Library resources in Pakistan: Progress, problems, and achievements

Anis Khurshid

Abstract: Updates the author’s earlier surveys and offers historical comparisons. Considers all types of libraries in each province or region. At present there are 6,034 libraries in the country, holding 13,354,500 volumes. The most satisfying development has been in university libraries, which now provide 44 books per student. In the city of Punjab are found the largest of the nation’s public libraries and the largest university library. A landmark activity of recent years has been the distribution of 4,373 “box libraries” to the villages. School libraries have been grossly neglected, and the author notes this as a major problem to be dealt with by government and the library profession. There is also need for a mechanism to clarify and update library statistics. Coordinated, cooperative collection development is called for to avoid a decline in library progress.

 Background

Pakistan, a federal Islamic republic in South Asia, was established on 14 August 1947. Divided into four provinces — Balochistan, Punjab, Sindh, and Rawalpindi/Islamabad and federally administered areas, it has a population of 110,358,000 (estimated 1989) spread over 796,095 square kilometers. There are about 28,913,800 literates, or 26.2 percent (based on the 1981 census). Seventy percent of the population lives in rural areas.

Although a young country, Pakistan shares the 5,000–year history of the Indo–Pakistan sub–continent. Bibliothecally as well, Pakistan has had a rich heritage. Some of today’s leading libraries were founded in the nineteenth century: Karachi Metropolitan City Library (1851), King Edward Medical College Library, Lahore (1860), Government College Library, Lahore (1864), Punjab Public Library, Lahore (1864), Punjab University Library (founded 1882, opened 1906), and the Civil Secretariat Library, Lahore (1885). The Dayal Singh Trust Library, Lahore, was founded in 1908/1910.

All but one of those early libraries are in the province of Punjab, whose city of Lahore is known as the cradle of the Indian library movement. In 1918 the government of India designated the Punjab Public Library as the Central Library of Northwest India for “inter–circle library purposes”; this function was assumed by the Library in 1929 [1].

It is also interesting that the Punjab University Library was larger, in 1938, than the older Bombay University Library (founded 1857, opened 1879). Indeed in 1938 only four of the nine university libraries in India had larger book collections than Punjab University [2]. Similarly, the Punjab Public Library with 97,400 volumes was larger than any in India except for the Imperial Library, Calcutta (1902) which held 340,000 volumes. The Calcutta Library became the National Library of India.

Lahore also had two college libraries of importance in 1938: Forman Christian College (1866; 32,000 volumes) and Government College (1864; 22,200 volumes); they were somewhat smaller than two of the three other college libraries in India. No special library in Lahore, however, could match the Library of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (1804), which had developed a rich collection of 100,000 volumes by 1938.

At the time of the partition of the sub–continent in 1947, these were the principal libraries of Lahore: Punjab University Library, 105,300 volumes and 15,000 manuscripts; Punjab Public Library, 82,500 volumes; and, Dayal Singh Trust Library, 40,000 volumes. The collection of the Public Library was 14,900 volumes smaller than it had been in 1938, because of the riots in the city that caused damage to libraries and because many persons migrating to India failed to return borrowed materials.

 Resource surveys and their problems

A census of library resources identifies strengths and weaknesses, and serves as the basis for national planning and cooperative collection development. It may also lead to improved bibliographic accessibility of the country’s resources on a global basis. But such surveys, essential as they are, require massive, time–consuming efforts in collecting, verifying, and analyzing data. There are problems of incomplete data, and of incorrect reporting at times. And there appear to be notable variations in the figures for a given library as one examines various sources. All data, therefore, need careful verification before they can be used.

The present author’s first diagnostic study of Pakistan’s library resources (1974–78) [3] requires updating, and that is the task of this paper. (The earlier study updated the first useful attempt to assess the country’s library resources, a survey made in 1958, revised in 1974 [4]; it had excluded college libraries and thus produced an incomplete picture.) In all such studies, the researcher must depend on libraries to supply information. In the present author’s 1982 report, data were reported for the 563 responding libraries, but some readers have taken that number to be the total number of Pakistani libraries. The author made another survey in 1984, aiming at greater comprehensiveness [5]. The results are summarized in Table 1:

In the case of special libraries, the 1974 figures are given. A recent publication of the Federal Bureau of Statistics unfortunately offers incorrect data, showing only 109 public and 337 academic libraries with 3.4 million volumes, a considerable understatement of the situation [6].

