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Appendix

I: OPENING

The Chairman of the session, Dr. Asrat Worku welcomed the workshop participants and invited the DATAD Coordinator Ms. Mary Materu-Behitsa to give a brief background of the project and the workshop. She explained the objectives of the workshop, which were to discuss issues and challenges encountered in the implementation process and forge the way forward. She gave a brief history of the project explaining that DATAD is an AAU project that is partially funded by Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. The main aim of DATAD, is to develop a comprehensive research database and put to the world the research output from the continent of Africa.

She noted the dedication of the management of Addis Ababa University to the project and acknowledged their contribution towards the organization of the workshop. Eleven institutions were involved in the DATAD process and were all represented in the workshop. The Project coordinator acknowledged the dedication of some participants who were on transit for days due to weather problems and ended by inviting participants to visit the AAU website for more information on the initiative (http://www.aau.org/datad/). 
 

The Opening Address

The Guest of Honor, the Academic Vice President for Addis Ababa University, Dr. Butte Gottu, in his Opening Address noted the challenges faced by higher education institutions in Africa as characterized by more information flow and traffic from outside as compared to what goes out and lack of concerted internal efforts of collecting, organizing and disseminating information on ongoing research in Africa. He urged for the need to put in place strategies to address the problem. He also observed and acknowledged the formation of AAU in 1967 as part of the strategies to arrest the problem as reflected in its main objectives which is to collect, organize and disseminate information and research in Africa and networking among its members. He commended the inception of DATAD in 2000, which is currently having a number of institutions participating at a pilot stage aimed at disseminating research information from Africa. He touched on the issue of copyright and the need to develop update copyright policies, as one of the highly debated areas in higher institutions. He urged participants in the workshop and institutions to seek for solutions these and other related issues. He ended by commending the commitment of the participants and their institutions and wished the initiative all the success for the pilot to grow into a comprehensive program. With these remarks, he declared to workshop open. (Full address )
 

Vote of thanks

In response, Ms. Dorcas Kigozi (DATAD Coordinator, Makerere University) acknowledged the issues raised by Prof. Butte, especially lack of visibility of African research output in the world mainstream of knowledge. She further challenged AAU and participating institutions to see to it that the project survives and succeeds by continuing to give guidance and mobilizing the rest of African Universities to come together and build a comprehensive research tool in Africa, from Africa, by Africans. 
 

II: WORKING SESSIONS

Session 1 

1. Trouble shooting with Procite and Reference Web Poster

The trouble shooting exercise intended to cover issues and problems that participants had been experiencing in using the software packages provided for the project and share any innovative solutions they had come up with. Mr Benjamin A. Eshun the AAU-DATAD ICT expert took the group through the workings of Procite and addressed problems thereof.

A brief overview of Procite was provided with details about the DATAD Work Form and fields. The additional field of "alternate abstract", which was introduced, as a response to the bilingual needs of YaoundeI (Cameroon) was noted to be catering for the bilingual needs of institutions. The table of contents field was explained as a request from Makerere. It was discussed and participants agreed that its inclusion was optional. The DATAD identifier field was explained as a domain of AAU. The Procite global update feature was mentioned and planned to be discussed and shown in the later parts of the planned program hands on experience. This part was planned for after workshop hours for more troubleshooting. 

The length of abstracts was raised and discussed. It was agreed that abstracts should be included as they appear in the documents and the software is capable of handling long abstracts so editing should only be for spellings. Agreed further that for documents with no abstracts provided, they should generate one - provided there is capacity to do so. In order to speed the process participants agreed to complete those with abstracts first. Participants also agreed to use academic departments to help with abstract generation/writing. 

The introduction of a gender field was raised and explained. After discussions it was agreed to maintain the gender field in the DATAD record. It was noted that DATAD is more than a bibliographic description of items. The need to capture information that can be used for other purposes was explained and accepted. It was discussed at length and accepted that it has to be well explained in the introduction to the DATAD database to avoid mis-interpretation of possible statistics that may be generated as the database may not be a true representative of gender patterns for higher education provisions in Africa. Participants agreed that efforts will be made to include exhaustively the postgraduate work done at all levels.
 

