Dissertations in the electronic age: tapping into emerging musicology
research
Introduction
One of the first questions graduate students often ask when approaching me for
help is how to find dissertations. Whether they need to focus their own research topics or
gain formatting guidance, scholars refer to dissertations for a variety of reasons.
Dissertations reflect the state of research in a specific area and are important for their
narrow focus yet relative depth, as well as for their extensive bibliographies. Despite their
importance, historically it has been difficult to identify these works without access to
specialized tools such as Dissertation Abstracts. Accessing the dissertations themselves,
once identified, poses another challenge. Institutions can be unwilling to Interlibrary
Loan print copies of dissertations, especially if they hold the only copy, meaning the
researcher or his/her home library may be forced to buy a copy from ProQuest (if
available). The emergence of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) as a standard
format has improved identification of and access to dissertations, but has introduced other
challenges. Chief among them is the fact that there is not yet one resource that can
identify and access all ETDs, and there is no tool that can simultaneously locate all print
and electronic dissertations. Patrons continue to need assistance in choosing the right
tools and in conducting thorough searches for dissertations on their topic.
The goal of this study is to determine whether the changing landscape of
dissertations, with its gradual but steady shift from print to electronic format, is affecting
how dissertations in musicology are identified and accessed. The study investigates how
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well four online library research tools perform in locating known musicology
dissertations from three comparable graduate programs. The tools examined are RILM
Abstracts of Music Literature (RILM), The Music Index (MI), Doctoral Dissertations in
Musicology (DDM), and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT). The study also
addresses issues specific to locating and accessing ETDs in musicology and other sources
that might be considered.
Background
In the print-only era, students or departments would submit copies of the
dissertation to the library, which would catalog one for its collection and submit one to
University Microfilms International (UMI),1 where it would be indexed and included in
Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI). According to ProQuest:
Virtually all accredited institutions in North America that award doctoral degrees
submit their dissertations to ProQuest for publication or listing in
DAI…Occasionally a department or student may not submit a dissertation to
ProQuest, so DAI is not 100% inclusive. However, we estimate that 95% to 98%
of all U. S. doctoral dissertations are included. DAI is the most current of the
printed sources for the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses database. 2
Now, graduate schools may require and/or encourage students to self-submit their
dissertations in electronic form to ProQuest and increasingly to the institution’s scholarly
(or ETD) repository. In either case, students write their own abstracts and choose
indexing words. Print copies are no longer automatically deposited in the library.
However, the library may order a print copy from ProQuest for its collection and may use
ProQuest’s bibliographic record in its OPAC or to enhance the record. Records for these
dissertations are then also loaded into WorldCat, which is another source for locating
them.
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ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT), the newest subscription-based
commercial product to build on UMI’s DAI, is now the primary resource used by
librarians and scholars for locating dissertations in any field. PQDT “has 2.7 million
searchable citations to dissertation and theses from around the world from 1861 to the
present day together with 1.2 million full text dissertations...”3 PQDT allows the
submission of supplemental digital files, including audio, video or any other type of
digital file.4 This is of course relevant to music scholars whose dissertation includes nontext files such as musical scores or sound or video recordings. Even though it is not
available at every institution, its present role as the foremost source for locating and
accessing digital dissertations (ETDs) is not disputed; however, current trends may
change this. ProQuest also now offers PQDT Open, which since 2007 provides the full
text of open access dissertations and theses free of charge.5
Scholars wishing to identify dissertations beyond those held in their library and/or
to identify relevant publications in addition to dissertations in their subject area must look
beyond the local catalog. For this reason scholars use abstracting and indexing databases
that include items in multiple formats. The primary databases used in music research are
subscription resources RILM (1967-present, print and online) and Music Index (19492009 print, online 1972-present6), which are the two oldest abstracting and indexing
services for literature about music. RILM describes its coverage of dissertations as,
“doctoral level (or highest postgraduate degree level) dissertations in music and in other
disciplines when they concern music. Master’s level or other student theses are included
when they contain significant new information or a new interpretation, and are publicly
available.”7 RILM does not clearly discuss where its data describing dissertations comes
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3
from or whether coverage is limited to the US, but its records for dissertations do include
UMI numbers. RILM also allows authors to submit records about their own works.8
According to the Assistant Director of the RILM U.S. Office,
For the past few years, the majority of U.S. dissertations that appear in RILM
have been loaded from UMI (ProQuest Theses and Dissertations). [Prior to that
we] used to search through Dissertation Abstracts International for any
dissertations that included the subject code for music….For the dissertations that
we do load into RILM from UMI, we add a classification to the record
(identifying the one or two broad subject areas that the dissertation addresses).9
Abstracts for records loaded from UMI are authored by the student. Music Index (MI)
includes citations for DAI entries of doctoral-level dissertations10 but does not include
abstracts. Given that Music Index and RILM both use DAI as a data source, one would
expect their coverage of music dissertations to be similar to one another and to PQDT.
Historically, scholars wishing to identify only musicology dissertations could
comb through DAI or used the specialized resource Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology
(DDM). DDM began in 1952 as a monographic series under the auspices of the American
Musicological Society.11 Since 1996, it has existed as a free online database (DDMOnline) that relies on students to input information about their own in-progress or
completed dissertations. It now has more than 14,000 records “in the fields of
musicology, music theory, and ethnomusicology, as well as in related musical, scientific,
and humanistic disciplines.”12 It includes music dissertations from the U.S. and abroad,
with some written as early as the late 1800s.13 This provides earlier coverage than either
RILM or MI. Another benefit of DDM is its focus on musicology dissertations (Ph.D.
and DMA), meaning there are fewer false hits when searching it than in broader sources
such as ProQuest. It is possible to limit searching to “all,” “completed,” or “in-progress”
dissertations, and there are author and time-period indexes. However, four drawbacks of
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4
DDM are 1) the lack of abstracts, 2) presence of only very basic keyword search options,
3) inability to sort search results, and, 4) the fact that schools may not require or even
encourage students to register their dissertations with DDM. (See Table 1).
