In India Government and different higher education authorities have started making serious efforts to enrich and update the National ETD repository ‘Shodhganga' and National Research-in-Progress repository ‘ShodhGangotri' by making the ETDs submission mandatory and by issuing guidelines for universities and other higher education institutions from time to time. The library staff seems to be in a state of confusion regarding their responsibilities in the ETD submission process. Various guidelines for ETDs submission in India define only the role and responsibilities of university administration and research scholars in general but these guidelines do not define explicitly the role and responsibilities of the library staff towards ETDs depositing and participation in the National ETD repository. In these guidelines many issues have been left for the University administration to decide and prepare remaining guidelines related to ETDs submission but universities are not serious about this issue. Thus major concern of this research paper is to critically analyse the attitude of the university libraries staff towards their responsibilities, study their concerns and obstacles encountered by them in participating in National ETD repository and to highlight the loose points in the present guidelines and give suggestions to promote and popularise National ETD repository among Indian academia.

On the authors:

Prof. Dinesh K. Gupta is presently Professor in the Dept. of Lib. & Inf. Sc., Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, INDIA. He has a long teaching and research experience of more than 24 years. He has supervised 5 Doctoral Scholars; Dissertations in M. Phil. (15) and M. Lib. & Inf. Sc. (30) courses and has been supervising many research scholars for their Doctorate degree and Dissertations in Ph. D. and M. Phil. courses. His research/ interest areas include ICT Applications in Lib. and Inf. Centres, Crowdsourcing, E-Governance etc. He has published more than two dozen research papers in National and International Journals and contributed Chapters in books, co-authored and edited one book each and prepared Course Material for the Distance Education courses of various universities and presented papers in Conferences. He has delivered more than 70 lectures in the Orientation and Refresher Courses and about 80 extension lectures in other universities and institutions. He has attended more than 25 National and International Conferences & Workshops, Refresher Courses etc. He presented a paper in International Conference ‘ETD 2013' in September 2013 organised by Hong Kong University, Hong Kong. He has Chaired Technical Sessions in many National and International conferences and Presided over the Valedictory Function of a National Workshop. He Chaired a Technical Session in ETD 2015 organised by JNU, New Delhi, INDIA. He is Member of Editorial Advisory Board (EAB) and Reviewer of ‘Library Management' International Journal of Emerald; Executive Editor, International Journal of Information Dissemination and Technology, India; had been Member, Editorial Board and Reviewer, Kurukshetra University Research Journal of Arts and Humanities, KUK, for 6 years; Reviewer, Annals of Lib. & Inf. Studies, India. He had been twice Chairman, Dept. of Lib. & Inf. Sc., Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, India and Board of Studies (UG & PG). He is/had been Member, Academic Council; Faculty of Arts and Languages, UG and PG Board of Studies of Kurukshetra University. He is on the Panel of Selection Committees, Ph. D. Examiners of a number of Universities. He is Life Member of many national professional bodies and Annual Member of NDLTD.

Dr. Veerbala Sharma is presently working as a Librarian in the C.M.K. National P.G. Girls College, which is affiliated to Chaudhary Devi Lal University Sirsa, Haryana, INDIA. She has a good teaching and research experience of 8 years. Her research/ interest areas include ICT Applications in Lib. and Inf. Centres, Outsourcing and Crowdsourcing etc. She has published and presented 08 research papers in International and National Journals & Conferences. She has also delivered extension lectures in other universities and institutions. She has attended 12 International and National Conferences & Workshops etc. She is/had been Member of Academic Council, IQAC and NAAC. She is also working as a RUSA Institutional Co-ordinator in CMK College. She is Life Member of Haryana Library Association.