NRF advocacy role: the National Electronic & Thesis Dissertation Project Dr Daisy Selematsela and Henda van der Berg On behalf of NETD Project Steering Committee INSTITUTIONAL REPOSITORIES (IR) : a workshop on creating an information infrastructure for the scholarly community July 2007, JOHANNESBURG

2 NETD PROJECT: Outline Project motivation and background Feasibility study recommendations Steering Group composition Role of Steering Group Issues & concerns raised by institutions Proposed ETD system Project activities NRF strategic role Progress so far!

3 NETD: Project motivation & background NRF acknowledges Importance of ETD collections International trends regarding National ETD projects Lack of skills or resources to set up ETD projects NRF Mandate Mandate: NRF Act stipulates under the heading “Functions, powers and duties” section 4(1)(n) the following “promote the provision of an information infrastructure linking research institutions to facilitate cooperation ad sharing of Research information and knowledge” ETD workshops in September and October 2003

4 NETD: Project motivation & background One of ASSAf’s main objectives Improve the productivity/efficacy of publication through different modalities (i.e. electronic publication) Study commissioned by DST on Open Access research dissemination (2006) Recommendation 6: highlights role of NRF in harvesting SA open access repositories as a matter of urgency! See Report on a Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in SA (

5 NETD: Project motivation & background Study “Feasibility of and requirements for a SA NETD project” (31 May 2006): Dr H Suleman & J de Beer Indicated drivers: NRF (Knowledge Management & Strategy Directorate) CHELSA (Committee for Higher Education Librarians in SA)

6 Feasibility study recommendations Recommendations: NRF (KMS) & CHELSA to establish a steering group and technical committee NRF establish a national ETD portal with discovery & access services NRF should migrate its NEXUS bibliographic database of theses and dissertations to the proposed national ETD project NRF should in principle, be amenable to host ETD collections for institutions that are not capable of doing this themselves

7 Composition of Steering Group NRF: Knowledge Management & Strategy Directorate: Dr Andrew Kaniki, Dr Daisy Selematsela, Mrs Henda van der Berg Project Consultant: Dr Dale Peters (UKZN DISA) Project Consultant: Dr Hussein Suleman (UCT) Committee for Higher Education Librarians in South Africa (CHELSA) representatives: –Mr Roy Raju, Ms Gwenda Thomas, Mr Felix Obogu

8 Role of NETD Steering Group Compile terms of reference (ToR) Consolidate stakeholder consultation/project consolidation Facilitate architecture for NETD project Facilitate the establishment of standards an implementation of policies Ensure project sustainability and preservation Facilitate capacity building activities

9 Issues and concerns raised by Academic Institutions Archiving and preservation (e.g. feasibility to use LOCKSS-SA technology for long-term digital preservation) Hosting of the national portal and metadata repository Implementation issues at institutional level Policy issues and standards i.e. quality control, submission and access, copyright clearance, content policies, legal deposit issues of grey literature, costing Training and capacity building issues Links with eResearch initiatives

10 Distributed Architecture of a seamless ETD system Institution TD Archive NRF Central Metadata repository NRF ETD Portal NDLTD Union Archive SCIRUS NRF NRF

11 NETD project activities Workshops (i.e. October 2007) –Responsibilities & institutional obligations –Benefits for institutions –Draft legislation on publicly funded research –ETD policies – IP, QA, archiving etc. –Levels of access to content and restrictions (embargoes) –TENET - Obligations of higher education institutions –Relation to other projects, e.g. RIMS (InfoEd) Establishment of pilot sites (Call for Participation) Training – institutional capacity development Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) –Cooperation and standards Infrastructure requirements

12 NETD project Working/Technical committees Project implementation plan System implementation requirements – staffing/change management/governance Quality Assurance (system/data)

13 NRF strategic role Provide custodial support to institutions that do not yet have the capacity to host own IRs (Pilot sites) Provide funding and support for a central open source metadata repository –Full-text access to be governed by institutional policies Creation of metadata repository which will in future include NEXUS Database (Current & Completed Research Projects) Integration of Research Information Management System (RIMS) Project (InfoEd) with NETD –Manage InfoEd national license and the centralized Research Information database for HEI and Science Councils (Department of Science & Technology)

14 NRF strategic role Advocacy role/buy-in from HE Vice Chancellors and Research Directorates through HESA Assist academic libraries in institutional advocacy role Network and form liaison with DATAD (Database of African Theses & Dissertation)

15 Progress so far!!! 1 st meeting held on 29 Sept –Implementation of recommendations –Composition of Steering Group 2 nd meeting held on 29 May 2007 –Finalization of governance issues –Planning of stakeholder workshop - October

16 NETD Project Thank you Contact persons: