experts in professions such as medicine, law, and teaching are used as information sources relating to their disciplines.

People have a body of knowledge acquired through generations, and some of it comes from experiments carried out by community members. In most cases, culture is the main concept that allows the medium of information to be shared. There is overwhelming evidence that indigenous knowledge have made crucial contributions in medicine, agriculture, environmental management, and philosophy. A lot of knowledge that people have cannot be taken away of context because it is embedded in the environment they live in. Passing it from generation to generation orally ensures the survival of culture and indigenous knowledge to evolve over time.

Oral communication systems and indigenous knowledge systems have been disrupted or destroyed as a result of deaths of elder experts who have a lot knowledge and information. For example, if this knowledge is not orally transferred, usually through stories, it can never be found anywhere again in the generation to come. According to Santili (2006, p. 1-2), “traditional knowledge is commonly generated and accumulated in a collective manner, based on the broad exchange and circulation of ideas and information…”

It is very important to document indigenous knowledge for other generations to know what the previous generation did and how they survived.

References
1. Santili, J. (2006). Cultural heritage and collective intellectual property rights. IK Notes, No. 95
2. Case, D. (2002). Looking for information: a survey of research on seeking needs and behavior.
3. Goosen, I., Holmes, M., John, M. and Piek, V. (1997). Adventures into information: a manual of basic information and library science.

I think Namibia holds a bad record when it comes to a knowledge-sharing culture. We don’t want to share our personal experiences and expertise (tacit), not even our research papers (explicit). Namibians hoard explicit knowledge for reasons only known to them. If you get to any public library, all you can find is old research documents as if people have stopped writing research papers (be it undergraduate, graduate, or any kind).

Trust is important and builds confidence; but culture is built over time. And culture is very important because it is a medium through which knowledge is shared and exchanged. So far it seems as if our culture is to block our knowledge resources to the future generations, instead of making them available at no cost. But knowledge-sharing is the process through which individuals share their ideas, skills and experiences (be it in the form of tacit and explicit knowledge) with others.

Building a knowledge-sharing culture enables people “to assume responsibility for making things happen” (Buckman: 2004, p. xviii). These people makes things happen in their own lives and indeed in other. Therefore the flow of knowledge should reach all sections of our society, and especially available in libraries so that everyone have access to these knowledge resources. But you may ask, ‘how do we build a knowledge-sharing culture and ensure the flow of knowledge?’ The first thing an individual needs to know is that knowledge shared, is knowledge multiplied. As a matter of fact, “Unlike material assets, which decrease as they are used, knowledge assets increase with use: Ideas bread new ideas, and shared knowledge stays with the giver while it enriches the receiver” (Davenport & Prusak: 2000, p.17).

If you can now grasp the essence of knowledge-sharing, you will realise that it benefits you as much as the receiver. People learn from you because you are writing in the context of your cultural values and beliefs, which determine what you see, absorb and conclude from your observations. This makes people from other cultures to review your document from their cultural perspectives. This can lead people to have encouragement, collaboration and cooperation because culture has core values. So then, if we continue to have a no knowledge-sharing culture, other individuals will frequently re-invent the wheel; continue to fail solving current problems and situations because the knowledge they is not accessible and available to them.

Like organisations, making costly errors by disregarding the importance of knowledge, we should try to gain a better understanding of what we already know, what we need to know, and what to do about it. Successful people are those who are open to new ideas. We, ourselves should build a culture of knowledge sharing because “A culture of sharing requires work processes built around foundation values grounded in the four basic virtues: Justice: acting honestly and fairly, keeping promises; Temperance: acting with self-discipline, avoiding overt self-service; Prudence: displaying practical wisdom and the ability to choose well in any situation; and Fortitude: showing strength of mind and character and courage to persevere in the face of adversity” (Buckman: 2004, p. 53).

Effective knowledge-sharing does not drown people in information; instead, it speeds up the problem solving process. Because innovation is based on new ideas, knowledge-sharing is a means through which innovations are diffused and acted upon. By understanding and accepting the new order of determining directions, individuals will move faster into the future, finding their own secure place in the new culture. Because knowledge is perishable if it is not shared and used by others, it can lose value and you may not effectively achieve your goals and you certainly won’t be recognised. So the benefit of sharing knowledge is acquiring new knowledge in return.

References
1. Buckman, R. (2004). Building a knowledge driven organization. New York: McGraw-Hill Press.
2. Davenport, T.H. and Prusak, L. (2000). Working knowledge: how organizations manage what they know. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.

