Five things to unleash your Knowledge Management story, by Elmi Bester

Elmi Bester, manager of the CSIR Knowledge Commons. inspired us yesterday in a Knowledge Management Seminar at the University of Johannesburg. It was organised by the Department of Information and Knowledge Management.

The topic of presentation:

What's your knowledge management story?

The invite to the seminar asks a couple of questions:


"You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend or not."
                                                                                                    -Isabel Allende

We are the storytellers of our own profession, and we can create our own legend. Or we can allow others to tell our story. Or there is just no story that we tell?
In this presentation we will explore the different knowledge management stories we tell, and how these shape identity and the support for knowledge management. Is it a solution story or a problem fixing story? Is it a story about what is knowledge and what is not knowledge? Is it about asking the right questions or providing the answers? Is our story about doing things right or doing the right things? Or a bit of everything?
The stories we tell also depends on how we portray ourselves. What does it mean to tell our story as a knowledge management professional, or an idea practitioner, or a change agent, or a strategist? What are the five things to do to unleash your knowledge management story?"

A couple of notes from the seminar:

- Knowledge Managers struggle to sell Knowledge Management (KM) in the workplace. They are unable to sell the importance of what they are trying to achieve, and there is a disconnect between them and the company.

- Elmi Bester challenged us to write a business card without a title attached to it. I redefines who you are, and it tells the story of you.

"I do not have ALL the information, but I can find it for you!"
"One" of the stories of Karen du Toit

- The power of storytelling lies in the fact that it opens up people on the right levels. It connects us!

- Stories help us to find our voice. It helps us to speak to people.

- Stories have more impact when they are attached to themes.

- Stories help us to build a vision together.

- The WHY of stories:

• It reveals who we are; 
• it inspire us; 
• it makes us stick our stories together;
• it connects us with a purpose; and 
• it adds to our values. 

- Elmi Bester challenged us to write a story in the present tense (but dated in the future) for our company/group/organization, which incorporates the following: 

Future stories:
26 july 2013 ( in present tense)What we've achieved                                                                        
The bumpy road
What's in the pipeline
Where we have been... And where we are going... 



- When you give your story to a group of people, the story is bound to leave better!


- Elmi Bester has compiled a Storify of yesterday's seminar. 
 Knowledge Management Seminar, Univ of Johannesburg. 26 July 2012

Knowledge Management Seminar, UJ 26 Jul 2012

- 5 things to do to unleash your KM story:


1.  Start an inventory (borrow and acknowledge from others)
2.  Lengthen your stories 


3.  Change your shareability footprints (for all people, teams, etc. - without losing uniqueness)


4.  Tell every story better (practise) 


5.  Make stories the heart of your connection

- Remember: Always tell your story in presentations and engagements with other people.

- Stories give people meaning. It takes away the need to convince people about KM.
  Stories give meaning to KM!




Read more:


Storify: Knowledge Management Seminar, Univ of Johannesburg. 26 July 2012

Slideshare: (will be uploaded as soon as it becomes available)



What is your story?
What is your KM story?




Notes by Karen du Toit, Finder of Information 

The new Archivist interview: News & Actuality Archivist – Ntokozo Khanyile

The SABC Radio Archivists specializes in specific areas of expertise with regards radio and language related audio collections of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

This is part of a series of interviews where I am posing the same questions to each of the Archivists.

The recently appointed archivist in the News & Actuality section is Ntokozo Khanyile.

She started in the SABC Radio Archives from June this year , and she is now responsible for all the news and actuality radio archival material.


Ntokozo, please tell us about where you grew up, where and what you studied and your work experience before you joined the SABC Radio Archives. 


I grew up in Protea North, Soweto. I studied at the University of Johannesburg and finished my BA Information Science degree in 2008. In 2009 I started with BA (Hons) Information Management which I am yet to complete. Before joining the SABC in April, I worked at South African National Parks (Sanparks), Afrizan Personnel and CSIR.

Please tell us about a normal day in your studio. What material do you give priority to? 


I normally do cataloguing of available material. I usually prioritise new material from SABC News, especially press conferences and important speeches.

Tell us more about your collection and the scope of material you need to preserve. 


My collection is made up of actuality from SAfm, Metrofm and RSG, as well as anything I receive from the SABC News department.

Do you struggle with technical difficulties, and if so, what? 


I'm not a very technically gifted individual but I try my best not to break anything into a thousand pieces. I haven’t gotten the necessary technical training but I have managed to maneuver around the studio and figured how almost everything works. 