Tables 2 and 3 update the 1984 figures on the basis of information collected from local and specialized directories, plus the list of public libraries issued by the Directorate General of Public Libraries, Punjab (1988), and that compiled by Shaukat Hussain (Islamabad, 1986) [7]. The present situation appears in summary form in Table 2, and in detail in Table 3:

 Progress

As pointed out earlier, the riots resulting out of the partition of the sub–continent had caused important losses in certain libraries, especially the Punjab Public Library, which was reduced from 97,400 volumes to 82.500 volumes in 1947. Pakistan was facing serious internal and external problems at the time, and librarianship was one of the victims. The spirited Punjab Library Association became defunct; the distinguished journal Modern Librarian ceased publication. Asa Don Dickinson’s pioneering library school had to close, but only temporarily. And two years after the partition, the profession lost is dynamic leader, Khan Bahadur K.M. Asadullah, founder Secretary of the Indian Library Association and Librarian of the Imperial Library in Calcutta; he died on 23 November 1949. In Pakistan the library movement had to start over; and it was obstructed in doing so by national authorities who had no clear concept of libraries and subjected them to neglect [8].

The government nevertheless did produce an education plan (“Six Year National Plan of Educational Development for Pakistan, 1951–57”) in which all types of libraries were considered; however they were all treated as “public libraries.” Only 23 of these so–called libraries were reported in the entire country.

In 1956 there was a better survey of library facilities, undertaken by consultant L.C. Key [9]. Key reported that the Punjab University Library had grown by 44,700 volumes since independence to 150,000 volumes; the Punjab Public Library had grown by 32,500 volumes in those nine years, to 115,000 volumes; and the Government College Library (Lahore) had increased by 27,800 volumes over an 18–year period, to 50,000 volumes. The average annual volume increase varied, after independence, from about 5,000 volumes in the Punjab University Library to 3,600 volumes in Punjab Public Library, and about 1,000 volumes per year in the College library.

 University libraries

Three universities that were founded after independence had collections between 15,000 and 30,000 volumes. At Sindh (1948) and Peshawar (1952) there were about 15,000 volumes; at Karachi (1952), 30,000. The historical figures are in Table 4 [10]:

It would thus appear that collection development in university libraries has been systematic and consistent almost all through the period of Pakistan’s progress and growth as an independent country. Present resources provide 44 books per student, compared with 38.4 books per student in 1973. The student population increased from about 49,500 in 1983–84 to 65,300 in 1987–88 — just over 75 percent in four years. Bookstock grew about 85 percent in the same period, from 2,476,400 to 2,899,400 volumes. Of the 22 current universities, six have passed the six–figure mark in collection size; they also rank among the top ten libraries of the country: University of Punjab, 310,000 volumes and 255,400 manuscripts; University of Karachi, 255,4000 volumes; University of Peshawar, 200,000 volumes.

Of the 22 current universities, six have passed the six–figure mark in collection size; they also rank among the top ten libraries of the country: University of Punjab, 310,000 volumes and 255,400 manuscripts; University of Karachi, 255,4000 volumes; University of Peshawar, 200,000 volumes; Quaid–e–Azam University, Islamabad (founded 1965), 150,000 volumes; University of Sindh, Hyderbad (founded 1949), 137,800 volumes; Agricultural University, Faisalabad (founded 1961), 116,000 volumes; University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore (founded 1961), 115,000 volumes.

It may also be mentioned here that the University of the Punjab is not only the country’s biggest library but also the fourth in size among all libraries in Muslim Asia [11]. Despite impressive advances, Pakistani university libraries remain far fewer in number and in volumes held than their Indian counterparts; there were 140 university libraries in India in the mid–1980’s, with 12,536,000 volumes [12]. And it is interesting that the Dhaka University, Bangladesh, has overtaken Punjab University in collection size: it has reached 400,000 volumes with 30,000 manuscripts [13].

 Public libraries

With 215,000 volumes the Punjab Public Library is the largest of public libraries, and the country’s third library in size. (It does not compare well with India’s principal public library at Delhi, where the holdings amount to 803,500 volumes.) The next largest public library is the Dayal Singh Trust Library in Lahore, with 122,700 volumes; followed by the Liaquat Memorial Library in Karachi, with 120,900 volumes. A distressing element in the public library situation is the delayed opening of the new National Library, and the relatively small collection (80,000) it will offer in its grand building in Islamabad.

Rapid collection growth has marked the first years of the Quaid–e–Azam Library, Lahore, which opened in 1984 in the beautiful gardens of Bagh–e–Jinnah. In six years the collection has reached 68,000 volumes.

