Internet use behaviour of the LIS community in Pakistan.
Idrees, Haroon ; Rehman, Ata ur
Introduction
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has brought many
revolutions in the human life. One very important, impressive and
effective revolution is the enhancement in the speed and span of
information production, sharing and recycling. It has changed the basic
concepts of proprietorship into sharing and preservation into access.
Library science is among the fields which have been influenced by this
revolution up to a great deal. Library science has been transformed into
information or library and information science (LIS). Libraries have
been transformed into information centres. Formal tools and techniques
have been replaced by the modern technologies. Information and
communication technology has become an integral part of the modern
libraries. Databases are replacing the huge amounts of inventories.
Resource sharing has become a necessary requirement and is easier
through modern techniques. The previously required basic skills have
also been of lesser primary requisites. Along with strong and in depth
knowledge of cataloguing and classification skills, nowadays, know how
of databases, copy catalogue and reaching the sources available online
has also taken an important place. Lengthy and complex subject headings
have been replaced by the keywords. It has also transformed the overall
routines, activities and behaviours of the LIS professionals. At the
time, there is no concept of an effective, efficient and impressive
library service without the ICT aids. Advanced countries are no doubt,
ahead in this area but the gap, known as digital divide that had been
between advanced countries and developing countries is eliminating and
being abridged with the passage of time. Internet connectivity has
become a basic requirement for the libraries and LIS professionals. As
mentioned earlier, it has transformed the behaviour of the LIS
professionals too. The use of computers was started in Pakistani
libraries during 1987 (Mahmood, 1996). The Internet was introduced to
general public and organizations in Pakistan during the year 1991,
previously used only by some multinational companies and airline
industry; some of the libraries were also among the organizations that
embraced this technology during the mid 1990s. In the mid of 1999, the
number of Internet users was between 60 to 70 thousands, which was
expected to reach up to 200,000 with an evident growth of 8-9% per month
(Saeed et al., 2000). According to Mahmood and Shafique (2007), a rapid
growth had been seen in the ICT during last few years. In January, 2007,
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority reported the number of Internet
users exceeding 12 millions with 1,898 Internet cities in Pakistan.
There were 160 cities in Pakistan which had been provided with wireless
local loop services, having 1.57 million subscribers, increasing from
81, 030 only within a period of two years. This data shows a rapid and
heavy impact of the ICTs on the Pakistani society. The society is
emerging into an information society. Libraries, being an important part
of the society and library personnel being the important service
provider to this emerging information society have also been in a
transition phase.
Internet is one of the most important and effective tools and
resource in ICT. Internet is such an information super market that when
you enter it to purchase or acquire some thing of your need, there are
so many options available to satisfy your need exactly and relevantly
that you thought of one thing and got some thing else. You wanted to get
some thing from vegetables but after entering the market, you saw the
fruits with such a packaging and display that they attracted your
attention and you spent all of your money and time on browsing selecting
and acquiring them and forgot your basic need that drove you to this
market for a while. Therefore, a need was felt to conduct a study to
know how connected and in contact with other world are the people
associated with profession of information in Pakistan. This study has
been conducted to know the Internet use behaviour of the LIS
professionals in Pakistan. It has been tried to include all the segments
and parts of the LIS community from Pakistan in this study. The
population includes the faculty, the practicing librarians in different
capacities, the library support staff and the graduate students who are
the potential professionals in the coming days.
Objectives and Methods
This study has been designed to serve the following objectives:
* To know the status of Internet access and use facilities in the
libraries of Pakistan.
* To develop the understanding and behaviour of library and
information science (LIS) professionals regarding Internet use and the
contents.
* To know the level of online assistance by LIS personnel in
performing their technical / professional responsibilities.
* To know the online communication trends of LIS community in
Pakistan.
* To find out the prospects and possibility of online surveys'
success among the LIS personnel in Pakistan.
