Saturday, June 15, 2013
LIS Technology: Digital Resource: Status in Universities of Pakist...
LIS Technology: Digital Resource: Status in Universities of Pakist...: Digital Resource: Status in Universities of Pakistan ...
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Digital Resource: Status in Universities of Pakistan
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By
Muhammad Yousuf Ali
Incharge Research
Reference & Faculty Section
Sindh Madresstul
Islam University, Karachi
In Information revolution age, Libraries are
exists without boundaries on users doorsteps. Repaid growth of information is facilitating
to library users where some time it take puzzles or tilted the library user’s
direction from right to wrong way. These problems are usually faced by the
young students at the time of resolving their task, assignment or projects. Use
of technology (Digital Resource) in University libraries is a hot issue in
Pakistan especially in graduate & postgraduate as well as research level.
Scenario:-
In Pakistan usage
and demand of Digital content is increasing in higher education sector due to
cost, easily access, and maximum utilization. It has positive impacts on
students, teachers and researchers while presenting certain challenges and
opportunities to the libraries. Some of our University Libraries hold a large
number of valued information resources on digital format. Most of the libraries
present primitive level of readiness to carry out digitization activities.
University libraries which are better equipped with technological resources are
relatively advantaged in carrying out digitization activities/projects1.
HEC DIGITAL LIBRARY
The Higher
Education Commission of Pakistan may play proactive role in the promotion of
digitization activities in university libraries. Presently, HEC is providing
Free access to online journals and Database through www.hecdigitallibrary.edu.pk to
81 Public sector universities and 65 private sector universities2 as
well as different research intuitions. Thousand of university students, faculty
member as well as researcher utilized these digital resources.
The HEC digital
library program was introduced in 2004 to provide access to international
scholarly literature in electronic form, including high- quality, peer-reviewed
journals, article databases, and ebooks. Access is provided to public and
private universities and non-profit research and development organizations in
Pakistan. It provides 24,000 electronic journals and 45,000 electronic books
(Higher Education Commission of Pakistan3.
Present Status
Some
of our universities are providing international level digital resources
database online/offline, e-books, e-journals and technologies like (Library2.0,
web 2.0, RIFD, Meta data etc.). In Pakistan, our university students are much
outstanding and compete to the international students in all aspects; they used
digital resource in very excellent manner. The ratios of such student’s
satisfactory level see the table.
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S.#
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Services
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Ask
student
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Satisfied
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Dissatisfied/No
Answer
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Percentage
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1
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Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC)
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800
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549
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251
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68.62%
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2
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Internet Services
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800
|
705
|
95
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88.12%
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3
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E-mail
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800
|
623
|
177
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77.87%
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4
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Online Database
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800
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569
|
231
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71.12%
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5
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Virtual/Electronic Reference Services
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800
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423
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377
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52.87%
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6
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Printing
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800
|
476
|
324
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59.50%
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7
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Current Awareness Services (CAS)
|
800
|
411
|
389
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51.37%
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8
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CD Rom (Databases)
|
800
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392
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408
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49.00%
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9
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Selective Dissemination Services (SDI)
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800
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361
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439
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45.12%
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10
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Scanning
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800
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404
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396
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49.50%
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Table Descriptive statistics of user’s
satisfaction about electronic resources and servicese4
Though
there are many technical and supporting elements is required to access these
digital resources fast speed personal computer/laptop, internet connection etc.
Reference :
1.
Muhammad Rafiq. (2012),
Prospects of digitalization University libraries in Pakistan(abstract),
Paksitan Journal of library & information science, 13 (2012).
http://pu.edu.pk/images/journal/pjlis/pdf/pjlis-13-rafiq.pdf accessed on May 14, 2013.
3.
M. N Ansari, B A
Zubari(2010), Use of Electronic Resources among Academics at
the University of
Karach, Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal) p.1 http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1398&context=libphilprac access on
May 15, 2013.
4. K Mehmmood, M M Sajid,(2012) Electronic resources and services in Pakistani university
libraries: A survey of users’ satisfaction, The Interanation information and
library review, XX (2012), p. 5 www.elsevier.com/locate/ii
l r accessed on May 16, 2013
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