2. Trouble shooting with Omni Page Pro 11
This session was lead by Mr Million Meshesha. He gave an explanation of the workings of the program. He noted that, Omni Page Pro11 is an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software which is used to extract/recognize text from an image. Many of the problems encountered by the participating institutions were basically related to paper quality, especially from typewritten abstracts (not word processed), which led to bad image, as the program wrongly interpret the images formed. Thus the quality of the output depends on the quality of the paper and print. He noted that though hundred percent recognition is difficult to achieve, one can enhance the OCR accuracy by utilizing output enhancement tools and strategies such as brightness, improving paper quality through photocopy, etc. If all fails, retyping the abstract should be the last resort. 

Session 2

The DATAD Methodology Manual
The Project Coordinator took participants through the draft manual. The chapters in the manual include a general introduction, basic requirements for participation in terms of hardware and software, infrastructures and management. On upgrading of software it was noted that this is possible through the Internet especially for the Antivirus. 
 

DATAD-Procite Workform
The names used by Procite vis a vis those used in the DATAD Work-form template were explained. Those fields which needed some clarifications according to some earlier raised questions were explained. For example, acronym field; Table of contents field; URL field; Copyright statement field and Keywords field.

The Manual provides Broad Subject Categories and Guideline for personal author names as Appendices. It was recommended to have more African names as examples. The contributions by participants institutions was acknowledged and the presentation was concluded by a re-assurance that issues raised will be addressed in the final draft as recommended.

Session 3 

Visit to Addis Ababa University
A visit to Addis Ababa University included the Institute of Ethiopian Studies and the DATAD site at the School of Graduate Studies. At the Graduate School, the theses and dissertations room and DATAD center were the focal points. Million Meshesha and Kidanemariam Woldeyesus explained the process they went through in accomplishing their work. Then the group had a quick tour of Faculty of Technology (North Campus, and South Campus) and Faculty of Medicine, and a ride around the city of Addis Ababa on the way back to the hotel.
 

DAY 2

The second day concentrated on paper presentations and reports from the institutions.

Session 1

The Chairperson for the morning session was Mr. Felix Ubogu. He invited the participants, announced the change of programme and plans to complete the morning session by 1.00 p.m. The morning programme began with introduction of participants - each member introduced her/himself. Members gave their names, place of work, what they do and their connection with DATAD.
 

Paper presentations
Mr. Justine Chisenga and Ms. Materu-Behitsa presented the workshop's lead paper, on Digitization and Publishing of Local Content. While Chisenga covered the theoretical aspects Ms. Materu-Behitsa presented the DATAD case study. 

The paper highlighted the situation at many institutions in Africa: not well financed research, university student research output housed in restricted collections, little research information emanating from Africa. He noted the potential for ICT to reverse the trend through the use of campus networks and the Internet. The search for efficient and flexible access was observed as one of the reason for building digital collections as it solves time constraints and bridges geographical distances. He took the participants through the concepts of digitization and electronic publishing, emphasizing that digitization projects need to be based on clear objectives, goals, and well-defined functions and processes.

On full text digitization, the paper notes the challenges posed by hard disk space and special software requirements, standards and access restrictions. He further explained that implementing a digital project requires a policy framework as much as institutional computing and network infrastructure for the implementers and the users of the system. Adding that standards and guidelines need to be taken into account in relation to data storage (proprietary formats), data description formats, and guidelines for selection content, issues of digital archiving and disaster recovery.

Data archiving, preservation and the need to document all the project decisions and process for future reference was emphasized.

Ms. Materu-Behitsa presented a case study of the lead paper, on DATAD. She provided the main background on how the DATAD was conceived, structured, financed, fairing and going on and future plans. 

Eleven institutions are participating in the project. On DATAD resource development model, DATAD is using both centralized and decentralized models. Rationale for the choice of Procite software was provided. Lines of communication and division of responsibilities were explained as well as where the DATAD project has reached so far. Project Monitoring and Evaluation procedures were also explained.