A simple questionnaire consistent of 15 main and some sub questions
was developed and uploaded on World Wide Web (www). The questionnaire
was a blend of close ended questions with some options and freedom of
entering relevant data by respondents. A message through three popular
online list serves of LIS professionals in Pakistan was delivered with a
request to respond this questionnaire. These list serves are: Pakistan
Library Automation Group (PLAGPK), Pakistan Library Cooperation Group
(LIBCOOP) and Pakistan Librarian Welfare Organization (PLWO). PLAGPK is
hosting 2781 members, LIBCOOP's members are 737 and PLWO members
are 1030 in number (Yahoo, 2010). This is noteworthy that almost all the
members overlap in these list serves. All the LIS community using
Internet and connected with other colleagues through any online sources
was the target population. No sampling was made and it was open to all
LIS professionals and students who use ICT. A total of 198 responses
were received within three months time after sending a reminder at all
three lists. When analyzed the responses, it was revealed that 62
responses were incomplete and were not usable which were discarded. 136
questionnaires were properly filled and responded. These 136 responses
were sent by the LIS faculty, professional library practitioners, some
paraprofessionals with master degrees in LIS and the LIS graduate
students.
Literature Review
This section presents a review of literature available on the topic
of ICT, particularly Internet use in Pakistani libraries. The literature
states that the use of computers was first seen during the decade of
1980s in Pakistani libraries, which is three decades later as compared
with the American libraries, where it was started during the decade of
1950s. In the start, a few Pakistani libraries were automated,
literature was produced to enhance the library automation and urge the
human resource for training in this regard during the late 1980s and
early 1990s. During the early days of automation, a few DOS based Urdu
and English software packages were developed and provided by local
vendors, foreign companies and UNESCO. These packages included CDS/ISIS,
MINISIS, Pak Library Software and LAMP. The Netherlands Library
Development Project-Pakistan (NLDP) in collaboration with Pakistan
Library Association (PLA) played a vital role in the early IT
infrastructure developments and provision of training to the libraries
and their staff during the decade of 1990s. Five computer training
centres in different cities of Pakistan were developed along side the
provision of computers to library schools by this project. Until 1996,
the use of ICT and automation was in its infancy (Mahmood, 1996 &
Idrees, 1997).
According to Saeed et al., (2000) in their study on the internet
use in university libraries of Pakistan, Internet services were never
started for general public in Pakistan until the year 1991 with an
exception of some multinational companies, airlines and IBM computers,
who were already using this technology. By the middle of year 1999,
there were only 60 to 70 thousand Internet users. Since then a rapid
expansion in the number of Internet users (8-9%) had been seen and until
the end of year 2000, an increase of almost 200 % internet users was
expected. Half of the selected university libraries in sample of this
study were using the internet. The study reports that the libraries were
mainly using email and web surfing, while some of the libraries were
also using FTP, Telnet and Gopher services. Internet was although being
used to get assistance for almost all the library services;
nevertheless, mainly it was used for reference services. Only two
libraries had uploaded their online pubic access catalogue (OPAC) till
then. Overall conditions of internet usage and introducing any online
services were very poor according to this study.
Mahmood & Shafique (2007) in their paper, "Emerging
information society in Pakistan and the role of libraries"
mentioned a very rapid growth, seen in the ICT during last few years. In
January, 2007, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority reported the number
of Internet users exceeded 12 millions with 1,898 cities in Pakistan
having Internet access. There were 160cities in Pakistan which had been
provided with wireless local loop services, having 1.57million
subscribers, increasing from only 81, 030 within two years, i.e.,
January, 2005 to December, 2006. This data shows a rapid and heavy
impact of ICT on the Pakistani society. The society is emerging into an
information society. The paper has stated about the development and
initiatives of E-Government, heavy investment in the project of internet
provision in rural areas, ICTs in post offices and virtual university
development to enhance E-learning environment at large. National Digital
Library, developed by Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has
specially mentioned in this paper, which contains a widerange of quality
information resources and provides access to the public and private
sector universities and R&D organizations. HEC's Pakistan
Research Repository project has also been mentioned in this paper, which
aims to develop an inventory of the research being produced by Pakistani
universities and provide the international community with access to this
repository. The role of libraries in the development of an information
society and their services for the transmission of knowledge,
development of a democratic and open society, initiation and growth of
well informed citizenry has been discussed in the light of IFLA and
UNESCO charters. Libraries have a vital importance in the E-governance
initiatives, but these have been given meagre importance in formation of
policies. At some points, provisions for development of multimedia
libraries at grass root level in the society have been mentioned but not
implemented. This study recommends the policy makers to get the
libraries on board and be included as main player in the planning of a
real knowledge based society with the proper provision of ICTs to the
public through libraries. The study also urges the librarians to be
aware of their role in the development of such a society and equip
themselves with required skills, which lack in them currently.