The reference librarian, therefore, ensures that there is a people-to-information and people-to-people connections. In order to ensure that reference services meet the needs of the customers or users, it is necessary to not just provide materials – be it specific or general, printed or electronic – but it is also important to ensure that the staff members who are providing these services are able to exploit fully and appropriately, the resources available. The reference librarian and his/her staff members should have the following skills or qualities: friendly, well-trained, patient, compassionate, and tactful. They should also refer the inquirer, have courtesy, and listening skills.

However, most of those working at the reference desk in Namibia lack skills, are not friendly, very impatient, and are not so well-trained. This makes library users to lose trust in librarians as well as credit the profession. They become angry when they do not get resources they are looking for, simply because the person behind the desk lacks tactics and expertise to deliver or point them to alternative sources. In his book, Entrepreneurial Librarianship: the key Effective Information Services Management Guy St Clair (1996, p. 3) emphasise the importance of service when he says:

Excellence of service begins with one’s approach to one’s work, the perspective from which one views the information function in the community or organization. It also includes a disposition toward service, a willingness to provide the user with whatever it is he or she seeks, and a bias toward care. …This willingness to take on the user’s problem is a defining principle for people who choose information services as a career.

Therefore, reference librarians and those working at the reference desk need to ask the following questions to themselves:
- Who needs the information?
- At what level is the information required?
- In what detail is the information required?
- How urgent is the information required?
- In what format is the information required?
- And perhaps, more importantly, am I making a difference?

If we fail to address the challenges and problems of our users, we will fail to make any significant impact in the communities we serve, and surely the users will question our qualifications, expertise and credibility. We should ensure that our users leave the library with satisfaction, and we should instill confidence in them, and give them hope.

I just wonder why it is so hard to understand the knowledge life cycle! This usual involves: creating, storing, finding, acquiring, using, and learning. It is like the water cycle. If there is no rain, the valleys and marshlands dry up. In the like manner, when there is no new research created and brought to a library, there won’t be any information or knowledge reserves to support learning and research. But is it not a wonderful feeling when people use you knowledge and expertise, appreciate all the hard work you put into the paper, and say, “yes, this is credible”!

When we think so narrowly to an extent of not giving others the opportunity we did not have (to get the right information sources), we are simply limiting our creativity, our abilities, talents, and know-how in our respective fields. Supposedly, the message we send is: “I do not trust in what I have written. I am afraid to be criticised. I don’t care about others and my children.” The later is very important. When we write, we write for our children and others to know our ideas and somehow access our knowledge.

Sadly enough, many people have chosen to take the wrong road. The road of hoarding their knowledge – making it inaccessible to others. This is a selfish mission. When shall we hear of someone in Namibia echo the same sentiments that the poet Robert Frost talks about in The Road Not Taken when he writes:

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

For those who do not know, Legal Deposit is a legal requirement that a person or organization submit copies of their publications to a library (usually a National Library). Here in Namibia, this is enacted by the Namibia Library and Information Service Act, 2000 (Act 4 of 2000).

Learning by doing (practice) increases the probability of children to learn how to learn – “an ability that will serve them well and position them for success all their lives” (Don Wood: 2009, §1)2. And libraries are there to nurture young minds as well as encourage and foster an inquisitive state. There is evidence that children and teens with exposure to adequately staffed libraries – school and public – learn critical skills that enable them to enter college better prepared to succeed. This, however, remains to be proven in the Namibian context. But what can be proven universally is that whenever children are exposed to a library (or study room in the house); they are more likely to achieve better results in school than those who are not exposed.

I am not ruling out the effects of heredity on learning, but rather that the environment (which is the library) may play even a greater role of opening up the child’s learning power. There is one more theory that can add up the equation: cognitive learning, which entails that information is taken in and organised. A photograph, for example, may have so much information which the child can decode. Therefore, “cognitive processes enable us to perform essential new response to reach a goal, so that we are not limited to our well-known, over-used repertoire of responses” (Louw & Edwards: 2005, p. 261)1.

Libraries ensure that children find information on their own and use it in a meaningful, yet productive way to achieve better results when doing their projects and assignments. To test their progress, all what the librarian has to do is evaluate how well the child remembers or knows a specific subject, topic or issue. In this way, libraries cultivate intelligence in children. This intelligence is defined by Linda Gottfredson as “a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings – “catching on,” “making sense’ of things, or “figuring out” what to do” (Nisbett: 2009, p. 4)3.

