Khalid Mahmood (academic)

Khalid Mahmood (Urdu: خالد محمود) is a professor of information management at the University of the Punjab (2005--)., He has been the president of Pakistan Library Association (PLA) (session 2012–2013). He is the most prolific and the most cited author in the field of library and information science in Pakistan. Between September 2013 and June 2016 Dr. Khalid has also been working for University of Dammam, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a professor at Deanship of Library Affairs.

Mahmood was born and brought up in Sharaqpur, Sheikhupura District of the Punjab province of Pakistan on 10 April 1966 to parents of Muslim agricultural Arain caste.

Mahmood did his masters (1989) and PhD (2004) in Library and Information Science (LIS) from the University of the Punjab, Lahore. He also did Masters in Islamic Studies and Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the same university. He completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Library Management from Haagse Hogeschool, Netherlands in 1996, and a Higher Education Commission (HEC) sponsored post-doctoral research with Professor John V. Richardson at the Department of Information Studies, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), USA (2010–2011).

His first position was a college librarian at the Education Department, Government of Punjab (1989 to 1991) and then as a librarian at Quaid-e-Azam Library, Lahore (1991 to 1993). He joined the Department of Library and Information Science, University of the Punjab in 1993 as a lecturer. He was selected as an Associate Professor and then Professor in 2005. He has been the Chairman of the Department (2006–2009). He has been a visiting faculty at Institute of Communication Studies, Hailey College of Commerce, Department of Special Education, Department of Political Science and Department of Economics, University of the Punjab, University of Management and Technology, Minhaj International University, Lahore Leads University and Institute of Management Sciences, Lahore and taught at the PhD and master levels. He has been the instructor for CDS/ISIS, LAMP and library automation at Pakistan Library Association Computer Training Center, Lahore since June 1993 and has conducted 20 courses.

He has affiliations with many public and private sector organisations in their decision making bodies, advisory councils, and governing boards. He is an approved supervisor from the Higher Education Commission for doctoral research in Pakistan. He has close links with various public sector universities for the development of study program and development of curriculum in his specific field (i.e., Islamia University of Bahawalpur, University of Sargodha, International Islamic University, Islamabad, Allama Iqbal Open University, Government College University, Lahore, University of Balochistan, Bahauddin Zakariya University). He has been on the Boards of Governors of Punjab Library Foundation and Punjab Public Library, Lahore. Since 2000, he has been the president of Pakistan Library Automation Group.

Editorial responsibilities

He has been the chief editor of Pakistan Journal of Information Management and Libraries, and is a member of the editorial board of Research Journal: Social Sciences, Pakistan Research Society for Social Sciences, Information Development, Library Philosophy and Practice (LPP), Webology, Journal of Education and Human Development, and Pakistan Library and Information Science Journal.

Books

Mahmood has authored several books that published in Pakistan and abroad. His books are – Impact of Web 2.0 technologies on US academic libraries: A study of ARL libraries, Alternative funding model for libraries: A Pakistani perspective, Digital libraries: Perception of LIS professionals in Pakistan, Library and information science research in Pakistani universities, An on-line index of Pakistan Library Bulletin: Volume 1 to 33 (1968 to 2002), Periodical literature in library and information science: An index of 50 years’ work in Pakistan, and Information technology in libraries: A Pakistani perspective.

Research articles and theses

He has supervised many researches including masters, M Phil, and doctoral program at University of the Punjab . He is the first author in the field of librarianship in Pakistan who has more than 100 research articles published in international and national journals. He has 150 peer-reviewed papers in established journals. He has research distinctions in the form of research awards from different journals on submission of highly commendable papers. Dozens of his research articles published in different national journals including approved research journals from Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.

Research and professional projects

His project – development of a modern library at Punjab Local Government Academy was funded by Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA); the Goethe Institute funded his project for the analysis of libraries and sources of information in Pakistan. Similarly, some other projects were funded by national organisations like Provincial Assembly of the Punjab, Iqbal Academy Pakistan, and the University of the Punjab. He has also been involved in the library automation of the UNICEF Lahore office.

Dr. Mahmood has presented research papers at national and international conferences. He has also been actively working as a resource person in a large number of seminars and training courses and workshops in the areas of library and information science, use of information technology and conducting quantitative and qualitative research.