Analysis of training initiatives undertaken for professional development of library professionals in Pakistan

This study has investigated the training initiatives undertaken for professional development of library professionals by different organizations in Pakistan to increase their competence to make them responsive to needs of library users and aggressively fulfill the needs of digital age. Pakistan Library and Automation Group (PakLAG) and Pakistan Library Cooperation Group (LIBCOOP) were used to collect data about the training initiatives uploaded for maximizing participation and sharing reports of initiatives for their knowledge. The messages were searched from these groups from year January, 2009 to 31 December 2013 on yearly basis and all the relevant messages were copied and pasted in a word document. Afterwards these messages were perused online again for checking of duplication and extracting contents of these messages. The content analysis methodology was applied and data was coded and entered in different columns in Microsoft Excel. Simple statistical techniques and sort and filter option in Microsoft Excel was used to analyze data. This study found that most of the training were held at Punjab and Islamabad. Reasonable training were conducted in Sindh and KP but no training has ever been conducted in Baluchistan. The frequency of training initiatives reveals that library automation, role of ICT in libraries, qualitative research, research skills, open source software, web searching skills and use of digital resources are key areas of training initiatives in Pakistan