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This study examined the impact of personality traits on the knowledge sharing behavior of academicians in the public sector. The data were collected from 237 respondents using a questionnaire. The results showed that the personality trait openness to experience had a significant and positive impact on the knowledge sharing behavior and its sub-dimensions such as written contributions, organizational communication, personal interactions, and communities of practice. Furthermore, the personality traits extraversion and agreeableness positively predicted the knowledge sharing behavior for the dimensions of communities of practice and organizational communication, respectively. The results of this study would be helpful for the administrative staff of universities to develop programs to promote a knowledge sharing culture in universities and improve collaborative learning, research, organizational effectiveness, and performance. It would also be a worthy contribution to the existing literature as only a limited number of studies have addressed the role of personality traits in the knowledge sharing behaviors in the academic environment of a non-western country.

This research investigated the development of information literacy skills and their self-perceived assessment among journalists in Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey using an online questionnaire was conducted in four Provinces and the Federal Capital of Pakistan with the consent of relevant authorities for data collection. A total of 1089 responses were received. The data were analyzed in SPSS by applying descriptive as well as inferential statistics. A large majority of the surveyed respondents received information literacy instruction of short duration during their careers while being mainly in practice. The most covered topics included research literacy, communication skills, information discovery, critical literacy, tools literacy, and information handling. These participants perceived information literacy as invaluable in their practical work context. The survey participants perceived themselves as information literate not only for basic levels of information literacy but also for advanced levels. In addition, journalists' gender, age, academic qualification, job experience, information literacy instructions received, nature of work, and region predicted their levels of information literacy. The results generated pragmatic insight for educators and information professionals in designing a need-based information literacy instruction program for existing as well as prospective journalists. This research would make a worthy contribution to the existing information literacy research in the context of the workplace as no such comprehensive study on journalists' workplace had appeared so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This research examined the effects of information literacy on lifelong learning, creativity, and work performance among journalists in Pakistan. Design/methodology/approach: Survey research design was applied to conduct this research. The participants were recruited through a stratified convenient sampling process from the press clubs of four provinces (e.g. Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Baluchistan) and the federal capital Islamabad with the consent of relevant authorities for data collection. An online questionnaire was distributed among these journalists and a total of 1,089 responses were received. The data were analyzed by applying descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS. Findings: The results revealed that these journalists perceived themselves as information literate. The information literacy (IL) skills of journalists appeared to have a direct and positive effect on their lifelong learning, creativity, and work performance. In other words, the lifelong learning, creativity, and work performance of journalists increase as their levels of IL skills increase. Practical implications: These results generated useful insights for academicians and organizations about the importance of IL in the workplace and its influence on organizational effectiveness and performance in gaining a sustainable competitive advantage. This knowledge might be crucial for media employers to initiate training programs for journalists to impart IL education. Originality/value: This research would be a worthwhile contribution to the existing research on workplace IL, particularly in the context of journalists' workplace as no such comprehensive study using these variables appeared so far. Peer review: The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-06-2022-0345. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigated the influence of information literacy on the creative skills of medical students through the mediation of lifelong learning. A cross-sectional survey was conducted for data collection among medical students, recruited through a stratified convenient sampling procedure, of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The questionnaire was personally administered by visiting each college with written permission. A total of 473 survey responses were collected and analysed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling. The results revealed that the information literacy of medical students had a direct and indirect but positive influence on their creative skills. Lifelong learning not had a direct but positive effect on creative skills but also mediated the relationship between information literacy and creative skills. The empirical evidence for how information literacy influences creative skills through the mediated role of lifelong learning may inform policy and practice for information literacy instructions. These results may help academicians and information specialists to initiate a credited or integrated course on information literacy in the curriculum of medical students not only in Pakistan but also in other developing countries. This research would be a worthwhile contribution to the existing research on information literacy as the mediated role of lifelong learning between information literacy and creative skills has never been examined