Perceptions of Academic Librarians Toward Open Source Library System (OSLS): Case Study of Pakistan

ABSTRACT

Advanced technology has brought tremendous changes in our daily lives; academic libraries are changing agents of modern technologies and experimenting with innovations for library operations. Open Source Library System (OSLS) is a computer software with free source code and a license that permits users to use, change, redistribute and improve according to their needs. The study uses a quantitative survey approach with 45 questions and a Likert-type scale. A random sample approach was used to collect data from the academic librarians in Pakistan. A survey was designed in Google Forms and shared with n = 300 librarians via personal e-mails, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp to reach a diverse community of librarians in Pakistan. N = 282 questionnaires returned with 94.33%. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 26. The result shows that the adoption rate of OSLS is still in its infancy and is slowing for many reasons, like lack of technical equipment, inadequate funds, lack of IT skills, digital resilience of Librarians and interest of stakeholders. The present study will pave the way for practitioner librarians, research scholars, stakeholders and policymakers in Pakistan and beyond.

KEYWORDS:

• Academic librarians
• digital library; academic libraries-Pakistan
• library automation
• open source library software; OSLS

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).