Congeniality of workplace environment for female library and information professionals in the higher education sector

Libraries as a workplace have been studied internationally (Farler & Preston, 2012; Ocholla, 2002; Oud, 2008). From the local perspective, the only study concerning the workplace issues of libraries is by Yousaf, Tariq, and Soroya (2013), which was limited to the managerial problems faced by female librarians working at the University of the Punjab. Hence, this study is one of its nature. The study aimed to investigate the libraries' congeniality as a workplace for female Library and Information professionals (LIPs). The conceptual framework adopted the two aspects of workplace environment: i) Human, ii) and Organizational. In terms of the human environment, manager's support, relationship with colleagues, and informal communication at work, while in terms of organizational environment, workplace empowerment, workplace equality, and physical works spaces were studied. The study's population includes female LIPs who have 16 years of relevant education and are working in the libraries of HEC recognized higher education institutions of Punjab province. The explanatory-sequential mixed-method research design was considered suitable due to the sensitive nature of the topic. For the quantitative strand, the researcher utilized a survey research method based on a self-constructed questionnaire. The quantitative results highlighted that female LIPs were satisfied with the human environment at their workplaces. Participants appreciated their immediate managers' role and support in terms of respect, feedback, task allocation, and approachability. They recognized colleagues' role and informal communication in making their workplace congenial and comfortable by establishing a positive relationship with supervisors, colleagues, or subordinates at the workplace. Participants were satisfied with the ergonomic workspace provided by their organizations. Participants appreciated that their workplace gave them enough empowerment to perform, and they found no specific inequalities at their workplaces. However, some open-ended comments reveal that females face leg-pulling, favoritism, male colleagues' indecent behavior, and managers' critical behavior at the workplace, inequalities based on personal relations with a supervisor. For qualitative data, interviews were conducted with the outlier cases, and data analysis is in process. The findings may help in sensitizing the management and authorities to control the environment at workplaces as this study brings into light the prevailing working environment for females

Open Access Resources as an Opportunity for Academic Libraries during Pandemic: A Study

The purpose of this study is to identify the benefits of open access resources for academic libraries with a special reference to an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic. The study has also highlighted the role of libraries and librarians in the provision of services during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same way, the second purpose was to highlight the efforts of HEC and high ranked university libraries during a pandemic to cater to the needs of their users. The authors used two methods for completing this study, literature review and website analysis. The first two objectives were studied based on the literature review. The second method was the website’s analysis of major academic libraries of Pakistan to identify the steps taken during the pandemic to facilitate the users. The results of the study show that academic libraries used open access resources to support the research activities of their parent institute. The major purpose of using open access includes the fiscal constraints, time involved in getting the fee-based copies of journals and articles, budget cuts by parent institutes, and less involvement of authorities towards libraries. The website’s analysis shows that academic institutes were highlighting the open-access resources on their websites to fulfill users’ and researchers’ information needs with the resources they can access in homes or in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study helps to view the status of digital services offered by highly ranked university libraries in Pakistan in pandemic when physical services are closed. It also helps library administrations to use open access resources for the provision of services in emergencies when campus-based resources cannot be shared. The study was limited to the benefits of open access resources for academic libraries and in terms, university selection as only the top 5 university libraries were selected for review

Impact of Parental Involvement on Achievement Score of Students at Elementary Level

The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of parental involvement on the achievement score of elementary-level students. Parental involvement was the independent variable and the achievement scores of students were the dependent variable. Whereas, demographic variables like school status, SES, and parents’ qualifications were also important. This study was comparative in nature and all elementary-level schools were taken as population. Elementary campuses of boys and girls were conveniently selected from the public sector in Faisalabad and taken as accessible population. From this accessible population, a sample of 376 students (307 male and 69 female) were drawn who have passed the elementary exams. Demographic sheets, copies of elementary result cards, and questionnaires were collected in order to find out the impact of parental involvement on the achievement scores of students at the elementary level. Descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation, frequency) was employed along with ANOVA, and t-test for data analysis. Keeping in view the results taken from Punjab Examination Commission, significant differences between the academic performance of the children belonging to the businessmen class and the job holders’ class were noticed. Further, it was also determined from the dished-out results that the difference in academic achievement level is significant when more involvement of parents was there

Open Access Resources as an Opportunity for Academic Libraries during Pandemic: A Study

