HEC Digital Library, Pakistan: An Integrated Information Source for University Students in Pakistan

Introduction: The HEC National Digital Library (DL) provides access to international scholarly literature, based on online electronic delivery, to researchers within public and private universities and non-profit research and development organizations in Pakistan. The HEC provides access to high quality, peer-reviewed journals, databases, articles and e-Books across a wide range of disciplines, i.e. Medical Sciences, Computer Science, & Engineering. The e-books support programme will allow researchers to access most of the important text and reference books electronically in a variety of subject areas. Purpose: The HEC digital library service began in Feb 2004. Through this program, currently 188 recognized Pakistan universities provide access to 29 world renowned databases of various subjects, to 10000 plus researcher and faculty members. The HEC DL Library provides a proactive role in the dissemination of quality information and knowledge to students, faculty, researchers and academic support staff. The purpose of this poster is to introduce the service and facilities of the HEC Digital Library national program to the world’s largest library forum, i.e. through IFLA. Impact of HEC DL Programme. The following are some of the major impacts of the HEC Digital Library: • Cost free access to renowned databases for undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate programs. • Savings in institutional budgets for cost of databases subscriptions. • Equal opportunity to students to access the information. • Research productivity rapidly improved since its establishment. Conclusion: Under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #4, Pakistan’s HEC Digital Library plays a vital role in higher education in the dissemination of information and quality literature. It is the biggest resource sharing network of Higher Education Institutions within Pakistan.