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Abstract
The application of a networking technology, such as a knowledge portal in the public library system, can be an effective knowledge management tool for patrons and employees alike. It will help assist patrons and employees on what knowledge they seek to find. There are key areas of knowledge that library patrons are seeking and having an expert level knowledge tool to access that knowledge will increase usage in those sections of the library. The library organization will have key questions that must be answered in order to achieve a status of knowledge portal expertise. By supporting a knowledge portal, the public library understands that they are becoming more than an information driven organization and moving into a knowledge driven and patron knowledge led organization. The knowledge portal is designed to enhance patron knowledge through this powerful knowledge management tool. Libraries will still hold information in traditional areas such as books, journals, articles and reference material so the knowledge portal will be an additional branch of knowledge transfer.

Keywords
Knowledge Management Tools and Technologies, Knowledge Portal, Fort Bend County Libraries, Implementation

Introduction
In order to implement the network technology of a knowledge portal, for any library system, there must be the creation of the portal. There also must be an idea of what knowledge the portal will include and which knowledge portals can be accessed by patrons and employees of the library. This involves planning, analysis, design, implementation and case studies to support each development step. There also must be many dimensions to the knowledge portal to implement the knowledge management. These include strategy, organizational culture, organizational processes, management and leadership, technology and politics involved. Finally, implementing a wiki so that this analysis presented here can be reviewed, edited and improved upon.

History and Useful Terms
Fort Bend County Libraries is a public library system that is in Fort Bend County, Texas, just west of Houston, Texas. It was founded in 1947 by 12 ladies of a book club. The Fort Bend County Library System is currently funded generously by the George Foundation which is a large fund set up by Albert and Mamie George, of Fort Bend County, in 1945. $180 million in grants have been used by the Board of Trustees for nonprofit organizations and scholarship recipients. This is the legacy of giving that Albert and Mamie George wanted to be remembered and modeled by. (Libraries, 2019) There are 11 branches, and counting, in the library system. The Fort Bend County Library Mission Statement looks to “Enrich, Expand, and Strengthen” their community. (Libraries, 2019) One way they can achieve this is to implement a knowledge management tool and technology called a knowledge portal. Knowledge Management Tools and Technologies are an organizations collaboration for use by distributing information inside and outside the organization. The tools used cannot possibly cover all the information in knowledge management but it can add, “phases involved in capturing, coding, sharing, disseminating, applying and, reusing knowledge.”. (Dalkir, 2017) Technology that is used is incorporated through the tools and follows a structure to include:

•	Communication

•	Collaboration

•	Content creation

•	Content management

•	Adaptation

•	E-learning

•	Personal tools

•	Artificial intelligence

•	Networking

(Dalkir, 2017) The knowledge management technology chosen for the Fort Bend County Libraries is a knowledge portal. This technology is an extension of an information portal, which is, “a gateway to codified and digital information, normally held in document and databases, to enable the user to have one or more simplified way of navigating toward the desired information.”. (Young, 2010) Knowledge portal greatly expands on an information portal by making the processing of the information integrated into the users tacit knowledge, thereby communicating through the knowledge portal, in a structured way, to other users. (Young, 2010) Knowledge portals also store and disseminate an organizations knowledge with regard to their “processes, policies, procedures, documents, and other codified knowledge.”. (Dalkir, 2017) Knowledge portals can be accessed through subscriptions, modules, wikis and organization websites. (Tools, 2018)

Analysis
A knowledge portal has many benefits, challenges and opportunities that can be presented to the Fort Bend County Libraries. One overall observation of the Fort Bend County Library System is that they have a very healthy budget for such a system. This could be considered a benefit, but for purposes of implementing a knowledge portal for any organization, this factor should not be considered as some challenges may be omitted. Other organizations may want to model their ideas from this analysis, so to be fair, the “healthy” budget will not be fully considered.

Benefits of a Knowledge Portal
For a large organization, like the Fort Bend County Library system, a knowledge portal is beneficial for many reasons. The main one is that it is a single point of access for knowledge from the thousands of employees that enter their knowledge into the system. (Claudia Loebbecke, 2016) It can be used as a single point of access for patron, too, by being able to access the Fort Bend County Library catalog, databases, electronic library, genealogy department, events, classes and programs. (Neubauer, 2009) (Libraries, 2019) It is simpler to access the knowledge portal than to track down that one person, or several people, that have the knowledge needed. (Claudia Loebbecke, 2016) Not only relevant to employees of the Fort Bend County Library, a knowledge portal is useful to patrons searching for knowledge of a particular topic that a variety of users have knowledge in. A knowledge portal can be easily classified, formulated, categorized, systemizes, distributed, easy to transfer and is a trainable system. (Mizintseva Gerbina, 2018) This system is able to recover the knowledge available in an organization and make it valuable to the knowledge- seeking user or patron. (Claudia Loebbecke, 2016)

