Combating problems related to library software in higher education institutions of Pakistan: An analysis of focus groups

Khusro

2022

ITAL

Library and information science has been at an infant stage in Pakistan, primarily in resource management, description, discovery, and access. The reasons are many, including the lack of interest and use of modern tools, techniques, and best practices by librarians in Pakistan. Finding a solution to these challenges requires a comprehensive study that identifies the current state of libraries in Pakistan. This paper fills this gap in the literature by reviewing the relevant literature published between 2015 and 2021 and selected through a rigorous search and selection methodology. It also analyzes the websites of 82 libraries in Pakistan through a theoretical framework based on various aspects. The findings of this study include: Libraries in Pakistan need a transition from traditional and limited solutions to more advanced information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled, user-friendly, and state-of-the-art systems to produce dynamic, consumable, and sharable knowledge space. They must adopt social semantic cataloging to bring all the stakeholders on a single platform. A libraries consortium should be developed to link users to local, multilingual, and multicultural collections for improved knowledge production, recording, sharing, acquisition, and dissemination. These findings benefit Pakistani libraries, librarians, information science professionals, and researchers in other developing countries. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind providing insights into the current state of libraries in Pakistan through the study of their websites using a rigorous theoretical framework and in the light of the latest relevant literature.

Section: Adherence To New Standards Practices and Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Library Management Practices in the Libraries of Pakistan

Khusro

2022

ITAL

“…We need to make more and more E-learning or E-library soft wares. These soft wares should accommodate print and electronic resources and provide a single interface for the students to search for multiple resources (Siddique, N., & Mahmood, K. 2016). Pakistan's government needs to build institutional and public libraries according to the world-class standards and be facilitated with high-tech standards with a wide range of educational and experimental research facilities.…”

Section: Libraries Standardsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Higher Education in Pakistan: Challenges, Opportunities, Suggestions

Hui¹,

Murtaza²

2021

eqr

Higher education provides opportunities to censoriously reveal the cultural, moral, socio-economic, and spiritual issues faced by the human race. Pakistan's higher education system has many institutional drawbacks includes a lack of quality management, institutional structure, and knowledge gaps between cross-culture educations systems to improve the efficiency of the current higher education system in Pakistan. To make Pakistan an educational center, Pakistan must strengthen the education system by developing modern technology and higher education. This study focuses on low enrolment and dropout gaps, quality and quantity of higher education standards, infrastructure, facilities, and low-quality teaching methods. This study summarizes these problems with suggestions to improve higher education standards and quality through cross-culture developments, performance standards, teaching methods, and examination reforms in Pakistan's higher education system.

“…Similarly, Mengesha (2010) revealed, after implementing Koha at the College of Telecommunications and IT Library (CTITL), the acquisition module was not utilized due to the nonexistence of online transactions in Ethiopia. While describing library automation in higher education institutions of Pakistan, Siddique and Mahmood (2016) revealed that libraries had implemented only the cataloging module, and that acquisition and circulation were rarely automated; so it can be said that most of the libraries, irrespective of software, have not been using an acquisition module for procuring reading materials. Meanwhile, Bansode and Viswe (2015) pointed out in their study that only 17 (65.38 per cent) library professionals had the knowledge to use an acquisition module, which may be the potential reason for not using an acquisition module.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-reliance of the Koha acquisition module for managing procurement of printed books

Benahal

2018

Purpose -The automation of library acquisition is a balancing act which involves dealing with institutional procurement policies, administration, vendors, finance, books, internal audit, reporting and, above all, tracking. Few studies have dealt with the operational difficulties of the transition from manual to automated acquisition using Koha. The objective of this paper is to investigate the self-reliance of Koha in handling all stages of procurement, starting from suggestions to receiving an ordered title, and to discuss the constraints and difficulties faced during the process.Design/methodology/approach -Based on internal documentation spanning a period of four years, the paper provides a first-hand account of the experience of the transition from manual to automated acquisition using Koha at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) Library, Bangalore.Findings -The study reveals that Koha is partially self-reliant in an academic setup where acquisition is dynamic in nature; however, customizations can be made to make Koha self-reliant to a certain extent.Research limitations/implications -The study is limited to the procurement of printed books using the acquisition module of Koha.Practical implications -The paper provides an insight into the acquisition module of Koha and also explores how acquisition workflows and functions are interconnected and interdependent, which could help acquisition librarians to setup a basic framework and policies before transitioning from manual acquisition to Koha acquisition module.Originality/value -Automated workflow cannot be tested in a short period of time. This case study is an output of observations of about four years, along with possible limitations, features and customization capabilities of Koha for acquiring printed books. This will help the librarian to better understand the Koha acquisition module workflow.