Table 1 Overview of Resource Features
RILM
Dissertation Doctoral and
types non-doctoral
MI
Doctoral only
PQDT
Dissertations
and theses
US Degree Ph.D.,
types D.M.A.,
Ed.D; some
M.A. and
M.M.
Subjects All music
Ph.D., D.M.A.,
A.Mus.D.,
Ed.D., D.Ed.
D.M.E., D.A.
Ph.D., D.M.A.,
Ed.D., D.Ed.
D.M.E.,
A.Mus.D.,
Mus.D.
All
All music
1972-present
Dates covered 1969-present
No
Abstracts Yes
Yes/No
Student- Yes
supplied
metadata?
U.S./Canada
International? Yes
$
Cost ? $
*coverage not comprehensive back that far
DDM
Doctoral only;
Finished and in
progress
Primarily Ph.D.
and D.M.A.;
some EdD
1861*-present
Yes
Yes
Musicology,
Music theory,
Performance,
Music
Education, and
more (Ph.D.)
1897*-present
No
Yes
Yes
$
Yes
Free
Field and data structure differ among RILM, Music Index, and PQDT, making
comparison of their data somewhat difficult. For example, although “Source” is a search
field in RILM, in the Music Index search interface only similar field is
“SO(urce)=Publication Name.” However, “Source” is a field in both RILM and MI
records. In RILM the value is the granting school and degree type (Ph.D., DMA, etc), but
in MI the value is Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) because that is the source of
the citation. (See Table 2).
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5
Table 2 Resource Field Comparison
Title
Music Index (via
Ebsco)
Title [includes school,
degree and date]
Document Title
Record Type
Document Type
[dissertation]
Publication Type
Source type
Authors
Authors
Author
[author]
Subject Terms
Subject name/code
Index terms
(Keyword(s))
[additional keywords]
RILM (via Ebsco)
PQDT
DDM*
[title]
Major Topics
Subjects
Abstract
Abstract
Abstractor Name
Publication Date
Dissertation Source
[school and degree]
[see title above]
Date
[see title above]
Degree
[degree]
School name/Code
[school]
School Location
Publisher [UMI]
Source [DAI]
Country of Publication
Country of Publication
Source [DAI]
Pagination
Physical Description
Language
Language
Document Language
ISSN
ISBN
Accession Number
ProQuest Document
ID
UMI Number
ISBN
[UM[I] number]
RILM Source
Accession Number
[DDM code, DA[I]
number, RILM
number]
Volume/Issue (DVI)
[in DAI]
Journal Subset
Advisor
[Research director]
Committee Member
Dissertation Field
Department
Publication Number
Supplemental files
Document text
*no separate fields per se, record is one data field, keyword searchable
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The search options in RILM, Music Index, and PQDT vary greatly. RILM, Music
Index, and PQDT allow searching by specific fields and/or keywords anywhere. RILM
has specific field-search options for Dissertation Degree/Institution, Dissertation Field,
and Dissertation UMI #. Searches in RILM can also be limited to “All Dissertations,”
“Doctoral Dissertations,” or “Non-doctoral Dissertations.” “Dissertation” can be used as
a format limit when searching MI, while PQDT allow school and degree limiters. RILM
and PQDT include abstracts, and therefore have more data for keyword searches to
search, which is a significant benefit of these tools. PQDT however, has a simplified
controlled vocabulary that is student-supplied, and not as robust as the complex subject
headings supplied in RILM and MI.
Since their inception in the late 1980s,14 Electronic Theses and Dissertations
(ETDs) have gained increasing acceptance as the official deposit format at universities
throughout the United States and throughout the world. Many access points to ETDs have
emerged—the university’s online library catalog (which will of course point to the print
copy if there is one, and may also provide a URL to any holdings in local repositories or
PQDT), WorldCat, the school’s ETD and/or scholarly repositories, abstracting and
indexing databases, PQDT, and potentially other ETD-only finding tools such as the
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD).15 (See Appendix A for
a list of ETD sources.) Not surprisingly, dissertations can also be found via Google and
Google Scholar. In 2007 Google and ProQuest began a formal arrangement.
ProQuest has arranged with Google and Google Scholar to allow indexing and
searching across bibliographic data for graduate works published in 2007 and
forward. Searches will retrieve basic metadata for each graduate work (title,
author, abstract, keywords, etc), and provide links to ProQuest for purchase or
access….However, Canadian graduate works are not included, nor are any that
are embargoed or restricted at an author's request.”16
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Some schools, such as Stanford, are working directly with Google and bypassing
ProQuest. This saves the students money, unless they choose to pay to have their
dissertation listed with PQDT.17 University libraries are in favor of ETDs for several
reasons, with increased access and no requirement for physical storage space chief among
them. However, issues related to preservation, copyright, and multimedia components
such as audio and video have yet to see standard resolution in ETDs.
Literature Review
Several articles and reviews have compared scope, content, coverage, interfaces,
features, and functionality of Music Index and RILM, but none have specifically
evaluated their dissertation coverage.18 Only Toulas’ 2006 Notes review19 directly
discusses features and coverage of online dissertation databases, and includes ProQuest
Dissertations Abstracts online (a precursor of PQDT) and DDM-Online.
