Introduction

ETDs have changed traditional scenario of academic library settings. It has modified studying in education and research, but in spite of its great potential, ETDs have however to beat traditional paper based theses environment in the market. Universities, Research and Educational Institutes, Academic Libraries etc. must respond to growing presence of ETDs and ensure that users remain aware of ETD services offered by the organizations. Although, there are limitations to ETD's implementation, its application in academic sector is likely to grow over time. It is evident that ETDs can play a significant role in repositories and it may lead to a result-oriented approach by way of improving data skills of research scholars. It is, therefore, extremely important to provide accurate data sets to fulfill the information gap and at the same time supporting to accomplish their novel research by providing required ETDs in time.

Problem Statement

ETD is a collaborative effort of universities/organizations to promote creating, archiving, distributing and accessing metadata. With the emergence of new information technologies a significant amount of ETD repositories became available all over the world. Research from various perspectives is going on to evaluate them. Though ETDs are playing major role in institutional repositories in academic sector, there is still a gap of awareness and accessing relevant PhD thesis for student's research purposes. This study is focused to evaluate PhD students' awareness, frequency and expectations of ETD repository at RCSS library and to eliminate those gaps, if any, to facilitate in providing effective ETDs to research scholars.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of present research is to discover the usage of ETDs by PhD students' who visit the RCSS library. In this research survey, researcher will examine motivational factors that influence use of the ETDs. It will also give an overview to the most frequently used ETDs in RCSS library repository. Such periodical evaluation will help the organization in ensuring the standard, performance, reliability, appearance, commitment to delivery time of the required information.

Methodology - Data Collection

For this research study, questionnaire will be distributed among the PhD students who have registered in the RCSS library in 2014-2015. Participants will be selected through open invitation and prior consent will be taken on individual basis before sending the questionnaire. The purpose of this procedure is to evaluate as to what extent PhD students utilize the ETDs offered by the RCSS.

Goals

The objective of this research study is to evaluate the satisfaction level of PhD students' who are using ETDs provided by the RCSS Library. This evaluation not only inspires more energetic ETD development environment which ultimately leads to an effective way of universal access but also endeavors for the systematic development of ETDs. Once PhD students' are familiar with the ETD technologies they tend to become critical thinkers of their own research study and will be able to produce more fruitful scholarly piece.

On the author:

I have gained 30 years professional experience as a Librarian and presently working in Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Colombo, Sri Lanka. I obtained Merit pass for master degree in information management (MIM), University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. I am a visiting lecturer to universities in Sri Lanka and an international paper presenter/speaker in digital library/museum conferences and a paper reviewer/editor/author in international library journals. I have compiled several Indexes/Bibliographies and presented/published (peer-reviewed) over 70+ international papers on digital repositories, extended learning, scholarly communication, mobile data, digital preservation, electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), grey repositories, ICT application, digital museums/archives, cultural heritage, disaster management etc.
I have undergone training on new information technologies at the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand and obtained Military Library training at the National Defense University, Washington DC, USA and my papers have been accepted for presentation in International Conferences held in India, Thailand, Egypt, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, Finland, Jordan, Bhutan, Peru, Belgium, Germany, USA, and UK.
I am an Associate Member of the Sri Lanka Library Association; Associate Network Member of Digital Curation Centre, United Kingdom; Professional Development Fund member of the International Institute for Conservation (IIC), United Kingdom 2008-2011; Affiliate Member of International Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management (ICAHM), USA; SIG-III Info Share Membership Award recipient 2012 - Special Interest Group (SIG-III) of the American Society of Information Science & Technology (ASIS&T), USA and The World Archaeological Congress (WAC), USA, 2013 - 2016 .