Spreading the ETD Gospel: A Southern Africa Perspective

Rhodes University mounted its first digital thesis on the World Wide Web in 1998 and became the first institution in Africa to do so. Since then, the number of available theses and dissertations has steadily increased as more students come to appreciate the importance of submitting digital files or their theses. Also, the university Senate has now made it mandatory for students to submit digital files of their theses and dessertations. In order to make electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) produced by tertiary institutions in Southern Africa readily available, universities in the Southern African region were invited to join in the ETD initiative. This would lead to the building of a digital library of theses and dissertations in the region. A few institutions have responded positively and, based on the adoption of our approach, have speedily gained approval of their governing bodies to embark on ETD projects. In addition, the South East Academic Libraries (SEALS), a library consortium of tertiary institutions in the Eastern Province of South Africa, is considering an ETD programme since this would promote collaboration between research programmes at separate universities/technikons by making research work visible and accessible via a network archive.It is, however, surprising that some institutional leaders appear not to have realized that the digital revolution makes it imperative for institutions to use digital and publishing technologies innovatively in the provision of information as well as in the preservation and dissemination of the institutions' intellectual property.The paper will review existing African theses and dissertation projects, including the Database of African Theses and Dissertations (DATAD) and the African Universities Dissertations Abstracts (AFUDA) projects, it will discuss the status of the Rhodes University project, responses from other institutions in the region and make suggestions for accelerated involvement of tertiary institutions in Africa, especially Southern Africa, in the international network of theses and dissertations.     

The comparative importance of books: clinical psychology in the health sciences library

Clinical psychology has received little attention as a subject in health sciences library collections. This study seeks to demonstrate the relative importance of the monographic literature to clinical psychology through the examination of citations in graduate student theses and dissertations at the Fordham Health Sciences Library, Wright State University. Dissertations and theses were sampled randomly; citations were classified by format, counted, and subjected to statistical analysis. Books and book chapters together account for 35% of the citations in clinical psychology dissertations, 25% in nursing theses, and 8% in biomedical sciences theses and dissertations. Analysis of variance indicates that the citations in dissertations and theses in the three areas differ significantly (F = 162.2 with 2 and 253 degrees of freedom, P = 0.0001). Dissertations and theses in biomedical sciences and nursing theses both cite significantly more journals per book than the dissertations in clinical psychology. These results support the hypothesis that users of clinical psychology literature rely more heavily on books than many other users of a health sciences library. Problems with using citation analyses in a single subject to determine a serials to monographs ratio for a health sciences library are pointed out.     

A Citation Analysis of ETD and Non-ETD Producing Authors

This work takes advantage of the current status of the development of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) at the University of Louisville to reexamine a previous study that compared ETD and non-ETD producing authors' use of the professional literature. As with the previous study, this effort found no noticeable difference in the two groups of doctoral students' referencing behavior. This review of 100 dissertations and their 13,926 references confirmed the previous work's conclusions that doctoral students' publication format is not reflective of their library research. These findings suggest that librarians need not amend their efforts in response to academia's on-going development of ETDs and that differences between ETD and non-ETD authors are unrelated to their utilization of library resources.     

德国电子学位论文元数据XMetaDiss及对我国的启示

针对电子学位论文的长期保存问题,论述了德国电子学位论文元数据XMetaDiss的产生、发展、结构及其应用前景,对XMetaDiss与我国CALIS高校学位论文元数据进行了比较,得出一些对我国电子学位论文信息组织的有益启示。     

学位论文数据库容灾安全问题的备份模型研究

我国从20世纪90年代开始研究和创建数字图书馆,学位论文数据库是数字图书馆建设的重要内容之一。探讨了在容灾模式下学位论文数据库的建设,以确保学位论文数据库的安全。     

高校自主管理研究生学位论文的版权管理模式初探

针对我国目前学位论文开发利用的实际情况,从研究生自己管理学位论文有困难、高校有职责和义务管理学位论文、高校比任何著作权管理组织更具有管理本校学位论文著作权的优势等角度来进行分析,提出建立高校自主管理学位论文的新型管理模式。     