There have also been numerous articles that discuss the history and technical
background of electronic theses and dissertations and their adoption as a standard format.
Herther (2010) offers a concise overview of dissertations, open access, ETDs, and the
changing role of UMI/ProQuest.20 Yiotis (2008) provides a history of UMI/ProQuest, the
emergence of ETDs and the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
(NDLTD), and offers a description of the technical background of the ETD and
repositories and the attendant metadata protocols.
Lippincott and Lynch’s 2010 “ETDs and Graduate Education: Programs and
Prospects” reports the results of a 2008 survey of ETD programs at US universities and
colleges conducted by the Center for Networked Information, a founding member of
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NDLTD. They observe that although ETDs primarily began in the US, due to the
decentralized system of higher education in the US there are no national-level ETD
policies and strategies as there are in other countries.21 The survey inquired about ETD
repository management, preservation, open access and embargoes (due to ‘prior
publication’ concerns), and non-text formats in ETDs.
Musical scores (whether as examples in text or as the primary content of the
theses, such as for a composition student) and other non-text file formats (such as audio
and video) pose access, copyright, and preservation concerns beyond those of the textbased PDF components. Lippincott and Lynch state “… there are some particularly
problematic issues that arise in the performing arts, where there may be issues about
clearing rights of public performance of a dance work, a play, or a musical piece if open
access to theses is required.”22 This issue was also raised by Fineman in his 2004
“Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Music.”23
Concerning non-text formats in ETDs, Lippincott and Lynch indicate that 75% of
the institutions surveyed allow students to submit non-text formats (43% institutionally
defined and 32% arbitrarily and unconstrained formats) into their ETD repositories.24
However, they note that “…the more extensive and diverse the set of formats accepted,
the less likely that the repository will be able to offer services beyond bit-level
preservation for most of the formats across time.”25 This is echoed by Teper and Kraemer
(2002) who discuss the obsolescence of traditional non-text formats (cassettes, etc.) in
dissertations and how their decline results in an incomplete record of the students’
work.26 They stress the need for archival standards for the longevity of electronic
formats, including format migration for PDFs.27 Lippincott and Lynch also raise the
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larger question that “what we don’t know (and this is a place where data would be
valuable) is how many authors take advantage of these opportunities to include nontextual materials at institutions that permit this.”28 According to Fineman, as of 2004 very
few ETDs included non-text files.29 Lowry outlines the differences in disciplinary thought
regarding open access, with “the science and technology disciplines on the one end
[being more open to open access and ETDs] and the humanities and fine arts on the other,
with the social and behavioral sciences falling somewhere in between.30
Concerning cataloging and access of ETDs, Fineman advocates for complete
inclusion of ETD links in local catalog, and subsequently WorldCat—allowing WorldCat
to be a primary locator for ETDs.31 “Electronic Theses and Dissertations: Developing
Standards and Changing Practices for Libraries and Universities” (2009) focuses
primarily on cataloging issues inherent to ETDs. McCutcheon et al’s 2008 “Morphing
Metadata: Maximizing Access to Electronic Theses and Dissertations” describes
OhioLINK’s ETD Center’s processes for repurposing author-generated metadata into a
MARC record through full level cataloging treatment. They point out that while ProQuest
metadata is generated by the author of the ETD, PQDT does provide authors with UMI
Subject Descriptors to choose from—so there is a controlled vocabulary of sorts.32
Methodology
In the 2007-8 academic year 625,000 masters degrees and 63,700 doctorates,
(including Ph.D.s, EdDs, and comparable) were awarded in the United States.33 Of those,
1169 were doctorates in music or music education.34 To make the present study
manageable, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of North CarolinaChapel Hill, and Indiana University were chosen as test cases, given their comparable
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graduate programs in musicology and because they had publicly-available lists of
dissertations produced by their programs.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music offers M.M. and
Ph.D. degrees in musicology with focuses in historical musicology and
ethnomusicology.35 There are usually about 34 masters and Ph.D. students enrolled at any
given time. Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music offers a Master of Arts in
Musicology and a Ph.D. in musicology focused in historical musicology36 and currently
has 68 students enrolled in its graduate program. Indiana’s Department of Folklore and
Ethnomusicology grants degrees in ethnomusicology,37 but those dissertations were not
examined as part of this study. The Music Department of University of North CarolinaChapel Hill offers two graduate degrees, the Master of Arts and the Doctor of Philosophy
(Ph.D.) in Musicology.38 UNC-CH’s program has an average of 32 students at a time.
Lists of music dissertations produced by the Musicology department of each of
the three schools were obtained from the departments’ websites.39 Thirty years of data
was thought to be a manageable sample, therefore dissertations from 1979-2008 were
used from UIUC and UNC, while dissertations from 1979-2007 were used from IU
because their online list stopped at 2007. These three lists formed the control lists for the
study.
This study was limited to Ph.D. dissertations in musicology in part because DDM
has a higher concentration of records for Ph.D. dissertations than for other degree types
such as DMA or DMEd/EdD (as might be awarded for performance or pedagogy
degrees). It was felt that expanding the study to include DMA dissertations would have
skewed the results where DDM was concerned. Also, while musicology departments had
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readily available online lists of graduates and their dissertations, lists of Ph.D. Music
Education, EdD, and DMA dissertations were not as readily available. The decision to
focus only on musicology (including ethnomusicology for schools where this was part of
the Musicology program) was also made in part for manageability of the project. While
dissertations in all degree areas are certainly useful to researchers, including DMA and
EdD dissertations would have created much larger data sets, and time and money for the
project were limited.