Ms Materu-Behitsa noted that the DATAD process is well documented at all levels and though the project is donor funded it enjoys full support from AAU Secretariat. She explained that from the beginning the aim was to make the project institutional owned. So far the trend shows all participating institutions are willing but most institutions are very cautious of the question of issuing full text documents. She noted that data integrity and credibility goes beyond the digitization process, therefore institution were urged to put up mechanisms to facilitate accessibility in terms of having relevant access policies and guidelines in place. The future of DATAD and issues for discussion as presented mainly centered on pushing forward the main objectives of DATAD to include strategies for utilizing DATAD as a tool for research and information generation as well as communication and networking. The number of institutions to be invited each year was expected to be scaled up. Among other things that need to be addressed included responding to purchase requests of theses indexed in DATAD, full text submission of theses and dissertations within the participating institutions, backup and preservation policy for participating institutions and the Coordinating unit. 

The chairperson called upon participants to discuss the papers. Observed that issues for discussions were given and the chairperson started the discussion by asking participants to give their experiences on how do they respond to a full text requests for theses from their collections. 

CODESRIA shared their experiences in handling such requests. The requesting party is made to sign a special form showing the conditions for use of the document. For the University of Ghana, a policy of copyright is not yet available and thesis photocopying is not allowed. One has to get permission from the Author or the Dean of the Faculty where the thesis emanated. For Addis Ababa, they are in the process of developing a copyright policy with the relevant departments.

At Makerere, a maximum of one third photocopying is allowed. The policy for full text is yet to be worked out. 

Given the status at the different institutions, it was noted that individuals and institutions should speed up the process for having clear policies as it is likely that when DATAD goes online, requests for full text from Africa and other parts of the world will increase. It is therefore important for intellectual property rights to be made clear and understood so as to come to a level of an understanding as to what to do in case a request comes through. Generally it was observed that for DATAD, copyright/statements will differ from one institution to the other due to differences in background. Each institution should therefore discuss internally and come out with a statement on the access policy for its database.

On electronic submissions, it was proposed to study practices on successful initiatives, and the following sites may provide useful informatin: http://etguide.org/, http://www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/ETD/reports.html, http://www.library.unsw.edu.au/thesis/thesis.html
 

Other issues

§ As the DATAD project has been operating on invitation, The Association of African Universities was requested to work out guidelines for other institutions which may want to join DATAD. The need to encourage students to submit an electronic version of their thesis with their hard copy was encouraged. 

§ In ensuring DATAD meets its targeted pilot project submission participants agreed to come up with a realistic timetable to submit around 2000 records from each institution as the pilot DATAD project is running for only 3 years (February 2000 - February 2003). The need for all records to be sent in before the end of the first phase was emphasized. Participants were informed that all responsible parties - AAU and DATAD - AAU will need to start discussions with Ford and Rockefeller Foundations to seek for additional support as early as six months before the end of this pilot. Participants accepted that there was a need for a backup and preservation policy for each DATAD participating institution.

III: REPORTS FROM INSTITUTIONS

Report from Makerere University

The report was presented by the DATAD Coordinator, Mrs Dorcas Kigozi .

She reported that training took place for 2 days in January 2002 and 3 people were trained. Makerere collection has 3,002 theses and dissertations. 
 

Problems/Challenges faced

ACRONYM - University names kept on changing, from the East African University to Makerere University. Problems with scanning whereby theses submitted on flimsy paper or carbon copied could not be scanned. Copyright statement was still being formulated, a copy of which was presented.(Makerere Report)
 

Report from University of Zimbabwe

The presentation was made by Mrs Caroline Rioga, the Coordinator for University of Zimbabwe. She reported that DATAD Management Team was established. The team received training and is responsible for the day-to-day work of the project. The management team has members from various relevant departments and this operates as an advisory team/body.
 

On February 2002 computer science students were hired to do data input and are paid by the University. There are 545 records in the database and the whole collection has 2,500 theses and dissertations.
 

Institutional Support

Staff support, in the form of professional librarians, paraprofessionals (students), ICT staff are highly involved in the project.

