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This paper reports the results of an investigation in current continuing professional development practices, perceptions of academic library employers about skills that need to be developed in their staff in the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries. A mailed questionnaire was used to collect data from 15 publicly funded academic institutions; 13 responded. Analysis shows that a systematic staff development program is generally lacking. Current continuing professional development activities focus on immediate institutional needs. Information and communication technology skills preferred relate to automated systems, electronic resources, networking, and multimedia applications. Writing and research skills related to measurement and evaluation, studying information needs, and report writing received higher ranks. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations which are made in order to improve the situation.

Focuses on resource sharing in Kuwaiti libraries, which, due to many factors, has now become an economic and information provision necessity. Presents the results of a survey of 17 libraries in Kuwait. It was found not only that the current resource‐sharing activities are at a minimal level, but also that all libraries do not actively participate in these. However, librarians consider resource‐sharing very important for their libraries, are aware of its benefits, and know the hurdles in developing a resource‐sharing network. They are willing to participate in such a network if one was developed. Recommends that the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters should create a National Task Force to develop a detailed plan for a national resource‐sharing network. Proposes that the National Library should be designated as the coordinating agency for this network and suggests the establishment of a permanent national committee, with representation from all major libraries, to be responsible for policy making.

The purpose of the paper was to examine the importance faculty members place on student library use and their self‐perceived role in motivating students to use the library.

A modified and Arabised version of Baker's (1996) instrument was administered to all full‐time faculty teaching Islamic Studies disciplines at International Islamic University Malaysia.

The respondents consider student library use, making library‐based assignments and librarians'role as important. They are not fully satisfied with the students' library use skills, availability of information resources, and the value given to the library by university management. They expect librarians to provide, in addition to assisting students and faculty, a comfortable academic environment in the library.

This study was carried out with faculty members of Islamic Studies disciplines at one university. Further studies on similar and more general populations must be conducted in order to understand the situation fully.

Librarians are urged to respond proactively to the needs of students and faculty, to adopt a strong marketing strategy, and to develop general and course‐integrated information literacy programmes.

Baker's (1996) instrument, modified to suit the context of the study, was used for the first time in a developing country. This will stimulate research in similar countries. An Arabised version was prepared which can be used in Arab countries for further research.

This study was designed to investigate the information needs and use of the private construction materials sector in Kuwait.

A structured instrument, expert‐reviewed and pilot‐tested, was used for data collection. A total of 20 companies were surveyed by interviewing a senior official identified by each firm.

These firms mostly used financial, marketing, legal, forecasting, and managerial information. Personnel and statistical information was the least used. The most important sources of information included government agencies, the internet, the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), and financial service agencies in addition to several informal sources. Information use activity was found to be at a low level.

Since the study was limited to private companies that dealt with construction materials, its findings should be used for this sector only.

The KCCI, following one of its official roles of supplying information to the business community, needs to upgrade its resources and services and conduct vigorous marketing of its services. Similarly, Kuwait University has a stake in conducting research and educating business leaders in improving their in‐house information services and making optimal use of KCCI services.

This is the first study of its type in the Arabian Gulf region. Hopefully, government agencies, the KCCI and the business community will use its findings to improve the current business information infrastructure, which is less than satisfactory.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the information‐seeking behavior of the social sciences faculty at Kuwait University.

A survey method was used for this study. The data were collected using a structured, peer‐reviewed questionnaire self‐administered to 77 faculty members, with 54 returns.

It was found that these respondents heavily depend on books and journals for teaching and on a larger variety of materials for research purposes. Their use of informal sources is comparatively less than formal sources. Journals and books are considered the most important sources to meet their needs. Among the informal sources, conferences, subject experts, and colleagues are given higher importance than librarians and government officials. Journals and books are used more frequently than raw data, technical reports, and manuscripts and primary materials. Their satisfaction level with all the sources is positive but higher for journals and books. The level of satisfaction with informal sources is slightly higher than formal sources. Their library use is very low with complaints about the quality of staff, resources, especially in Arabic, and access to international resources.

The research is limited to faculty in the college of Social Sciences, Kuwait University.

