REFERENCE AND CUSTOMER SERVICES

Inter-library Loan (ILL) and Document Delivery Service

The Library has established very strong inter-library lending relationships with many local libraries such as Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan, Karachi University and others, through which materials may be borrowed on request by faculty and researchers from these institutions and vice-versa.

In addition, international arrangements allow the Library to request photocopies of articles and additional resources from British Library Lending Division (BLLD), Arabian Gulf Cooperation Council (AGCC) and other institutions. These arrangements supplement and complement the services available through online linkages such as WHO/EMRO's document delivery facility provided through online databases and full text and also through Digital Library of Higher Education Commision (HEC). There is a prescribed form which is available from the Library and it may be downloaded from the Intranet.

Citation Verification and Bibliographic Search

These traditional reference services are provided based on the entire collection comprising of books, journals, online databases, Internet resources and AV material. This service may also be requested through email.

Internet and Intranet

The Intranet connects Aga Khan University (AKU) workstations. Faculty and students can browse 260 online journals via the Library website without using their personal Internet hours. Assistance in the use of online journals via Intranet is provided.

Photocopy Service

Photocopy service is provided to faculty free of cost. For students Rs 1 (Rs 2 in case of self operated machine) per page is charged.

Library Walk-in Training Programme

The Library provides a walk-in training programme for AKU faculty, staff and students.

The Library staff assigned for this programme may be contacted any time during the working hours.

Serial Services

The Library subscribes to 500 international and national journals in the field of Health Sciences and maintains their back issues in bound volumes. The seven years serial collection is housed in Kurji Periodicals section where reading and browsing facilities as well as reference services regarding serials are provided. Not only the Directory of Periodical Holdings but also 260 full text online journals are available on the Intranet. There are photocopiers available in this section for users' convenience.

The Library carries review of its journals acquisition through which additions and deletions are effected in the list. This exercise starts in October of every alternate year. There is a journal review sub-committee to oversee this operation.

The Library has compiled and updates a Union List of Periodicals, which includes the serial holdings of ten local libraries of Pakistan. Future plans are to include all medical libraries of Pakistan to be maintained in print and electronic catalogue. The union catalogue is already available on AKU Library Information Services (LIS) Intranet. In addition, the serial library has compiled an index of articles published in Pakistani medical journals (AKUMedLit) available in Library Catalog. This index is also available on the Intranet and contains citations of some 21,500 articles.

Collection Development and Management

The Library maintains policy of continuous enhancement and updating its collections through quarterly acquisition of material. Recommendations for new titles may be submitted any time during the year. Book orders are however processed in a quarterly cycle and recommendations for a particular quarter must be sent in by the 15th of the last month of that quarter (15 March, 15 June, 15 September, 15 December) otherwise that request will be moved to the following quarter. Recommendations should be submitted on a prescribed form which is available in the Jivraj section and also available on the Library website.