There are ten service units/sections of the Library viz. Acquisition, Cataloguing, Circulation, Multimedia and Microfilming / IT, Manuscripts, Oriental, Information Resource Centre (IRC) formerly Reference, Periodical, Serial and U.N. / Reports. Every Section / Unit is under the administrative control of Deputy Chief Librarian. However Internet Lab is supervised by Lab Network Administration.
This unit is concerned with the selection and purchase of reading material in what so ever from it may be. Books are accessioned in this section. It keeps a complete and up-to-date record of such books and other reading materials.
Books are purchased keeping in view the requirements of the University Faculty, the Students and the Research Scholars. Books are generally selected from the local as well as foreign publishers catalogues, current lists and local book exhibitions/fairs, etc. These catalogues and lists are sent to the Heads of the concerned teaching departments for selection and approval of the reading material of their subjects. They select and approve the reading material for addition to the main library from these lists. After getting their approval, the titles approved are thoroughly checked with the library catalogue to avoid duplication. Special attention is paid to provide text books and research material to the library users. It also acquires rare manuscripts and microfilms, etc.
The annual grant of 2011-2012 for the purchase of books including manuscripts and Pakistan Collection is Rs. 10,320,000 only .The acquisition section is very successfully handling all acquisition operations through computer since 1995. In the past all the library material had been procured under the supervision of the library committee. However from the years 2000-2001 the Vice Chancellor has approved the rules for purchase of books, journals and manuscripts for the Punjab University Library.
After purchasing, accessioning and labeling of the reading material in the Acquisition section, it is sent to the cataloguing section for technical processing. Main responsibility of this section is to classify and catalogue the reading material. The reading material is being classified according to Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme. Library of Congress Subject Headings List is used for assigning subject headings.
Cataloguing of English books have been converted from manual to computer. Cataloguing Section started its automation in October, 2000 and now most library material which includes Text Books, General Books, Reference Books, Pakistan Collections, Theses, Chinese Collection, United Nations Reports, Govt. reports, and special collections have been feeded. All new books are being computerized.
Multilingual Library and Information Management System (MLIMS) has been enabled used to enter data of English and Oriental Languages including Urdu, Persian, Arabic and Punjabi etc. Readers consult the computerized catalogue for up-to-date information instead of manual catalogue. The OPAC terminals have been provided at ground and 1st floor with multilingual searching capabilities.
The Circulation Section is the backbone of the Library. The library users have been provided with the OPAC terminals at the entrance of the library, where they can search out their required material in any language. Moreover from the year 2007 library has started circulation transactions like check-in and check-out of the books on smart bar-coded cards. This has made the issuance procedure efficient. Issue and Return counters have been separated in a new designed check-in/out counter.
Keeping in view the books security issues, library has installed RF based book security system integrated with smart card based entrance with time and management control system.
The Circulation Section performs the following functions: 1) Registers new members, issues borrowers cards and renews membership cards. 2) Issue and receipt of reading material, to and from the members only. 3) Collects delay fines for overdue books. 4) Sends reminders for overdue books. 5) Informs the members about the reading material reservation. 6) Settles cases regarding the books lost or damaged by the members. 7) Prepares defaulter lists and sends them to the Heads of the concerned teaching departments to detain their roll numbers till they clear their accounts with the library. 8) Issues the Library Clearance Certificates. 9) Checks incoming and outgoing materials thoroughly. 10) Helps the library users in finding the required material and guides them in the use of library catalogue. 11) Shelves the reading material on the racks that had been returned by the borrowers and taken from the shelves for reading. 12) Keeps statistics of daily transactions. 13) Carries out annual stock taking and finalizes missing listsThis unit is functioning on the ground floor, when you enter through the main gate, you will be in the library hall. Circulation counter is in the right corner, at your left is the office of the Deputy Chief Librarian (Circulation). The text books of various subjects, theses and dissertations, collection of books on Pakistan, and old University Calendars have been placed in separate rooms adjacent to the counter. The general books have been shelved on the book racks on the ground floor. The arrangement of general books starts from the left side of the back hall. The books have been arranged according to Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme (000 to 999)
A Deputy Chief Librarian is Incharge of this section. The readers may contact him regarding the matters relating to library membership, services, books, fine and clearance. A senior librarian is also available in the circulation hall near the library issue/return counter to solve the readers problems relating to the circulation section.
The new arrivals have been placed in front of the entrance. To provide on line public access catalogue (OPACs) facilities to users twelve terminals have been installed.
It is located on the first floor. It has a large number of microfilms and CD-Roms in its collection and read/write facilities of CD/DVD to fulfill the information needs of the University teachers, researchers and the students, etc. The subjects covered in the collection of microfilms are mostly related to social sciences and humanities. The microfilms of rare manuscripts in Arabic, Persian and Urdu are also available. There is large number of microfilms of rare newspapers and journals which have been kept to assist the researchers of Pakistan movement, Quaid-i-Azam, Allama Iqbal sand other political and social aspects of Pakistan.
Photocopy machines are available to provide photocopies of rare material and preservation. Microfilm reader with printer is also available which facilitates the research scholars/users in the use of microfilm.
For the preservation of the library material, a high speed scanner with the facility of microfilm scanning is added in the section. Also the project to convert microfilms into digital media is in process. The digitization facility is also available for large size material.
Section has the responsibility of smooth functioning of electronic databases of books and journals in the University provided by the HEC. Another important responsibility is to conduct the trainings about the Turnitin antiplagiarism software. The subscription of this software is provided by HEC and it is used to produce the originality reports of the research work i.e M.Phil/ Ph.D theses and research articles produced in the University.