Understanding the information‐seeking behavior of social science scholars and developing information resources and designing systems and services that are appropriate for their needs.

This paper contributes to the very limited research literature on the topic in the Arab countries.

Describes the library and information science education through the distance teaching system offered by Allama Iqbal Open University in Pakistan. The only open university in the country has offered Certificate and Bachelor’s programmes in the subject since 1988 and is planning to offer Master’s and some other advanced programmes in the future. The paper presents a brief history of the University and the establishment of the Department of Library and Information Sciences. Syllabi and objectives of various LIS courses are provided. The system of education, including admissions, study materials, regional services, tutors, study centres, assignments and examination is also described. Enrolment data up to spring 1996 are analyzed (by area and gender). Opinions of senior library professionals in the country about these LIS courses are also cited.

The following annotated bibliography of materials on orienting users to libraries and on instructing them in the use of reference and other resources covers publications from 1981. A few items from 1980 have been included because information about them was not available in time for the 1980 listing. A few items have not been annotated because the compiler was unable to secure copies of these items.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship of information-seeking anxiety (ISA) with socio-academic variables of business students in the digital environment.

A cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire was conducted. The questionnaire, composed of 47 items of Information Seeking Anxiety Scale along with certain socio-academic variables, was administered personally among business students by visiting their classrooms at the Lahore School of Economics, Pakistan. The received 283 responses were analyzed by applying descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, standard deviation, t-test and one-way analysis of variance.

The results revealed that a large majority of business students were less comfortable in information seeking and experienced anxiety from mild to moderate levels. There were only a few respondents who faced either low or severe levels of ISA. In relationship testing, the students’ socio-academic variables such as program type, gender, school background, geographical background, information communication technology skills and English language competence did not appear to be the predictors of their ISA.

The results of this study should carefully be used while making generalizations for all the business students in Pakistan and abroad as this research collected data from the business students of a single university in Pakistan.

These results have greater implications for the future directions of information literacy as creating awareness and building capacity for skills about the information search process will help in reducing ISA. These findings provided a pragmatic insight that can be used as a guide by information professionals, especially those engaged in information services, to develop a need-based curriculum of information literacy which would ultimately help in the alleviation of anxiety and combating its effects on students’ academic performance.

This study address specifically ISA of business students that would make a worthy contribution to the existing research on ISA as, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, no such study has appeared so far.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the status of library anxiety, which has received relatively little research attention in Pakistan, and its relationship with library use, academic performance (grade point average), gender and academic discipline among the undergraduate students.

Data were collected using a questionnaire from 725 fourth year undergraduate students of three different disciplines from three universities. The participation was voluntary. The data were processed using SPSS version 20.

A majority of the respondents (72.1 per cent) experienced a mild library anxiety. The factors: user education and user knowledge were the greatest sources of library anxiety. Findings revealed differences in library anxiety on the basis of gender and academic discipline. Library anxiety and academic performance had a significant negative relationship with each other.

This is the first study in Pakistan that addressed library anxiety and its relationship with library use, academic discipline and academic performance using a large group (N = 725) of undergraduate students.

Child malnutrition is a grave concern for Pakistan, as the country has one of the highest incidences of child stunting in the developing world. The present study examines the relative significance of parents' education on a child's nutritional status in Pakistan.

For analysis, the study has used data from Phase 7 of the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) (2017–2018). Since the dependent variable ranges from 0 to 1 (1 indicates not a stunted child, while 0 represents a stunted child), binary logistic regressions are used for the analysis.

The results show that mothers' and fathers' education positively contributes to a child's nutrition. However, mothers' education is considered more significant, especially in the long run. The mother's education categories are positive and significant in the long run, while only their higher education is positive and significant for the father's. Moreover, the magnitude of the effect also shows that the probability of stunting is less if the mothers are educated. The long-run coefficient for mothers' higher education is 0.752, while that of fathers' higher education is only 0.232.

The present study compares the importance of mothers' and fathers' education in child nutrition and concludes that the role of the mother is more crucial for child upbringing. There are rarely any studies that focus on the role of fathers' education in child nutrition and compare whose role, mothers' or fathers,' is more important for child well-being.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-06-2023-0483