Coming to the library, therefore, ensures the perfection of what children are practicing in their learning processes. When children make these visitations to the library, they explore the environment and information resources available. This allows them to think “outside the box”, imagine the impossible, and turn dreams into reality. Actually, libraries give hope to children (and everybody else) who find answers to many questions and problems they encounter in school. Libraries, therefore, give them an extra mind, enhancing their capacity to think deeper.

References

1. Louw, D.A. and Edwards, D.J.A. (2005). Psychology: an introduction for students in southern Africa. 2nd ed. Sandton: Heinemann
2. Wood, Don (2009). Libraries make the difference. American Library Association. Retrieved on 24 May 2011 from: http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/advocacy/advocacyuniversity/additup/about/abt_1.cfm
3. Nisbett, R.E. (2009). Intelligence and how to get it: why schools and cultures count. New York: W.W. Norton & Company

A knowledge economy is one where economic value is found more in the intangibles, such as new ideas, software, services and relationships, and less in the tangibles like physical products, tonnes of steel or acres of land (Thompson et al.: 2000, p. 122). The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (1996, p. 7) defines knowledge-based economies as “economies which are directly based on the production, distribution and use of knowledge and information”.

An Information society is defined on Wikipedia (2010) as “a society in which the creation, distribution, diffusion, use, integration and manipulation of information is a significant economic, political and cultural activity”. The information economy, through the increased use of information (and associated technologies) by businesses (and others), creates new industrial structures, patterns and trends, as well as new services and products (Turner: 2000, p. 1).

Government policies and programmes

The Namibian government have put in place some policies to initiate and accelerate development. A knowledge-based economy forma part the programmes and policies. Vision 2030 mentions the following as complex agents of Namibia’s development: “education, science and technology; health and development; sustainable agriculture; peace and social justice; [as well as] gender equality” (2004, p. 11). Although some of the agents mentioned are not drivers of a knowledge economy, they are instead driven faster by a knowledge economy. Education, science and technology drive the knowledge economy by changing the mindsets of people, improving skills and inspiring innovation and new ideas.

Since the introduction of Vision 2030, Namibian institutions of higher learning have developed their training outcomes, including curriculum change, to meet the requirements of the Vision. They have prepared, and continue to prepare human resources to be creative and innovative. In order for Namibia to match forward and achieve a status of a knowledge society, its citizens must acquire competitive skills in all sectors of development.

“It is generally accepted that national economies are more and more dependent on the acquisition, dissemination and use of knowledge as well as on how well the national innovation system supports the process of economic development. To this end, there are a number of Government initiatives where knowledge has and will continue to become a pivotal rural livelihood empowering strategy” (NDP3 vol. 1: 2008, p. 149). Although Namibians are using information to turn it into knowledge, they are doing this at a slow pace. This may be because most people in rural areas do not have access to crucial information sources such as newspapers and internet services.

Some initiatives created by the government in partnership with international organisations is ETSIP. ETSIP (The Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme) has many programmes, one of which is knowledge creation and innovation. In order for a country to become a knowledge-based economy, it must be able to create knowledge and new innovations. As knowledge has become a more critical determinant of economic growth than the traditional factors of production, this knowledge should be created to place value on the end-products. Creation of knowledge is undertaken through research. However, research produced in Namibia by Namibians is inadequate and non-accessible to the general public. Sometimes research published by government institutions is treated as top-secret.

The NDP3 vol. 1 (2008, p.149) defines innovation as “the process through which social and economic value is extracted from knowledge through the creation, acquisition, diffusion and transformation of knowledge to produce new or significantly improved processes and products”. As more and more Namibians acquire knowledge, they have began to produce new products or improve systems and existing products, thus adding value to local products and improving the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the country.

“When we talk about knowledge generation, we mean the knowledge acquired by [a country] as well as that developed within it” (Davenport & Prusak: 2000, p. 53). Knowledge can be acquired and developed through conferences and sharing ideas. Though there are some challenges in distributing knowledge and making it freely available, there are also some achievements made by Namibia to achieve the status of a knowledge society.

Some of the achievements mentioned by the ETSIP programme (2007, §3) includes “an emerging knowledge base on which a knowledge and innovation system can be built. This includes the research and consultancy wings of tertiary education and training institutions, research departments of government ministries, independent research and consultancy firms and individual researchers”.

