Challenges in Information Technology Adoption in Pakistani University Libraries

1. Introduction and Literature Review

Adoption of Information technology (IT) is considered mandatory incontemporary librarianship. The American Library Association (1983) has defined information technology (IT) as “the application of computers and other technologies to the acquisition, organization, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information”. Its use has opened new avenues in the modern library world but at the same time has caused some challenges. The nature of these challenges varies from continent to continent, region to region, country to country, sector to sector and organization to organization. Proliferation of new technologies opens a number of challenges for higher institutions of learning (Onyekwelu, 1999). According to Butler and Sellbom (2002) many factors affect the rate of adoption, including characteristics of innovations and various economic, sociological, organizational, and psychological variables. Peres, Muller, and Mahajan (2010) stated that innovation diffusion of a new technology is “the process of the market penetration of new products and services that is driven by social influences, which include all interdependencies among consumers that affect various market players with or without their explicit knowledge”.

Mulimila (2000) stated that lack of funds and lack of trained human resources in IT remained the most critical obstacles in the application of information technology in East African governmentowned university libraries. Engstrom (2001) stated financial difficulties as a big problem, especially for the University of Costa Rica. The library was in constant need of more computers and other equipment. Nyamboga and Kemparaju (2002) cited that the high cost of acquiring IT equipment, cost of maintenance of IT equipments, constant breakdown of IT equipment, improper handling of IT equipment, lack of network facilities, cost of staff training, lack of user interest and insufficient funds were the obstacles in deploying IT in university libraries of Karnataka.

According to Ramana and Rao (2003), the highest ranked issues in implementing IT in Central University Libraries in India were inadequate financial resources, lack of well‐accepted standard software and non‐availability of IT trained human resources. Chandrakar (2003) discussed the challenges and problems faced by university libraries in India in developing automated bibliographic databases. He also described the role of INFLIBNET in supporting university library automation activities in the country. Badu (2004) found a lack of personnel skilled in IT applications, inadequate IT infrastructure and intermitted electric power cuts as the major barriers to the successful implementation of IT in university libraries of Ghana.

Younis (2005) identified a lack of IT skilled staff, insufficient funding, and a lack of hardware as the main barriers in utilizing online information sources and services. Outdated databases, cost, and user incompetence were other problems preventing the optimal use of online systems. Serious efforts were needed to overcome these problems, and to ensure that Jordanian university libraries kept their place in the information age. Ani, Esin, and Edem (2005) had also found that inadequate funds and the lack of trained personnel in IT were the major problems in adoption of ICT in university libraries of Nigeria.

Oduwole (2005) mentioned the high cost of maintenance of the TINLIB software as the major constrain to the use of software for cataloguing in twenty-two federal and state university libraries, while other constraints included poor computer literacy on the part of the librarians, continual power‐cuts and a lack of infrastructures. Ghanaian university libraries were facing problems in introducing automation such as apathy on the part of university and library management; a lack of funds; the lack of IT expertise in human resources; a lack of training for staff; frequent break downs of computers and the Internet; an inadequate number of computers and a lack of good maintenance (Amekuedee, 2005).

Raza and Nath (2007) identified inadequate financial assistance, non‐availability of experienced personnel, a lack of IT policy, low priority given to libraries and the non‐availability of consultancy services as the significant problems being faced by university libraries of Punjab, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh for IT applications.

Pakistani LIS literature indicates that adoption of new technology started in the late 1960s and, since 1990, has been the main focus of the LIS profession in the country (Haider, 2003). According to Mirza and Mahmood (2014) a vast majority of Pakistani university libraries have initiated IT service.

Riaz (1990) (as cited in Mahmood, 1997) described the problems faced by Pakistani libraries in automating their operations and services. She singled out computer illiteracy, lack of proper planning, unavailability of library software, retrospective conversion, lack of standards and quality control, the bureaucratic set‐up and lack of technical expertise as major barriers. Anwar (1993) stated that libraries in Pakistan had faced many problems in automating their functions, but lack of computer literacy among librarians, the bureaucratic administration, lack of cooperation in experience sharing and lack of standards were the main problems. Ramzan (2004) stated the lack of an adequate budget, standard library software, and IT literate human resources, as well as bureaucratic management attitudes as the major obstacles that hindered the promotion and development of information technology in Pakistani libraries. Qutab, Bhatti, and Ullah (2014) identified a lack of funding as a major challenge in adoption of ICT among the public and private university libraries of the Federal area and Punjab province. These studies have identified problems faced by libraries in IT adoption on small scales but this research, for the first time, has explored this phenomena at a national level with a focus on public and private sector’s universities of Pakistan.

