Medical libraries are fundamental and essential to the practice of
health care, medical education and research.
 A medical library is unique in terms of holdings, budget, services and
functions.
 Medical librarianship has been very slow to emerge as a distinct
branch of the LIS profession. Literature on Pakistan Medical
Librarianship not only shows the strength and development of such a
distinct profession but also helpful for policy and decision maker.
 When Pakistan came into being, there were three medical/dental
libraries, namely;

›
›
›
1. King Edward Medical College Library Lahore, (Estb. 1860)
2. De’Montmorency College of Dentistry Library, Lahore (Estb. 1904) and
3. Dow Medical College Library, Karachi (Estb. 1945).
Now there are more than 100 medical colleges / universities
in Pakistan with well stocked libraries.
 Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Center Library Karachi is the
premier medical library (Estb. 1958). Its foundation was laid
by American Medical Librarian Mrs. Eileem R Cunningham.

Alan Pritchard coins the term bibliometrics in
1969, previously known as statistical
bibliography. It is quantitative research method
applied to physically published items related to
library and information science (Hertzel, 2003).
 Harrod’s Librarians’ Glossary and Reference
Book (2005) describes bibliometrics as
“application of statistics and mathematics to the
study of the use made of books and other
media within and between library systems.”


The aim of this study is to review the
literature and apply bibliometrics method on
the published/unpublished material of
Pakistan Medical Librarianship from 1947 to
Aug 2013. Researcher prepared first ever
index on the literature of Pakistan Medical
Librarianship and this paper is based on this
index.
The objectives of this study are:
 To organize the scattered literature on
Pakistan medical librarianship and present
its statistical and bibliographical results.
 To highlight period wise distribution, author’s
contribution, affiliated institute, geographical
identity, type of items, journals and area of
research interest etc.
Data on Pakistani medical librarianship was
collected from various sources, e.g. Internet,
various bibliographies, indexes and the
references cited at the end of articles.
 Author of this paper utmost tried to cover most
of the items on targeted subject, it might be a
chance that some items have been missed.
 The traditional method of bibliometrics was
used for this study, based on quantitative
approach and employs essential formula of
statistics like percentage and frequency
distribution.

Number of national and
international studies
have been carried out
on bibliometrics.
 Four international and
nine national studies
have been used in
literature review.

