LAHORE: (Wednesday, November 11, 2015): Punjab Education Minister Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan has said that the government would establish digital libraries in the computer labs already set up in more than 6 thousand schools and colleges so that maximum people could get access to the information world. He was addressing the inaugural session of 3-day Int’l Conference on “Information Management and Libraries” organized by Punjab University Department of Information Management at PU Dr Pervaiz Hassan Environmental Law Auditorium here on Wednesday. PU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran, Professor from USA Dr Sanda Elederz, Chairperson Department of Information Management Prof Dr Kanwal Ameen, faculty members, librarians and a large number of students were present on the occasion.

Addressing the ceremony, Mr Rana Mashhood said that the Punjab government was starting “E-Learn Punjab” as it was the era of knowledge-based economy. He said that unfortunately, we could not pay attention to the libraries as nation. He said that the government was planning to establish a vast network of libraries and there would be no any territory in Punjab where there was no library. He said that the government was trying to improve all levels of primary to higher education and technical and vocational education.

He said that Punjab University had improved manifold under the leadership of Vice Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran and because of his initiatives, PU would move forward and get the best place in the world. He said that it was remarkable that Punjab University was the first in Asia and third in the world which started formal education of library sciences 100 years ago. Addressing the ceremony, Dr Mujahid Kamran said that the invention of internet had made access of people to information very easy and that’s why the subject of library and information management had gained importance. In her keynote speech on “information and library services in connected world,” Prof Dr Sanda Elederz said that information environment had changed which had created new challenges. She said that the behavior to get information had also changed. She stressed that development in information communication technology storage and applications was growing remarkable and had become a challenge to information management field. She urged that libraries needed to change from local perspectives to a more connected perspective. She said that public libraries were also facing shortage of funds.

Addressing the ceremony, Dr Kanwal Amin said more than 500 participants from Asia, Middle East, Europe and USA participating in the conference. She said that eighty authors would contribute 57 presentations including 3 key note speeches, 13 invited papers, 15 full papers, 9 short papers, 7 best practices and 10 short presentations (PechaKuchas) during three days of conference. She said the contributors were library professionals, educators, researchers, students and decision makers. Briefing about recent developments in the Department of Information Management, she thanked PU VC Dr Mujahid Kamran for his moral and financial support and said that positive changes could not happen without his encouragement. The conference would continue till Friday and Federal Minister for Defence Production Rana Tanvir Hussain would be chief guest in the concluding ceremony.