This learning object introduces the use of technologies for information and knowledge management, as part of the course „Information and Knowledge Management" within the „Digital Library Learning" programme.

This first section provides an introduction that will give an insight to the origin of the application of technologies for information and knowledge management. The next page of this section will provide a list of concepts that are useful to get the most out of this learning object. Then a categorization of knowledge management technologies will be presented and some information and links to commercial solutions for knowledge management. You are expected to open all relevant links and study what do these tools have to offer. The fourth section includes some insights into the use of Web 2.0 for information and knowledge management. The fifth part contains the assignment you are expected to do after you read through all the content provided here. The last link in the left menu provides the cited references, the videos and sources of the concepts are not provided, as they are included in the other parts. Finally, useful links are provided.

Tseng (2008) affirms that "due to the IT revolution and advancements of the Internet, the value of knowledge assets has been greatly enhanced. Many companies are building knowledge management system (KMS) in order to manage organizational learning and business know-how. (p. 1)

Early KM were just corporate yellow pages as indexes of professionals by expertise in an organization and document management systems. Combined with the early development of collaborative technologies, e.g. Lotus Notes. These technologies were developed in the mid-1990s. Later developments comprised semantic technologies for search and retrieval and the development of e-learning tools for communities of practice (Capozzi 2007).

Lately, the development of social networking tools (bookmarks, blogs, and wikis) have allowed more unstructured, self-governing or ecosystem approaches to the transfer, capture and creation of knowledge, and with it, the development of communities and networks.

Software tools in knowledge management are a collection of technologies and are not necessarily acquired as a single software solution. Organizations spend much resources in new technologies to support knowledge management. Software that enables an information practice or range of practices at any part of the processes of information management can be deemed to be called information management software. An instance of information management software that emphasizes an approach to build knowledge out of information that is managed or contained is often called knowledge management software.