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This study was conducted to reveal the current status of services in the Quaid-e-Azam Medical College library (QMC), Government College of Technology library (GCT) & University College of Engineering & Technology library (UCET) at Bahawalpur. The data were collected through questionnaire survey of library users along with interviews of special librarians. This study was confined only to the three special libraries of Bahawalpur. The data collected were analyzed and conclusions were drawn. The analyses revealed that services provide by the special libraries of Bahawalpur were not up to the mark and users were not satisfied with the quality of services. Libraries had not up to date material. Adequate computers and internet facility was not available in the libraries. Findings of the study can be useful for understanding the problems faced by the special libraries of remote/less-developed areas of Pakistan and other developing countries of the world., Introduction Special library is generally concerned with literature of a particular subject or a group of subjects and extends its facilities to a particular type of clientele (Akhtar, 1975). In [...]

It is a survey of large public sector university libraries of the Punjab Province and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) of Pakistan. The basic purpose is to get a broader understanding of users' perceptions about the library services. The survey is based on a questionnaire containing both open and close ended questions. The data were collected through mail, e-mail and personal visits. The study reveals that although respondents have shown their overall satisfaction with the library services, but the analysis of the data about users' satisfaction with major library services shows that they were not fully satisfied with their respective library services. The library users have also highlighted many problems, which they believed should be corrected. Findings of the study can be helpful for the library authorities and professionals for revisiting their library services and sources. Keywords: Pakistan, Library and Informational Services, Punjab and ICT, University Libraries, Library Users' Satisfaction., Background of the Study Library and information service providers in the new millennium are taking a growing interest in understanding and meeting the changing needs of their users. In an [...]

Introduction Emergence of the digital era has posed rapid social, cultural and technological changes and challenges to the human society. The library as a social institution and librarianship as a [...]

Introduction The literature on the history of libraries indicates that the mechanism of recording the human communication and its preservation was the first step towards the manifestation of libraries. The [...]

Introduction Libraries all over the world are facing diversified service challenges posed by a mix of traditional information seekers and Google generation's call of technology features. These multi-facet demands and [...]

Introduction The history of Internet is not too long and almost all historians are agreed on the fact that the history of Internet starts from ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency [...]

Introduction We are living in the information age. The term 'Information Age' has been used to represent the impacts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on every aspect of life. [...]

Introduction Research is an inquiry process that has clearly defined parameters and has as its aim the discovery or creation of knowledge, or theory building; testing, confirmation, revision, refutation of [...]

Introduction Information is a vital resource for national development. A society that consumes and generates the most knowledge and information is the strongest society. One major aspect of economic development [...]

Introduction The present era is called the 'Information era.' Information has become the most important element for progress in society. To thrive in this modern era, one needs a variety [...]