Rather than search each database for each individual dissertation title, more
general searches were performed first (all searches were performed in July-August of
2009) to see if additional titles would be identified beyond those on the control lists. This
was also done to identify any patterns in indexing or data that might affect the findability
of known dissertations. Because search options were not identical in each database, the
same search procedure could not be used in all cases. However, the general search
process was as follows.
1. Search each database (RILM, MI, PQDT, DDM) for dissertations in music
from that school using these limits:
a. date range of 1979-2008
b. (music or musicology) as subject
c. school name
d. add degree designation limiters as needed (and if possible) on next
iteration(s) to limit to Ph.D.s.
2. Check search results against the control lists
3. If any titles missing, search for them by author or title
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One of the major challenges with identifying and locating ETDs is the fact that
they have multiple access points, not all of which are created equal. To pinpoint finding
and access issues with dissertations and ETDs, another phase of this study looked at local
catalogs and other discovery tools. Each library’s catalog was searched for dissertations
from that school, using similar search procedures as listed above. Results were reviewed
for what headings or notes were included to indicate that the item was a dissertation, its
department of origin, and whether links to ETDs were included. The records for
dissertations found via title or author search were examined for any data issues that may
have caused them to not come up in the original keyword search(es). WorldCat was also
searched for dissertations from the three schools to determine whether links for ETDs
were included. Finally, NDLTD and Google Scholar were also searched in general terms
to find any music-related dissertations, not just those from the three test institutions.
Findings
The general nature of the initial searches conducted in RILM, MI, DDM, and
PQDT meant that more dissertations were found than were on the control lists. Many of
these were generated by students in other departments such as Computer Science (Music
Information Retrieval), Cultural Anthropology, Secondary and Continuing Education,
and History. In all four tools it was difficult to limit to department awarding degree. Even
though PQDT offers a “limit to department” option in its advanced search, for some
reason putting “music” in this field did not return any results. In fact, there is no field
labeled “department” in the bibliographic records. Instead, “music*” must be added to the
subject field—but not all students choose that subject term even (or especially if) their
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dissertation is clearly about music, perhaps feeling it is too generic a descriptor.
However, the majority of the dissertations on the control lists were found in all four tools.
(See Table 3).
Table 3 Dissertations found/Not found
RILM
MI
PQDT
DDM
Total
Found
Not
found
Found
Not
found
Found
Not
found
Found
Not
found
UIUC
79
82.3%
(65)
17.7%
(14)
93.7%
(74)
6.3%
(5)
100%
(79)
0% (0)
46.8%
(37)
53.2%
(42)
UNC-CH
79
82.3%
(65)
17.7%
(14)
94.9%
(75)
5.1%
(4)
100%
(79)
0% (0)
88.6%
(70)
11.4%
(9)
IU
36
88.8%
(32)
11.1%
(4)
97.3%
(35)
2.8%
(1)
97.2%
(35)
2.8%
(1)
100%
(36)
0% (0)
84.5%
15.5%
95.3%
4.7%
99.1%
0.93%
78.5%
21.5%
Average
In RILM and PQDT the majority of dissertations could be found through keyword
searches, while in the other two tools more author and title searches had to be used to find
all dissertations on the lists. (See Table 4).
Table 4 Dissertations found by keyword search vs. found by author or title
RILM
MI
PQDT
DDM
Found in
keyword
search(es)
Found by
title or
author
Found in
keyword
search(es)
Found by
title or
author
Found in
keyword
search(es)
Found by
title or
author
Found in
keyword
search(es)
Found by
title or
author
UIUC
55.70%
(44)
26.60%
(21)
36.70%
(29)
57.00%
(45)
100% (79)
0% (0)
44.30%
(35)
2.50% (2)
UNC-CH
78.50%
(62)
3.80%
(3)
36.70%
(29)
58.20%
(46)
100% (79)
0% (0)
81% (64)
7.60% (6)
IU
83.30%
(30)
5.50%
(2)
41.70%
(15)
55.60%
(20)
94.40% (34)
2.80% (1)
100%
(36)
0% (0)
Average
72.50%
11.97%
38.37%
56.93%
98.13%
0.93%
75.10%
3.37%
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In RILM the not-founds for all three schools were primarily from 2005-2008.
Items found by author or title searches were generally missing either degree information,
complete school information (e.g., missing “Chapel Hill” or “Urbana,”) or degree date.
UIUC also had gaps for 1979-80. For all three schools, the dissertations not found in
Music Index were primarily from 2007 and 2008. All dissertations from 1979-1997 had
to be found by title, as the citations in MI were missing school information and/or degree
type. PQDT included all dissertations for UIUC and UNC. One 2007 dissertation from IU
was not found and one dissertation was found by name because “music” was not listed as
subject. DDM has very good coverage of UIUC dissertations up until 1983, suggesting
that perhaps students were required to submit data up until then. Otherwise, there is very
inconsistent coverage, with no real patterns explaining the gaps from 1979-2008. All IU
dissertations were found in DDM, indicating that data submission is likely mandatory for
their students. Many UNC dissertations from 2006-2008 are still listed as “in progress”
and not complete in DDM. There is no other real pattern to “not founds.” Inconsistent
degree notation and punctuation by schools over time (DMA vs D.M.A.) was a factor in
retrieval as well.
