The history of compilation of bibliography and index in Pakistan dates back to 1949. The first individual attempt was made by an eminent bibliographer Mr. A. R. Ghani. He compiled a comprehensive bibliography entitled “Pakistan: a select bibliography” published by the Association for the Advancement of Science in 1952. The bibliography contained 900 references to books, reports, government publications and periodical articles published in English on Pakistan.

    The Pakistan Bibliographical Working Group (PBWG) emerged in May 1950 on the recommendation of the International Conference on the Improvement of Bibliographical Sources, convened by the UNESCO in 1950 held at Paris. Mr. Fazal Elahi represented Pakistan in this conference. In fact the Group has the distinction of being the first professional organization to be formed at the national level, with the support of the UNESCO and on the enforcement of the government of Pakistan.

    The Group has a number of important bibliographies and indexes to its credit by library stalwarts like Prof. Dr. Abdul Moid, Fazal Elahi, S. V. Hussain and Akhtar H. Siddiqui. The Group published “A Guide to Works of Reference Published in Pakistan” and “A Guide to Periodicals and Newspapers of Pakistan”, both were published in 1953 with the assistance of UNESCO. Another important source published by the Group was “Union Catalogue of Periodicals in Social Sciences: held by the libraries in Pakistan” compiled by Fazal Elahi and Akhtar H. Siddiqui.

    The most significant contribution of the Group in the development and promotion of bibliographical activities in the country is the compilation of “Retrospective National Bibliography of Pakistan” covering the period from 1947 to 1961. In recent years the Group has published an index of an important professional journal entitled “Cumulative Index of Pakistan Library Review (PLR): 1958-1969” compiled by R. A. Samdani.

    The Department of Library and Information Science, University of Karachi has also contributed and played an important role in development of bibliographies and indexes. The department has published some important indexes on library literature.

    Indexing of periodical articles is a very painstaking job. Commercially these types of publications are not profitable. Commercial publishers in Pakistan do not take any interest in publishing bibliographies and indexes. An attempt has been made by the individuals in compilation of bibliographical sources. Some indexes of periodicals published in Pakistan are as under:

1959   Anis Khurshid
            Ten Years Work in Librarianship: 1947-1957. Karachi: Department of Library Science,
            University of Karachi, 20p.

1965  Anis Khurshid
            Fifteen Years’ Work in Librarianship: 1947-1962/ by Anis Khurshid and Syed
            Irshad Ali. Karachi: Department of Library Science, University of Karachi, 65p.

1974   Khurshid, Zahiruddin
            Ten Years’ Work in Librarianship in Pakistan: 1963-1972. Karachi: Department of
            Library Science, University of Karachi, 214p.

1979   Nasim Fatima
            Subject Index of Pakistan Library Bulletin: 1968-1978. Pakistan Library Bulletin.
            X (3): Sept. 1979.

1983   Khurshid, Zahiruddin
            Ten Years Work in Librarianship in Pakistan: 1973-1982. Karachi: Mahmood Khan,
            138p.

1985   Nasim Fatima
            Subject Index of Pakistan Library Bulletin: 1968-1984. Pakistan Library Bulletin.
            XVI (1): March 1985.

1992   Irshad Ali, Syed
            Library Literature Produced in Pakistan: 1983-1990. Islamabad: Pakistan Library
            Association (Federal Branch), 135p.

1996    Samdani, Rais Ahmed
             Index of Pakistan Library Bulletin: 1968-1994. Karachi: Library Promotion Bureau,
             115p.

1996   Khalid Mahmood
            Subject Index of PLA Journal (1960-1995). PLA Journal. No.18: 77-105.

1997   Khalid Mahmood
            Subject Index of PULSAA News/ by Khalid Mahmood, Ayesha Mahmood and
            Asmaria Akram. PULSAA News. 9 (1-4): 33-64, January-December 1996.

1998   Samdani, Rais Ahmed
            Cumulative Index of Pakistan Library Review. Karachi: Library Promotion Bureau,
            40p.