If you have an anecdote about a specific piece of interesting audio material, please share it with us. 


Most of the audio material I get is about news that I know of already because I tend to read from every other online news source there is. But what is interesting, is hearing the different views that people give on various issues and that opens up a new way of thinking about, seeing and analyzing the issues at hand. 

Tell us why you enjoy doing the work that you do. 


I enjoy the work I am doing because it’s something new and I am always looking to learn something new. I have also gotten a different perspective of archives; that it’s not as boring and menial as most people make it sound. 




Related post:


The Weekly archivist interview: News and Actuality (Markus Mmutlana, our previous News and Actuality archivist)


Questions and blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Inspector Archivist, that is....

An archivist wear many hats.  We are audio editors, researchers, catalogers, and historians, among other things.  But personally I enjoy the investigator hat a lot!  We often get inquiries in the SABC Radio Archives asking for details of signature tunes, which might sound simple at first, but if the request starts with: Years ago, I am not sure when, there was a program, I am not sure on which station, and I think the presenter was...., then the investigative hat gets dusted and worn.  I recently had such a request, and by following every smallest lead, we cracked the code.  The client couldn't give me enough detail to put me on a definite trial, but played what he could remember of the tune on the piano and e-mailed me the mp3.  This I took to Frans Erasmus, of the Springbok Radio Preservation Society, and he immediately recognized the tune, since he, well, knows almost everything regarding Old Time Radio in our country.  We then compared it with what he definitely knew were some of the tunes of the mentioned show, and alas, we found a match and I could give our client the right details.

One thing I learnt from this venture, is that there is always somebody who remembers, you just need to keep on asking and searching!

Retha Buys

Senior Archivist: Springbok Radio

Tel: +27 11 714 2772

E-mail: springbokradio@sabc.co.za

www.springbokradio.co.za

Interview with an intern at the SABC Information Library - Justice Leshilo

The SABC Information Library has a new intern, Justice Leshilo, who will be working here for 10 months.

The purpose of the intern-ship is to acquire valuable skills, but also to help with the workflows in the SABC Information Library.

Justice Leshilo is a qualified librarian.

Questions are asked to understand the type of skills that he has to offer, but also to get a better understanding of what he is doing here in the SABC Information Library.


Please tell us about your personal history as well as your studies. How did you become an intern here at SABC?


I was born and raised in Sekhukhune (Limpopo) in a village called Ga-masemola. I started school in 1991 and matriculated in 2003. I went to the University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus, in 2004 and enrolled for BPSCH (Psychology). I dropped out in 2005. In 2006 I started with BA-Social Science which I successfully completed in 2010. In 2011 I enrolled fro Higher Diploma in information Studies (HDINF) which I completed the same year. During my studies I volunteered for being a peer counselor at the counseling centre and a lab assistant at our general lab purpose of ICT. I was later promoted to be a supervisor of the labs. I also did my practical in our academic library and a four week practical at SABC Limpopo in 2011. I heard about this internship from my friend and former varsity mate Agrineth Mashile. I applied and went through the interviews and fortunately was appointed in April of this year.

What does your job entail here at SABC?


My job in the information library entails scanning, cutting and indexing of newspaper articles in the newspaper section using the Newbase system. It includes indexing, cataloguing, classification, issuing and shelving of books in the books section, as well as indexing articles, receiving and filing in the magazines sections. My job also involves indexing SABC bulletins that will be digitized in future. We also deal with information requests from internal and outside clients.

What have you learned already while you have been there?


I have learned important skills of scanning a newspaper, responding to information requests and indexing of articles in many formats and also learned working in a busy media organization.

Tell us of any interesting anecdotes story with regards to your intern-ship.


I have found myself being a colleague of TV and radio personalities that I used to admire (still does) and I have to learn to stop being a fan but a colleague, sometimes awkward.

Tell us about you social media involvement for the SABC Media Libraries.


I love social media and being involved in social networks. I am active on Twitter and the blogs of the SABC Media Libraries when I have time. I participated on International Archives Day on June 9 2012 where I tweeted for most of the day using the hashtag #archday12. I have learned a lot and have marked it as one of my favourites.

What are you planning to do after this?


I have developed a love of media archiving and media libraries. I am looking forward to work in a broadcasting related field or any type of media organization.




Related posts:


Interview with an intern in the SABC Information Library - Agrineth Mashile

Interview with an intern in the SABC Information Library - Veronica Machate 


Blog post by Karen du Toit, Afrikaans Archivist in the SABC Radio Archives.