The study aims at probing the information seeking behavior of educational administrators in Pakistan. It also explores their administrative responsibilities for which they usually seek information, their use of the Internet, their preferences for format of reading material and language, etc. and the problems they face while seeking information. To achieve these objectives, a review of related literature, a questionnaire survey and personal interviews within Punjab province and Islamabad Capital Territory in Pakistan were carried out. In total, 297 (99 percent) responses were received and analyzed quantitatively. Recommendations and conclusions are also drawn in the light of findings of the study. The study reveals that educational administrators’ information needs and seeking behavior largely depend on the type of job and the level of decision making they are involved with. Most of the findings of the study correspond with the reviewed literature. The results of the study can be useful to design information services and facilities for educational administrators, not only in Pakistan but in other developing countries of the world as well. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The study aims at reviewing the research studies conducted to find out the information needs and seeking behavior of educational administrators, and other stakeholders of education enterprise. The purpose of this review is to identify the important variables affecting the information needs and seeking behavior of educational administrators. An effort is also made to review the status of such research studies in Pakistan. The paper is based on comprehensive review of available literature. For the literature search, valid sources of published and unpublished information were consulted (i.e., books, journal articles, reports, conference/workshop proceedings, theses, etc.). Recommendations and conclusions are also drawn in the light of reviewed literature. The study reveals that many variables are affecting the information needs and seeking behavior of educational administrators: such as their work context, administrative responsibilities and work experience along with source preferences and use of information. It was also found that no comprehensive research study was conducted to find out the information needs and seeking behavior of educational stakeholders working at the administrative positions in Pakistan (i.e., deans, registrars, heads of departments in universities, school and college principals etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government College University, Lahore is the oldest seat of learning in Sub-continent. It is the Alma-matter of many renowned scholars, researchers, writers and philosophers. Besides this great honor, GCU Library stands prominent among its peers for preserving highly valuable personal collections. It is the preserver of over 48 personal collections having more than 124,000 books. It also includes 6134 letters of 1933 literary figures of Urdu language and literature. Few personal collections had been sent to England many years ago. But after their inheritors' visit to the GCU Library, they decided to bring those collections back to Pakistan and donated them to GCU. The historical record of 4970. letters and scripts of famous short stories, poems and essays by prominent men of letters has recently been donated to GCU. Saadat Hasssan Manto's famous typewriter has also been preserved at the Library. Besides these personal collections, a special collection of very old and rare books/manuscripts have been developed in 1998. GCU Library is also working on digitization of these precious manuscripts and rar.e books since 2005. An index with library reference pages of valuable collection of former Indian Govt. documents, reports, gazettes, gazetteers etc. is arranged subject wise. GCU has also decided to set up Nuqoosh Museum at the GCU Library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper is part of a doctoral research which aimed at proposing a national information system for educational administrators in Pakistan. However, this paper only aims at identifying what an information system is composed of and does; defining the information infrastructure (i.e. libraries/information centers and networks) needed for the development of a national educational information system; identifying the nature and design of the information infrastructure in Pakistan; and ascertaining the problems and gaps existing in the information infrastructure of Pakistan and why they exist. Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on review of the available literature. For the literature search, valid sources of published and unpublished information were consulted (i.e. books, journal articles, reports, conference/workshop proceedings, theses and dissertations). Findings – Many library/information centers and information networks are working in the educational domain of Pakistan. The position of academic, national and special libraries is also presented in this review. The basic weakness traced in this review is in the infrastructure of library/information centers and information networks and disintegration of available information sources. The information does exist within libraries/information centers and information networks but the educational administrators have problems in tracing this information. As a result, available information is not being utilized properly in educational planning and development in Pakistan. There is a need to pool the existing information sources, services and networks in one place to form a well-integrated information system that may provide a holistic and complete overview of education enterprise for realistic planning and resource allocation. Originality/value – This paper is the first to present the current position of the available libraries/information centers and information networks within the educational domain of Pakistan. Such a review may help the designers of educational information systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims at examining the level of ICT skills of LIS students (final year) at the University of the Punjab, Lahore (PU) and the Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB). It also finds out the LIS students' satisfaction with the teaching methodologies and ICT facilities provided by their institutes. The study not only identifies the situation of ICT skills of LIS products, but also highlights demands of LIS market in Pakistan. The research design was the survey method using questionnaire. For in-depth understanding of the phenomenon, semi structured interviews of a purposive sample were also conducted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed at exploring the status of needed information and its availability to educational administrators in Pakistan. To achieve these objectives, literature reviews and a questionnaire survey were conducted. For this survey, the educational administrators (i.e., principals of schools and colleges and Registrars/Deans/Chairpersons in universities) were identified as the target population and were selected through cluster sampling. The respondents were from the Punjab Province and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). In total, 297 (99%) responses were received and analyzed quantitatively. Recommendations and conclusions were drawn in the light of the findings of this study. The study is the first one of its type that attempted to probe the status of needed information and its availability to educational administrators and planners in Pakistan. The findings of the study can be useful to design information services and facilities for educational administrators not only in Pakistan but also in other countries of the world with similar conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aims to investigate the role and importance of departmental library in satisfying information needs of students. Perceptions of the students of the Department of Management & Business Administration (MBA) (having departmental library) and the students of the Department of Library & Information Science (LIS) (who did not have a departmental library) were comparatively analyzed. The study assesses the satisfaction level of the respondents from the MBA department with services of their departmental library. It also explores the LIS students' opinion about the need of departmental library. A questionnaire was distributed among 150 students of both the departments. The results show that most of the respondents from MBA department were satisfied with nearly all of the departmental library services. It was also found that most of the respondents from both the departments recommended the provision of online databases and Internet service for their departmental library. They also demanded more computers, digital collection and magazines/newspapers. The respondents from MBA department were found more interested in scholarly journals, multimedia services and audiovisual material than the respondents from LIS department. All of the respondents agreed that departmental library should be provided in all academic departments of the Islamic University of Bahawalpur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study done at University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan and The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan which looks at the perceptions of students users of the library reference services available to them at the University of Punjab. It discusses the relationship between student users and the reference staff members, evolving technologies and how librarians keep up with this, and the changing needs of student users. Topics also include institutional integration of library resources into course curricula, and the creative placement of librarians outside of the library such as in classrooms, via online chat, and in laboratories.

