CHRIS RENSLEIGH RAND AFRIKAANS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION

CHRIS RENSLEIGH RAND AFRIKAANS UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION STUDIES South Africa E-MAIL: cr@rau. ac. za TEL: +27 11 489 -2189 ETD 2003 - BERLIN FAX: +27 11 489 2822 1

ETD 2003 - BERLIN 2

ETD 2003 - BERLIN 3

Implementing an ETD Initiative within the South African Context: Issues and Challenges for Higher Education Libraries ETD 2003 - BERLIN 4

OVERVIEW • • SETTING THE SCENE CHALLENGES FOR ETD IMPLEMENTATIONS REGIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION LIBRARY CONSORTIA NATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION LIBRARY CONSORTIUM RAU ETD - Considerations - Implications THE RAU ETD PILOT PROJECT Q&A ETD 2003 - BERLIN 5

SETTING THE SCENE • The end of ‘Apartheid’ in 1994 • Higher Education in South Africa • Two distinct groups: – Historically Disadvantage Institutions (HDIs) – Those that benefited from the ideology • This divide is still visible today ETD 2003 - BERLIN 6

CHALLENGES FOR ETD IMPLEMENTATIONS • Depreciating / Fluctuating currency (an effective devaluation of 73% in 2001) • Shrinking budgets • Lack of IT infrastructure and skilled IT staff • Making the implementation of ETD initiatives on an institutional level very difficult for the HDIs • Fortunately working together – in consortia (regional or national) or – being part of an international project like the (NDLTD) makes it possible for these HDIs to make their theses and dissertation available electronically ETD 2003 - BERLIN 7

REGIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION LIBRARY CONSORTIA • There are currently five regional Higher Education library consortia in South Africa: – the Gauteng and Environs Library Consortium (GAELIC) that was formed in 1996 – the Cape Library Co-operative (CALICO) which was established in 1993 – in the Eastern Cape the South Eastern Academic Library System (SEALS) was established in 1988 – the Free State Libraries and Information Consortium (FRELICO) was formed in 1996 – the Eastern Seaboard Association of Libraries (ESAL) consortium in Kwazulu-Natal ETD 2003 - BERLIN 8

NATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION LIBRARY CONSORTIUM • On 2 July 1999 at a meeting of – the five regional Higher Education library consortia – and other stakeholders • the Coalition of South African Library Consortia (COSALC) was established • The main operational and strategic focus of COSALC – is at national level – promote and support national co-operative initiatives ETD 2003 - BERLIN 9

RAU ETD As a member of (GAELIC) the RAU Library shares in the vision to create a virtual library with local service interfaces forming part of a global information community for clients in Gauteng and its environs Following a two year case study on the implementation of an ETD pilot project at the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) ETD 2003 - BERLIN 10

During 1999 RAU launched an ETD initiative With the background investigation of the ETD initiative it was ascertained that the NDLTD has an open invitation to aspiring members to join and be part of the international theses and dissertations project ETD 2003 - BERLIN 11

The first step of the RAU ETD initiative was to setup an ETD workgroup Key people representing the variance departments / sections of the University and Library were selected This was done in order to gain input from, and to cover, all the areas in the University that will be influenced by the ETD initiative ETD 2003 - BERLIN 12

Capacity Representing Deputy Vice Chancellor University Top Management Registrar (Academic) University Top Management Director Information Technology University Information Technology Director Central Administration University Central Administration Chief Director Library Services Library Top Management Assistant Director Client Services Library Client Services Assistant Director Information Technology Library Information Technology Members of the ETD Workgroup ETD 2003 - BERLIN 13

The ETD workgroup met on a regular basis The following are some of the concerns and issues that were discussed ETD 2003 - BERLIN 14

Academic Considerations • How will such a project influence the students and study leaders? – Responsibility for the creation of the electronic version – The creation of the keywords and abstract • The issue surrounding the copyright on the documentation – Will RAU have to relinquish its copyright claim? – Will it be possible to show a disclaimer on the Web? • Technical requirements of the electronic document – – Specific format like MS Word, Word Perfect or PDF Publish the full document or only the abstract Will the text (content of the document) be searchable? Can access to these documents be controlled, (limited to certain groups) ETD 2003 - BERLIN 15

Administrative Considerations • The changing of University regulations – The number of printed and electronic copies that need to be handed in for examination purposes – The confidentiality clause that is applicable to certain research results be accommodated ETD 2003 - BERLIN 16

Information Technological Considerations • Hardware requirements (server, scanners, etc. ) • Software needed for – the hosting – the conversion of the original document • Impact on the existing IT infrastructure • Computer security measures • User access points ETD 2003 - BERLIN 17

Personnel Implications • Impact on existing personnel • If scanning retrospective work – how many personnel will be required – how many years back will be scanned in? ETD 2003 - BERLIN 18

Financial Implications • For a lot of the concerns above there are financial implications • Potentially the most significant costs – the hardware and software – additional personnel requirements ETD 2003 - BERLIN 19

THE RAU ETD PILOT PROJECT • After the second meeting of the ETD workgroup it was decided to launch a two year pilot project Following is a brief discussion of the pilot project implementation plan ETD 2003 - BERLIN 20

