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This chapter aims to discuss the development of digital libraries in Pakistan. It gives an account of the digital transformation taking place in the country and reviews a few digital library initiatives. It discusses a number of issues associated with the development of digital libraries with specific reference to Pakistan. The major issues appear are as follows: misconception about digital libraries; lack of technological applications; lack of human resources with needed skills; copyright and publishing; cultural divide; digital divide, and insufficient financial support. The authors believe that understanding the underlying issues will not only accelerate the development of DL in Pakistan, but also in other developing countries with more or less common environment.

New emerging technologies and the continuous process of digitisation around the globe means a new model of civilization is emerging where society is “digitized” or “datafied”. This paper analyses to what extent we have undergone the process of digitisation and datafication through understanding concepts of the surveillance society, spectacle society, our digital footprints and the amount of data gathered by government agencies, individuals and companies and its utilisation; and how this process has led to the development of a “global digital civilization”. Disparity between levels of digitisation in different regions in a globalised world are addressed to determine if certain regions contend hegemony over others within digital realms. To further understand how globalisation itself is perceived in a digitised world, a software called “Mention” was used to collate data in relation to the terms “globalization”, “global” and “globalisation” on digital platforms such as Twitter, blogs, news, websites and forums over a month’s time period. Online rhetoric in relation to this term and the locations from which data was mostly surfacing in higher amounts has greatly added to the findings.

The revolution of emerging technologies has completely altered the conventional library system into computerized library system and more recently into digital library system. The digital library has become an integral component of each and every academic institution. The Higher Education Commission (HEC); Government of Pakistan has established and launched a digital library in 2004. This library was named as HEC Digital Library. The prime aim of this digital repository was to quench the information thirst of the researchers, faculty members and students of academic institutions and non-profit organizations. This library has given access to more than 300 universities/ Degree Awarding Institutions (DAIs)/ Research and Development Organization (R & D). This paper examines the current status of Higher Education Commission (HEC) digital library, formulation of digital library policy, and digitization of collection at HEC library, barriers to digitization, budget allocation, staff training and how to cope with the situation.

Preserving books and documents have become a hectic problem for today's world. Most of the documents and books were discarded due to insufficient physical storage and lots of maintenance. To overcome this problem, digitization of documents has become an important technology. The technical challenge is to realize an easy to use, high quality and high speed scanning system. The prototype is scanning large stacks of paper without using any human effort to flip pages i.e. it is using robotic arm to flip pages. The prototype is designed within small budget, to scan the standard size book i.e. (12 inches height and 9.5 inches wide), then converting the texts which are in human readable form to computer-readable digital image.

The study aims to measure the mediating relationship of wellbeing at work between digitalization (IT infrastructure, IT business spanning, and IT proactive stance) and their effect on mental health. The study uses primary data collection techniques to gather data and used purposive sampling to analyze the data. The sample size of the study is 349 respondents. The research uses Smart PLS software to measure the relationship through bootstrapping and algorithms. The study finds a significant positive mediating role of wellbeing between digitalization (IT infrastructure, IT business spanning, and IT proactive stance) and their effect on mental health. The study outcomes are helpful for managers and policymakers.