Public library development has been greatly enhanced through the establishment of the Punjab Public Library Foundation in 1985. To date the Foundation has distributed some 35 million rupees (US$ 1.00=Rs 21.73) to municipal libraries for book purchase and related expenditures. Punjab’s public libraries have increased in number, over the last five years, from 79 to 181. Their collections have grown from 789,500 to 1,286,900 volumes in the same period [14].

Overall public library progress in Pakistan is summarized in Table 5:

The 1974 decline resulted from the closing of a chain of reading rooms set up after 1959.

A landmark development, not reflected in the above statistics, has been the distribution of 4,373 “box libraries” to the villages. Books in these small, catalogued collections are in local languages, and relate to local needs. The box libraries — with a total bookstock of more than a million book — are well–publicized and popular among the rural population, which constitutes about 70 percent of the nation’s people. Table 1 includes box library statistics.

 College libraries

According to 1987–88 data, there are 680 colleges, including professional colleges, in the country. Of that total, 435 were included in the latest survey and in Table 1. Notable examples are the King Edward Medical College, Lahore (founded 1860; collection 42,200 volumes); Government College, Lahore (1864; 91,000 volumes); Forman Christian College, Lahore (1866; 67,000 volumes); College of Veterinary Sciences, Lahore (formerly Punjab Veterinary College; 1882; 30,000 volumes); D.J. Sindh Government Science College, Karachi (1887; 35,000 volumes); and Government Gordon College, Rawalpindi (1898; 55,000 volumes). All of these except the D.J. Sindh Government College are in Punjab.

Many of the colleges have old, rich holdings. For example there is a major collection of Indian fiction (about 8,000 volumes) in the D.J. Sindh Government Science College, which also has important holdings in Gujrati, Hindi, Marathi, and Sanskrit.

College library statistics for the institutions surveyed are in Table 6:

The 1989 bookstock of the colleges accounts for 27.3 percent of the country’s total collections, if one includes the “box libraries” in the calculations.

 Special libraries

These libraries concentrate in the subject literatures of their respective organizations. They may have relatively few books, but considerable holdings in reports and journals. A good example is the Library of the Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology, Nellore (founded 1968); it contains only 16,000 books, but has more than 330,000 technical reports and 275 current periodicals. Two unique libraries in Karachi are the Pakistan Standards Institution (919,000 items) and the Patent Office (25,000 items).

Special libraries, by and large, are of post–independence origin. With the expansion of industry in the 1950’s and 1960’s they achieved rapid growth. In 1974 there were 178 special libraries with 1,368,000 volumes (23.1 percent of all the volumes in Pakistan); by 1989 there were 331 libraries, with 2,557,500 volumes (19.1 percent of the volumes in the country). Academic libraries in special subject areas are not included in these statistics. The largest single special library is the one in the State Bank of Pakistan, Karachi; it has accumulated 75,000 volumes since its inception in 1948.

 School and other libraries

School libraries have been grossly neglected. In 1974 there were only eight of them, all in the interior of Sindh. By 1984 the number had increased to 343, with book holdings of 690,500 [15]. The 1989 survey reported 464 school libraries, with 905,400 volumes. In part this apparent growth in numbers is due to better reporting; for instance 110 school libraries in Sindh were included in the 1989 report because they were listed in a 1976 survey [16]. All the school libraries are at secondary level. Even those schools that do have libraries frequently keep their books in locked cases in dark corridors. Indeed all the data on school libraries need further investigation.

 Geographical distribution of library resources

Punjab, the country’s largest political administrative unit, is also the major resource centre for libraries; 40 percent of the nation’s book holdings are there, and the greatest number of libraries. In all the provinces, present resources have more than doubled since 1974. Table 7 displays the geographical distribution of resources.

 Urbanization of library resources

Urban areas account for most of the bookstock, although the introduction of box libraries has brought a million volumes into the rural sectors. Indeed more than half the total book holdings are found in the three growing capital cities, although the percent has declined slightly, as shown in Table 8.

School, box, and polytechnic libraries have been excluded from the figures above in order to offer more meaningful comparisons. It may be noted that the one city of Lahore has 22.1 percent of the nation’s library books. And 275 kilometers from Lahore are the resources of the twin cities Rawalpindi–Islamabad; so that 36.6 percent of the nation’s bookstock is gathered in one sector. In the Karachi–Hyderbad area in the south there is a second concentration of libraries and materials, including the library of Karachi University, Liaquat Memorial Library, and the State Bank of Pakistan Library; there are 597,800 volumes in the two cities. Karachi was the founding capital of the new nation, but when the capital was transferred in 1960 to Rawalpindi, and then to Islamabad, the library growth rate moved with it. William V. Jackson noted the rapid library escalation in capital cities, and predicted correctly that "the growth rate of the Rawalpindi“Islamabad area will probably exceed that of Karachi and of Lahore by a considerable margin.” [17]

 Achievements

In terms of numbers alone, the progress of libraries in Pakistan has been satisfying. Bookstock has doubled since 1974; libraries have grown from 563 to 6,034 (including box libraries). The provision of books to the 70 percent rural population has been significantly enhanced. Collections in professional subjects have also become respectable: there are for example 73 agricultural libraries (620,700 volumes), 44 medical libraries (396,900 volumes), and 27 law libraries (403,600 volumes).