so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the current state of information literacy (IL) skills among lawyers practicing at the District Bar Association of Sargodha, Punjab, Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire was conducted to collect data from 297 lawyers. The questionnaire comprised 20 statements related to information literacy along with certain demographic variables. Each lawyer was personally visited in the assigned chamber by one of the researchers to record responses. Both descriptive (frequencies, percentages, mean scores, standard deviations) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient, t -test, and one-way analysis of variance) were applied for data analysis in SPSS. The results showed that a large majority of lawyers participating in the survey never received any formal training concerning information literacy. However, most of these lawyers perceived IL skills as important in the context of their workplace especially in conducting legal research. These lawyers were more competent in the basic IL skills and less competent in advanced IL skills. In addition, the lawyers' age, practical experience, practicing levels, computer proficiency, and English Language proficiency predicted their levels of IL skills. There was a critical need for the development of IL instruction programs for not only practicing lawyers but also for law students to improve their skills since these lawyers felt less competent with advanced levels of IL skills. It is hoped that the present study contributes to the existing body of WIL literature focusing especially on the role of IL in the context of legal work and outlining the current state of lawyers' IL skills in Pakistan as no such study has appeared so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the historical developments using selected literature related to 'library anxiety 'information seeking anxiety ' and 'information anxiety These concepts existed independently and parallelly and attracted much attention from the researchers of their respective fields. The existing literature lacked a study establishing a relationship among these three concepts which led to the idea of a general model of information anxiety to inform researchers as well as professionals dealing with policy and practice. This model represents information anxiety as the general and broader concept nesting information seeking anxiety as its sub-set and library anxiety as a further sub-set. It highlights the development of library anxiety, information seeking anxiety, and information anxiety over time. It also outlines the theoretical and practical implications of information anxiety for information services, especially information literacy (IL) instruction, as previous research reported it as a potential determinant of lower levels of information anxiety. The researchers emphasize the necessity for a need-based IL curriculum for the alleviation of users' anxiety related to information related tasks. The future directions for research on the proposed area considering the contemporary information environment have been discussed towards the end. Keywords: Information anxiety; Information seeking anxiety; Library anxiety; Information literacy; Information Behaviour; Model; Pakistan., Introduction Study of users' anxiety associated with information related tasks is, and has been of, fundamental concern to the information professionals as the results of such studies guide in developing [...]

This study examined the effect of information literacy (IL) on work performance with mediating role of lifelong learning and creativity among journalists in Pakistan. A cross-sectional survey using an online questionnaire was conducted in the press clubs of four provinces (e.g., Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Baluchistan) and the federal capital Islamabad for data collection. The received 1084 responses were analyzed using the partial least squares structural equation modelling. The results indicated that IL of journalists had a direct and indirect but positive influence on their work performance. The lifelong learning and creativity skills also mediated the relationship between IL and work performance. This study provided empirical evidence for how IL directly influence work performance and indirectly with the mediated role of lifelong learning and creativity. These pragmatic insights may inform academicians and enterprises about the IL importance at workplace for enhancement of organizational performance and achieving a competitive advantage. Such results may also initiate an instruction program for existing as well as for prospective journalists to impart IL education. This study could be a worthy contribution to the existing IL research in the workplace context in general and of journalists' workplace in particular as no such study has appeared so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research carried out a scientometric analysis of literature on anxiety associated with information-related tasks to determine its periodic growth, language dispersion, publication format, authorship patterns, and geographic origin. Four relevant databases (Web of Science, Scopus, LISTA, and LISA) were searched along with scanning of references of full-text papers to identify 381 related citations. The data set was analyzed using several bibliographic characteristics. The results showed that the volume of literature began to increase from the year 1986 and continued at a steady pace up to 2000. A phenomenal increase in the output was noticed in the 21st century with a per-year average of 16 publications till 2019. The majority of documents were for journal papers from the LIS field. English was the dominant language. More than half of the journal papers were published by only 27 journals. One-fourth of the journals produced a little less than two-thirds of the papers. A little less than half of the literature was the result of collaborative effort. A small core of authors produced more than one-third of the literature. UK and USA appeared as the leading contributors in the journal papers as well as all publications. The results are beneficial to scholars in several disciplines as they provides an interesting insight into the research