1. Pakistan and Afghanistan Librarianship.
- Author
-
Harvey, John F.
- Abstract
In March and April 1968, the author was a guest of the U.S. Information Service on a two week trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan. During this stay, 30 libraries in five cities were visited. This paper describes this trip and relates the library happenings in these countries. It was obvious that Pakistan librarianship had advanced beyond the profession in either Iran or Afghanistan. There were many more librarians, more of them capable, more curiosity about foreign ideas, more concern for the present, larger book collections, larger buildings, more library schools, more active library associations, and more library publication. Yet all of this development has occurred in university and special libraries, not in school or public libraries, typical of Southwest Asia. And the picture seemed to be standing still or else moving ahead very slowly, as if the librarians had been trained before the nation was ready to support them. There seemed to be no evidence of a surge forward in public libraries, as there was in Iran or of major budget support for university libraries as there was in Ankara. Furthermore, the problem of over population had to be dealt with successfully or there would never be per capita improvement. Since Pakistan's economy was moving rapidly ahead, perhaps good library budgets and new building plans would also come, but one wonders if a country now so poor would support good library service even in the next generation. (LI 004244 through 004260 and LI 004262 through 004267 are related.) (Author/NH)
- Published
- 1968