Database of African Thesis and Dissertations Workshop |
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DATAD WORKSHOP REPORT |
DATABASE OF AFRICAN THESIS AND DISSERTATION (DATAD) WORKSHOP
11th – 12th July 2007
Utalii Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya
REPORT
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
DATAD held its stakeholders’ workshop in Nairobi, Kenya from 11th to 12th July 2007. The workshop was hosted by the Kenyatta University, a pioneer member institution of the DATAD initiative. The workshop was attended by representatives of DATAD pioneer institutions, new DATAD members, and participants from institutions implementing electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) projects or similar initiatives. The main objectives of the workshop were to share experiences of theses and dissertations databases initiatives in African universities; and to discuss new approaches for DATAD and to find a suitable software platform to provide online access to both abstracts and full-text thesis to African researchers and students.
The workshop reviewed and discussed on-going DATAD and ETD activities in pioneer member institutions and in new member institutions; ETD or similar initiatives being implemented by the Kenya Information Preservation Society (KIPS), University of Jordan Theses Deposit Centre, African Journals Online (AJOL) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa. The major recommendations from the workshop were the following:
• Institutions participating in the DATAD initiative should integrate the project’s activities into their library work flows to ensure sustainability of DATAD at institutional level;
• AAU should sensitize University Vice-Chancellors on the need to accept peer reviewed African online scholarly publications as one mechanism/model for disseminating outputs of scholarly research from Africa universities and research institutions;
• DATAD should initially adopt both the Closed Access and Open Access publishing models of the theses and dissertations from African Universities. However, Open Access to ETDs from Africa should be the long term goal of DATAD if access to these resources is to be promoted among faculty staff, researchers and students in African academic and research institutions;
• AAU-DATAD should develop and recommend guidelines for the management and provision of access to ETDs, and management of copyright and Intellectual Property Rights issues relating to ETDs to its member institutions;
• AAU-DATAD should first investigate the viability of using the ProCite software for the management and provision of access to ETDs and related metadata and its capability to interface with other commonly used platforms, such as Virginia Tech ETD-db and DSPACE, for metadata exchange. If ProCite is not suitable, then an a proven and tested software platform for ETDs and exchange of metadata should be adopted and implemented at DATAD Secretariat and in member institutions;
• DATAD should adopt a centralized and decentralized architecture/model in which a common metadata repository of theses and dissertations is maintained at the DATAD Secretariat for access by all member institutions and other stakholders, while the management and provision of access to ETDs should be the responsibility of individual member institutions.
• AAU-DATAD should set up an advisory committee composed of individuals with various skills to provide advice and guidance on the ETDs initiative.
The full report can be found here |
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Database of African Thesis and Dissertations Workshop
