Creating Health Sciences Theses Institutional

Repository Model : An approach at AIIMS,

New Delhi, India.    

 Sangeeta Narang*, S. Kailash**, S. K. Meher*** and Jagdish Arora**** *Librarian, B.B. Dikshit Library, AIIMS, New Delhi, India **System Analyst, Computer Facility, AIIMS, New Delhi, India*** Sr. Programmer, Computer Facility, AIIMS, New Delhi, India****Librarian, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India

Introduction

• Theses and dissertations constitute raw, rich and unique research information involving huge investments

• Output of two to five years of intense work

• Characterized by originality, improvements and innovations

Objectives

• To put raw information into useful knowledge

• Develop a mechanism and means for

depositing, archiving and accessing of theses

and dissertations

Benefits

• Enhances readership

• Quality research

• Minimizes duplication of efforts

• Increases scientific output

Draw back

• Few find way to publication channels while some do not

Initiatives in India

• Association of Indian Universities(AIU)

• The Information and Library Network

(INFLIBNET)

• Developing Library Network (DELNET)

•  Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc)

• Indian Institute of Technology (IITs)

• Vidyanidhi has evolved as a national

repository for e-thesis

About institute

• The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was established in 1956 as an institution of National importance

• Its main objective is to bring together educational facilities of the highest order

• It has comprehensive facilities for teaching, research and patient care

About library

• B.B. Dikshit Library of the institute receives on an

average 250 theses and dissertations per year from

post graduate and doctoral students in the

multispeciality areas of health sciences

• At present library holds 4600 thesis, the bibliographic

details are available on library’s Open Public Access

Catalogue (OPAC) with in library

Methodology

• Questionnaire based survey to determine

the utility and feasibility of the system

• Based on survey and literature search a

model is devised

User’s survey

21%

40%

15%

14%

10%

Students

Resident doctors

Researchers

Faculty

Not received

A total of 140 of the 165 surveys distributed were received from 33 undergraduate students, 62 resident doctors, 24 researcher and 21 faculty members.

Findings

6%

46%

16%20%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Undergraduates Resident doctors Researchers Faculty

Utilization of library’s OPAC

User’s response

53%

28%26%

17%

30%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

New ideas Extrainformation

One'sexperience

Establishedcontacts

Nascentinformation

Online availability of theses

Result

• Findings revealed that users need ETD

institutional repository  

• Convenience and comforts essential for busy

doctors

• Reliable and quality assured databases must

Proposed model

• Registered users • Standard Mechanism and means of submission• Metadata Support• Building e- prints archive

– Interoperable – Based on OAI-PMH protocol

• OAI Registration • Access rights • Data security

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• Server

• HARDWARE

• Server Grade Machine with minimum 512MB RAM , 80GB HDD

• SOFTWARE

• OS: Windows: NT server, 2000 Server / Sun Solaris/Redhat Linux.

• Database: Oracle, SQL, PostgreSQL or MySql.

• Application Server:  BEA Weblogic, Oracle 9iAS.

• Web Server :Apache

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS (Contd…)

• Client

• HARDWARE

• Pentium, with minimum 64 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD

• SOFTWARE

• OS: Windows 2000, XP, NT

• Other Software: MS Office 2000, Internet Explorer, Netscape 

Technological options

• E-Prints

• Dspace

• ETD-Db

• Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture ( FEDORA)

• Theses Alive Plug-in for Institutional Repositories (TAPIR)

Major issues

• Plagiarism

• Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and

Copyright

• Poor standard

Conclusion

• Health Sciences demands real time delivery of

information to the right sources at right places in

right format

• The system so proposed will meet the users’

requirements and once implemented will go a

long way in providing improved access, sharing

and use of research output