Assessment of customer knowledge management in academic libraries: Design and validation of a checklist

A review of the research background shows that despite the usability of customer knowledge for libraries, the concept of Customer Knowledge Management (CKM) in libraries is rarely addressed. The purpose of this study was to identify the indicators, operational instances as well as the design and validation of an all-inclusive CKM implementation instrument in academic libraries. The study was conducted in two quantitative and qualitative phases. The final instrument was a CKM strategy that consisted of various indicators preliminary designed by drawing on literature review, and operational instances identified by qualitative interviews with 12 academic library managers. A Delphi study with 20 experts was used to assess the experts’ degrees of agreement on the retrieved indicators and instances. The result was a reliable and valid checklist consisting of 67 instances under 6 major and 12 minor indicators. This instrument would allow managers to assess the state of CKM in their academic libraries, improve their library performance by checking the strengths and weaknesses against the indicators, and also serve as a basis for training the academic library staff on how to successfully implement CKM. With objective instances, the instrument is expected to improve the quality of customer services, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty. •Identification of Customer Knowledge (CK) indicators facilitates the implementation of Customer Knowledge Management (CKM).•This study identified six major and 12 minor CKM indicators in academic libraries.•CKM allows for a better understanding of customers’ requirements, delivery of relevant services, and use of their knowledge.•A CKM checklist can help libraries make decisions about delivering new services.