Status of Library Software in Higher Education Institutions of Pakistan

What is it about?

This study explored the status of library software being used in the libraries of higher education institutions (HEIs) of Pakistan. A quantitative survey method was used. The population of this study was central/main libraries of all HEIs of Pakistan recognized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). A questionnaire was designed after review of literature to collect data. The questionnaire was sent to all head librarians.The findings reveal that majority of the libraries had started automation. The libraries of public and private sector institutions were not significantly different in automating their routines. The libraries were using a variety of software and Library Information Management System (LIMS), a free software was at the top in terms of number of users. Other popular software were WINISIS, Inmagic, Koha and VIRTUA. There were also examples of adoption of open source software.Majority of the libraries were doing automation in the absence of proper budget for software and allied activities. Similarly, libraries did not have up-gradation and training agreement with the software providers. The participant libraries reported the presence of cataloging, circulation, reports and OPAC modules in their software but most of the libraries did not mention the availability of modules like acquisition, serial and webopac. Software used by the libraries did not have national language support in most of the cases and ability to support regional languages was also negligible.

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