trends by creating awareness about core authors, core journals, and core areas publishing this literature. These results also encourage researchers to initiate collaborative and inter-disciplinary research. This study makes a worthy contribution to this research area as no such a comprehensive study is available so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To generate data regarding clinicohematological findings of CLL in patients of Southern Punjab Pakistan. Study Design: Descriptive Cross-sectional study. Setting: Hematology Section Pathology Department, Nishtar Medical University, Multan. Period: January 2016 to September 2019. Material & Methods: A total of 44 patients of all age groups diagnosed as CLL were enrolled. Diagnosis was made on morphology and immunohistochemistry of bone marrow trephine biopsies and cases without immunohistochemical panel were excluded from the study. Clinical features and baseline tests were evaluated in all cases. The data was analyzed using SPSS Version 23.0. Results: Out of 44 patients, majority were males (70.5%). Mean age was 51±12.6 years. B symptoms were present in 71% patients. Lymph nodes were enlarged in 44%. Splenic and hepatic enlargement was seen in 32% and 15.9% respectively. Anemia was seen in 45.5% and thrombocytopenia in 34.1%. Bone marrow was infiltrated in 100% patients and the most common pattern of infiltration was diffuse (65%). CD20 and CD5 were positive in all of the cases (100%) and CD23 in 96%. Seropositivity for both anti HCV and HBsAg was present in 2.3%. Conclusion: The clinicohematological features of CLL in our patients show some differences to the cited literature with a greater majority presenting at younger age with diffuse bone marrow involvement having lower positivity for HBsAg, anti HCV and less hepatosplenomegaly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research intends to develop and validate an Information Anxiety Scale for individuals in the context of the workplace. This study was completed in two phases. In the first phase, the statements related to information anxiety were generated based on an extensive review of the literature on information-related anxieties, library and information avoidance, and information literacy along with two focus group interviews. Afterward, these statements were submitted to a panel of experts for content and face validity. Lastly, the data were collected for pilot testing of the instrument. Whereas in the second phase, the construct validity and reliability of the scale were established using a variety of statistical procedures such as exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach alpha coefficient, test-retest The results indicated a 33-items instrument structured into six dimensions, namely, 'Task Anxiety' (5 items), 'Need Recognition Anxiety' (5 items), 'Finding Anxiety' (6 items), 'Evaluation Anxiety' (5 items), 'Access Anxiety' (5 items) and 'Usage Anxiety' (7 items). Each item had loading strengths greater than.572 and the model explained about 52% of the total variance. There were high values of reliability coefficient for overall scale (CA =.901) and correlation coefficients of test-retest ranging from 0.70 to.83. Thus, the newly developed scale was a valid and reliable measure assessing information anxiety in the workplace. It is hoped that this study would be a worthy contribution to the existing research on workplace information anxiety as no such scale has appeared in the existing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the organizational commitment of information professionals working at university libraries in Pakistan. Survey method was adopted using a questionnaire to collect data from 329 information professionals of Punjab and Islamabad. The questionnaire contained 18-items measure of organizational commitment, developed along with certain demographic variables. Each statement was measured on 5-point Likert scale (e.g., 1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3= Neutral, 4=Agree, 5= Strongly Agree). The collected data were analysed by applying descriptive as well as inferential statistics in SPSS. Results indicated that information professionals were slightly committed to their organizations and most of these had emotional attachment with the organization. There were no significant mean differences in the index of organizational commitment based on age, gender, sector, area, and continuing education. However, the qualification, designation, experience, employment nature, and salary of the participants appeared to be predictor of organizational commitment. These results are important for university administration especially human resource department who work for retention of productive and committed employees and ensure strategic human resource development. This study would make worthy contribution in the existing research on organizational commitment in general and information professionals in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-efficacy toward information literacy is and has been demonstrated as an essential and fundamental key for academic performance and lifelong learning of students at all levels. This research reported the results of a cross-sectional survey carried out to investigate the correlatives of information literacy self-efficacy among business students at the University of Management and Technology, Lahore. The questionnaire contained an Information Literacy Self-Efficacy Scale, which along with sociodemographic and academic variables was utilized for collecting data from 350 students. The survey participants were recruited through a convenient sampling procedure due to accessibility issues and time limitations. The data were analyzed by applying both descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS. The results revealed that the business students had high self-efficacy for basic information literacy skills and low self-efficacy for advanced-level information literacy skills. Age, study program, study stage, proficiency for computer, and English language appeared to be the correlatives of students' information literacy self-efficacy. The pragmatic insights generated in this research might be used as a guide by university librarians, especially those who