• Space has been provided in the Special Collections Department that houses the theses and dissertations collection. Furniture has also been provided.
• Network connectivity has been provided.

Other activities

Indexes of various theses on hard copies but these have some limitations, for example abstracts are truncated and some have no keywords.
 

Copyright statement

This was based on the Zimbabwe Copyright Act of 1981. The process for a specific policy for the institution is in the process.
 

Problems/challenges

• Lack of standards of theses/dissertations submitted. Some departments did not submit adequate copies, sometimes having only one instead of two copies are submitted.
• Sometimes copies are submitted directly to the Library instead of the central office making it difficult to ensure completeness of the collection. 
• Shortage of staff was observed as impacting negatively to the DATAD work.

(Zimbabwe Report)
 

Report from Yaounde1 University

Yaounde1 University presentation was made by Professor Edward Ako. Yaounde1 has 10 members in the management team. The Rector is the Chairperson of the DATAD Management Team. Training was done in February 2002 and was well received by participants who indicated satisfaction with the training and skills they obtained. For them indexing started with the long essays (but these will not be forwarded to DATAD). Most of their records were already in CDS/ISIS and these can be converted to Procite. Though this process of conversion is going on it is still slow.

Challenges
 

• Dealing with theses submitted in two main languages French and English. Each theses/ dissertations has 2 abstracts: one in English and the other in French. 
• OCR (scanning) problems.
• Lack of Copyright policy. The policy has not yet been worked out but it is in the process. There is no uniform policy in theses produced for submission therefore different styles in citing and sizes of abstracts are the norm. Acknowledged that the presence of DATAD project and facilities at the University has strengthened the relationship between AAU and the Yaounde1 University. He gave as a practical example that after DATAD project activities were initiated Yaounde1 University went out to pay their AAU subscription arrears (Yaounde I Report)

Alarmed by the low pace of data entry, participants were asked to roughly commit themselves as to how many records each institution can produce for AAU by 15^th November 2002. The following were the responses: 

Makerere - 1000 to 1200; 

CODESRIA - 700; 

Mozambique - 1000

Zimbabwe - 1200

Senegal - 2000+

Tanzania - 2000

Participants were requested to think along these lines and provide a commitment in terms of realistic numbers and abide by it. On the question of which ACRONYMN to use Makerere was advised to use both the old name and new/current name e.g. old//new; entered in that order.

For thesis that was submitted at an institution from outside their own but a copy is deposited at their institution then the Acronym for the University where thesis was submitted need to appear.

Inclusion of table of content was left at each institutions discretion. It was also noted this can be done at a later stage

The idea of a quarterly issue of DATAD Newsletter was raised and accepted. Participants were reminded of their responsibility in ensuring their contribution to the newsletter (articles etc.)

Yaounde1: Problems associated conversion of CDS/ISIS databases. It was noted that it was possible but the process was tedious and time consuming. (see appendix for full report)

Report from Addis Ababa University

The report was presented by Million Meshesha. The collection totaled 2,153 with 2,102 in English language and 51 in Amharic language. Data entry was organized in three steps: Scanning, indexing and finalizing. Three people were involved in the task and one individual was responsible for each part.

Most of the entries in the database have undergone the first and second part of functions (scanning and indexing) at the time of reporting. By 15 November 2002 there will be 2000 + records in the Addis DATAD Project Database and each dissertation/thesis will have a Catalogue/Call number.
 

Contribution of the University

The University has offered office facilities, manpower and overtime for workers who work during the weekends. 

Challenges: - conversion of the Aphasic language theses and provision of keywords.

Future plans

Possibility of standardized thesis format from each department. (Addis Ababa Report)
 

Report from Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (UCAD) - Senegal

The initiation of the project took place in February 2002 during the visit by the DATAD Coordinator. Indexing began in April 2002. By 4^th June 2002, 932 records had been indexed. There are 5116 theses in the collection at the Central Library of the University. 

The DATAD Management Team was formed and consists of members from faculties.

Technical Team was also set up for the day-to-day follow-up and working of the project. The Director of the 'Institute Fondamental D'Afrique Noire(IFAN) at UCAD is the Coordinator of the project. UCAD has adequate and qualified human resources to do the work. Will have 2000 records for DATAD project report by November 15^th.
 

