ISLAMABAD - The much-publicised national digital library of Higher Education Commission (HEC) is not fully functional, as the researchers have limited access to online journals and books. More than 50 per cent books cannot be accessed and most of the journals that were available online are also not accessible due to which research work is being affected at the universities, said a professor of a public sector university. The programme was meant to provide researchers within public and private universities in Pakistan and non-profit research and development organisations with access to international scholarly literature based on electronic (online) delivery, providing access to high quality, peer-reviewed journals, databases, articles and e-Books across a wide range of disciplines. The e-books support programme allowed researchers to access most of the important text and reference books electronically free of cost in a variety of subject areas as, the HEC used to pay to the international agencies for the services. Now if a researcher tries to access a journal or book he/she is asked to pay individually by the international agencies as according to sources the commission has not been paying to them. After the launch of the digital library the universities had restricted the funding of their libraries for the purchase of journals and books as around 45,000 online books in addition to more than 22,000 journals had been made available through the Digital Library Programme. A senior professor of another university told TheNation that when the researchers have limited access to online journals and books and the departmental and central libraries of the university also dont acquire latest stuff they have no other choice but to choose their personal means to get journals and books related to their fields. And as a result the research work has been slowdown in the universities. Its been learnt reliably that the life of the programme was nearly three years and due to the shortage of funds the commission didnt pay the amount to the international agencies for the service and gave priority to other projects so they have suspended their services for Pakistani university universities. However, when Prof. Dr Mukhtar Ahmed, Member Operation & Planning, HEC, was contacted he said the library was fully functional. But some links are very expensive so if a university doesnt use such journals and books we suspend the service of such specific books and journals for that university and allow other university to use it.