Rmazan and Singh (2009) have found that 91.3% academic libraries of
Pakistan were equipped with Internet and emailing facilities. According
to this study, 16.4 % had internet access through domain control, 60.7%
through a proxy server, 4.6% individual connections and 4.6% had access
through dial-up connections, (the rest did not respond). The internet
speed of these libraries varied from 256 kbps to >4 mbps. 43 % of
libraries got benefit from HEC'S Pakistan Education and Research
Network (PERN) project in getting the internet connection. HEC's
National Digital Library has been found a pertinent source for online
journal and book resources and databases.
Siddique and Mahmood (2009), conducted a case study on the role of
mailing groups in development of library profession in Pakistan.
Pakistan Library Automation Group (Pak LAG) was taken as case. After
discussing the communication through ICT, a leading role of Yahoo groups
followed by Google groups in such communications among the libraries and
librarians has been mentioned. It has been stated in this paper that the
group, established in the year 2000 is pioneer among such professional
communication groups. The group had a membership of over 1900 at the end
of year 2008. The group shares the information through emails and its
website among its members, on Professional news, Social issues,
Professional help, Jobs, Training, Professional associations, Library
profession, Library education, LIS Research, Professional groups and
Others. A total of 5216 messages had been broadcasted on this group.
This group has played a vital role in requesting and obtaining
literature among professionals, provision and promotion of library
automation through its own developed and free of cost available software
and training opportunities. It has also played a role in the revival of
Pakistan Library Association (PLA), which had become inactive for a
certain period.
Mahmood (2009), conducted a survey study of students from the
University of the Punjab, Lahore, where more than 26,000 on campus
students had been enrolled in 64 departments. The university provided
with a facility of more than 5000 computers with Internet access to the
students and faculty. The study reports an analysis of differences of
access, use and attitudes among the university students towards
information and communication technology based on their gender, subject
and degree they were pursuing. The 55% of the participants were female
and 45 % were male students, 73% belonged to graduate programs, while
27% were from undergraduate programs. Overall attitude of the
respondents had been found positive in this study as the majority agreed
with the positive role of ICT, e.g., it provided access to information,
helped in learning of novel areas and improved communication. There were
not many differences, found among the different groups of students.
Nevertheless, the female students were found more positive as compared
to male students, while male users of ICT were greater in number than
the females. The students of Arts and Humanities were found less aware
of the benefits of ICT as compared with the students of Sciences and
Social Sciences. The study concludes that the economic effectiveness of
the ICT equipment availability and internet connectivity has made the
society's middle class students able to get benefits of these
technologies.
Malik & Mahmood (2009), conducted a study on students' web
search behaviour. This study was based on a survey of 200 undergraduate
and graduate students of a faculty's different departments of
University of the Punjab. The study reports 59.5 % students used the
internet to search the materials for their information needs at home, 25
% at university, 15% at both of aforementioned places and 0.5 % at some
other place. A majority of the students, i.e., 67.5% used the Internet
daily; 72.5% of the population used the Internet for research, 76.5% for
education, 68% for entertainment, 18.5% for sports and 6% for shopping
purposes. Google is the most frequently used search engine, which is
used by 97%, followed by Yahoo's 72% users of the population. The
respondents used basic search frequently with a mean of 3.86 on a 1-5
scale where 1 meant rarely and 5 meant often, advanced search moderately
with a mean of 3.11 and a little use of web directory (mean: 2.5) was
made for the searching of materials. A frequent trend of multiple-query
search has also been denoted. Most of the users see only first page
(1-10 results) of resulting hits of their queries. Majority of the
population was found satisfied up to a moderate extent with the use of
internet for their searching requirements. The problems that were faced
by the students included: slow speed, ranked one; overload of
information, ranked two; irrelevant information, ranked three; and poor
quality, ranked four. The study concludes a substantial use of internet
by students for every thing they need to search, usually using basic
search and satisfied with the results.