Bibliographical control in South Africa

This work is an annotated bibliography that consists of articles, books, conference papers, dissertations, and reports, etc. published in various library and information science forums on the subject of librarianship in Islamic East Africa. The goal of preparing this work is to provide a list of citations with abstracts that librarians, library students, and library scholars can use to perform research within this subject area and further the body of knowledge. The research methodology that was used to find these citations involved searching the database versions of ERIC, Dissertations Abstracts Online, and Library Literature within the online public access catalog of the Auburn University library system. It also involved searching the online databases of Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), British Education Index, and Education Abstracts within the DIALOG database as well as the respective print copies of these resources. While this work is by no means an exhaustive analysis of the entire East African library literature, it does strive to be comprehensive in terms of its country-by-country breakdown of librarianship within the region. Islamic East Africa for the purposes of this work incorporates the nations of Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, and Tanzania. In providing a citation for a non-English language work, the English equivalent of the title of that work will be given next to the non-English title.     

Librarianship and Information Science in Islamic East Africa 1966–1999: An Annotated Bibliography

This work is an annotated bibliography that consists of articles, books, conference papers, dissertations, and reports, etc. published in various library and information science forums on the subject of librarianship in Islamic East Africa. The goal of preparing this work is to provide a list of citations with abstracts that librarians, library students, and library scholars can use to perform research within this subject area and further the body of knowledge. The research methodology that was used to find these citations involved searching the database versions of ERIC, Dissertations Abstracts Online, and Library Literature within the online public access catalog of the Auburn University library system. It also involved searching the online databases of Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), British Education Index, and Education Abstracts within the DIALOG database as well as the respective print copies of these resources. While this work is by no means an exhaustive analysis of the entire East African library literature, it does strive to be comprehensive in terms of its country-by-country breakdown of librarianship within the region. Islamic East Africa for the purposes of this work incorporates the nations of Comoros, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, and Tanzania. In providing a citation for a non-English language work, the English equivalent of the title of that work will be given next to the non-English title.     

国际学位论文开发机构版权解决模式及其借鉴

从国际上主要学位论文开发机构的实践着手,分析其学位论文开发服务中版权问题的解决模式,并以此为基础,为我国相关机构开发利用学位论文提出如下建议:与大学签署合作协议;以获得作者授权为前提开发学位论文;建立合理的报酬支付模型;妥善处理第三方版权问题,加强用户管理;优化公益性学位论文开发的市场机制。     

WorldCat,the Other ETD Database: An Exploratory Study

Many librarians perceive ProQuest’s Dissertations and Theses as the key resource for searching dissertations and theses. However, the Online Computer Library Center’s (OCLC’s) WorldCat also provides a means for locating electronic dissertations and theses. This study compared these two databases and found two key observations. First, both databases provided access to a similar number of citations. Second, WorldCat consistently had twice as many citations for which ProQuest had no records. WorldCat provides an important means of locating electronic theses and dissertations.     

论高校图书馆电子版学位论文的保存与管理工作——以北京大学图书馆为例

通过对国内外高校图书馆学位论文全文管理现状进行分析,结合当前国内外文档管理技术发展和学位论文系统研发情况,重点介绍北京大学图书馆的学位论文资源建设工作,并就当前国内学位论文工作中普遍存在的全文文件格式、版权等问题提出解决对策。     

Digitization of past question papers,dissertations and theses: A case study of 30 Nigerian university libraries

This paper evaluates the status of digitization in 30 Nigerian university libraries with a view to identifying the status, progress, prospects and challenges to digitize library materials and form the basis of providing a roadmap to successful execution of digitization projects. The study assessed the status of digitization of past question papers, theses and dissertations in Nigerian university libraries from May to September 2006 through a self-administered questionnaire, site visits and interviews. It was found that, though there are automation services in those universities, there is no digitization of these materials mentioned in the surveyed institutions. The major obstacles militating against digitizing in the university libraries include lack of funds, lack of appropriate facilities, lack of skilled manpower and lack of constant electricity supply. Respondents were anxious to have the services to commence because of their importance in facilitating teaching, learning and research.     

