Management of electronic theses and dissertations in selected Nigerian university institutional repositories.

Abstract

Theses and dissertations in electronic format are one of the research output managed in institutional repositories in recent times. The management of these research output has, however, not been without challenges which has affected the visibility and accessibility of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) from Africa. Purposive sampling was used to select nine federal institutions with functional repositories with a view to accessing how these research outputs are managed. Findings from the study revealed that the libraries in these institutions manage the ETDs. However, they do not have strong sustainable measures in place for these research output. Recommendations of the study include a proposed ETD policy framework which libraries can adopt. Libraries should come up with business models to help fund the repositories. Cloud computing solutions should also be adopted to handle some technical aspects of managing repositories in order for library staff to focus on other administrative and management aspects