PROFESSIONAL JOURNALS

    Library periodicals are the basic vehicle of communication for writers and researchers in the discipline. They play an effective role in promotion and development of libraries as well as library profession. The history of professional library journals in Pakistan goes back to December 1949, when the periodical MODERN LIBRARIAN was revived from Lahore. It was published under the editorship of an eminent librarian, Fazal Elahi with the assistance of Prof. Dr. Abdul Moid, the father of librarianship in Pakistan. The journal was continued for one year (1949-1950) only.

    The Pakistan Library Review (PLR) saw the light of day in March 1958. It was published from March 1958 to September 1969. During eleven years only eleven issues were published. When even this was a quarterly publication. During the span of eleven years 109 articles were published in this journal. Pakistan Library Association published PLA Journal in July 1960 from Karachi. In all, 25 issues and 193 articles were published so far from July 1960 to December 1997.

     Men are dominating in every field of life and activity. This domination is much more pronounced in a developing society. This study indicates that during fifty years men wrote 1018 articles while women wrote only 145. The female contribution is only 12.47%, while male contribution is 87.53%.

PURPOSE

     The indexes published prior to this work are covering some particular period or a particular journal. The present index is a comprehensive one and covers the period of 50 years from 1947 to December 1997.It also covers all professional journals published in Pakistan.

     This index may serve as a reference source and guide to librarians, writers, scholars, students and teachers of library and information science. The index will give an overall picture of the library literature produced in Pakistan during the span of fifty years from the dawn of Pakistan (1947) to 1997. This index, therefore, is the only subject bibliography in Pakistan which is so complete and so up to date.

ARRANGEMENT

     This is a subject and author index. Entries are arranged in one alphabetical order according to the Library of Congress Filing Rules. Under each author and subject titles of articles are arranged alphabetically by the first word of the title. Subject headings are assigned in accordance with “Library Literature” with some changes to suit the national requirements. Bibliographic entries are on the pattern of Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules-2 (AACR-2), as well as IFLA’s recommendations for adoption of International Standard Bibliographic Description (ISBD), and IFLA’s document entitled ‘Name of Persons’ national usage’s in cataloguing.

     Complete title of the articles with sub-title (if any) is entered. Language is indicated in parenthesis if other than English, e.g. (Urdu). Name of the journal is given in full. The volume and issue number are mentioned as they appear on the title page, e.g. 1 (1). Date of publication of the issue is mentioned as ‘Mar. 1957’. Page numbers are indicated in Arabic numerals as they appear in the issue. In case of editorial, title or subject of the editorial (if any) is mentioned followed by (Editorial) in the parenthesis.

     The word ‘about’ indicates that the article mentioned after the preparation is related to and is written about the author who’s entry or entries are given above, e.g.

ABDUL MOID
    Cataloguing Practice: Some Problems and Suggestions. Pakistan Library Review, 3 (1): 15-20,
    Mar. 1961.
    About
    Introducing Abdul Moid. Pakistan Library Review, 1 (1): 52-53, Mar. 1958.

CONCLUSION

     A dearth of professional journals continues in Pakistan and the professionalism is not even in its infancy in the country. Most of the journals packed up not only because of financial straits but also for want of regular writers/contributors and many managerial skills of the publishers. Pakistan Library Bulletin has over a period of time recorded the changing scenario. It is the only professional journal being published regularly and timely since 1968. PLA Journal and PULSAA News are also being published and alive. Other journals were published from time to time but have since gone into oblivion.

     This index of library literature covers the period from the dawn of independence (14th August 1947) to December 1997. It brings together all periodical literature published during the period. It covers 13 periodicals including two newsletters. About 1163 articles including editorials are indexed. News having not value for researchers have not been indexed. Book reviews and letters to the editors have also been ignored.

     Before concluding we are highly obliged to Prof. Dr. Syed Jalaluddin Haider, for writing an eloquent foreword for this index.