The review of literature presents a picture that different areas of
ICT usage in Pakistan by different types of population have been
studied. No study had been conducted on the internet use behaviour of
the LIS people so far. Thus, this study is the first of its nature
conducted among the Pakistani LIS community.
Results and Discussion
The respondents consisted of seven members of LIS faculty, 107 full
time librarians working for more than five hours a day, two part time
librarian working less than five hours a day, two consultant librarians,
three free lance library professionals, eight para professional library
staff, four LIS students and four others. A segregation of the
respondents has been given in table-1. The respondents' respective
sectors have been displayed in table-2. There are 91 respondents, who
are serving in education sector (82 serving degree awarding institutes
and nine serving other research institutes), 19 respondents are serving
in the government departmental libraries, eight are serving public
libraries, 3 are serving National Library of Pakistan and 15 are serving
other institutions, e.g., hospitals, special libraries, NGOs, regulatory
authorities and R&D institutions.
The participants were asked whether they had Internet connections
at their workplace or not. Out of 136 participants, 130 responded this
question. As mentioned in table 3, 123 had an Internet connectivity,
which is a 90.44 percent of total population and 94.6 % of those who
responded this question, while only 7 participants (5.4%) deprived of
Internet connection at their workplace. A reasonable majority of the
participants, i.e., 101 (74.26%) had a high speed DSL / broadband
connections, eight were using dialup connections and 12 (8.83%) were
using other connections, like cable connections, wi-fi, through LAN
(local area network) etc. eight (5.88%) of those who had Internet
connections, did not answer this question, while 7 (5.15 %) were not
applicable due to having no Internet connection (Table 4). A comparison
of Internet connections and their type among different sectors of the
population has been presented in table-5. It shows that all the sectors
of population are connected with internet at their workplaces. Most of
the participants have high speed DSL / broadband connections.
The participants are normally using multiple email accounts. Only
12 participants (8.8%) are using single email account. Reasons to the
multiple accounts are having different official and personal email
accounts and having accounts on free email servers. The biggest group is
the one that has two accounts, i.e., 46 (33.8%). This is interesting
that a reasonable number of participants 27 (19.9 %) have more than
three email accounts. A detailed sector wise population break down of
email accounts has been given in table 6. A reasonable number of
respondents (in a sense that they are neither IT professionals, nor
business people) has developed their own website or homepage. Those who
answered the question whether they had developed their website were 129
in number and 30 (23.3%) of them have developed and uploaded their
websites / homepages. Both of the consultant librarians have developed
their websites. Three out of five LIS faculty and 20 out of 104 fulltime
librarians, who responded this question, have developed their own
websites.
The renowned newspapers of Pakistan publish their papers online.
Previously people used to read the newspapers in the libraries'
newspaper sections, where there had been more people and less number of
papers in the morning. So, the people had to wait for their turn. This
trend is changing nowadays. Now, people prefer to read the online
editions of newspapers. There, they don't have to wait for their
turn and they also have the latest updated news at hand. This trend has
also been seen in the LIS community. Out of 117 respondents who answered
the question, 58 (49.5%) read the online newspapers occasionally, 43
(36.8%) read daily and only 16 (13.7 %) are those, who do not read
newspapers online as shown in table 8. Table 9 shows that daily Jang, an
Urdu newspaper is ranked number one, which is read by 22 % of population
followed by daily Express, another Urdu newspaper and daily Dawn, an
English newspaper, having a readership of 15.4 % each. Three of those
participants who have not mentioned themselves as online newspaper
readers in response to the question whether they read newspapers online
or not, have mentioned the names of newspapers that they read online in
response of the next question.