Progress

Some local communities have generated and transferred indigenous knowledge over the years, which can be integrated into the economy of the country and codified into explicit knowledge, which can be used by the rest of the citizens.

The country is not progressing well because of minimal investment in research and development as well as in national data and information collecting institutions like libraries. This is because these institutions are a means to spearhead and strengthen the knowledge-base of the country. Although the progress is slow, the country is moving up the ladder. For example the “number of patents (inventions) registered in the baseline NDP2 years is 73” (NDP3: 2008, p. 57).

NDP3 (2008, p. 56) states: “There is a “digital divide” within Namibia, which is a result of the uneven socio-economic levels of the people, unequal education levels and the huge income gap between the rich and the poor. A major barrier to implementation of this key result area is a lack of access to electricity in rural areas. There is also a lack of a supportive environment which could encourage private initiatives to deliver technology solutions that suit low-income groups”.

According to ETSIP (2007, §3), “The challenges therefore are: (a) the lack of a system for identifying sectors whose productivity is constrained by the lack of relevant knowledge and technology; (b) the lack of a national system for the coordination and development of science and research capacity, and (c) the lack of a system for linking knowledge demand to effective supply of knowledge”. To move closer to the realisation of being a knowledge economy, Namibia should implement the existing policies and introduce new policies that enable knowledge sharing and creation to take place.

The government of Namibia is encouraging its citizens to be trained in the fields of science, engineering and information technology in order for the country to have an adequate skilled labour force. This skilled work force will creative and able to innovate. According to Willis (2008, p. 11), “The race for the best ideas now extends far beyond the boundaries of even the largest organisation, so [countries] are now having to learn to operate in supply chains of knowledge”.

There is a need for Namibia to diversify its economy in order to maintain high and sustained economic growth, as well as achieving the status of a knowledge-based economy. The government continues to invest heavily in the development of Namibia’s human capital. This is done to encourage improvements in academic outcomes and also increase skills.

Conclusion

Namibia is moving a step closer to the realisation of becoming a knowledge economy. This is because of the infrastructure being laid down as drivers of such a status.

Tacit and explicit knowledge are required to drive and achieve the status of knowledge or information society. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reiterates that “employment in the knowledge-based economy is characterised by increased demand for more highly-skilled workers”. Therefore, “Government policies will need more stress on upgrading human capital through promoting access to a range of skills, and especially the capacity to learn; enhancing the knowledge distribution power of the economy through collaborative networks and the diffusion of technology; and providing the enabling conditions for organisational change at the firm level to maximise the benefits of technology for productivity” (1996, p. 7).

Namibia seems to be making little progress to achieve the knowledge or information status. The knowledge distribution power is not maximised. This includes funding libraries, which are knowledge reservoirs, to have more resources (explicit knowledge) which will give rise to innovation. Because of the technology gap between rural and urban areas, Namibia is lagging behind other countries. It is therefore imperative to reduce the gap and strengthen the industry.

References

1. Davenport, Thomas H. and Prusak, Laurence (2000). Working knowledge: how organizations manage what they know. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press
2. ETSIP (2007). Programmes: knowledge creation and innovation. Retrieved 18 October 2010 from http://www.etsip.na/knowledge.php
3. Namibia Vision 2030 (2004). Namibia Vision 2030. Windhoek: National Planning Commission
4. NDP3 (The Third National Development Plan) (2008). Understanding the Third National Development Plan: 2007/2008 – 2011/2012. Windhoek: National Planning Commission
5. NDP3 (Third National Development Plan) (2008). Third National Development Plan (NDP3): 2007/2008 – 2011/2012 Volume I. Windhoek: National Planning Commission
6. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (1996). The knowledge-based economy. Paris: OECD
7. Thompson, Paul, Warhurst, Chris and Callaghan, George (2000). Human capital or capitalising on humanity? Knowledge, skills and competencies in interactive service work. In Prichard, Craig; Hull, Richard; Chumer, Mike and Willmott, Hugh (2000). Managing Knowledge: Critical Investigations of Work and Learning. Hampshire: Macmillan Business
8. Turner, Colin (2000). The information e-conomy: business strategies for competing in the global age. London: Kogan Page
9. Wikipedia (2010). Information society. Retrieved 14 October 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_society
10. Willis, Treve (2008). Innovation in a knowledge-based economy. In The Innovation Handbook: how to Develop, Manage and Protect your most Profitable Ideas by Adam Jolly (Consultant Editor). London: Kogan Page

So, why are library users stealing books and other library resources? The answer is only known by them who steal. The upbringing of individuals also plays a role in this behaviour of users. Developmental psychologists tell us that the development of an individual is “contextual”, meaning development occurs within a context, or setting. These contexts include families, schools, peer groups, churches, cities, neighbourhoods, university laboratories, countries, and so on. Each of these settings is influenced by historical, economic, social, and cultural factors (Shiraev & Levy, 2007; Yang, 2005) in Santrock: 2008, p.8.

