The speakers of international conference calls for learning modern information techniques

Lahore: The speakers of international conference on information management and libraries at Punjab University have urged the professionals to learn new technologies to cater the needs of the future learners. The participants recommended that continuing professional development programs should be held regularly by PU Department of Information Management (DoIM).

The concluding ceremony of the conference was held at Dr Pervaiz Hassan Environmental Law Auditorium here on Friday.

PU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran, Chairperson DoIM Prof Dr Kanwal Amin, delegates from Asia, Middle East, Europe, USA and all over the country with a large number of librarians, professionals and students were present on the occasion.

The participants of the conference agreed that such international research platforms should be available to young professionals in Pakistan. They said information management discipline had become internationally recognized and challenged by globally increasing information venues. The conference engaged the representative of different countries to chalk out solutions for upcoming challenges.

Addressing the ceremony, PU VC Dr Mujahid Kamran said that the university administration had promoted the culture of holding international conferences and three international conferences were being held in the month of November. He said that the university administration had allocated Rs 65 million for participation of teachers in the international conferences and last year, 145 teachers were sent abroad to attend conferences which had enhanced their research capacities. He said that the DoIM had progressed in the recent past and had established international connections. He said that the energy of the participants had made the conference successful.

Addressing the ceremony, Dr Kanwal Ameen said that young students and local professionals had exchanged experiences with international experts through the courtesy of this conference. She said that quality research papers have been presented in the conference and all the participants have learnt a lot from different perspectives. She said that the contributors presented their papers on education, information seeking, information literacy, management, ICT, Big data, Scientometrics, Makerspaces in libraries, E-books and library services. She thanked PU VC Dr Mujahid Kamran for his support. It is pertinent to mention here that DoIm is celebrating 100 years of leadership in library and information management education in Asia this year.

This conference is a highlight of the 100 years celebrations and the general theme of the conference is “Looking Back, Moving Forward”.  More than 500 participants from Asia, Middle East, Europe and USA were in attendance. Eighty authors contributed 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.