Electronic Theses and Dissertations and Institutional Repositories: Roadmap to Research Visibility in Africa

摘要

The study investigates the extent of Electronic Theses and Dissertations's (ETDs) adoption in university libraries in Africa as a way of making local content visible globally in open access institutional repositories (IRs). The study includes current theses submitted in electronic form and digitized theses that were in paper form (retrospective digitization). Quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. Collection of data was in two phases: website investigation and an online questionnaire. The study revealed that 56 university libraries have already adopted ETDs in their IRs; many universities in Africa have made it mandatory for their graduate students to submit their theses and dissertations in electronic form. It emerged that DSpace is the most widely adopted software used to manage ETDs in university libraries in Africa. Some of the benefits of ETDs that were identified by respondents to our questionnaire include improved university visibility and ranking, increased access to the theses and dissertations (T&Ds), saving of physical space in the library, preservation, cost savings for students, increases in readership, enhancing graduate education, introducing students to electronic publishing, and reduction of plagiarism among researchers. Issues related to the cost of equipment, lack of approved repository policy for ETDs, lack of IT skills, copyright issues, and metadata standards were identified as challenges. It is hoped that the study might provide useful insights for librarians planning to embark on a project involving digitization.