Discovering Electronic Theses and Dissertations of Science and Technology Institutes in India

T.S. Kumbar*

Librarian

tskumbar@iitgn.ac.in

Viral Asjola

Senior Library & Information Assistant

Manu T. R

Library Trainee

Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar

VGEC Campus, Chandkheda, Ahmedabad 382424, INDIA

Abstract

India has over 70 academic institutions of national importance. Most of these institutions, offer Masters and Doctoral programs in different disciplines. In each of these institutions, students submit their dissertations and theses as part of their academic requirement. Over a period of time, libraries in these institutions have developed a huge collection of theses and dissertations. Of late, these libraries have also started collecting these documents in electronic form along with print copies and started creating Institutional Repositories/ ETDs. Regarding collection, each library has been following its own method of processing, organizing and providing access. In most cases, access to this information (both metadata and full text) is limited to their own institution and the metadata information is not contributed to the national level databases. As a result, most of the academic research work carried out is not prominently visible or accessible to the outside world which may have led to some amount of duplication in research work. Possibly, this may have also contributed to lesser citations and impact of the research work done in these premier institutions at the international level. So there exists a gap between what is available in these libraries and what is discoverable and usable by outside world. Therefore, there is a need for creating a system (one point of access) wherein, at least the metadata is harvested, indexed and openly accessible on the web.

The present study being undertaken by the authors uses a survey method for collecting the data with regard to different aspects including current status of ETDs in these 50+ Institutions, their accessibility, standards and policies followed, future plans, contributions to national and international databases etc. In addition, a systematic effort is also being made to collect relevant data from online catalogues, websites, institutional repositories of respective libraries and other possible sources to find out as to what extent the information about the holdings of ETDs is discoverable from outside these institutions.

Based on the data collected through different methods, authors would like to come out with a proposal to create a system where all libraries will participate willingly by agreeing to follow a common policy and create records using common metadata standard (Dublin Core), implement OAI-PMH protocol and facilitate harvesting the data through online catalogues and IR/ETDs. The central index which will harvest the metadata from the participating libraries will serve as one point access to the users from within and outside India. While participating libraries will share the metadata, they can maintain full text of each ETD on their own server and provide access, based on their institution policy. Based on the data collected, authors would also like to explore the possibility of participation in the already existing national level systems like Shodhganga.