The purpose of this study is to identify the benefits of open access resources for academic libraries with a special reference to an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic. The study has also highlighted the role of libraries and librarians in the provision of services during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the same way, the second purpose was to highlight the efforts of HEC and high ranked university libraries during a pandemic to cater to the needs of their users. The authors used two methods for completing this study, literature review and website analysis. The first two objectives were studied based on the literature review. The second method was the website’s analysis of major academic libraries of Pakistan to identify the steps taken during the pandemic to facilitate the users. The results of the study show that academic libraries used open access resources to support the research activities of their parent institute. The major purpose of using open access includes the fiscal constraints, time involved in getting the fee-based copies of journals and articles, budget cuts by parent institutes, and less involvement of authorities towards libraries. The website’s analysis shows that academic institutes were highlighting the open-access resources on their websites to fulfill users’ and researchers’ information needs with the resources they can access in homes or in isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study helps to view the status of digital services offered by highly ranked university libraries in Pakistan in pandemic when physical services are closed. It also helps library administrations to use open access resources for the provision of services in emergencies when campus-based resources cannot be shared. The study was limited to the benefits of open access resources for academic libraries and in terms, university selection as only the top 5 university libraries were selected for review

Open Government Data: Initiatives, Challenges, and Myths

The study has been carried out to identify the open data initiatives taken by different governments. The study also incorporated the benefits and challenges and myths of open data applications. It is a qualitative study based on the review of already published literature. Literature was searched from scholarly databases by using multiple keywords. Articles were selected based on relevance to the topic. The UK, US, Maldova, Pakistan, and Fingal Country Catalog cases have been elaborated. The challenges include technical, legal, organizational, managerial, financial, methodological, and conceptual issues. The myths of open data include; 1) All information should be unrestrictedly publicized, 2) It is a matter of merely publishing public data, 3) Every constituent can make use of open data, 4) Open data will result in open government. It will help report already taken initiatives and encountered challenges to better tackle initiatives taken by novice organizations. The organizations planning to adopt linked and open data technologies can overview issues and challenges and benefit from the best practices. This study is one of its kind as assembling open data technologies based on evidence from the literature is not presented before the current study

Toxicological Evaluation of Essential Oils from Some Plants of Rutaceae Family

Essential oils are produced as secondary metabolites by aromatic plants, predominantly belonging to families Apiaceae, Lamiaceae, Myrtaceae, and Rutaceae. The family Rutaceae has great economic importance for its numerous edible fruits and essential oils. In the present study, essential oils of seven plants of family Rutaceae, Aegle marmelos, Murraya koenigii, Citrus reticulata Blanco, Zanthoxylum armatum, Skimmia laureola, Murraya paniculata, and Boenninghausenia albiflora, were used for their toxicological assessment. Seven groups of selected essential oils-treated Wistar rats were established against control group (n=5) that received water for 14 days; animals were offered feed and water ad libitum and treated with essential oils at 400 mg/kg body weight. Hematological studies revealed significant elevation in TEC in animals treated with essential oils of M. koenigii, S. laureola, and B. albiflora, while an elevation in PCV and depletion in MCV were observed in animals treated with M. paniculata and B. albiflora, respectively. Serological investigations demonstrated significant depletion in triglycerides and elevation in blood sodium level in animals treated with essential oils of A. marmelos and C. reticulata Blanco. Boenninghausenia albiflora affected many markers including RBC, MCV, triglycerides, HDL, LDL, urea, and sodium. In conclusion, all oils except B. albiflora can be considered safe for internal use

Toxicological Evaluation of Essential Oils from Some Plants of Rutaceae Family

Essential oils are produced as secondary metabolites by aromatic plants, predominantly belonging to families Apiaceae, Lamiaceae, Myrtaceae, and Rutaceae. The family Rutaceae has great economic importance for its numerous edible fruits and essential oils. In the present study, essential oils of seven plants of family Rutaceae, Aegle marmelos, Murraya koenigii, Citrus reticulata Blanco, Zanthoxylum armatum, Skimmia laureola, Murraya paniculata, and Boenninghausenia albiflora, were used for their toxicological assessment. Seven groups of selected essential oils-treated Wistar rats were established against control group (n=5) that received water for 14 days; animals were offered feed and water ad libitum and treated with essential oils at 400 mg/kg body weight. Hematological studies revealed significant elevation in TEC in animals treated with essential oils of M. koenigii, S. laureola, and B. albiflora, while an elevation in PCV and depletion in MCV were observed in animals treated with M. paniculata and B. albiflora, respectively. Serological investigations demonstrated significant depletion in triglycerides and elevation in blood sodium level in animals treated with essential oils of A. marmelos and C. reticulata Blanco. Boenninghausenia albiflora affected many markers including RBC, MCV, triglycerides, HDL, LDL, urea, and sodium. In conclusion, all oils except B. albiflora can be considered safe for internal use