Open Access to
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Case Study of Central Library, JNU
**************************************
Dr. Ramesh C Gaur
PGDCA, MLISc,Ph.D. Fulbright Scholar (Virginia Tech, USA
University Librarian
Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU)
New Meharuli Road, New Delhi - 110067
Tele +91-11-26742605, 26704551
Fax : +91-11-26741603
Email: rcgaur@mail.jnu.ac.in ;rcgaur66@gmail.com
URL: www.jnu.ac.in
Brief Profile: http://www.jnu.ac.in/Library/RameshCGaur.htm
Theses and dissertations have long been regarded as
the bedrock of graduate education. They are
scholarly works that take years to research and write
… However, the vast majority of these works languish
in obscurity in college and university libraries and
archives. The best way to bring this research to light
is to publish it electronically and give to students and
researchers free and open access to theses
documents via the World Wide Web.
Fineman, Yale. (2003). Electronic theses and dissertations. Libraries and
the academy, 3(2), 219-227.
Theses and Dissertation collections
in Indian Libraries
Even today
 Most of the University
Libraries are denying free and
open access to even print
Thesis and Dissertation
collections
 Fear of Copying
 Mind set
 Ignorance
History
 Yale University awarded one of the earliest doctorates in 1861 for a
six-page handwritten dissertation.
 UMI Microfilm/Paper Repository of TD since 1939; ETD after 1997
 In 1987, UMI hosted an ETD workshop, and in 1992 and 1994
representatives from at least ten universities held meetings. In
1996, the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA)
provided $90,000 to Virginia Tech to explore ETDs as SGML
documents and the project staff developed a still-evolving
Document Type Definition called ETD-ML. To extend ETDs to the
national level, in 1997 Virginia Tech received funding from the U.S.
Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of PostSecondary Education (FIPSE; $207,000)
 NDLTD The Networked Digital Library of Theses and
Dissertations calls for a sustainable, worldwide, collaborative,
educational initiative of universities committed to encouraging
students to prepare electronic documents and to use digital
libraries
Why OA to ETD?
 Now all Theses and Dissertations are born digital only
 ETDs are royalty-free works of research literature. Their






authors lose no revenue by consenting to OA.
ETDs are not formally published. Hence there are no
publishers
ETD are from Universities
By making ETDs visible, OA helps the readers who
wouldn't otherwise have ready access. But it also helps the
ETD authors, boosting their visibility and impact just as it
does for the authors of journal articles
Universities are in a good position to mandate OA. They
can make it a simple condition of submission and
acceptance. Moreover UGC can act as catalyst in the
process
An OA mandate will elicit better work
Finally, an OA mandate shows that the university takes the
dissertation seriously
Electronic Theses and Dissertations - Copyright,
Open Access and Publishing
 Who owns the copyright of a thesis or
dissertation?
 What is open access, and how does it apply to
thesis or dissertation?
 limit the release of OA to thesis or dissertation?
 Plagiarism
Theses and dissertations have long been regarded as the
bedrock of graduate education. They are scholarly works that
take years to research and write … However, the vast majority of
these works languish in obscurity in college and university
libraries and archives. The best way to bring this research to
light is to publish it electronically and give to students and
researchers free and open access to theses documents via the
World Wide Web.
Fineman, Yale. (2003). Electronic theses and dissertations. Libraries and
the academy, 3(2), 219-227.
OTHER OA ETD Repositories