A major factor to keep in mind when searching for dissertations, especially in
RILM and PQDT, is the fact that typically the authors create the metadata about the
dissertations (although as stated earlier, RILM staff will add broad subject
classifications). In some cases, lack of specific and relevant subject headings or keywords
or insufficiently descriptive abstracts can make it difficult to find a dissertation in a
keyword search. The real-life example that inspired this study started with a search of
PQDT for any dissertations about a specific Hummel piano work. No dissertations from
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UIUC were identified. However, when the local catalog was searched, a DMA
dissertation from UIUC was identified, which was then located in PQDT by title. The
UIUC catalogers had included a subject heading for the specific work, while the student
did not mention the work in her abstract.40
Local library catalogs, as expected, are generally good at representing complete
holdings of dissertations produced at that university. However, cataloging and other
processing time can delay the appearance of dissertations in the catalog. Most OPACs do
not include a way to limit a search to dissertation or thesis as a format. In fact, finding
dissertations in library catalogs are challenging enough that some libraries create
extensive help pages on how to find their own dissertations.41 Whether library OPACs
include links to ETDs, and whether the links go to ProQuest or a local scholarly or ETD
repository, varies. (See Table 5).
Table 5 Local catalog inclusion of dissertations
UIUC
Found in general search(es)
Found by title or author name
Not found
Link to ETD
89.9% (71)
7.6% (6)
2.5% (2)
2006 forward
UNC-CH
Found in general search(es)
Found by title or author name
Not found
Link to ETD
92.4% (73)
7.6% (6)
0% (0)
2006 forward
IU
Found in general search(es)
Found by title or author name
Not found
Link to ETD
83.3% (30)
16.7% (6)
0% (0)
2007
Two dissertations from the UIUC control list were not found in the catalog; both
were from 2008. UIUC catalog records for dissertations from 2006 forward include links
to ProQuest ETDs in the 856 MARC field, and prior to 2006 are print and/or microform
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copies only. The bibliographic records contain 502 MARC fields (Dissertation Note) to
indicate the nature and origin of the work (e.g., Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign, 2008). A related subject heading such as “Theses—UIUC—1993—
Music—Musicology” may also be included. Records occasionally include UMI/ProQuest
numbers or the name of the adviser in the MARC 500 field.
UNC’s catalog records indicate that their dissertations from 2008 forward are
ETD-only; ETD with print and/or microform from 2006-2007; and print and/or
microform from 2005 and earlier. In addition to the 502 MARC field, they include the
following information in the 500 MARC field: "... in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music."
Discipline: Music; Department/School: Music. A MARC 773 entry labeled “In: UNC
electronic theses and dissertations collection” links to the electronic version of the
dissertation in their local ETD repository. Records for print editions also include the
following: Formats: Theses and Dissertations; Location/Call number: Thesis Music 2005
C5944 (Music Library Theses/Dissertations).
IU’s catalog records contain MARC 502 fields (Description: Thesis (Ph. D.)-Indiana University, 2002) and Subject headings: Music--Theses. Two IU dissertation
records include links to ProQuest ETDs.
Finding dissertations in WorldCat is somewhat more precise, given that there is a
limiter for thesis/dissertation. However, the problem posed by WorldCat is the multitude
of records for the same item—from the granting institution, for the ETD, for copies held
in other formats such as print or microfilm, and even sometimes for those held by other
schools, if they chose to catalog them differently. While Fineman commented on lack of
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links to ETDs in WorldCat,42 at the time of this study, generally if the school’s catalog
record included a link to the ETD, the WorldCat record did too.
While many universities have allowed electronic deposit of dissertations and
theses as an option for several years, those with institutional repositories are only in the
last one-two years requiring students to deposit their dissertations and theses locally into
the local repository and not just in PQDT. UIUC students graduating in December 2010
and beyond must submit their theses and dissertations electronically to IDEALS.43
UIUC’s IDEALS44 includes ETDs alongside other documents. Dissertations from Spring
2010 forward not under a patent hold can be found in the Dissertations and Theses
community (“community” being a standard term in repositories to refer to collections
created by a particular department and/or consisting of similar materials);45 each
dissertation or thesis is also mapped to a Department or College level collection. IU,
which like UIUC has a combined ETD/institutional repository,46 is working to require
deposit of ETDs. There, all dissertations are located in the Dissertations Community,47
not in specific school communities.48 UNC-CH’s has required local ETD deposit
beginning in 2008.49 Their repository50 is the only example of an ETD-only repository in
this study. One can “Browse all,” “Browse by school/department,” “Browse by
discipline,” or “Browse by faculty advisor.”
Each school’s repository was searched in Fall of 2010 for music dissertations,
using department indicators/communities if available, or other keywords that might
indicate the dissertation originated from the School or Department of Music. Some ETD
repositories, such as IDEALS, allow students to deposit media files to accompany their
dissertations. ProQuest also allows supplemental media, so audio files can be included.51
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This study attempted to determine whether the dissertations under review had
accompanying media and whether it was included in the ETD repositories.
UIUC’s scholarly repository IDEALS contains PDFs of eight music dissertations
or theses, all of which date from 2010. At the time of this study, these did not yet appear
in the local catalog, as they are first processed into IDEALS, then cataloged for inclusion
in the library catalog, and then submitted to PQDT.52 As in PQDT, author-assigned
subjects are used. Six of the eight music dissertations don’t include the term “music” as a
descriptor, perhaps because the authors felt that the dissertations’ presence in the School
fo Music community within IDEALS was enough—but that context is lost if the same
record is used in ProQuest or another database.
