Text examines communities of practice from a practical, rather than academic, point of view; and provides a number of case studies, lessons learned, and sets of guidelines. Softcover, hardcover available. DLC: Knowledge management.

Cultivating Communities of Practice by Wenger Etienne
Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage by Saint-Onge, Hubert
Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity by Wenger, Etienne

Knowledge Networks
A very useful primer for thsoe who want to understand the concepts behind CoPs and how they influence knowledge in general. Easy to read and understand and referenced well for those wishing to undertake further research on the subject matter.

The agricultural metaphor lends itself well to the nurturing of knowledge. Of course, this is not the first time it has been used nor will it be the last. My own particular interest in the metaphor is how it not only lends itself to communities of practice but also to the process of learning.

For the last three years, I have been involved in teaching a module entitled "Knowledge Management" to students Mastering in Information and Library Management at a University in the North East of England. During those three years, communities of practice have emerged as a significant tool in understanding the creation, capture and transfer of knowledge within and between organizations.

The method of teaching involves lectures (theory-based) and seminars (case study-based) with the use of specific tasks to link the two areas.

This collection of papers is, perhaps, the single most useful text to emerge for teaching the concept of communities of practice, how they relate to managing knowledge within organizations and how they are cultivated and developed. It is abundant in well-researched and relevant commentary, which avoids the jargon of other works. The case studies are particularly useful to information management students trying to understand the relationship between information and knowledge management.

Congratulations to the editors for their conceptualization of the structure and identification of appropriate areas of content and to the individual authors for the quality of their contributions.