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A Zero-budget Strategy for Innovation and ICTs’
Promotion in Pakistani Libraries: The Case of
Pakistan Library Automation Group (PakLAG)
By Muhammad Iqbal
Library Specialist, Planning Commission
Islamabad, Pakistan
E-mail:lib.specialist@yahoo.com
Abstract
This paper presents an overview of the strategy, volunteer
initiatives, achievements and innovative approach of Pakistan
Library Automation Group (PakLAG) adopted to promote the
use of ICTs Pakistani libraries through development and
distribution of free and open source solutions according to the
needs of the local libraries and their users.
Keywords
Automation; Pakistan; PakLAG Koha; Information Retrieval;
Innovation; Pakistan Library Automation Group; Localization
Introduction
There are more than 4,000 libraries of all types and sizes in
Pakistan. Netherlands Library Development Project was the first
big initiative which laid the foundation of library automation and
produced visible results through the development and distribution
of CDS-ISIS oriented, Library Automation & Management
Program (LAMP) software, and establishment of five Computer
Training Centers across the country. By the completion of the
NLDP the LAMP and CTCs were handed-over to PLA but
couldn’t sustain due to the discontinuation of donor funding,
among other numerous reasons.
Pakistan Library Automation Group (PakLAG) a not-for-profit
trust, came in to existence in year 2000, when some young
professionals from the field of Library & Information Science
wanted to institutionalize their volunteer work.Lahore based
activity soon spread all over the country and volunteers from
other provinces and cities joined the efforts to promote the use of
ICTs in libraries. During the last seven years PakLAG organized
its chapters in all four provinces, federal capital and in Azad
Jamu & Kashmir. There is no membership fee, no official
sponsorship and even PakLAG refused to accept donation offers
worth hundreds of thousands of Rupees. The idea was to achieve
the objectives by promoting the self-reliance and economical
solutions. PakLAG website was initially launched in 2000 by
hosting on a free server.
PakLAG’s innovations not only provided the local library
community a window of opportunity to avail free software &
trainings but also lead them to the adoption of ICTs as their own
local facilitation tool.
Innovations and Achievements
By definition the innovation is the process of making
improvements by introducing something new, the act of
introducing something new: something newly introduced (The
American Heritage Dictionary), the introduction of something
new. (Merriam-Webster Online), a new idea, method or device.
(Merriam-Webster Online), the successful exploitation of new
ideas (Department of Trade and Industry, UK), change that
creates a
new dimension of performance Peter Drucker
(Hesselbein, 2002), A creative idea that is realized [(Frans
Johansson)] (Harvard Business School Press, 2004). According
to the various types of innovation including product innovation,
process innovation, radical innovation, incremental innovation,
disruptive information and sustaining innovation the PakLAGs
achievements can be mostly described as product innovations
under the incremental category which are sustaining in nature.
All these innovations are mainly end-user driven as the Paklag
team members are actual users of these products and services. So
the traditional gap between the user-needs and development was
bridged-up in a natural way.
LIMS: The Most adopted Library
Management Software in the country
With the discontinuation of LAMP’s further development and
support mechanism, PakLAG team developed Library
Information & Management System (LIMS) and distributed free
of cost through its website. This MS-Access based software got a
warm welcome from the small to medium sized libraries. More
than 100 libraries of different types (including many university
libraries) have reported the adoption of LIMS so far, which is
higher than adoptions of all other library software collectively.
The LIMS facilitates integrated Cataloguing, Circulation,
Searching and Reports Printing functions through its simple and
user friendly interface.
Multilingual Web OPAC
By using the open source technologies i.e. Java Server Pages,
Tomcat, MySQL and LIMS, Pakistan’s first multilingual web
OPAC was developed and deplyed free of cost. This application
provides simple and advance search facilities in English, Urdu,
Pashto and Sidhi languages. The Punjab University College of
Information Technology Lahore, Bahria University Islamabad
and COMSATS Institute of Information Technology Islamabad
are among the prominent implementations of the PakLAG’s web
OPAC software.
Data Converters
Up to the year 2000, most of the computerizes libraries in
Pakistan using DOS based LAMP software were willing to
migrate to the Windows based GUI applications but retrospective
conversion was a big problem. PakLAG developed data
conversion software facilitated the conversion of CDS-ISIS &
LAMP’s ISO file data in to the MS-Access format. The data in
MS Access provided the flexibility of data migration to any other
application easily. The same data is easily convertible to marc
format through the MarcEdit Program. The multilingual UTF8
data is not properly entertained by MySql ODBC connector.
PakLAG experts provided the solution through the development
of another converter. With the free distribution of the converters
PakLAG provided free training and implementation assistance to
the willing libraries. University of the Punjab Lahore was helped
in the conversion of their 60,000 plus ISIS records. The MarcEdit
lead developer Mr. Terry Reis was provided inputs by our experts
about the software’s erroneous behavior in the conversion of
Urdu data in to the MARC format. Based on these inputs, version
56 of the software has been improved in the said area.