UNC’s ETD repository contains 19 music dissertations, dating back to 2006.
IU’s scholarly repository contains only one music dissertation. It is difficult in both the
UIUC and IU repositories to access a complete list limited to dissertations and
department because the communities overlap—there are communities for departments
and for dissertations. Using a “subject” search as a way to identify dissertations on a topic
is not reliable, as students are choosing the terms themselves and are not trained music
catalogers. None of the school’s music ETDs appears to include media files.
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations attempts to be a union
catalog for ETDs from many countries, and has over one million records. There are two
search interfaces, one a traditional search-by-fields, the other a visual tool for limiting by
facets. While it allows deposit of multiple media formats including audio, of the 18
examples containing audio files, only three are related to music. Although it claims to get
data from OCLC and from schools directly, only one music PhD dissertation from UIUC
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and nine music PhD dissertations from UNC-CH’s Department of Music are listed in
NDLTD. Nineteen IU items have music* in the record, but only one is from the School of
Music (the rest being from Department of Folklore and Musicology or others such as
Department of History).
Google Scholar, a source that students might turn to before library resources,
brings with it its usual problems. There is a lot of data, but limited means to control
searches and result sets. One can put “dissertation” into the publication field in the
advanced search. Doing this with ‘music or musicology’ in the keyword search results in
1,430 items, but there is no way to sort them. Perhaps the most serious limitation of
Google is the inconsistency in citations. Because citations are frequently very brief, it is
often impossible to determine the degree type or granting school. Citations do not always
contain links to ETDs, but when they do, they range from individual schools’ repositories
to PQDT and other sites. An example of a Google Scholar citation illustrates why
searchers would often need to conduct one or more searches in other source(s) such as
WorldCat or PQDT to confirm the citation and locate the item.
[CITATION] Vernacular traditions: The use of music in the novels of Toni
Morrison; C Spies - 2004 - PhD dissertation
So, while Google Scholar might increase the visibility of some ETDs, the inherent data
problems are a significant drawback to efficient access.
Discussion
Among the four databases compared, PQDT performs the best at identifying
dissertations and offering access to ETDs. MI and RILM perform quite well in
identifying dissertations across all three schools, and DDM’s performance varies widely
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depending on which school is in question. This suggests that while PQDT is the preferred
tool (if it is available), RILM and MI can also be used with confidence for locating
dissertations, especially as they also have the advantage of incorporating other
publication types, providing researchers with a broader picture of the scholarship in a
given area. DDM should be used in the interest of thoroughness, given its greater date
coverage and inclusion of dissertations in progress, but the inconsistency of its coverage
from school to school should be foremost in the researcher’s mind. While schools may
have encouraged or even required students to submit data to DDM in the past, with the
advent of PQDT and ETDs they may no longer see it as a critical resource.
A question raised by this study concerns the records’ level of abstraction from the
original data source. Although RILM and MI both get data from Dissertation Abstracts,
their results differ from each other and from PQDT. Another issue to consider is
timeliness—if dissertations are first submitted to PQDT or local repositories and then
data is gathered by RILM and MI and local catalogs, these sources will continuously lag
behind in their coverage. While students have the option of submitting their dissertation
data directly to RILM, it is unknown how many choose to do this. Another concern is
accuracy and completeness of records containing student-created metadata and abstracts,
information that directly affects the findability of a dissertation. It is clear that in many
cases students could benefit from being taught how to create useful and descriptive
subject headings and abstracts for their dissertations.
The mechanics of official record keeping will also likely be affected by ETDs.
The National Association of Schools of Music requires schools to keep the final products
of a degree as part of their certification. "Institutional members [of NASM] shall
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maintain documents pertinent to the awarding of graduate degrees, including theses,
dissertations, compositions, recital programs, and audio recordings."53 How will the
continued use of ETDs as the standard format of deposit affect this? If students cannot or
do not submit audio materials to PQDT or local repositories, do those recordings remain
accessible in physical form in the library? While this study didn’t look at all types of
music dissertations, if it had gone beyond musicology, it would have found more
instances of dissertations that included media files, especially from DMA and
composition students.
Throughout the course of this study, it became clear that individual departments
do not necessarily keep accurate and current lists of degrees awarded and the relevant
dissertation titles. A comparison of the dissertation control list from the UIUC School of
Music Department as it was when these searches were conducted (summer 2009) and the
time of this writing (fall 2010) showed that dissertations had been added and removed
from the list.
Drawbacks of this study include the fact that most researchers aren’t necessarily
looking for dissertations just from a specific school, unless they are looking for examples
for formatting guidance. Also, this study couldn’t determine why some dissertations were
missing from RILM, MI, and PQDT—perhaps they were not reported by the school or
the student.
Conclusion
While PQDT’s results are impressive, RILM and MI offer the benefit of context
because they include many different types of publications and provide a broader picture
of the state of research in a given topic. For those who know they are looking only for
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dissertations, PQDT can offer one-stop searching and access, at least for recent North
American dissertations. DDM is the sole source for locating dissertations in progress, and
it is this fact, in addition to its coverage date range, that continues to make it a
worthwhile source of dissertation information.
The increase in interdisciplinary research in U.S. institutions is also an important
factor to be considered, as many music-related dissertations are originating in
departments such as anthropology, computer science, and history. This means that tools
such as PQDT are ever more important, as RILM and MI are not as likely to include
those titles, and DDM almost certainly won’t.