In response to question of the types of websites usually visited,
the participants shared that the most popular websites are the learning
materials which include online tutorials, electronic books, journals and
digital libraries, visited by 85 participants, second ranked are news
websites that include newspapers and different TV channels, visited by
68 participants and third are entertainment websites that include
audio-video songs, youtube, google videos, mobiles etc. Multiple
responses were possible in this section and were given by the
respondents. The detailed data has been shown in table 10. Others
include websites of research institutes, web catalogues, professional
organizations, search engines, NGOs and publishers. Figure 1 shows the
popularity of website types usually visited by the participants.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
4.7. Instant Messaging Service Out of 129 respondents, who have the
Internet connections at their workplaces, 65 use the instant messaging
service for official or personal communication with others. The
participants who do not use instant messaging service are 46 in number,
while 18 participants did not answer this question. This data has been
shown in table 11. Yahoo messenger is the most popular which is used by
48 users, followed by MSN used by 34 and GMail messenger used by 17 as
shows table 12. Others include internal communication systems, Microsoft
office communicator, Hi5, Windows live and Ringo. Some of the
participants use multiple messengers; therefore, there is an overlapping
of the users.
In order to know, how much time the participants spent surfing
Internet daily, they were asked the question. The following options were
given to them to answer this question: 1.) only break hours, which meant
one hour daily; 1-2 hours, which meant 1.5 hours daily; 2-3 hours, which
meant 2.5 hours daily; 3-4 hours, which meant 3.5 hours daily; and >4
hours, which meant 5 hours daily. Those who did not answer this question
were taken as spending no time on Internet surfing during working hours.
Consultant librarians' have the highest mean, which is 3.25,
followed by LIS students, part time librarians and others. The full time
librarians utilize their time, surfing Internet with a mean of 2.39. A
detailed comparison can be seen in table 13. Figure 2 shows the means of
the time spent surfing Internet by different segments of population. It
also shows the grand mean and deviation of different segments'
means from the grand mean.
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
4.9. Tools / Websites Used for Cataloguing / Classification and
Other Bibliographic Information Retrieval It has been revealed that the
Library of Congress' website is the most commonly used tool for the
purpose of cataloguing, classification and other bibliographic
information retrieval, which is used by 74 participants, the second
highest used tool in this regard is British Library's online
catalogue, which is used by only 27 participants. Thus, there is a huge
gap of numbers between first and second ranked tools / websites. This
has also been shown that 21 participants access Amazon, 19 National
Library of Pakistan, 16 Worldcat and 24 connect to other websites for
the purpose of cataloguing, classification and other bibliographic
information retrieval. The other websites include PLAGPK website for
Library and Information Management System (LIMS) database, developed by
a local LIS group known as Pak LAG, Library Manager, Web Dewey, National
Library of Australia, Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS),
Galaxy Books (a local vendor) and some Malaysian databases. Table 13
shows the details of data in this respect, while the figure 3 shows
comparative popularity relationship among different online tools /
websites.
Conclusion
The study shows that there is a rapid growth in information and
communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and use in Pakistan. All
the segments of LIS community of Pakistan are abreast with the ICTs. A
reasonable amount of LIS community is connected with the world through
Internet. It is evident by the current development and growth in ICTs
that the rest of the community will also be connected with this
technology soon. Although people are aware of the importance and
effectiveness of internet and online resources, still there is a need
for the training and development of the human resource to enhance the
results.
References
Idrees, H. (1997). Library Automation in Pakistan. PLA Journal,
19-20 (Oct. 1996- Oct. 1997), 92-98.
Malik, A. & Mahmood, K. (2009). Web Search Behavior of
University Students: A Case Study at University of the Punjab. Webology,
6 (2), 1-14.
Mahmood, K. & Shafique, F. (2007). Emerging Information Society
in Pakistan and the Role of Libraries. World Libraries, 17 (2).
Retrieved September 15, 2009 from
http://www.worlib.org/vol17no2/print/mahmood print.html.
Mahmood, K. (1996). The Status of Library Automation in Pakistan.
Library Review, 45(6), 36-42.
Mahmood, K. (2009). Gender, Subject and Degree Differences in
University Students' Access, Use and Attitudes Toward Information
and Communication Technology (ICT). International Journal of Education
and Development Using Information and Communication Technology, 5(3),
1-11.
Ramzan, M. & Singh, D. (2009). Status of Information Technology
applications in Pakistani Libraries. The
Electronic Library, 27 (4), 573-587.
Saeed, H., et al. (2000). Internet Use in University Libraries of
Pakistan. Online Information Review, 24(2), 154-160.
