An exploratory prioritization of factors affecting current state of information security in Pakistani university libraries

Abstract

Ever since the increased use of the internet in higher education, libraries have started mass digitisation programs to make their intellectual resources available on the World Wide Web. From the year 2000 onward, Pakistani universities’ libraries have been active in this mass digitisation projects. The purpose of this paper is to examine the data and information security measures taken by university libraries to safeguard the intellectual assets of their respective organisations. Researchers adopted a quantitative approach to conduct this study. Data were collected from 190 professional librarians around the country. The findings of the study revealed that majority of libraries are lagging in standardised measures to secure digital resources. It is hoped that the present study will help in suggesting appropriate standards of data and information security within universities’ libraries. Results can also be replicated in other developing countries to investigate data and information security in libraries.