Institutional Support

The University bodies at all levels ensured clean and smooth clearance and delivery of the equipment for the project. Human resources in the form of Librarians and ICT personnel have been involved in working on the project. Students have also been recruited to produce abstracts that are not more than 250 words. A special room in the Library has been reserved for the project.
 

Other related activities

The Faculty of Medicine undertakes a similar activity of producing dissertation abstracts.

Challenges

Problems of abstracting and a proposal for the project to provide grants for students to undertake the work (Cheikh Anta Diop Report)
 

CODESRIA

Theses and dissertations are deposited at CODESRIA from various African Universities. These theses are a product of recipients of CODESRIA scholarships. These have been processed and are in a database. A total of 792 theses are in the collection and already in the database. Equipment received were a CD-Writer, a Scanner, OmnipagePro, and Procite. Other related activities to DATAD were reported as an online bibliographic database that generates catalogues and indexes. 

Problems: Lack of a designated office and furniture for the project; CD writer not working from the very beginning; scanner problems similar to those raised by other institutions $2 per thesis too low given the need to abstract a number of theses. Copyright policy not available. These come from all over therefore impossible to come up with one policy. (CODESRIA Report)
 

Discussion after the three presentations
 

§ Discussions centred mainly on the UCAD (Senegal) proposal to provide grants for students who will work on the DATAD project specifically for the thesis processing. It noted that this will not be possible within the project budget and that the DATAD project was basically a capacity building initiative. In this spirit, the AAU support was not meant to cover every expense on the project. It was recommended to involve university staff so that the skills gained in the process would be useful for the sustainability of the DATAD initiative. 

§ It was noted that a similar project in the Faculty of Medicine and the Cyber project at UCAD had no relationship to DATAD.

§ On the issue of the existence of Francophone universities with similar activities to DATAD it was noted and considered to be complementary rather than conflicting and that the idea of duplication of efforts at this early stage was viewed/interpreted in a positive way of increasing points of access.

§ On the possibility of providing only bibliographic description of the items without abstracts in order to speed up the indexing. It was agreed that DATAD is a database with abstracts; therefore any indexed theses must be accompanied by an abstract, short of which the records will be incomplete.

Chairperson: Prof E. Ako

Three DATAD report from institutions, the Coordinator's report Mr. Felix Ubogu paper on ETD's in Africa and South Africa in particular were presented.
 

Report from Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM)- Mozambique

This was presented in Portuguese by Carlos Zimba and interpreted by Mrs Eliana Munguambe, the Coordinator for UEM.

UEM has a total of 1291 theses/dissertations to be indexed. The site had problems caused by the change of Coordinator who was the only person fully informed of the workings of DATAD at UEM. Other problems reported were that abstracts were truncated and edited; no clear handing over notes to the new appointed Coordinator. Some of the challenges faced by the Mozambican colleagues were basically based on the limited human resources and lack of information on the DATAD project given the change of a Coordinator. They had no copyright policy and most of their database records were already in ISIS. This made conversion very slow.
 

However the Coordinator for Mozambique promised that by November 15^th they would have 2000 edited records at AAU-DATAD. AAU-DATAD had to work closely with the new Coordinator to fill in the gaps. The need to assist Mozambique was noted and possibility of the team to visit neighbouring country or for a day to be trained was suggested. Options were left open for the two presenters to decide. It was made clear that AAU-DATAD will not be able to send someone in Mozambique in the near future. (UEM Report) 
 

Report from University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), Tanzania

The project preparations took place by forming a project management team in 2001, equipment delivery was done and training done by December 2001. Informed that the University of Dar es Salaam has 3 campuses. The main Campus two for its constituent colleges: College of Lands and Architectural Studies and College of Medicine. DATAD project is situated at the Main Campus library. The Main Library has about 4000 theses in place. This number did not did not include those from its constituent colleges. So far the DATAD database has 1,275 records indexed out of which 500 records have been edited and put into a CD.
 