Challenges of a Knowledge Portal
The major challenge that a knowledge portal faces is adequate contribution. This means that participants may be hesitant to share their knowledge for fear of having lost a competitive edge towards their peers on particular knowledge. The uniqueness of the contributor’s knowledge is decreased, their value is decreased and their replaceability is increased. Motivators may need to be implemented so that contributors feel compensated for their knowledge. (Claudia Loebbecke, 2016) Another challenge would be how to limit what some users can view and what some users cannot view. This is a dilemma because employees and patrons need to see different aspects of the knowledge portal. A system and set of criteria must be in place that can denote the intended user. This blurs the lines, in a public library system, of an open government and technology. (Josefin Lassinantti, 2019) Finally, choosing the correct form of technology can present a challenge in that there are many knowledge portal programs available, in varying costs, to organizations. Research of what a business needs for its users can be time-consuming and costly. Lack of responsibility, planning, design, management, ownership, and support can add to challenges in the continuous implementation of a knowledge portal system. (Tools, 2018)

Opportunities of a Knowledge Portal
Ideally, there are many opportunities for a knowledge portal in the Fort Bend County Library system. As S.V. Zhmaylo stated in, The Knowledge-Management System of an Organization, “it is not the (simple preservation) of knowledge at a certain point in time, but the stimulation of the continuous process of generating new knowledge and its adequate reflection in information systems by transforming knowledge into information to provide the competitive advantages of an organization under the conditions of the information society.” (Zhmaylo, 2018). This is where opportunity arises. It is the hope that a knowledge portal will create pathways to further knowledge in the users and patrons of the Fort Bend County Libraries. A knowledge portal bridges explicit and implicit knowledge in an organization by making the generally known into the now personally gathered knowledge. (Mizintseva Gerbina, 2018)

Strategy
In order to implement a knowledge portal, the “strategy must be dependent on corporate strategy.” (Tools, 2018). This means that the purpose of executing a knowledge portal must be solely for gathering, managing and sharing the knowledge of employees and patrons of the Fort Bend County Library. (Tools, 2018) As of right now, the Fort Bend County Library System employees rely on GoogleDocs to share and edit knowledge and information throughout the whole system, individual branches and each department. While this has been somewhat sufficient, there could be a better way to share knowledge and information. By recognizing that there is a more versatile way to share knowledge then the strategy can go forward. The needs of a knowledge portal would be to have a portal that will have a search function in both controlled vocabulary and metadata terms. The system must also be editable and sustainable. Economical is another consideration for other organizations not having a generous budget. And access to the information for certain groups of people is a must as the hierarchy of employees and patron access is different. (Chisita, 2018) Integrating knowledge from employees and the public must be monitored and who must monitor such information has to be well-thought-out. (Claudia Loebbecke, 2016) Tacit knowledge is based on personal and hard to codify in context and that would be the information that may pose issues within the knowledge portal. It would be best to have categories and classifications that would help eliminate these matters. (Mizintseva Gerbina, 2018)

Organizational Culture
The knowledge portal is based on people’s knowledge and experiences. This makes it “a favorable socio-cultural environment” that lends itself to a well-rounded system. (Claudia Loebbecke, 2016) The willingness to share knowledge and information can hinder part of the culture in an organization because some may be resistant to changes and also want to hold on to their specific knowledge. This leads to lack of participation and a failure to acquire some much-needed knowledge. (Tools, 2018) It is interesting to note from the article, Relevant Social Groups for Open Data Use and Engagement, that relevant social groups, with a primary motive to share, include citizens but non-governmental organizations are part of the list of social groups who like to share information. (Josefin Lassinantti, 2019) Libraries are typically a government institution and have a propensity to share knowledge and information. (Libraries, 2019)

Organizational Processes
Processes are important in almost all organizations so that they succeed. A knowledge portal must have a set process of development and implementation so that it is successful within the library system as well as with patrons. Rules, procedures, values, preferences, and behaviors must be acknowledged when applying a knowledge portal. The gateway to numerous sources of knowledge must have a corresponding and straight-forward form. Categories must be within a controlled vocabulary so that users have no question where their knowledge is placed. If a category is not available for a certain type of knowledge, then a user can request an update or give a suggestion for a category. Context is equally important when placing knowledge. If the knowledge is about a book, is it how to read a book or how to produce a book? There should also be boundaries as to what the knowledge portal can and cannot contain. Expletives are a hard no while certain topics can be shared, like politics and religion, as long as users are not chastised for their knowledge. (Claudia Loebbecke, 2016) Finally, since experience is subjective for each user, many of that content can be placed in miscellaneous or an experience category. Experience can come in many forms, like different types of responsibilities or general conditions. (Young, 2010)

Management & Leadership
Implementation of a knowledge portal must have some sort of governance of the portal. Each portal of the Fort Bend County Library System, employee and patron, must have a team of competent managers and employees who oversee entries. Depending on the contribution amounts depends on how many employees must be hired. There should be a lead manager over both sides so that they can distinguish if the knowledge is employee or patron related. The employee portal must have relevant information for the library system as a whole, individual branches and each department. These portals can be overseen by branch and department managers and measured out to certain employees that excel in organization of knowledge. The patron site can be overseen by the administrative office in support services. This will allow direct contact with the administrators so that they can send out any notices to branches or departments if need be. (Dalkir, 2017)

Technology
Opportunities exist through companies that specialize in fully-integrated interfaces of knowledge portals and will be discussed in the technology portion of implementing a knowledge portal system.

