The knowledge base of a profession: the case of social work

Abstract

Journals are said to play an important role in the establishment of a knowledge base of a profession. Professions also use knowledge from other disciplines and are thereby interdisciplinary in character, using various ways of knowing. Using the social work profession as an example, empirical knowledge , as found in journals, was found to be only one source of knowledge in the profession's knowledge base . Social work as a profession also produces grey documents which are directly related to the social work experience. Grey documentation enables the dissemination of non-empirically based knowledge which is useful to the practicing professions . The use of both empirical knowledge via the journal and grey documentation requires an integrated approach in knowledge dissemination by archivists and information experts. The issue of prevailing altitudes of practitioners towards empirical knowledge and academicians towards grey documentation is raised. The role of the archivist and information expert as a facilitator in accepting knowledge as having a value in itself is proposed.