Demonstrating Library Impact Through Acknowledgment: An Examination of Acknowledgments in Theses and Dissertations

Academic libraries are increasingly seeking ways to demonstrate their impact on student learning. Acknowledgments - formal statements of indebtedness – in graduate theses and dissertations provide a rather unexplored area for demonstrating impact of the academic library on student learning. This study uses quantitative and qualitative methods to characterize acknowledgments of the Texas A&M University Libraries (TAMU Libraries) in theses and dissertations, both overall and for three disciplines specifically: civil engineering, geography, and history. This study also searched for mentions of the TAMU Libraries throughout the entire body of theses and dissertations. Overall, acknowledgments to the TAMU Libraries in theses and dissertations were less than 1%, though acknowledgments were found in all three disciplines with over a quarter of the history theses and dissertations containing an acknowledgment to libraries. There was no statistically significant difference found between the numbers of acknowledgments in theses versus dissertations. Acknowledgments to the TAMU Libraries were found in the theses and dissertations of 28 different departments. Mentions to the TAMU Libraries – not necessarily a formal acknowledgment – were found throughout the text of theses and dissertations with most concentrated in the acknowledgment, method, and bibliography sections.     

Digitization of past question papers, dissertations and theses: A case study of 30 Nigerian university libraries

This paper evaluates the status of digitization in 30 Nigerian university libraries with a view to identifying the status, progress, prospects and challenges to digitize library materials and form the basis of providing a roadmap to successful execution of digitization projects. The study assessed the status of digitization of past question papers, theses and dissertations in Nigerian university libraries from May to September 2006 through a self-administered questionnaire, site visits and interviews. It was found that, though there are automation services in those universities, there is no digitization of these materials mentioned in the surveyed institutions. The major obstacles militating against digitizing in the university libraries include lack of funds, lack of appropriate facilities, lack of skilled manpower and lack of constant electricity supply. Respondents were anxious to have the services to commence because of their importance in facilitating teaching, learning and research.     

Book Review—Carl Hausman,Philip Benoit, — Lewis B. O'Donnell,Modern Radio Production

This bibliography is a compilation of recent dissertations and masters theses in the area of radio studies. All information was retrieved from Dissertations Abstracts International (DAI) via the on-line information service, Firstsearch.     

印度电子学位论文数据库研究

论文对印度电子学位论文数字图书馆进行了较细致的研究,探讨电子学位论文数据库在印度学术机构的发展及应用现状,选取了9所印度一流的高校及有国际声望的科研机构进行调查分析,旨在促进我国电子学位论文数字图书馆的发展,借鉴印度有益的做法,避免重复相同的弯路。     

学位论文库元数据标准的研究

概述了我国元数据的研究现状，特别是在学位论文库中的应用现状。指明了元数据的相关概念及功能。研究了国内外学位论文库的元数据标准，提出了中文学位论文库元数据标准，并简要说明了元数据的描述与实现。     

"CALIS学位论文全文数据库"的建设实践

“CALIS学位论文全文数据库”建设是CALIS“十五”期间一个重要的自建数据库项目。该文重点介绍了项目的发展现状、系统架构、相关标准规范、参建馆本地系统建设进展和存在问题、中心系统的平台部署和功能模块等。     

Library usage by university accounting students: a comparison of contact and open distance learning institution in South Africa

The level of library patronage among accounting students is examined both in a distance and a contact learning institution in South Africa. We used a structured questionnaire to collect data from a sample of 500 accounting students from both a distance and a contact learning institution in South Africa, out of which 379 returned a completed questionnaire, representing 76%. Findings show an apathy among South African university accounting students towards library services patronage, which is exacerbated by lecturers' practice of giving assignments that do not require students to search for information beyond what is in their recommended textbooks. The most significant factor that influences universities' accounting students' patronage of library resources is the expertise and interaction with library staff. This confirms the Expectation-Confirmation Theory that accounting students from both institutions examined based their level of satisfaction on their perception of the library services they received. Library management needs an understanding of the teaching and learning practices of the accounting discipline and collaborate with curriculum developers to improve accounting students' usage of library resources. In future, the number of universities offering accounting programmes in South Africa needs expanding and so that university libraries can cater for higher numbers of accounting students.