The rise of ETDs as the standard format has in some ways increased the
findability of dissertations, but has also created another layer for the researcher to deal
with. There may never be a time when all dissertations (whether print or electronic) from
all institutions can be easily accessed through one tool. Because the requirement to
deposit ETDs is relatively recent at many schools, local repositories don’t yet have a
critical mass of dissertations. Future research is needed to determine how the barriers
concerning media and copyright and preservation can be addressed both in local and
global ETD repositories. ETDs cannot be a permanent record of graduate work if they do
not include all of the elements created by the student. Another area meriting future
examination, not just in music but in all fields, is how required deposit of ETDs in
institutional repositories will affect their inclusion in subject-specific abstracting and
indexing tools such as RILM and MI.
A final question to consider concerns how long PQDT will survive as the de facto
primary source for electronic dissertations. If institutions offer students the option to, or
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indeed if they require students to submit their dissertations into the local institutional
repository free of charge, how long before students stop submitting to PQDT? Will freely
accessible tools like Google Scholar or NDLTD improve enough to push PQDT out of
the market?
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Notes
1
Bell and Howell bought UMI in 1985, and Bell and Howell was renamed ProQuest in 2001. ProQuest
History and Milestones, http://proquest.com/en-US/aboutus/history.shtml (accessed 9/16/2010).
2
Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI) http://www.proquest.com/enUS/catalogs/databases/detail/dai.shtml (accessed 9/16/2010).
3
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Database Key Facts http://www.proquest.com/enUS/catalogs/databases/detail/pqdt.shtml (accessed 9/16/2010).
4
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses http://www.proquest.com/assets/literature/products/databases/pqdt.pdf
(accessed 9/23/2010).
5
About PQDT Open http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/about.html (accessed 9/23/2010).
6
Although with Music Index’s recent acquisition by EBSCO in 2009, there has been discussion about
changes in date and title coverage.
7
RILM Coverage http://www.rilm.org/scope/coverage.html (accessed 9/16/2010).
8
RILM Submissions http://www.rilm.org/submissions/index.html (accessed 9/16/2010).
9
Julie Schnepel, Assistant Director RILM U.S. Office, email to the author, 3/9/2010.
10
According to its most recent coverage list, Music Index (which was recently purchased by Ebsco)
stopped indexing Dissertation Abstracts International as of 5/1/2009. Ebsco Music Index Database
Coverage List list http://www.ebscohost.com/titleLists/mah-coverage.htm (accessed 9/16/2010);
Dissertations Abstracts International http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/dai.shtml
(accessed 9/16/2010).
11
DDM, About This Site http://www.chmtl.indiana.edu/ddm/this_site.html (accessed 9/16/2010).
12
DDM http://www.chmtl.indiana.edu/ddm/ (accessed 9/16/2010).
13
In 1861Yale University awarded the first Ph.D.s in North America. Council of Graduate Schools Ph.D.
Completion Project, Yale University Profile, http://www.phdcompletion.org/features/yale.asp (accessed
9/16/2010).
14
History of the NDLTD http://www.ndltd.org/about/history (accessed 9/16/2010).
15
“The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) [is] an international organization
dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination, and preservation of electronic theses and
dissertations (ETDs),” http://www.ndltd.org/ (accessed 6/5/2011).
16
ProQuest, About Google/Google Scholar http://www.proquest.com/enUS/products/dissertations/google.shtml (accessed 9/16/2010).
17
Google publishes Stanford dissertations online, http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-11-16/bayarea/17180161_1_students-paper-university, November 16, 2009 (accessed 9/16/2010). See also “Stanford
Dissertations Moving from ProQuest to Google - An interview with Mimi Calter” November 20, 2009,
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/commentary_and_analysis/2009_11_calter.html (accessed 9/16/2010).
18
Cary, Paul, Music Index Online (review), Notes 64(3) (March 2008): 555-563.; Green, Alan, Keeping Up
with the Times: Evaluating Currency of Indexing, Language Coverage and Subject Area Coverage in the
Three Music Periodical Index Databases, Music Reference Services Quarterly 8(1) (January 2001): 53-68.;
Troutman, Leslie, Comprehensiveness of Indexing in Three Music Periodical Index Databases, Music
Reference Services Quarterly 8(1) (January 2001): 39-51.
19
Toulas, Andrew, Review: Dissertation Databases on the Web, Notes 63(1) (Sept 2006): 159-163.
20
Herther, Nancy K., Dissertations and Research in an Era of Change, Searcher 18(2) (March 2010): 22-35.
21
Lippincott, Joan K. and Clifford A. Lynch, ETDs and Graduate Education: Programs and Prospects,
Research Library Issues, 270 (June 2010): 8.
22
Ibid, 12.
23
Fineman, Yale, Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Music, Notes 60(4) (June 2004): 899.
24
Lippincott and Lynch, 12.
25
Ibid, 13.
26
Teper, Thomas H. and Beth Kraemer, Long-term Retention of Electronic Theses and Dissertations,
College and Research Libraries, 63(1) (January 2002): 63.
27
Ibid, 69.
28
Lippincott and Lynch, 13.
2/6/2016
25
29
Fineman, 897.
Lowry, Charles B., ETDs and Digital Repositories—a Disciplinary Challenge to Open Access?, portal:
Libraries and the Academy 6(4) (October 2006): 388.
31
Fineman, 903.
32
McCutcheon, Sevim, Michael Kreyche, and Margaret Beecher Maurer, Morphing metadata: maximizing
access to electronic theses and dissertations, Library Hi Tech, 26(1) (2008): 52.
