How Dewey Build a Library? (Part 1)

Rob Saxon is a Project Management Professional, Certified Information Systems Auditor and a trained Six Sigma Specialist. Rob is currently developing methods to integrate project management into previously unexplored areas of business.

  Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned  

“A library's function is to give the public in the quickest and cheapest way information, inspiration...if a better way than the book can be found, we should use it.”
-- Melvil Dewey

At the dawn of this millenium, the Library at Alexandria was burned to the ground. By some accounts, this destruction happened several times. Until the advent of the internet, no such knowledge gathering, management and sharing endeavor that grand has been attempted since. Why was the library burned down? What is it that makes us so challenged to gather, sort, manage and use knowledge?

In this two-part series, we will explore the challenges of gathering, sorting, indexing, managing, transferring and most importantly making productive use of knowledge. We will focus a lens on methods for each of these activities, advantages and disadvantages of the methods. Finally, we will examine how we as project managers can successfully leverage knowledge management and knowledge transfer to deliver successful projects.

Part 1 will focus on collecting, sorting and indexing data into manageable knowledge. Part 2 will deal with effectively managing, transferring and using knowledge to the benefit of our projects and organizations.

Nonsense vs. Data vs. Information vs. Knowledge

“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”
– Willy …

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