In order to keep pace with technological advancement especially with the boom in Information Technology, an Internet Lab was started in December, 1999. With 65 PCs which were gradually increased to 150 and extended up to 270. There are about 3000 registered members of Internet Lab and the number is increasing. Printing facility for student is available at Internet Lab.
The reference section holds about 13000 reference books, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographical dictionaries, year books, hand books, almanacs, directories, atlases, gazetteers, indexes, quotation books, bibliographies, accession lists, guides, maps, etc. Its function is to answer the readers reference questions and to keep a record of the reference questions asked and answered. The reference questions may range from simple reference question to complex research questions. It provides reference service to fulfill the information needs of the teachers, the students and the researchers. It also answers the questions like who is who, what is what, how and where etc. to save the precious time of the users.
This section has developed online resources to facilitate the users. These electronic formats provide numerous contacts/links on general/reference, magazines and serials newspapers, books/online books, web searching and frequently asked questions (FAQ) etc. about every academic discipline. This section is responsible to prepare originality reports through Turnitin anti plagiarism software for M.Phil/Ph.D dissertations and various research articles.
The reference material can only be utilized within the library and cannot be borrowed. Since May 2002 the reference section has been converted to a separate reading hall which is fully air-conditioned.
It was set up on 31st July, 1920 and now it is the largest manuscript collection in Pakistan. It is functioning adjacent to the Oriental Section at the first floor. It has hundreds of years old rare manuscripts. The manuscripts are in the Urdu, Arabic, Persian and local languages. The number of manuscripts in Hindi and Sanskrit is 1871. Up to now, the no. of manuscripts are more than 22000 and the number is growing steadily.
Sanskrit and Hindi manuscripts are written on Palm leaves. The manuscripts may be consulted within the premises of the section and ordinarily readers are not provided their photocopies. Only those teachers, students and the researchers who are editing manuscripts may get a photocopy as a very special case with the recommendation and permission of the Chairman of the concerned department provided that the required manuscript is found to be in photocopying condition.
It is functioning at the first floor, books almost relating to all disciplines are available in Urdu, Persian, Arabic, Punjabi, Pushto, Sindhi, Sanskrit and Hindi languages. The library has very old and rare materials in its collection e.g. first issue of Urdu newspaper Kohinoor, published in Lahore on the 14th January, 1850.
There is a dual cataloguing system in the Oriental Section. Beside a multilingual on / off line public access computerized catalogue (OPAC), there is a card catalogue also which has four types of catalogues.
It has four types of catalogues i.e. catalogue of Urdu, Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian books. All these have been placed in its reading hall. The catalogue cards have been arranged alphabetically word by word. To find out whether the library has a particular book, or not and where to find it on the shelf, the book may be traced out by consulting the catalogue through its author, title or subject. In case of any difficulty, the librarian on duty can be consulted for guidance. Periodicals in Urdu and other oriental languages are acquired by the Serial Section. When the volumes of journals are completed, these are sent to the Oriental Section in bound volumes. It has personal and special collections consisting of published and unpublished reading material which have a special attraction due to their rarity and usefulness. Cataloguing, classification and all other technical processes regarding oriental languages is performed in Oriental Section.
Serials section is functioning at the first floor of the Library. It is the source of current and the latest published information which is very useful in research work. It acquires journals of almost all the subjects. Local newspapers in Urdu and English are subscribed. Two International newspapers Khaleej Times and Financial Times are also subscribed. When a volume of a journal or file of a newspaper is completed, it is get binded. The Library has maintained files from 1954 to onward of different national newspapers especially Nawa-i-Waqt and Pakistan Times. Bound volumes of the journals are arranged on racks in classified order and fresh issues are displayed alphabetically by title. Journals and newspapers are not issued, but photocopy of the required article(s) is allowed under the rules. There are 70,000 bound volumes of journals on various disciplines both in foreign and local languages. Research oriented journals both local and foreign are subscribed with the approval of the Heads of University Teaching Departments. The annual budget for subscription of journals is Rs. 3.3 Millions.
Detail of Journals / Newspapers
Subscribed Journals
Foreign Research Journals 53
Local (English) 08
(Urdu) 13
Total 74
Donated Journals
English 74
Urdu 106
Total 180
Subscribed Newspapers
English 10 (Including one Foreign Newspaper)
Urdu 08
Total 18
This section publishes a monthly newspaper articles index under the title "Newspapers index". This newspaper articles index includes important national, international, religious and scientific topics. Table of contents (TOC) service is provided to all departments, when a new foreign research journal is received in the library, the photocopy of its TOC is sent to relevant departments. If the teachers are interested in any article the free photocopy is provided to them. It is very regular Selective dissemination of information (SDI) service.
Punjab University Library is a depositary Library of U.N. Publications. Under an agreement a nominal annual subscription is paid by the library and in response we receive the publications of U.N.O and its subordinate departments.
This section is functioning at the first floor. It has publications of the United Nations, Pre-partition Indian government reports, imperial gazettes of India and Pakistan government reports and Punjab University Result Gazettes. There are about 25,000 United Nations publications and nearly 10,000 Indian and Pakistan government reports.
The record of government publications, reports and United Nations publications is maintained in the acquisition section. After complete accessioning and cataloguing process, these are sent to this Section. The reading material has been arranged in classified order. The United Nations publications and government reports can be used as reference books within the premises.
PU Research Repository 
PDF E-Books 
Online Research Resoure 
Manuscripts
HEC (E-Resources)
Newspaper Index
Plagiarism Policy
PU-Library Vitual Tour