When it comes to theft in libraries, however, individuals are desperate for some information and think the best way is to steal the book. The economic negatives in many students’ and learners’ lives are far exhausting that they do not even afford to buy books. This poem was written in olden days to prevent theft in libraries:
For him that stealeth, or borroweth and
returneth not this book from its owner,
Let it change into a serpent in his hand and rend him.
Let him be struck with palsy, and all his members [be] blasted.
Let him languish in pain crying out for mercy, & let there be no surcease from his agony till he sing in dissolution.
Let bookworms gnaw his entrails [. . .] when at last he goeth to his final punishment,
Let the flames of Hell consume him forever.

Although Vision 2030 does not provide much details on a knowledge-based economy, knowledge and information have a big role to play. Information can be defined as that which reduces uncertainty or changes an individual’s degree of belief or understanding (Glazer, 1993), and changes the state of the knowledge of the user of the information (Inwersen, 1992: 30, 31). Namibian libraries, which mainly provides general and technical information, provides citizens a variety of resources to acquire new skills and ideas. These ideas breed new ideas, thus making individuals more innovative.

Innovation, which comes from the knowledge and experience they have acquired, must be supported by the organisations or Ministries in which they work. As Davenport and Prusak (2000, 17) puts it, “The potential for new ideas arising from the stock of knowledge in any firm is practically limitless — particularly if the people in the firm are given opportunities to think, to learn, and to talk with one another. Paul Romer, who has worked at the leading edge of knowledge economies, argues that only knowledge resources–ideas–have unlimited potential for growth: “In a world with physical limits, it is discoveries of big ideas…together with the discovery of millions of little ideas…, that make persistent economic growth possible. Ideas are the instructions that let us combine limited physical resources in arrangements that are ever more valuable (1993, 64)”.

Then I gave them the following quotations on mistakes as an encouragement to achieve better results at work and on the social plane.
“If you don’t make mistakes, you’re not working on hard enough problems. And that’s a big mistake”. ~F. Wikzek
“While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior”. ~Henry C. Link
“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field”. ~Niels Bohr

When employees are at work, they must learn much from their colleagues. They must adopt the resilience of their co-workers and learn faster.

When individuals come to the library looking for certain information, they expect the librarian or assistants to have all the answers to their queries. However, the librarian and assistants do not have all answers to a client’s queries. The solution to the problems, or answers to queries of the client come from the librarian or assistant’s experience and skills in the field. It also depends on the way the client defines his or her queries, i.e. is it too broad or specific? The reader or client should not become dependent on the librarian. Samuel Green (1876, p. 80) declares: “Give them as much assistance as they need, but try at the same time to teach them to rely upon themselves and become independent”.

Library clients are always too dependent on the librarian and his assistants. Librarians should therefore identify the information-seeking behaviours in order to eliminate the dependency of clients upon them. Clients should be directed to where they can find materials they are searching for. The focus of the librarian is to assist every individual to achieve his or her goals, whether academic, research or personal. In addition, librarians and their assistants strive to give hope to the hopeless.

The reference librarian tries to unlock all mysteries behind the library patron or user. The reference librarian is not meant to be glued in the office but he or she should also explore the outside environment and mingle with people of all vocation. In this way, the reference librarian will gain more knowledge and information from the outside in order to better serve his or her clients.

The librarian and his or her assistants are always calculating the minds and needs of the library users. The question is: “How do we know if the reference librarian is engaged in the psychological investigations with the client?” This is a little bit difficult as nobody can measure these experiences except for the librarian him or herself. However, even the librarian cannot be sure of what is happening. Many thoughts run through the reference librarian’s mind. He or she often asks the questions to oneself, like: “Will I be able to help this user who looks so desperate? How will I be able to do so in order to calm his or her nerves? Will the user be satisfied of the service I provide?”