ADT (Australiasian Digital Theses Program) This search portal provides searching, browsing, and access to
ETDs produced in Australia.
Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertacoes A search tool for accessing ETDs produced in Brazilian universities.
Cybertesis A portal developed jointly by the University of Chile, the Universites de Lyon, Montreal, and
Alexandrie, and the University of Geneva for accessing full text ETDs from many countries, including Bolivia,
Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Hong Kong, Mexico, Peru, Spain, and the United States.
DART-Europe E-theses Portal A discovery service for open access research theses awarded by European
universities.
Deusche National Bibliothek Dissertations since 1998 are available via search in the German National Library.
DiVA This portal provides access to ETDs and research publications written at 26 institutions in Scandinavia.
EThOS Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) offers free access, in a secure format, to the full text of
electronically stored UK theses--a rich and vast body of knowledge.
NARCIS This search portal provides access to ETDs produced in the Netherlands, as well as access to a variety of
other research and data sets.
National ETD Portal (South Africa) This search portal provides access to ETDs produced in South Africa.
ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
Many university libraries provide password access to this commercial database, but the link above also provides
access for individuals without a connection to a research library. The collection includes most recent North
American ETDs and selective coverage for other regions of the world.
RCAAP - Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal
The RCAAP's mission is to promote, support and facilitate the adoption of the open access movement in
Portugal. RCAAP The project aims to: increase the visibility, accessibility and dissemination of academic activity
and Portuguese scientific research, facilitating the management and access to information about scientific
production and integrate Portugal into a set of international initiatives. This portal offers a union catalog with
digital contents from more than 30 institutions.
Theses Canada
A union catalog of Canadian theses and dissertations, in both electronic and analog formats, is available
through the search interface on this portal.
WorldCat
NDLTD Union Catalog hosted by OCLC.
Indian ETD Initiatives
 ICSSR Theses repository
 Vidyanidhi: http://www.vidyanidhi.org.in/
 Indian Institute of science :
http://etd.ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/
 Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore :
http://www.opendoar.org/find.php?rID=149&format=f
ull
ETD@JNU
 Approval of Academic Council, JNU
 Signing of MOU with INFLIBNET
 Funding
 Plan
National Seminar on Managing
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
 22-23 March 2012 - National Seminar
on Managing Electronic Theses and
Dissertations was organized by Central
Library, JNU on at Convention Centre,
JNU. JNU Library in collaboration with
INFLIBNET Centre, Ahmedabad
organized a two-day “National Seminar
on ‘Managing Electronic Theses and
Dissertations (ETDs)” on 22-23 March
2012. The Seminar was attended by
over 300 participants from various
institutions and universities in India.
The experts from various parts of the
country delivered talks. The key-note
address was delivered by Dr. Vinod
Chachra, Member, Boards of Directors
Network Digital Library for Theses and
Dissertations (NDLTD), USA. The
discussions held in the Seminar were
very useful and provided a blue print
for creation of ETD archive in various
universities in India.
Workshop on “Development of Institutional
Repository using Dspace with special reference to
creation of ETD Archive
 23-27 July 2012 - Workshop on
“Development of Institutional Repository
using Dspace with special reference to
creation of ETD Archive” jointly organized
by JNU and INFLIBNET. This workshop is
intended to equip participants with skills for
developing their own digital
libraries/institutional repositories. There will
be lectures as well as intensive hands-on
training sessions by experts in the field. Thus
it will greatly help participants to update
their skills to build up digital repositories.
 The workshop trained the professionals
about;
 To provide background knowledge of the
digital library( in particularly Dspace)
 To provide hands-on experience in using
DSpace software
 How to handle and involved in
installing, administering and
customising the DSpace software.
 The advanced features of 1.8.3 version –
tools, RSS feeds for podcasts, discovery
faceted searching and browsing system,
ability to enable automatic virus
checking during item upload etc.
Award of Digitization contract
 In-house
 Outsourcing
 Outside Projects
 Collaborations
 Tendering – Two bid systems
 Quality Checking
 Archival Systems
Tender Document and award of contract for
Digitization of theses and dissertations at JNU
 Scope
 Objectives
 Job specifications
 Technical specifications
 Sample submission
 Technical Committee
 Sample digitization work
 Contract agreement
 In-house team to check the quality
Digitization Process at JNU for ETD
 Receiving → Unbinding → Preparing
Document (File preparation) →
Scanning (Single Page TIFF) →
Quality Control → Copy editing →
Clearing (Image ‘X’) → Rechecking
→ OCRing → Conversion to
searchable PDF(A) → Quality
Control → Final Output → Binding
→ Back to Shelf
Scanning
Cleaning of Image
Research Writings
Most important things to follow
 What is Plagiarism
 Types of Plagiarism
 Preventing plagiarism









when writing
What is citation?
How do I cite sources?
Citation styles
Listing References
Quoting Material
What's a Bibliography?
What are Footnotes?
Plagiarism Check,
Grammar Check &
Tutoring
Important Terms
Access to ETD@JNU
 Metdata
 Uploading on Library Server and access using ILMS
 Creation of Institutional Repositories using DSPACE
 Providing copies to SHODHGANGA for open access
 Creation of ETD Lab
 Organisation of Author Workshops
 Turitin account – to check the plagiarism
 Change of Guidelines for submission of these and
dissertations
Conclusion
 Shodhganga is a good initiative but…..
 OA to ETD can contribute in increasing both quality




and quantity of Research in Indian Universities
It can check the plagiarism
Can also check duplication of efforts
Can help Industry in furthering the research
OA to ETD can be done with very little efforts
Refrences
 http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/presentations/ETDgenreALL.




pdf
http://publications.drdo.gov.in/ojs/index.php/djlit/art
icle/view/149/64
http://crl.acrl.org/content/early/2012/04/05/crl356.full.pdf+html
www.ndltd.org
Peter Suber, Open Access to Electronic Theses and
Dissertations, DESIDOC Journal of Library and
Information Technology, Vol. 28, No. 1, January 2008,
pp. 25-34© 2008, DESIDOC