LOC Gateway and Zebra Server
LOC Gateway to Library Catalogs is the largest global single
search interface to the OPACs of 520 libraries from all parts of
the world. The Zebra Server/Index Data is an open source which
facilitates the powerful searching through this LOC gateway
Z39.50. One examples of its superior capability is the ‘Phrase-
Searching’ which is not even provided by some of the costly off-
the-shelf software. Being a free tool it is underutilized as
compared to its capability to handle billions of records efficiently
as well as data visibility needs and resource constraints of third
world countries’ libraries.
Out of 520 only 15 libraries are using Zebra Server and most of
the libraries are using off-the-shelf solutions for their connection
to the LOC gateway. Eleven out of the total fifteen worldwide
Zebra Based OPACs are from Pakistan, and the ten OPACs were
implemented along with staff training by PakLAG volunteers
with out charging a single penny from the respective
organizations.
1
st
. mailing list of LIS professionals
PakLAG Electronic mailing list was first in the LIS profession in
Pakistan which promoted the communication among the library
community. More than 1500 professionals from across the
country and Pakistani library professionals abroad are active
members to the discussion group and 3600 plus messages have
been communicated so far. The list proved to be an effective
forum for knowledge sharing, ICTs promotion, social networking
and in the revival of PLA.
Online Directory of Professionals and Online
LIS Newsletter
Online directory of library professionals as well as the Pak LIS
Newsletter online are among the initiatives of PakLAG taken first
time in the country. Both the Directory and Newsletter played a
vital role in the resource sharing and experience sharing among
the scattered library community. Following the PakLAG other
professionally active groups and organizations started their own
online services.
Training of ICTs and Indexing & Retrieval Tools
PakLAG team has not only been engaged in the development of
innovative solutions but also explored the potential of open
source software for effective information management and
retrieval. Later the same was shared with other interested
professionals through the no-profit-no-loss based training
programs. National Workshop on Greenstone Digital Library
Software, Zebra Server, MarcEdit and EndNote were conducted
first time in the country from the PakLAG platform.
PakLAG Koha
Koha ILS has been ranked on the top among the Opensource
ILSs. More than 140 libraries are using Koha worldwide.
Surprisingly the majority of this free software are the libraries of
the countries with greater GDP and per capita income. Europe is
the main user of Koha followed by the North America. In South
Asian nations, India is on the top with 12 implementations,
followed by Pakistan 02, Sri Lanka 02, and Bangladesh only one,
reported implementation.
Libraries and Information Centres in these resource constrained
economies have no options other than the Opensource
technologies to develop their libraries and to support the
research and reading culture for the uplift of their societies. But
the need of localization of these technologies is one of the major
obstacles of their adoption in the non-English-speaking
communities. Language barrier in not only blocking the access to
information but also hindering the ICTs literacy in these already
have-nots of the globe.
PakLAG accepted the challenge by starting the localization of
Koha. In the first phase six regional languages, Urdu, Arabic,
Farsi, Sindhi, Pashto and Sariki have been enabled so far.
PakLAG Koha is the unique flavor of Koha which allows these
languages data uploading, searching, marc record import, export
and offers virtual keyboards for all of them. Capacity building of
librarians through trainings and continuous support will enable
the libraries in fast adoption of Koha in Pakistan without
increasing the financial burden on the tax-payer. Through the
Koha’s powerful features Pakistani society will embrace the new
library era and afresh image of the information profession.
Virtual National Library of Pakistani
languages Publications
Under the ViNLPL project the bibliographic data of publications
published in or about Pakistan and in Pakistani languages is
being collected from the publishers. This marc data will be
available online for searching and marc records import. After the
initial launching of ViNLPL the main local publishers will be
given login/password for data entry of fresh publications.
National bibliographic control, standardization, efficient retrieval
and promotion of local literature especially of the regional
languages are main objectives of this project.
References
Khan, M. A. (2004). Pakistan Library Automation Group: A
review of achievements (Editorial). Pak-LIS News, 4 (2).
Available at: http://www.paklag.org/news/News0402.html#ed
Mahmood, K. (1996). Promoting information technology in
Pakistan: The Netherlands Library Development Project.
Information Development, 12, 96-100.
Mahmood, K. (2001). Pakistan Library Automation Group
(Editorial). Pak-LIS News, 1 (2). Available at:
http://www.paklag.org/news/newsarchive/news0102.htm#ed
Mahmood, K. (2002). Competencies needed for future academic
librarians in Pakistan. Education for Information, 20, 27-43.
Ramzan, M. (2002). Utilization levels and librarians’ attitudes
towards information technology (IT) applications in academic
and research libraries in Pakistan. Unpublished doctoral
dissertation, St. George University International.
http://en.vikipeadia.org//wiki/innovation.htm
http://www.koha.org/showcase/