This study aimed at finding the trend of social media usage among the students of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur (IUB). For this purpose a sample of final year students was taken from the Geography Department. A questionnaire survey was administered to get the response from the students. The questionnaire was containing both open and close ended questions. The responses show that many social media websites such as CiteULike, Technorati, Connotea, Blogger, Twitter and Wikis etc. were frequently used by the responded students for communication, research work, online learning and making social contacts. It was also found that they have good IT skills and sophisticated tools and good Internet connections available to them so they do not encounter any problems in accessing these sites. Although this survey is restricted to a group of Geography students of IUB, the data obtained provide some insights into how students in Pakistan have been using the social media for both formal and informal types of learning and communication. In general, the acceptance by Pakistani students towards the use of social media for learning seems positive. It is hoped that the findings described here will help build a foundation for future investigations in Pakistan related to social media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital revolution has turned the world in an information society where information has become a commodity and a symbol of success and power. This revolution has also raised the issue of information rich and information poor. In this new digital era, developing countries are left with no choice other than to enter this new paradigm. As technology is getting more sophisticated and more affordable every day, the range of services provided is increasing accordingly. The picture captured through literature review reveals not only the transformation of industrial society into the information society but the important role of information systems and networks in enabling the information society as well. In this scenario, the paper stresses on the need of sophisticated information systems and networks for survival of Pakistan in the information society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the library use pattern of humanities faculty members at University of the Punjab, Lahore. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire-based survey was conducted to get response from the targeted population which consisted of 90 teaching and research staff of humanities departments. The response rate was 69 percent. Findings – The study reveals that most of the respondents feel themselves good in library use skills, which is owing to their high frequency of library use, not to any formal training. They prefer to use the library themselves, rather than seeking help from the library staff. Respondents found the central library richer in collection than their departmental libraries. Most of respondents were visiting the library for using the reference material or for searching some specific information and they seldom seek help from the library staff. Resources and services/facilities available in the central library were professed to be better than their departmental libraries. Respondents fulfilled their information needs not only from central and departmental libraries of the university but from other libraries in the city as well. They were facing the problem of non-availability of required material due to their heavy dependency on the library resources. Dissatisfaction was also shown with the library staff and technical support. More journals and reference material in humanities were suggested by the respondents, along with better facilities and services. Practical implications – The knowledge about the information needs and library use pattern of users helps the library and information science professionals to develop the library collections, improve the services and upgrade the facilities. Originality/value – This paper provides a case study of how specific kinds of scholars use library services and should be of interest to librarians providing information services for humanists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study reported here explored the reasons for the relatively limited use of the Internet among educated Pakistani adults. A fairly large sample of Internet nonusers from different cities of the Punjab Province with at least secondary school education participated in a survey. Some graduate students and cyber café owners were also interviewed. The results of this study are reported in the main body of this paper, indicating that a variety of cultural, educational, and economic factors are responsible for this state of affairs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In higher education, university rankings are listings of universities in an order determined by any combination of factors. Rankings can be based on subjectively perceived "quality," on some combination of empirical statistics, or on surveys of educators. scholars, students, prospective students, etc. In this era of challenges and changes in higher education, one thing remains constant: the importance of libraries in providing access to information and expert assistance in the use of information for both academic purposes and in support of lifelong learning. In case of HEC University ranking criteria, library role is limited only to the number of books and journals per student, while services aspect is not considered at all. This evaluation criteria may encourage the university and library authorities to focus only on increasing the number of books and journals, while ignoring the qualitative aspect of library services. Keeping this gap in view, this study aims at finding the ways of incorporating the qualitative aspects of library services into university ranking criteria. This will encourage the authorities to focus more on qualitative aspects of library services, which may result in enhancing the learning, teaching and research at universities. For this study, data were collected through document analysis, online survey and interviews of library and information professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the results of a survey of the undergraduate, graduate and post graduate students of the University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. The objective of the study was to explore the Internet use behavior of students. The results show that most of the students use this technology for course related reading and research needs. They are new users of the Internet. They use it at the University Library's Digital Lab Unit as well as their departments and homes. A large number of them have learnt to use the Internet tools by themselves, or relying on assistance from friends without attending any formal training programs. Ease of work and time saving are the reasons of Internet use among university students. Google as a search engine and Yahoo as an email service are the most popular among students. The paper recommends that the university authorities should arrange training programs for the students' Internet use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the transformation of Pakistan's agricultural society into an information society and factors causing this transformation. Key indicators of emerging information society in Pakistan are analyzed with the help of literature search, website visits and personal communication with experts. The analysis reveals that many internal and external factors are causing this transformation such as declining natural resources and rapid growth in population and its needs, international debt and dictation by IMF and World Bank in each and every economic and political move. The picture captured through literature and website review reveals that Pakistan's agricultural society is rapidly transforming into the information society. Key indicators for the emergence of the information society in Pakistan include c-government, IT policy, rapid growth of the IT and telecom sector, increased teledensity, Internet services, c-learning, c-health, c-commerce, etc. An information society is emerging at a very fast pace in Pakistan, but the efforts made towards the information society should be correlated with the overall strategic planning and cultural heritage of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the highlights of the conference "21st Century Vision for Libraries" held on October 13-14, 2010 at COMSTECH Secretariat in Islamabad, Pakistan. The conference was divided into four sessions which had an inaugural and concluding sessions. The first business session was coordinated by Salim Khan and entitled "Competencies for Information Professionals." The second session entitled "Application of Technologies in Libraries" was coordinated by Saima Qutub and chaired by Doctor Kanwal Ameen.