Phase 1: Compile budget for the pilot project • The budget reflected the financial implications concerning – the hardware – software and – personnel requirements • As this was a pilot project the capital layout was very small, less than R 15 000 ETD 2003 - BERLIN 21

Phase 2: Get go-ahead from Top Management • Submit the budget and implementation plan to the university management to get the go-ahead • The go-ahead was given and the pilot project was launched ETD 2003 - BERLIN 22

Phase 3: Send joining letter to the NDLTD • Send introduction letter to Virginia Tech (Prof. Fox) • The letter is a standard template that is available on the NDLTD Website. There a number of different joining possibilities: – – – – Category 1: The university currently requires ETDs Category 2: The university will in future require ETDs Category 3: Only part of the university requires ETDs Category 4: The University allows ETDs Category 5: The university is investigating ETDs Category 6: The university joins as part of a consortium Category 7: A non-university organisation • Category 2 • Software courtesy of Virginia Tech was downloaded • PDF writer software was purchased ETD 2003 - BERLIN 23

Phase 4: Start Awareness Campaign • Make students and lecturers aware of the project • This was done on: – Faculty – Department – Student bases • Three departments: – Chemistry – Computer Science – Psychology were nominated to take part in the pilot project • Other departments were encouraged to take part ETD 2003 - BERLIN 24

Phase 5: Configure the Web Server • Procurement of the hardware – Server – Additional memory • Configuring of Linux as the operating system • Loading of the Website • Connect to the RAU campus Internet infrastructure ETD 2003 - BERLIN 25

Phase 6: Update the University regulations • Identification and amendment of the applicable regulations • Submitting the required amendments to the RAU Senate for approval • Only three regulations were effected • The senate approved the suggested changes ETD 2003 - BERLIN 26

Phase 7: Setup the Web-based user interface • Webpages were customised to reflect the RAU specific – information – procedures – policies • Included loading of the different – departments – masters and doctoral degrees • The copyright notice as well as the RAU logo were loaded onto the Website ETD 2003 - BERLIN 27

Phase 8: Archiving of the Theses and Dissertations • Internal Library procedures including the archival procedure was developed • The procedure details the internal Library workflow pertaining to the receiving of theses and dissertations into the Library and giving access to users as well as the archival process • ETDs will be archived and stored in the Library archive ETD 2003 - BERLIN 28

Phase 9: Generate ETD creation guidelines • The documents give guidance to the students and study leaders on aspect of ETDs such as: – The submission of the ETDs – Acceptable formats – Allocation of subject headings (keywords) ETD 2003 - BERLIN 29

Phase 10: Load Theses and Dissertations into the Web database • The first semester of 2001 only 7 ETDs submitted by students • The second semester delivered 55 ETDs, a total of 62 for 2001 • During the first semester of 2002 50 ETDs were submitted • Currently over 400 ETDs submitted to the Library ETD 2003 - BERLIN 30

Phase 11: Marketing of the Pilot Project • Increase the awareness of the ETD initiative • Meetings with the heads of Faculty • A paper that promoted the RAU ETD initiative was delivered at the 2 nd annual conference on World Wide Web applications ETD 2003 - BERLIN 31

Phase 12: Make available for use • Once the data was loaded into the database the Website was ready to be used • Although it is used only as part of the pilot project, not as an operational information resource ETD 2003 - BERLIN 32

Phase 13: Evaluate the Pilot Project • At the end of March 2002 the evaluation of the pilot project began • The various processes and procedures were examined and evaluated ETD 2003 - BERLIN 33

Information Technology consideration • A proper server will have to be procured. The budget – Hardware and software (capital) came to R 103 171 – Operational budget of R 8 208 • In addition the existing system does not make provision for a backup facility ETD 2003 - BERLIN 34

ETD Submission Process • Conversion process too cumbersome and labour intensive • Suggested that the Adobe Acrobat conversion software is made available on campus and that the students – convert the file themselves – submission regulations be amended so that the files must only be submitted in the final format which is PDF ETD 2003 - BERLIN 35

ETD Availability • Currently only the abstract freely available on the Internet – Full document available to the RAU staff and students on campus – Access is gained via personnel/student number and password • Two paper based unbound copies are submitted which are then bound by the RAU Bindery and made available on the open shelves which in turn are used by the Inter Library Loans Department (ILL) • It was debated that the submission of the paper based copies should fall away • Many students (third world country) do not have access to computers and the Internet at home and that these students can then at least check out the bound copies to take home for study. ETD 2003 - BERLIN 36

CONCLUSION • SABINET have launched a project to create a national database containing full‑text database of theses and dissertations • The software that is used is OCLC’s Site Search • The institutions that are part of the project will have free access, Others will pay a subscription fee • SABINET will provide the servers, software, maintenance and the labour to upload the documents • The copyright of the documents will reside with the universities ETD 2003 - BERLIN 37

• Although the RAU decided not to be part of the SABINET project and to stay independent, this is a very viable option from HDI’s point of view • The case study as well as other research indicated that the chances of a successful implementation of an ETD initiative at a HDI will greatly increase with a Regional, National or International level implementation • In conclusion, these levels of implantation will not by implication exclude any higher education institutions ETD 2003 - BERLIN 38

QUESTIONS ETD 2003 - BERLIN 39