 Conclusion

Significant expansion of libraries in all categories, and in particular at the grassroots level, has widened accessibility to books and reading throughout the country. But now the time has come for planned and coordinated efforts at further collection development. It is also clear from this study that a mechanism needs to be established and maintained for the periodic update of library statistics, using clear and unambiguous terminology. Finally, the government and the library profession need to address the backward state of school libraries.

Pakistan has been one of the more progressive Third World countries, and it has had one of the best examples of library growth. The extent to which library resources have aided in economic development is a matter for speculation; but it is plain that the resources are available, and readily accessible in the parts of the country where major national decisions are made. A slowing of library growth cannot but act as a deterrent to the pace of national development.

 Notes

1. Ram Labhaya, “The Punjab Central Library Scheme,” Modern Librarian 3 (July 1933): 161.

2. There were 20 universities in India in 1938, but only nine were listed in the Directories of Indian Libraries (Calcutta: Indian Library Association, 1938). Hence, comparison is made only with the nine university libraries listed therein.

3. Anis Khurshid, The State of Library Resources in Pakistan. (Lahore: Student Services, 1982).

4. Akhtar H. Siddiqui, Library Development in Pakistan (Islamabad: English Book House, 1974).

5. Anis Khurshid, “Library Development in Pakistan in the Mid-1980’s,” International Library Review 18 (January 1987): 61–71.

6. Libraries Statistics in Pakistan (1980–84) (Islamabad: Federal Bureau of Statistics, 1988).

7. Agricultural Information Resources of Pakistan: I–Directory of Agricultural Libraries, 1985 (Islamabad: Directorate of Scientific and Technical Information, Pakistan Agricultural Research Council, 1985); Directory of Agricultural Libraries in Pakistan, 1986 (Islamabad: PASTC, 1986); and, Directory of Libraries Located in Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Northern Area (Islamabad: PLA, Federal Branch, 1988).

8. Anis Khurshid, “Libraries and Librarianship in Pakistan,” Libri 21 (October 1971): 201–202.

9. L.C. Key, “Report and Proposals on the Establishment and Improvement of Libraries and Library Services in Pakistan” (Karachi: Ministry of Education, 1956).

10. Anis Khurshid, “University Libraries in Pakistan,”; In: Comparative and International Librarianship, ed. P.S. Kawatra (Delhi: Sterling Publishers, 1987), p. 83.

11. Anis Khurshid, “Academic Library Resources of Muslim Asia,” in Librarianship in the Muslim World, 1984, vol. 2, ed. Anis Khurshid, et al. (Karachi: University of Karachi, Library and Information Science Department, 1985), p. 51.

12. R.K. Das Gupta, “India,” In: ALA World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services, Second ed. (Chicago: American Library Association, 1986), p. 351.

13. The World of Learning, 1989 (London: Europa Publications, 1989).

14. “Public Library Facilities in Pakistan: A Survey Report,” by the Technical Working Group, Anis Khurshid, chairman (Islamabad: Department of Libraries, 1985), pp. xlix–lv and lx–lxiii.

15. Nasim Fatima, Secondary School Library Resources and Services (Karachi: Library Promotion Bureau, 1984).

16. Institute of Sindhology, University of Sindh, “Survey of Libraries in the Province of Sindh (Excluding Karachi),” (Jamshoro: The Institute, 1979). (Processed.)

17. William V. Jackson, “Foreword,” In: Anis Khurshid, The State of Library Resources in Pakistan (Lahore: Student Services, 1982), p. xix.

About the author

Anis Khurshid is Professor of Library Science at the University of Karachi, and one of Pakistan’s most prolific scholars. He has a postgraduate degree in library science from Karachi University, a Master’s degree from Rutgers University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh. His numerous monographs and articles have dealt with cataloging, reading, library education, and library resources. Dr. Khurshid’s international activities have included UNESCO projects and the chairmanship of IFLA’s South Asia Committee.

© 1990 Anis Khurshid.