Drupal is a content management platform that could be used as a knowledge portal for many businesses. It may be a good option, based on free access, but can be costly when using the professional development service. The cost of “free” can be very deceiving. This cost can be anywhere from $30,000.00 to upwards of $100,000.00, depending on how customizable the workflow is. (Technologies, 2013) Quest Knowledge Portal is an efficient exchange platform that ensures security and compliance that includes aspects needed to migrate information effectively. The company boasts an exchange migration of almost 74 million mailboxes and a management of 40 million mailboxes. (Quest, 2019) There are many free trials, but with the complexity of a knowledge portal for a large library system, there would no need to attempt a free trial if the product looks capable of handling such knowledge. The cost per year is $13.58 per interface with a minimum purchase of 50 interfaces which is $679.00. (Quest, 2019) Primo is specifically used for library systems. It helps to enhance the experience of the library collection and promotes better research for users. It is a fast way for students to discover new content and employees to have more effective workflows. Primo is easily customizable and has many unique capabilities for library systems. The support from Primo is based on which product the user has purchased. There are 2 tiers of support staff depending on which product is purchased for more exhaustive support (Primo, 2019) The cost of this program is not listed on the website. It prompts the inquiry to call or leave contact information. There is a cost-usage page, but only defines what Primo does for the user that saves them in costs for these line items. (Primo, 2019)

Politics
Knowledge politics come into play when there are questions of appropriate standards within a knowledge portal. (Claudia Loebbecke, 2016) These standards can come directly from the Fort Bend County Government website. It states that: (Government, 2019)

“The County’s web pages are not a public forum, and are not intended as an outlet for public speech or expression of individual opinion, irrespective of viewpoint or content, whether by posting or linking.” (Government, 2019)

It also states that the information provided on the website is on an “as is” basis and employees can make no representations of the Fort Bend County government in any way, shape or form. Further, it states that external links or third-party content is allowed for government agencies, i.e. public libraries, “to provide enhanced customer service.” (Government, 2019). This would be the way that the Fort Bend County Libraries can implement a knowledge portal.

Conclusion
By being a patron first, and then an employee, of the Fort Bend County Library System, I can see how a knowledge portal would be extremely useful. It would allow patrons access to many knowledge categories that cannot be found in the resources attached to the library system. The portal would be useful for the large genealogy department so that patrons and employees could share content that they discover in family trees and other historical matter. The portal will be very beneficial to employees for the main concern over the difficult usage of GoogleDocs. That program is good for very small organizations or groups, but a large library system is not the place for such a confusing program. Primo is, by far, the most efficient and capable program that the Fort Bend County Libraries would be able to use. The standards and security of the program allow it to be used in compliance with the Fort Bend County Government disclaimers and regulations.

Textbook
Dalkir, K. (2017). Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. Cambridge: The MIT Press.

Online Article
Chisita, C. T. (2018). Library cooperation in Zimbabwe: in Search of a suitable model to underpin national development. The Electronic Library, 36(4), 633-649. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-04-2017-0072

Claudia Loebbecke, P. C. (2016, March). Managing inter-organizational Knowledge Sharing. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 25(1), 4-14.

Josefin Lassinantti, A. S. (2019). Relevant Social Groups for Open Data Use and Engagement. Government Information Quarterly, 98-111.

Mizintseva Gerbina, M. a. (2018). Knowledge Management: A Tool for Implementing the Digital Economy. Scientific and Technical Information Processing, 45(1), 40-48. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/EL-04-2017-0072

Neubauer, A. P. (2009, June 11). The Knowledge Protal, or the vision of easy access to information. Library Hi Tech, 27(4), 594-601. doi:10.1108/02640470010354617

Zhmaylo, S. (2018). The Knowledge-Management System of an Organization. Scientific and Technical Information Processing, 45(1), 49-54. doi:10.3103/S0147688218010112

Website Pages/ Miscellaneous
Government, F. B. (2019). Disclaimers. Retrieved from Fort Bend County Texas: https://www.fortbendcountytx.gov/your-county/about-us/disclaimers

Libraries, F. B. (2019). Library History & Founders. Retrieved from Fort Bend County Libraries: https://www.fortbend.lib.tx.us/about-us/library-history-founders/history

Primo. (2019). ExLibris. Retrieved from Primo: https://www.exlibrisgroup.com/products/primo-library-discovery/

Quest. (2019). Microsoft Exchange Server migration and management. Retrieved from Quest: https://www.quest.com/solutions/exchange/

Technologies, S. (2013, May 2). Seugue Technologies. Retrieved from Seugue Technologies: https://www.seguetech.com/new-drupal-website-cost/