2. Research Objectives

• ⅰ. To identify the problems faced by university libraries of Pakistan in using information technology.
• ⅱ. To propose implications to resolve the problems for effective use of IT in Pakistani university libraries.

3. Methodology

To solve the research problem, a combination of quantitative and qualitative research method was used. To collect quantitative data, a questionnaire comprised on 19 statements about problems in IT Applications was delivered to theChief/head librarians of 82 public and private sector’s university libraries of the country through email/surface mail/by hand. Respondents were requested to give their opinion on a five point Likert Scale from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Fifty six libraries responded to the questionnaire; four questionnaires were excluded due to incomplete information. The valid response rate was 63.41%.

Qualitative data was collected by conducting interviews of 51 LIS professionals and faculty members having expertise in library automation. They were requested to identity the problems being faced by the university libraries in implementing IT and to provide suggestions to resolve the problems for effective use of IT in Pakistani university libraries.

The interviewees were from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, Bahawalpur, Jamshoro and Quetta. Recorded interviews were transcribed for analysis.

To check the scale’s reliability, the researcher calculated Cronbach’s alpha coefficient through SPSS software. Cronbach’s alpha is the most famous and commonly used coefficient. The researcher examined the internal reliability of the variables. Calculations showed a high internal consistency and reliability (i.e. 0.96,) because Cronbach alpha (Cronbach, 1951) coefficients for the variables were adequately greater than the value of 0.65.

The collected data was analyzed by SPSS 16 software to calculate descriptive statistics.

4. Delimitation and Limitations

In this study information technology (IT) means “the application of computers and other technologies to the acquisition, organization, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of information” (American Library Association, 1983).

In spite of utmost efforts literature about a few counties i.e., Costa Rica, Nigeria, Ghana, India, and Jordon was retrieved and reviewed to understand the problem in international context.

5. Results

5.1 Questionnaire Survey

Descriptive statistics presented in Table 1has ranked the problems faced by university libraries in IT adoption on the basis of mean value. The median value i.e., 4 showed the agreement of the respondents regarding the statements (ranked at1‐16 and 18) as a problem in the adoption of IT.

Table 1.

Problems in Information Technology Adoption

6. Discussion

The analysis of both the questionnaire survey and interviews disclosed that ‘lack of training opportunities for LIS professionals’ and ‘lack of IT skills among the majority of LIS professionals’ are major challenges in adaptation of IT. Both these statements show that lack of IT knowledge has affected technology adoption in the university libraries of Pakistan. Rogers (2003) Innovation‐Decision Process Model stated knowledge as a first stage of innovation adoption. He stated that at the first stage potential adopters find out about an innovation and gain a basic understanding of what it is and how it works. Anwar (1993) also pointed out ‘lack of computer literacy among librarians’ as a hindrance in library automation. In the questionnaire survey, the respondents listed “Interrupted power supply” as the second major problem. This result verifies the Badu (2004) study in which he identified intermittent electric power cuts as the major barriers in the successful implementation of information technology in university libraries of Ghana. Oduwole (2005) has also included continual power‐cuts as a challenge in effective use of technology in the university libraries. According to analysis of interviews, one third of the interviewees stated that ‘lack of sufficient funds’ is a barrier in the use of IT”. The studies conducted by Mulimila (2000), Younis (2005), Engstrom (2001), Ani, Esin, and Edem (2005), Amekuedee (2005), Nyamboga and Kemparaju (2002), Ramana and Rao (2003), Raza and Nath (2007), Ramzan (2004), and Qutab, Bhatti, and Ullah (2014) have also found ‘lack of funding’ among major problems in the use of information technology in the libraries of the higher education sector. The analysis of interviews has found the ‘lack of visionary and competent leadership’ as a major obstacle in implementing technology in library services in university libraries of Pakistan, whereas the questionnaire survey ranked ‘lack of IT expertise among library users’ a third major barrier in utilizing IT in Pakistani university libraries.

7. Implications

In the light of the results and the above discussion, the following implications are proposed to address challenges faced by Pakistani university libraries for effective use and adoption of IT in their resources and services:

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