LAHORE: More than 6,000 schools and colleges of Punjab will soon have digital libraries, initially to be set up in the computer labs of these institutions.

Education minister Rana Mashhood Khan announced this at the inaugural session of three-day International Conference on Information Management and Libraries, organised at Punjab University`s Dr Pervaiz Hassan Environmental Law Auditorium here on Wednesday.

The government, the minister said, would start `E-Learn Punjab`programme as it was the era of l
`Unfortunately, we could not pay attention to the libraries. The government is planning to establish a vast network of libraries and there will be no area in Punjab without a library,` he said.

He lauded Punjab University for being the first in Asia and third in the world for starting teaching library sciences 100 years ago.

Earlier, PU Vice-Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran said internet had made access to information very easy and that`s why the subject of library and information management had gained importance.

In her keynote speech on`Information and library services in a connected world,` Prof Dr Sanda Elederz from the US said information environment had changed which had created new challenges. She said the behavior to get information had also changed.

She said that development in information communication technology storage and applications was growing remarkably and had become a challenge for information management field. She said libraries needed to change from local perspectives to a more connected perspective.

Dr Elederz regretted that public libraries were also facing shortageof funds.

PU Department of Information Management chairperson Prof Dr Kanwal Ameen said more than 500 participants from Asia, Middle East, Europe and USA were participating in the conference.

She said as many as 80 authors would contribute 57 presentations, including three key note speeches, 13 invited papers, 15 full papers, nine short papers, seven best practices and 10 short presentations during three days of conference.

She said the contributors were library professionals, educators, researchers, students and decision makers.