Siddique, N. & Mahmood, K. (2009). The Role of Mailing Groups
in the Development of the Library Profession in Pakistan: The Case of
PLAGPK. Information Development, 25 (3), 218-223. Yahoo. (2010). Yahoo
Groups. Retrieved May 21, 2010 from http://www.groups.yahoo.com/
Haroon Idrees, M. Phil.
Senior Librarian
Islamic Research Institute
International Islamic University
Islamabad, Pakistan
PhD Scholar
Humboldt University
Berlin, Germany
Ata ur Rehman, M.Phil.
Assistant Manager Library
National Centre for Physics
Islamabad, Pakistan
Table 1. Population of the Study
Description Frequency Percentage
LIS Faculty 7 5.15
Librarian--Full Time (5+ Hrs working) 107 78.69
Librarian--Part Time (Less than 5 hours working) 2 1.47
Consultant Librarian 2 1.47
Freelance LIS Professional 3 2.20
Para Professional Staff 8 5.88
LIS Student 4 2.94
Other 3 2.20
Total 136 100
Table 2. Respondents' representative sectors
Description Frequency Percentage
Education (Degree Awarding Institute (DAI)) 82 60.30
Education (Research Institute) 9 6.62
Public Library 8 5.88
National Library 3 2.20
Government Department 19 13.97
Other 15 11.03
Total 136 100
Table 3. Internet Connectivity at Workplace
Description Frequency Percentage
Yes 123 90.44
No 7 4.41
Not Answered 6 5.15
Total 136 100
Table 4. Type of Internet connection
Description Frequency Percentage
Dial-up connection 8 5.88
DSL / Broadband 101 74.26
Other 12 8.83
Not Answered 8 5.88
N/A (due to no Internet connection) 7 5.15
Total 136 100
Table 5. Segment wise Comparison of Type of Internet connection
DSL/ Dial-up
Description N Broadband Connection
LIS Faculty 7 5 0
Librarian--Full Time 107 81 6
Librarian--Part Time 2 1 0
Consultant Librarian 2 2 0
Freelance LIS Professional 3 3 0
Para Professional Staff 8 4 1
LIS Student 4 3 1
Other 3 2 0
Total 136 101 8
No
Description Other Connection
LIS Faculty 0 2
Librarian--Full Time 10 10
Librarian--Part Time 0 1
Consultant Librarian 0 0
Freelance LIS Professional 0 0
Para Professional Staff 1 2
LIS Student 0 0
Other 1 0
Total 12 15
Table 6. Email Accounts
Description One Two Three
LIS Faculty 2 0 0
Librarian--Full Time (5+ Hrs working) 7 41 30
Librarian--Part Time (Less than 5 hours working) 1 0 0
Consultant Librarian 0 1 0
Freelance LIS Professional 1 0 1
Para Professional Staff 0 2 4
LIS Student 0 2 1
Other 1 0 0
Total 12 46 36
Description >3 NA N
LIS Faculty 3 2 7
Librarian--Full Time (5+ Hrs working) 19 10 107
Librarian--Part Time (Less than 5 hours working) 0 1 2
Consultant Librarian 1 0 2
Freelance LIS Professional 1 0 3
Para Professional Staff 0 2 8
LIS Student 1 0 4
Other 2 0 3
Total 27 15 136
Table 7. Website/Homepage development
Description YES NO NA N
LIS Faculty 3 2 2 7
Librarian--Full Time 20 84 3 107
Librarian--Part Time 1 1 0 2
Consultant Librarian 2 0 0 2
Freelance LIS Professional 0 3 0 3
Para Professional Staff 2 4 2 8
LIS Student 1 3 0 4
Other 1 2 0 3
Total 30 99 7 136
Table 8. Reading newspapers online
Yes Yes
Description (Daily) (Some times) NO NA N
LIS Faculty 2 2 1 2 7
Librarian--Full Time 35 49 10 13 107
Librarian--Part Time 0 1 0 1 2
Consultant Librarian 0 1 1 0 2
Freelance LIS Professional 1 1 1 0 3
Para Professional Staff 2 3 1 2 8
LIS Student 3 0 0 1 4