33
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics
2009, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_268.asp (accessed 7/15/2010)
34
Ibid. Table 275 “Bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees conferred by degree-granting institutions, by
sex of student and discipline division: 2007-08”
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_275.asp (accessed 7/15/2010).
35
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign School of Music, About Musicology at Illinois,
http://camil.music.uiuc.edu/musicology/about.html (accessed 6/5/2011).
36
Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Musicology Program
http://music.indiana.edu/departments/academic/musicology/degrees/doctoral-program.shtml (accessed
9/15/10).
37
IU Bloomington Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology, Degrees
http://www.indiana.edu/~folklore/graduate/doctoral.shtml (accessed 9/15/10).
38
University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Department of Music Graduate Program
http://music.unc.edu/grad (accessed 9/23/10).
39
University of Illinois PhDs Completed in Musicology
http://camilx2.music.uiuc.edu/musicology/alum.html, (accessed 2/4/10), UNC-CH Department of Music
Graduate Students and Dissertations http://music.unc.edu/grad/grad_students/ (accessed 2/4/10), Indiana
University Jacobs School of Music Graduates of the Ph.D. Program and their Dissertations
http://www.music.indiana.edu/departments/academic/musicology/alumni.shtml (accessed 6/5/2011).
40
Lo, Wei-Chun Bernadette., The piano sonata in the musical life of the early 19th century. D.M.A. diss.,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, In Dissertations & Theses @ CIC Institutions [database online]; available from http://www.proquest.com (publication number AAT 3153367; accessed September 23,
2010).
41
Dissertations and Theses in Libraries of UNC-Chapel Hill
http://www.lib.unc.edu/reference/hum/diss.html (accessed 9/23/10).
42
Fineman, 903.
43
Thesis and Dissertation Office, Graduate College at Illinois http://www.grad.illinois.edu/thesisdissertation (accessed 9/16/10).
44
Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (IDEALS)
http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/ (accessed 9/23/2010).
45
IDEALS, University of Illinois Dissertations and Theses http://www.ideals.illinois.edu/handle/2142/5131
(accessed 9/23/2010).
46
IUScholarWorks Repository https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/ (accessed 9/23/2010).
47
IUScholarWorks Repository, Dissertations (Bloomington),
https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/handle/2022/3084 (accessed 9/23/2010).
48
Jennifer Laherty, Digital Publishing Librarian, IUScholarWorks, Indiana University Bloomington
Libraries, email to author 1/29/10.
49
UNC Electronic Theses and Dissertations http://dc.lib.unc.edu/etd/index.php (accessed 9/23/10).
50
UNC Electronic Theses and Dissertations http://dc.lib.unc.edu/etd/index.php (accessed 9/23/10).
51
Fraser, J., Packaging ethnicity: State institutions, cultural entrepreneurs, and the professionalization of
Minangkabau music in Indonesia. Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, In Dissertations
& Theses @ CIC Institutions [database on-line]; available from http://www.proquest.com (publication
number AAT 3269894; accessed September 23, 2010).
52
Sarah L. Shreeves, IDEALS Coordinator, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, email to author
2/1/10.
53
NASM Handbook 2010-2011 Standards for Accreditation, December 2010 Edition, II, H, 1, i. (pg. 60)
http://nasm.arts-accredit.org/site/docs/Handbook/NASM_HANDBOOK_2010-11_T.pdf (accessed
6/5/2011).
30
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Appendix A
Other online dissertation sources (not necessarily all ETDs)
Music-Specific
Music Theory Online Dissertation Index
http://mto.societymusictheory.org/mto-dissertations.php?showall=true
Author, title, institution, and completion date (1993-present). Student-submitted data.
The Royal Musical Association's Register of Research Students' Dissertation Topics
http://www.rma.ac.uk/register/search.asp
Dissertation topics in music registered by students at UK and Ireland's universities.
Dissertationsmeldestelle der Gesellschaft für Musikforschung (DMS)
http://www.dissertationsmeldestelle.de/
German language music dissertations; covers Austria, Switzerland, and Germany
General
British and Irish Theses (dissertations)
(subscription resource)
A comprehensive listing of theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by
universities in Great Britain and Ireland since 1716.
CRL’s Digitization-on-demand Service
(http://www.crl.edu/services/digitization-services/)
The approximately 2,500 dissertations (and growing) digitized from CRL’s collection can
be searched via CRL’s catalog.
CRL’s Dissertations from Outside the U.S. and Canada
http://www.crl.edu/content.asp?l1=5&l2=23&l3=44&l4=25
The collection includes doctoral dissertations submitted to institutions outside the U.S.
and Canada. The range of years includes mid-19th century through the present, with the
greatest concentration in the late 19th, early 20th centuries.
DART-Europe E-theses Portal
(http://www.dart-europe.eu/About/info.php)
DART-Europe is a partnership of 229 research libraries and library consortia who are
working together to improve global access to European research theses.
EThOS
http://ethos.bl.uk/About.do
Single point of access to Ph.D. theses from 110 UK institutions of higher education.
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Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
http://www.ndltd.org/serviceproviders/scirus-etd-search
A collection of over 200,000 theses and dissertations from around the world. Many items,
including those dating back to the early 1900s, are available in full text for free.
TEL (thèses-EN-ligne)
http://tel.archives-ouvertes.fr/index.php
Access to the full text of mostly French dissertations.
Theses Canada Portal
http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/6/4/index-e.html
A searchable catalog of all Canadian theses published since 1965, many of which are
available in full-text electronic versions which can be downloaded free by students,
scholars, and the public.
Other ETD repositories are listed on the NDLTD site: http://www.ndltd.org/find
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