are engaged in information literacy instructions for designing a need-based and student-centered curriculum for information literacy instruction programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Health literacy is expected to help individuals deal with the required infection control and knowledge to cope with the COVID‐19 pandemic. Objectives: This study examined the impact of health literacy on Covid‐19 awareness and protective behaviours of university students in Pakistan. Methods: An online questionnaire was used to collect data from students at three universities in Punjab. The approved questionnaire contained 12 statements related to HL, 21 items towards Covid‐19 awareness, and 11 statements related to protective behaviours, along with some demographic data. Data analysis used Pearson correlation and simple linear regression. Results: Health literacy of university students positively predicted their Covid‐19 awareness and protective behaviours indicating that students with high health literacy were likely to be more aware of Covid‐19 and adopt health protective behaviours. There were gender and rural/urban differences. Conclusions: The results demonstrated an urgent need for planning a needs‐based health literacy programme focusing specifically on Covid‐19 literacy in Pakistan. This research might help policy‐makers, NGOs, and health librarians devise suitable programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intended to provide and critical and analytical review of research on workplace information literacy published form South-Asia with a view to inform policy and practice. Library, Information Science and Technological Abstracts (LISTA) was searched to identify the key studies published in the proposed research area using multiple keywords. The search process resulted in 384 citations which was screened for duplication and relevance. As a result, 375 citations were excluded due to duplication and non-relevance. Only nine citations remained to deal with for review. The reference lists of these citations were also examined to identify more related citations which resulted in 3 more citation to be included. Thus, there were only 12 citations included in this review. The results indicated the dearth of studies on workplace information literacy in South-Asia. Most of these studies focused on library and information professionals, followed by scientists, and university teachers using survey research design. There was only a single study that addressed information literacy in visually impaired teachers. The respondents of the reviewed studies were competent to basic levels of information literacy where they were less comfortable in advanced levels of information literacy. There was a critical necessity for a need-based IL curriculum for workplace environments. These results indicated the need for more research on workplace information literacy in South-Asia to information policy and practice. This study would be a great contribution to the existing literature as it can be used a foundational study for workplace information literacy in South-Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this research was to look at the attitudes of library leaders' towards user care in university libraries of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad. This study was conducted utilizing a quantitative research methodology that included a survey approach and a questionnaire. The data were collected from all library leaders' working in the universities/degree awarding institutions of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad recognized by Higher Education Commission of Pakistan. Both descriptive as wells as inferential statistics were applied to analyze data using SPSS. The results revealed that the library leaders had an overall positive attitude towards user care. There were no statistically significant differences in the library leaders' attitude based on types of university, number of employees in libraries, year of establishment of university, library working days in a week, and library timing respectively. Conversely, there were statistically significant mean differences in library leaders' attitude towards user care based on geographical locations of university and gender of the respondents. The results provided a pragmatic insight into the user-centred approaches for managing customer (user) relationship for marketing of library resources and services. This research also had an important contribution to the existing literature on relationship marketing in general and user relationship management in particular as only a few such studies appeared so far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research was to explore the actual situation of information accessibility for university students with visual impairment at Lahore, Pakistan. This research adopted a qualitative research design using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to investigate the proposed phenomenon. The participants were recruited thorough purposive sampling ftom higher academic instihitions for data collection. Face to face interviews of 15 visually impaired students were conducted using an interview guide. The participants were debriefed for data authentication and verification at the end. Each interview was transcribed and analyzed carefully using IP A. The results indicated that these students utilized interpersonal relationship as primary source of their academic information. The other available facilities for information access included internet, disability resources center (if available at the institution) and university library. The major barriers in accessing needed information included: format barriers, navigational barriers, technical barriers, ICTs illiteracy and financial barriers. The university administration especially libraries should consider students with varied disabilities while designing information infrastructure for its community. This research can be used as a guide by library staff in designing need-based information services for students with visual imprisonment. This research would be a worthy 'contribution in the exiting literature as only few studies were conducted in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]