AbstractThe research paper reconnoiters the digital entrepreneurship and its influence on the business setting in developing economies (China India, Brazil, Russia, Mexico, Indonesia, Turkey, Thailand, South Africa and Malaysia). The empirical data was collected through 1,445 semi‐structured interviews with these economies' entrepreneurs. The research outcomes highlighted that entrepreneur's knowledge act as a sensitive social expectation and enhances support, even the non‐contributively factor of institutional trust. Findings demonstrated that administrative initiatives toward digitalization are pledged to consume invigorated entrepreneurship in all emerging economies consequently providing better chances for advancement and prevailing institutions requirements for further development in order to confirm the economic growth and supportable entrepreneurial situation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has complicated the operating environment for banks around the world. Determining the drivers of digitalization of banking services based on the principles of corporate social responsibility of banks makes it possible to find a way out of the crisis. The objective of the study is to develop a model for clustering banks in terms of the level of digitalization on the principles of corporate social responsibility.In this study, a twofold model has been proposed: the first part includes the calculation of the level of digitalization of banking, and the second part includes mathematical simulation of the clustering of bank digitalization level. This study reveals new possible solutions to the digitalization of banking in the face of new threats. In particular, factor analysis identifies the main factors, cluster analysis ranks banks into three categories (A, B, C) of service digitalization, and a dendrogram identifies digitalization drivers. The model was tested on 22 banks. Eight per cent of the banks are rated A “Very good” and B “Good”. 92% have Level C “Satisfactory”. The results of the study prove that the model should be validated. It should be confirmed that the application of the developed methodology for increasing the digitalization of banking services will increase customer loyalty by 15%, improve sustainability by reducing risk by 10%, and make banks attractive for investment by 15-20%.

The importance of information and communication technologies in the teaching and learning process has been highlighted several times in different studies worldwide. Digital literacy is a serious concern to prospective teachers because they are the main source for students to learn about digital tools and technologies to compete with others and it is only possible when teachers are digitally literate and eager to accept this as a need for 21st-century education. According to National Education Policy 2017 (the main pillars of ICT policy are the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to strengthen the quality of teaching and enhance student learning and develop complementary approaches to ICT in education) and in light of 4th goal (Quality Education) of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) it is significant for the integration of ICT in teaching and learning process in Pakistan. Whereas, the objective and proposed hypothesis of this study are to assess whether the teachers are digitally literate or interested to accept this digital transformation in education. In the context of methodology, for assessing the digital literacy among the student-teachers the data will be collected through a quantitative research approach from approximately 200 students of the Education department at Sukkur IBA University. Whereas, the gathered data will be analyzed by using the SPSS software by using Mann-Whitney-U Test and Independent Sample T-Test. The expected outcome of this research will be helpful to ensure the quality education and integration of ICT in teaching and learning processes for the betterment of the Educational system in Sindh, Pakistan because our educational system is so backward in technology. In conclusion, this study will enhance the knowledge and technological skills of prospective teachers through ICT integration. It will also increase the interest of prospective teachers in digital literacy through ICT based training

(1) Background: Along with the maturity of smart cities, digital villages and smart villages are receiving more attention than ever before as the key to promote sustainable rural development. The Chinese government has made great efforts in promoting the digital development of villages in recent years, as evidenced by policies intensively introduced by the central and local governments, making China a typical representative country in the world. (2) Methods: This paper evaluates the performance and geographic pattern of rural digital development by the Geographic Information System (GIS) in Gansu, a less developed province in western China, and analyzes the driving mechanism of rural digital development using GeoDetector, providing a basis for spatial zoning and differentiated policy design for the construction, planning and management of digital villages based on the GE matrix. (3) Results: First, the development of digital villages shows a prominent geographical imbalance, with 79 counties divided into leader, follower and straggler levels. Second, digital villages show unsynchronized development in different dimensions, with the village facilities digitalization index in the lead and the village economy digitalization index lagging behind. Thirdly, the development of digital villages is characterized by significant spatial correlation and spillover effects, with cold and hot counties distributed in clusters, forming a “center-periphery” structure. Fourth, the factors show significant influence differentiation. They are classified into all-purpose, multifunctional and single-functional factors by their scope of action, and into key, important and auxiliary factors by their intensity of action. Fifth, the interaction and driving mechanism between different factors is quite complex, dominated by nonlinear enhancement and bifactor enhancement, and the synergistic effect of factor pairs helps increase the influence by 1–4 times. (4) Conclusions: It is suggested that the government develop differentiated policies for zoning planning and management based on the level of digital development of villages in combination with the factor influence and its driving mechanism and promote regional linkage and common development and governance through top-level design.