Educational Research Theses : Online Communities and Partnerships

Sue ClarkeManager, Cunningham Library, ACER

ETD2005: Evolution through discovery28th September 2005

Outline

• Changes to strategic environment for theses and scholarly research in education

• ARIIC, ADT, APSR, ARROW, international open access movement, digital repositories

• Australian Education Index, Education Research Theses, Australian Digital Theses

• Is there a role for an Education Theses subset?• ERT survey results• Consider new business models• Think beyond academic libraries to include

professional and research organisations

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

• Australia’s premier educational research organisation• An independent, not for profit organisation since 1930• Creates and disseminates knowledge and tools to

improve learning in the context of lifelong learning• International orientation to work with offices in India,

Dubai and Cambridge, UK

ACER Research Programs

• Assessment and reporting• Early Childhood Education• Learning Processes and Contexts• National & International Surveys• Systems and School Testing• Teaching & Learning• Transitions & Economics of Education

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) – Cunningham Library

• Build and maintain an information resource which supports policy development, research, practice and debate in the field of education

• Provide information access to the education community on research and practice in the field of Australian education

• Compile and maintain the Australian Education Index and other knowledge based products such as the Australian Education Directory, the Australian Thesaurus of Educational Descriptors

Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) – Cunningham Library

• Who was Cunningham?• Dr Kenneth Stewart Cunningham was the

founding director of ACER, a position he held for 25 years from 1930 - 1954

Kenneth Stewart Cunningham

The Atrium

Cunningham Library

Cunningham Library

Education Research Theses (ERT)

• Aim : the only comprehensive source of unique research found in doctoral and masters research theses accepted by Australian universities in the field of education

• