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March 25, 2007
Books and their keepers
Librarians are often thought to be as boring creatures with thick glasses perched on their nose who make life miserable for students.
Dr Syed Jalal Haider dispels the myth.
THE profession of librarianship as an independent discipline and a career was conceived more than 90 years go in this part of the world. In 1915, the first training class for librarians was conducted by Asa Don Dickinson, an American librarian, at the University of the Punjab. It was a short certificate course and open to everyone who wished to adopt librarianship as a career. In fact, this was the first course of its kind outside USA. The course continued with some changes till independence.
However, training facilities for library workers were virtually non-existent when Pakistan came into being. This situation continued for years, though some library associations, including the Karachi Library Associations, tried to initiate certificate courses. It was in 1956 that a new force came into play with the inception of a post-graduate diploma course at the University of Karachi, later followed by other universities. At present, there are eight universities in the country, offering post-graduate education in this discipline, leading to MA and MPhil/PhD degrees. Library science is also offered as an optional course at the BA level by the universities of Karachi and Punjab. The certificate course is offered by the Pakistan Bibliographical Working Group.
Library schools in Pakistan have always been criticised by employers for not producing manpower of quality. The specific charges leveled include: low entrance criteria, low intellectual content curricula, theoretical course work without practical application, absence of PhD faculty members, dominance of traditional teaching methods, dearth of reading materials, poor library and laboratory facilities.
Ideal and real
Like other teaching departments, library schools too, wish to attract bright students. They seek students who have real interest in entering librarianship as a career. Unfortunately, the ideal student is a myth when it comes to library sciences. In reality, students are admitted who are not suited for librarianship. Often, they have been rejected by other institutions/departments and as a last resort, they opt for library science.
Curriculum revision
One major problem with the library education programme is the curriculum. The intellectual content of the course has not kept pace with the demands of the profession. It is said that library education in the country still sticks to the traditional curriculum and is not adequate for providing a sound knowledge of theory and practice of modern information handling and information activities. Of all the problems mentioned in this regard, the following must be considered: (1) an imbalance between theoretical and practical courses; (2) insufficient emphasis on computer and media courses; (3) content of the courses as shown in the syllabi often do not match that which is actually taught; (4) lack of balance between local and global aspects of librarianship; and (5) absence of feedback from experts.
Faculty
In the initial years of library education, the faculty was primarily composed of part-time teachers who were men of distinction in the field. As leading practitioners, they commanded respect both from the profession and academic community at large. Gradually, the part-time faculty was replaced by full-time teaching staff, mostly graduates of American library schools. Big names were retained as adjunct professors. However, this ideal situation didn’t last long, owing to immigration of a large number of professionals to the oil-rich countries of the Middle East and Africa, which offered lucrative job opportunities. The library schools could not escape this exodus and, thus, they never recovered from this colossal loss.
The present faculty is composed mostly of local graduates. The majority of teachers even lack international exposure despite their 20-25 years of teaching experience. More importantly, there is a scarcity of teachers, possessing research degrees. Out of about 50 teachers in the country only four hold PhD degrees (two from UK and two from Pakistan) The absence of PhDs did not allow for appointment on senior positions, resulting in an absence of genuine leadership. At present, only three library schools are led by professionally qualified chairpersons.
In the absence of competent faculty in terms of qualification, professional experience, etc., it can be concluded that both teaching and research has suffered badly. Honestly speaking, we are not keeping pace with the global environment, especially when it comes to research.
Teaching methods
The teaching methodology is characterised by traditional classroom lectures, despite the availability of new technology. In some rare cases, lectures are well-organised and followed by discussions. The method of delivering the lecture is supported by practical work in courses, which aims at developing skills and techniques. It appears, however, somewhat ridiculous that our library school faculties are not familiar with library practices. Under such circumstances, the education given to students lack realism.
Visits and field trips are organised with the intention of providing students the opportunity to observe working libraries. Unfortunately, such visits are made without any previous preparations and result in picnic-cum-sight-seeing, rather than education-cum-study-tours. Class discussion and short reports are also used by some innovative faculty members. No effort seems to have been made to use other methods (such as field studies, case studies, role playing and simulation exercises) to expose students to developments in the field and to prepare them for tackling problems that they may face once they start working.
In fact, the teaching competency of many library school faculties has often been called into question, which can be observed in the teaching of courses on library automation and research methodology. Strangely enough, students are just theoretically introduced to the basics without its practical application. This is evident in the outline of the courses.
Resources and facilities
In terms of physical facilities, all library schools occupy reasonably adequate quarters. The library facility varies from place to place. A separate departmental library is maintained throughout. The size of the departmental library varies from a few hundred books to a thousand or more. The departmental library lacks proper organisation. Current journals are not subscribed. To some extent, this problem has been solved by HEC’s digital library. The absence of access to current indexing and abstracting services has been observed too.
All library schools maintain some kind of computer laboratories, where six to 10 computers have been provided. They are not networked and are different in make and models. Observations show that this facility is seldom used for instruction purposes. This could be attributed to the absence of computer literacy on the part of majority of teachers. It is heartening to note that some recently employed teachers have started making use of new technology in their teaching.
MPhil and PhD programmes
Like many other disciplines, there is lack of research in library and information science as well. During the last 50 years of library education in the country, only five PhD and two MPhil degrees were awarded. This sad situation is attributed to lack of funding, dearth of material and, above all, absence of encouragement on the part of senior faculty members. Honestly speaking, the existing library schools lack research culture. It is heartening to note that the University of the Punjab has instituted an MPhil programe leading to PhD in 2005. The University of Sindh is planning to start such a programme from the next academic year. But other universities are handicapped and cannot launch such a programme for want of PhD faculty members. Unfortunately, no efforts seem to have been directed in this regard.
Thus, there is an urgent need on the part of individual universities and the HEC for finding solutions to these problems in order to save this discipline from further decay.
The writer is former chairperson of the Department of Library and Information Sciences, University of Karachi
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