UDSM DATAD project will deliver the 2000 records fully edited to the AAU-DATAD by November 2002. Other related activities undertaken at the University of Dar es Salaam were briefly explained notably, the LIBIS (the main catalogue), specilized databases, eg BIODIVERSITY and ENVIRONMENTAL databases, the NYERERE databases collection, and several Tanzania regional bibliographies. These were reported to have complemented the work of DATAD to a great extent.
 

On the contribution of UDSM to DATAD it was reported that this was evident in the number of staff time across all levels chipping in to DATAD work. The presence of a pool of staff qualified in ICT has made a big difference in tackling DATAD project. More equipment i.e. two extra computers have been made available to facilitate the work. (UDSM Report)
 

Report from University of Ghana, Legon

Equipment was delivered. Have a total of 2810 theses in the collection of which 1081 are carbon typed. Have a management team, which is not very active. Library staff is assisting in the project e.g. cataloguing staff. Equipment is housed in n air-conditioned room with LAN facility. The project has a blessing of the institution.
 

Challenges:
 

§ Theses from carbon copies are hard to scan. 

§ Have a number of theses without abstracts 

§ Financial constraints

§ Scanner distorts mathematics characters. 

§ Editing process is very time consuming. 

So far has indexed 233 records in the database.(Ghana Report)
 

Discussions after the three presentations

Participants were urged to put in place mechanisms that will ensure continuity of the DATAD projects. Documentation of the project to ensure staffing taking over will proceed smoothly. The importance of training more people at various centers of DATAD projects was emphasized in order to avoid problems emanating from staff mobility and transfers. Suggested for universities with library schools to involved student in data input.
 

On sending records (500) periodically was observed to be expensive on the participating institutions. Advised AAU to get in touch with DHL and ask the possibility of their accepting payment in Ghana and not in country of origin.
 

On the carbon paper products, Ghana was advised to photocopy the abstracts and then scan the photocopy.
 

A recommendation was passed that anyone of the coordinators transferred need to inform the DATAD Coordinator at AAU. Emphasis was placed on the point that we are all responsible to inform all the parties we are working with for smooth implementation of the project.
 

Issue of sending a limited number of indexed records was raised and recommended that advance payments cannot be met. Payments will only be done upon receipt of the CDs. And these have to be well-edited error free CDs of 500 records in each CD.
 

Another recommendation was passed that those Universities that have Library schools can come to an agreement to train some of the students to do the work for DATAD.
 

For the typed abstracts, it was recommended to photocopy abstract before they are scanned. It was also recommended to develop a list of participating institutions to exchange ideas. This was reported to be already in place.
 

DATAD Project Coordinator's Report 

The project inception and the content status of the project were presented and the remaining activities for completion of the project were also presented.
 

Also included were the experiences and lessons that have been learnt so far. Noted that a lot of work entails pioneering, thinking and commitment. She pointed out the remaining activities as mostly centered on the full retrospective data entry, completion of the design of the AAU server and DATAD home page, production of the CD-ROM and the DATAD database. Activities for publicizing and marketing the database. Major challenges lies with the issue of ownership data integrity and credibility. This she called on her colleagues to join efforts to ensure we overcome the challenges and make the project a success to avoid DATAD joining the syndrome of projects that were never sustained.
 

Reported that DATAD pilot project funding is coming to end by February 2003. Plans are underway to work on a proposal to seek for funds to address issues for the second phase. This will also depend on each institution commitment to deliver on time, quality records to be able to present future fund solicitation with integrity. Mary basically explained "Where we started, where we are and where we are going". (Coordinators Report)
 

Electronic Thesis and Dissertations (ETDs) in South Africa

Mr Felix Ubogu made a brief presentation on ETDS in South Africa. He explained the current education changes sweeping South Africa including proposals to merge the 23 universities and 15 Technicons to a smaller manageable number and avoid duplications of efforts and resources were revisited. Explained that Rhodes and Pretoria University dissertations abstracts are on the Internet. He explained the ETD scene generally in Africa and South Africa in particular. Various projects under way in South Africa such as SEALS, SABINET Online, COSALC and their constraints were presented. He suggested a way forward for academic institutions in ETD projects.
 