The article discusses the highlights of the Pakistan Library Science Conference held in Baragali from June 28, 2009 to July 2, 2009. The event was organized by Hamid Rehman, Muhammad Ismail and Sajjad Ahmad. Key note speaker Saeed-ullah Jan delivered a presentation about the impact of digital technology on public library services. Another paper presented at the conference dealt with the flaws and loopholes in the legal system that covers libraries and copyright.

An abstract of the article related to the model information system for educational administrators in Pakistan by Farzana Shafique is presented.

The concept of the digital library is new in Pakistan. Although LIS professionals in Pakistan are users of digital libraries, setting up local digital libraries is very rare here. This study analyzed the perceptions of Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals in Pakistan concerning digital libraries. Six research questions were asked: 1. What is the concept of the digital library? 2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of digital libraries? 3. What is the situation of digital libraries in Pakistan? 4. What are the problems in setting up digital libraries in Pakistan? 5. What are the needs and requirements for setting up digital libraries in Pakistan? 6. What are the suggestions to promote digital libraries in Pakistan? The problems which are hindering the promotion of digital libraries in Pakistan include lack of IT literacy, lack of funding, power failure, copyright issue, etc. The respondents suggested that trained manpower and proper equipments and infrastructure, along with training, orientation, support and awareness were essential requirements for setting up digital libraries locally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pakistan is a developing country with many social and economic problems, but indicators show that an information society is emerging in this country at a very fast pace. These indicators include fast-growing telecommunication facilities, free flow of information through electronic media and the use of computers and the Internet in public life. This paper argues that libraries can play a vital role in an information society. The situation of libraries in Pakistan, particularly public and school libraries, is very poor. Most federal policies do not provide for the establishment of effective libraries. Some policies do recommend a library system but there is no effort to implement these at the governmental level. This paper urges decision makers to include libraries in their planning for the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]