Musings in the Music Library #9 - Budgets

by Daniel Neal
Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library


A vignette from the music librarian.

O tempora, O mores!  What we could do if we only had more budget!  

Artscape is now saying they may “renovate” the Library.  Well, they mean the room it’s in.  Considered old, ugly, dissheveled and antiquated (all true), the general upgrade of the entire Artscape Theatre Complex has now noticed another problem to be solved.  Motive?  To make it look modern and impressive, mostly.  

So a budget begins a theoretical dance, beyond my reach; a budget that if given to me would have a very different outcome.  

Like, maybe a full or even part time assistant?  Or lots of new score and parts sets?  

At least I’ve accessed the atmosphere by getting fifty archive boxes with which to re-box all the ballet sets and further to that other outsized local creations (quasi A4 sized parts and scores with huge plastic comb binders…an interesting challenge to fit into any storage facility).  

And look, let’s admit it is wonderful to have real interest in improvements.  

There have been so many retrenchments and closures in the last 18 years that I can drop my suspicious nature for a moment and really be grateful. 

Related posts:

Musings in the Music Library - "Librarians are nice" 

Musings in the music library #7 - Librarian stereotypes

Musings in the Music Library #6 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Musings in the music library - "Librarians are nice"

by Daniel Neal
Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Another vignette from the music librarian.

I've got two relations who are very successful professional academic librarians.  They are very nice people.  The nicest person I knew at Eastman School of Music was the head of  Sibley Music Library.  The kid next door where I grew up became a big deal librarian in Indianapolis Public Library system.  He too is a very nice man.  

And every professional librarian I’ve had any communication since becoming Librarian of the CPO has been a very nice person.  

AND… they’re all very smart.  

Interesting that in the early 21st century being nice is almost a curse…certainly taken for a sign of weakness in our oh so competitive world.  

You can imagine the extremes of the Tea Party movement in US politics deriding librarians as blood sucking parasites embedded in the bloated bureaucracy of the civil service.  Generally I guess our reaction would be to smile and ask “and what can I do for you today?”  

What else would we say?  We’re, by nature, nice people!

Related posts:

Musings in the music library #7 - Librarian stereotypes

Musings in the music library #6 - Cape Philharmonic Orchestra Library

Musings in the music library #5 - Copyright

The burial service of Oom David Kruiper, Andriesvale, Kalahari

Saturday 30^th June 2012

Compiled by Moshe Maghundu, librarian/archivist of  X-K FM community station which broadcasts in !Xu and Khwe from SABC Platfontein.

"It was a historic burial service for a Bushman, something that was not recorded before in Bushman’s history. David Kruiper was honoured and recognised by the government. He always had to fight with the government for recognition of his leadership.

At the funeral Oom David Kruiper was called the Giant, the lion of the Kalahari and Wise One.

Oom David Kruiper was involved with the land issue for his people. He even went to Geneva to seek for help in this regard. He hiked to Cape Town to speak to the government about the land issue.

According to the family, oom David Kruiper was a “mense se leier” (leader of the people), a person who was open for any advice, and a person who was not authoritarian in his dealings with other people.

Moshe Maghundu interview with the family of David Kruiper

The area where oom David Kruiper lived is very poor. He always addressed these issues with the government for assistance.

Interior of David Kruiper's house

I was so privileged that the family took me in the house where Oom David Kruiper lived to take some photos. The family want that the truth about Oom David is told.

Moshe Maghundu interviewing Oom Jan

Oom Jan told me that none of the good things he heard today about David is true. He had a long relationship with David, since childhood, and had never seen David to be the Giant or the Lion. These names should be used for people with high stature, and David wasn’t that; he was always down to earth, equal with his community.

Oom David Kruiper's house

The family of David Kruiper pointed out that the local community of Andriesvale area does not have the following: water points, a preschool, clinic or a shelter. The community has to walk 15-17 km to Ashkam for medication. The family are grateful to the government for the burial service, but feel that some of the contribution should have gone to the community.

The day ended of a respected man of the San in history, which will forever be told."

SABC Kimberley/Platfontein was there to cover the burial service.

Thanks to Ilse, Bennie and Neels for their support in recording the story of David Kruiper."

                                                                                    - Moshe Maghundu

Moshe Maghundu

Moshe Maghundu is busy cataloguing the material he recorded about David Kruiper, and the categories are:

• The burial service audio (6 hours audio) 
• Different interviews 
• Photos

Related post: 

In memory of David Kruiper, traditional leader of the Khomani San