Haider, Part 3
Prof. Dr. Abdul Moid (1920–1984) [7]
Dr. Moid was in fact the Melvil Dewey of Pakistan in terms of founding the first library school and the national library association. The institution of a graduate program within the walls of a university as early as 1956 should not be viewed as an ordinary achievement of the man, for he had to face obstacles of all kinds in this regard. It was not easy to convince the academic community of the need for such a program in a little known discipline at a newly established university which was already under pressure to institute courses in traditional subjects of vital national interest. In fact, the qualified librarians coming out from the Department each year shaped the direction of library development in the country. Of these, particular mention could be made of Dr. Anis Khurshid, Dr. Syed Jalal Haider, Prof. Akhter Hanif, M. Adil Usmani, Dr. Ghaniul Akram, Dr. Mumtaz A. Anwar, Abdul Hafeez Akhter, Dr. A.R. Butt, Dr. Fazil Baloch, Dr. Khawaja Iftikhar, and Meer Hassan Jamali.
Born in India on 20 January 1920, Moid received his B.A. degree from Aligarh Muslim University (1941), his M.A. from the University of Michigan (1955) and his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois (1964). The topic of his dissertation, which he completed under the supervision of Professor R.B. Downs, was Urdu Language Resources in the United States of America. Of his teachers, mention could be made of luminaries like Maulana Abdul Aziz Memon (Aligarh), Professor Gjelsness (Michigan), and Professor R.B. Downs (Illinois). He was personally known to S.R. Ranganathan, Sir Frank Francis and Dr. Ralph R. Shaw.
He worked in a number of libraries both in India and Pakistan, including Arabic College (Delhi), Delhi University, Punjab Public Library (Lahore), Sindh University and Karachi University, of which he was the founding librarian where he played a key role in building it as the largest library of the post–independence period. From 1973 to 1983 he taught at Ahmadu Bello University (Zaria) and Bayero University (Kano) where he established the Library and Information Science (LIS) Department and headed the University Library. He also taught at North Texas State University as a visiting professor during the summer of 1967.
Professor Moid was also instrumental in the formation of the Pakistan Library Association and had the honor of being elected its founding secretary–general. The greatest contribution of Moid as secretary–general of the association was the organization of its first annual conference. This historic conference was inaugurated on 8 January 1958 by no less a person than the president of the country, and it proved to be a great success in spreading the message of library service and the cult of books in the country. Some of the resolutions adopted at the conference dealt with the need for planning of library services, easing restrictions on the import of books and journals, establishment of library schools at the universities, amendment of the Copyright Law, etc. [8] Moid tried his best to project the Association both at the national and international level. He was also associated in various capacities with the country’s other professional bodies, such as the Society for the Promotion and Improvement of Libraries, the Karachi Library Association and the Pakistan Bibliographical Working Group.
He represented Pakistan at several international forums, including the Organizing Conference of the Asian Federation of Library Associations, Tokyo (1957) and the International Association of Orientalist Librarians.
Moid was not a prolific writer but he did contribute thirty articles to professional journals [9]. His article on “Illumination” in the Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science deserves special mention. Among his publications are: A Guide to Works of Reference Published in Pakistan, A Guide to Periodical Publications and Newspapers of Pakistan, Directory of Libraries, etc. [10] He was a member of the Advisory Board of International Library Review and the Journal of Library History in their formative stages.
Muhammad Shafi (1895–1964)
Muhammad Shafi is a pioneer for being the first person to expand the Dewey Decimal Classification for Oriental and Islamic topics. This expansion is still being used by libraries in Pakistan and elsewhere. The history of this pioneering work dates back to pre–independence days when Muhammad Shafi was appointed convener of the special committee formed by the Indian Library Association, as early as 1935, “to draw up a standard scheme of expansion of DDC to meet the need of Indian libraries.” [11] This work was completed by Muhammad Shafi in 1960 with the assistance of a committee under the auspices of the Department of Library Science at the University of Karachi [12]. In fact, this expansion, known as Shafi’s Expansion of DDC, served as a guideline for other expansions of DDC in the country. His expansion was partially accepted by the DDC Editorial Committee but unfortunately, his name didn’t appear in the introduction to the seventeenth edition of the Scheme [13].
Born and brought up in Amritsar, Shafi graduated from the University of the Punjab. In 1921 Muhammad Shafi entered into the service of the Government of India. In the following year he was appointed as an assistant librarian of the Imperial Secretariat Library, Delhi. In 1923 he joined the Lucknow University Library as an assistant librarian, where he stayed for about seven years. This library played a key role in the professional career of Muhammad Shafi, for the library itself was in its formative phase. In 1930 Muhammad Shafi was appointed librarian of the Imperial Agriculture Research Library. Muhammad Shafi was selected in 1944 as Junior Scientific Officer, Master–General of the Ordnance Branch, General Headquarters, India.
Shafi was one of the few librarians of pre–independence British India who opted to serve the newly created Pakistan. In the post–independence period he served as the librarian of the National Assembly Library from 1947 to 1958. He took an active part in the formation of the Karachi Library Association and was its Vice–President for more than a decade. It was under his direction that the Association started a certificate course, the first of its kind, to meet the immediate needs of qualified manpower in this sector in the country. Of the librarians who passed this course mention may be made of Dr. Anis Khurshid and Adil Usmani. Of the teachers of this course mention could be made of Dr. A. Moid, S.V. Hussain, Noor Muhammad and Muhammad Shafi himself. In fact, this course paved the way for the institution of the first post–graduate program at the University of Karachi.
He was a founding member of both the Indian Library Association and the Pakistan Library Association. Of his publications one in particular is Intizam Kutub–Khana (Library Administration) [14]. This was the first book on the subject after independence.
Muhammad Shafi was also associated with the Department of Library Science, University of Karachi as cooperative teacher for at least eight years. From 1960 to 1964 he worked as a consultant on classification at the Karachi University Library. He died of cancer on 2 June 1964 in Karachi.