Dr Ghani-ul-Akram Sabzwari regrets lack of support from library professionals

By Abdul Qadir Qureshi
(Pakistan News & Features Services)

Prof Dr Ghani-ul-Akram Sabzwari, one of the founding fathers of library and information science in Pakistan, has voiced his concern once more at the lack of support of fellow professionals to the cause of the profession itself.

“Local reference publications are usually purchased by librarians for their reference services as well as for their clientele. Our professional librarians have not been purchasing the reference books of the profession even for their own libraries. However, a few foreign libraries have been purchasing our books on a regular basis,” the Founder President of the Library Promotion Bureau (LPB) and the Founding Chief Editor of the Pakistan Library and Information Science Journal (PLISJ), observed in the editorial of the latest issue of the quarterly journal. 

“The LPB, founded in 1966, has published more than 70 books on the subject of Library and Information Science on self help basis. Despite the unfavourable attitude of fellow librarians and LIS faculties, we have continued publishing books as far as our monetary situation permitted,” Prof Dr Ghani-ul-Akram Sabzwari remarked. 

“We had started publishing our quarterly journal (PLISJ) in 1968 for our professional researchers, LIS faculties and students. By the Grace of God, a huge number of scholars have contributed their research papers which were published in the journal, recognized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) and also indexed by EBSCO,” he added. 

In his editorial, Prof Dr Ghani-ul-Akram Sabzwari has also advised the worthy subscribers of the PLISJ to renew their subscriptions for the 2019 at the earliest since the quarterly journal was being published under extreme financial stress.