1.
Article in English Language
57
Article in Urdu Language
03
Book Reviews
03
Thesis in English Language,
including 2 M.Phil thesis
20
Thesis in Urdu Language
06
Thesis in Sindhi Language
03
Conference
Papers
Published Conference Papers
10
Unpublished Conference Papers
04
4.
Books
Books
02
02 1.83%
5.
Book Chapter
Book Chapter
01
01 0.91%
2.
3.
Published
Article
Theses
Total 109
63 57.79%
29 26.60%
14 12.84%
100%
Period
Articles
1947-1959
Theses
Conf
papers Books
Book
Chapter
Total
Percentage
No item of Medical Librarianship in Pakistan traced
1960-1969
05
04
04
13
11.92%
1970-1979
02
05
-
07
6.42%
1980-1989
09
05
01
01
16
14.67%
1990-1999
17
05
01
01
25
22.93%
2000- 2009
19
08
04
31
28.44%
02 M Phil
04
17
15.59%
29
14
109
100%
2010 to Aug 11
2013
63
02
01
01
Period
National
International
1947-1959
0
0
1960-1969
12
1
1970-1979
07
0
1980-1989
14
2
1990-1999
24
1
2000- 2009
2010 to Aug 2013
25
12
6
5
94
15
Period
PU
1960-1969
1970-1979
1
1980-1989
1990-1999
1
2000- 2009 1
KU
2
2
1
3
Dacca UoS
Uni
2
IUB BU AIOU
Others
04
2
05
3
1*
1
1
2
1
05
2
1**
2010 to Aug 2
M.Phil
2013
Total
5
05
08
02
10
2
5
1
2
2
2
29
Journal Name
Items
produced
Pakistan Library Bulletin (BLB) Now Pakistan
Library and Information Science Journal (PLISJ)
31
Health Libraries Review (HLR) Now Health Information and
Libraries Journal (HILJ)
Journal of Pakistan Medical Association (JPMA)
Pakistan Library Association Journal (PLAJ)
Rawal Medical Journal (RMJ)
Bulletin of Medical Library Association (BMLA) Now Journal of
Medical Library Association (JMLA)
Pakistan Armed Forces Medical Journal (PAFMJ)
Pakistan Journal of Library and Information Science (PJLIS)
PULSAA News
Education and Information
Eastern Librarian
International Library Review (ILR)
Pakistan Journal of Medical Research (PJMR)
Pakistan Library Review (PLR)
5
4
4
4
3
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
63
Male Authors
Female Authors
Not Known
Total Authors
66
17
4
87
75.86%
19.54%
4.59%
100%
Authorship Pattern
Single Author
2 Authors
3 Authors
More than three
81
16
11
1
109
74.31%
14.67%
10.09%
0.91%
100%
Area
Karachi
Lahore
Rawalpindi (6), Islamabad (6)
Jamshoro
Bahawalpur
Peshawar
Quetta
Bengal (East Pakistan)
Faisalabad
Qty
34
18
12
5
3
2
2
2
1
Foreign Author’s Geographical Association
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)
UK
USA
France
Canada
4
2
2
1
1
S.No
Author
Association
No of
Articles
1
Midrar-Ullah
PhD Scholar University of the Punjab and
Librarian Army Medical College (NUST)
Rawalpindi
14
2
Azra Qureshi
Aga Khan University Karachi
08
3
Shakil Ahmed Khalil
06
4
Moinuddin Khan
King Saud Bin Abdul Aziz University for Health
Sciences, KSA
Aga Khan University Karachi
5
Zakiuddin Ahmed
Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Institute
04
6
Sain Muhammad Malik
Khyber Medical College Peshawar
04
7
Haq, Ikramul
Armed Forces Post Graduate Medical Institute
Rawalpindi
04
8
Syed Ahmed Naqvi
Ziauddin Medical University Karachi
03
9
Syed Attaullah Shah
Aga Khan University Karachi
03
10
Army Medical College
03
12
Idress Farooq Butt (Medical
Doctor)
Naeem A. Jafarey (Editor)
Doctor & Editor and Medical Journalist
03
13
Shoukat Sultana Imam
Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Institute Karachi
03
14
Muhammad Khurshid Alam
Aga Khan University Karachi
03
05
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
Information Communication Technologies
Medical Librarianship, Medical Library Services
Case Study
Survey
Competencies – Medical Librarians
Medical Education
Resource Sharing
Citation Analysis
User’s Satisfaction
Bibliography & Union Catalogue
Information Needs, Information Seeking Behaviour
Medical Information, Medical Information Retrieval
Medical Library Standards
Human Resources
Information Resources
Accuracy of References
Acquisition
Bibliometrics Study
Collection Development
Biography – Eileen R Cunningham
Library Legislation
Management of Electronic Resources
18
13
12
10
5
5
5
4
4
3
3
3
3
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
We can increase the growth of research
productivity by conducting continuing
professional development session especially in
research methodology.
 Legislation for National Library of Medicine,
resource-sharing and better service structure
can also motivate the young professional to
carry out research.
 Strong and active medical library association is
necessary to develop research culture by
organizing conferences and workshops.

Bibliometrics analysis of related literature
shows
that
Information
Communication
Technologies is getting top priority in writing
because of changing scenario of librarianship.
It is evident that our library community is fully
aware of rapidly increasing, dynamic and
complex situation of medical sciences and
ready to face the challenges. The literature of
medical sciences is elevating, however, more
efforts are required to produce quality research
of international standard.