Observed and revisited the point raised by Mr. Chisenga earlier on that during preparations, theses, dissertations are produced in word processors but at handing in, only hardcopies are handed in. Called on the need for institutions to tap on that resource and make the ETD efforts easier to accomplish. Presented briefly on the UNESCO manual for ETD (http://etguide.org/).
 

Participant appreciated the emergence of ETD as a way forward for higher education institutions in Africa urged AAU within DATAD to initiate its implementation within its constituency. 
 

IV: CLOSING

The project coordinator thanked all participants and extended special thanks to Lisbeth Levey who conceived DATAD during the finalization of an earlier CD-ROM project. The CD-ROM project introduced seven Research Libraries in Africa into different CD-ROM databases and did evaluation of the African Content in the same. The evaluation revealed the glaring absence of African research output in international databases, coming up with the DATAD initiative. She acknowledged the contribution by Lisbeth as the initiator of DATAD and thanked her for the work. With these remarks Dr. Asrat Hailu was invited to close the workshop. 
 

Closing Remarks

In his Closing Remarks Dr. Asrat explained the new developments at Addis Ababa University especially the new perspectives in the management of academic programs with the Research and Graduate Office being the focal point for two major academic undertakings of AAU: the Graduate Studies and Research Programs the host for DATAD at Addis Ababa University. He re-iterated the interest by Addis Ababa University to enhance DATAD and further pioneer ETDs, and noted that the DATAD project had demonstrated to be more than an experimental model. He noted the issues requiring follow-up action, namely procedures and training needs for ETDs, policy matters on Copyright and intellectual property rights and archival modalities. (Closing Address)
 

WORKSHOP OBSERVATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The Workshop OBSERVED: 
 

1. That DATAD is going to attract interest from individuals and institutions and this is likely to result in a number of request for access to full-text copies of theses and dissertations held by DATAD participating institutions
2. The absence of well established mechanisms and guidelines, in some DATAD participating institutions, to deal with requests for full-text copies of theses and dissertations coming from individuals and institutions located outside the country
3. The absence of copyright policies in some DATAD participating institutions
4. That there is likely to be requests from non DATAD participating individuals and institutions to have copies of their theses and dissertations to be added to DATAD
5. The need for DATAD participating institutions to put in place DATAD archiving and preservation mechanisms
6. That in general, students are producing original copies of these and dissertations in electronic formats using various Word processing packages, and if properly harnessed, this would reduce the time spent on indexing DATAD
7. hat in some cases DATAD participating institutions have theses and dissertations that do not have abstracts
8. That DATAD participating institutions are at different levels of digitizing their bibliographic records
9. The need to share information, ideas and experiences relating to the operation of DATAD

Taking into account the above observation, the Workshop recommended that:

1. DATAD participating institutions should put in place clear copyright policies and guidelines to facilitate provision of access to full-text theses and dissertation, taking into account special requirements of the digital environment.
2. DATAD participating institutions should formulate clear guidelines and modalities for responding to requests for full-text copies of theses and dissertations coming from individuals and institutions outside their institutions [The Next Phase of the Project]
3. DATAD participating institutions should workout mechanisms for continued archiving and preservation of the records being created.
4. DATAD participating institutions should consider introducing submission of electronic copies of theses and dissertations by students, and guidelines for electronic submission should be formulated.
5.  All records submitted to DATAD should include abstracts.
6. Completed records with abstracts should be submitted to AAU-DATAD by 15 November 2002
7. Establish a LISTSERV for DATAD participants
8. Set up an electronic newsletter
9. Participating institutions should submit their reports for publication on the AAU-DATAD web site.
10. Participating institutions should put in place sound quality data control mechanisms.
11. AAU-DATAD should consider formulating guidelines for non-participating institutions that would like to participate in DATAD.
12. Call on the heads of the various institutions to give full support for the project.
13. All Participating institutions should review their reports and submit their final version for posting on the AAU web site.
14. URLs for the various University Libraries should be provided for each individual institution.