Other 0 1 2 0 3
Total 43 58 16 19 136
Table 9. Newspapers Read Online
Description Frequency Percentage
Daily Express (Urdu) 21 15.44
Daily Jang (Urdu) 30 22.06
Daily Nawa-i-Waqt (Urdu) 8 5.88
Daily Dawn (English) 21 15.44
Daily News (English) 13 9.56
Daily Nation (English) 3 2.21
Other 8 5.88
Not Answered 25 18.38
N/A (due to no Internet connection) 7 5.15
Total 136 100
Table 10. Websites Usually Visited
News Social
Description websites networking Entertainment
LIS Faculty 2 1 1
Librarian--Full Time 56 18 25
Librarian--Part Time 0 0 0
Consultant Librarian 0 0 0
Freelance LIS Professional 1 0 2
Para Professionals 4 0 0
LIS Student 3 2 2
Other 2 1 2
Total 68 22 32
Description Learning Sports
LIS Faculty 4 2
Librarian--Full Time 68 11
Librarian--Part Time 1 0
Consultant Librarian 1 0
Freelance LIS Professional 2 0
Para Professionals 5 0
LIS Student 2 1
Other 2 0
Total 85 14
Description Other N
LIS Faculty 0 7
Librarian--Full Time 16 107
Librarian--Part Time 0 2
Consultant Librarian 1 2
Freelance LIS Professional 0 3
Para Professionals 0 8
LIS Student 1 4
Other 1 3
Total 19 136
Table 11. Instant Messaging Service Usage
Description Frequency Percentage
Yes 65 47.79
No 46 33.82
Not Answered 18 13.24
N/A (due to no Internet connection) 7 5.15
Total 136 100
Table 12. The Messengers Used
Messenger Frequency Ranked
Yahoo Messenger 48 1
MSN Messenger/MSN Live Messenger/MSN Web Messenger 34 2
Gmail Messenger 17 3
Other 5 4
Table 13. Time Spent Surfing Internet Daily
Description Break Hour 1-2 Hours 2-3 Hours
LIS Faculty 0 0 0
Librarian--Full Time 4 23 18
Librarian--Part Time 0 0 0
Consultant Librarian 0 1 0
Freelance LIS Professional 1 1 0
Para Professionals 1 2 0
LIS Student 0 1 0
Other 1 1 0
Total 7 29 18
Description 3-4 Hours >4 Hours NA
LIS Faculty 3 1 3
Librarian--Full Time 22 23 17
Librarian--Part Time 0 1 1
Consultant Librarian 0 1 0
Freelance LIS Professional 0 0 1
Para Professionals 2 1 2
LIS Student 1 1 1
Other 0 1 0
Total 28 29 25
Description Mean N
LIS Faculty 2.21 7
Librarian--Full Time 2.39 107
Librarian--Part Time 2.5 2
Consultant Librarian 3.25 2
Freelance LIS Professional 1.5 3
Para Professionals 0.81 8
LIS Student 2.5 4
Other 2.5 3
Total 2.34 136
Table 14. Use of Online Bibliographic Tools
Library of British
Congress Library
Description Catalogue Catalogue WorldCat
LIS Faculty 4 2 1
Librarian--Full Time 61 22 11
Librarian--Part Time 1 0 0
Consultant Librarian 1 0 1
Freelance LIS Professional 1 1 0
Para Professionals 4 2 1
LIS Student 1 0 1
Other 1 0 1
Total 74 27 16
National
Library of
Description Pakistan Amazon
LIS Faculty 2 1
Librarian--Full Time 13 19
Librarian--Part Time 1 0
Consultant Librarian 0 0
Freelance LIS Professional 0 0
Para Professionals 1 0
LIS Student 2 1
Other 0 0
Total 19 21
Description Other N
LIS Faculty 0 7
Librarian--Full Time 19 107
Librarian--Part Time 0 2
Consultant Librarian 0 2
Freelance LIS Professional 0 3
Para Professionals 2 8
LIS Student 1 4
Other 2 3
Total 24 136
Figure 3 Participants (%) Connected for Technical and Bibiliographic
Information
Library of Congress Catalog 54.4
British Library Catalog 19.9
WorldCat 11.8
National Library of Pakistan 14
Amazon 15.4
Other 17.6
Note: Table made from bar graph.
