Problems and Challenges in the field of Library and Information Science/ Information Management Regarding Research
Higher education commission (HEC) recognized institutions should prepare students for effective, extraordinary and competitive research that should be viewed as an invention of involvement in a serious research experience. As Ahmadian (2018) said ‘University needs a research scholar who is well experienced during the process of research not only for the study but also for contemporary life’.
Nowadays the field of Library and information science/ Information Management is faced with various problems relating to research arena in Pakistan, which require thinking, studying and researching to be solved. As long as the basic issues of the discipline are not determined, it is a thought that “doing research would be somehow a waste of time and resources”. One of the problems that should be taken from the studies is that, many of the studies in the field of library and information science/ Information Management are not that much effective and not according to the needs and problems of the time. Most studies in the field of library and information science, especially graduate dissertations, “problem making” was used instead of “problem-solving” (Diani, 2008).
Other challenges in the field of Library and information science/ Information Management include weaknesses in the pertinency of research, research findings/suggestions are rarely used practically in the libraries for the development of its services. Moreover, problems were found from the published studies lack of attention to research priorities, motivation, encouragement from the supervisors. There is a of proper guideline from the research supervisor to the research scholars. More specially is to give the importance of research, finance and time spent on doing it and it impact on the development of the discipline. It is quite difficult to carry out new and applied research compatible to the needs of the researchers, learning and training session of research can meet the challenges of the newly researchers.
A good number of global and local studies have been done in library and information science/ information management. To give the importance of the subject of research, field of library and information science/information management requires to move towards the well-knowing of research. The lack of motivational expert in field and financial resources as well as the main barriers for conducting effective research. If these barriers are determined accurately and properly, it will provide more possibilities for conducting appropriate research, and consequently, the results of the research will be used more effectively and more efficiently.
Previous studies showed that the weakness of the research motivation is due to the role of supervisors, the lack of cooperation of participants and the failure to send PhD. students to leave at the time of dissertation. Doing the research basically requires teamwork and utilization of the expertise of each member. The members of a research team barely collaborate with each other and this requires the improvement of group work in the research. So, it is necessary to focus on research topics of currents issues in the field of library and information science/information management, head of departments addressed the university’s authority for financial resources for their research purpose as well and most important supervisor’s behavior must be polite and cooperative with researchers.
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About Author
Fakhra Khalid Naseem is the librarian at Quaid-e-Azam Law College, Sargodha, Pakistan. She was also Visiting Lecturer at Department of Information Management, University of Sargodha, Sargodha Pakistan. She has completed her M. Phil. in Library and Information Sciences from the same department. Her research focuses on Knowledge Sharing and job Satisfaction of Librarians.
Contact through: fakhrakhalid033@gmail.com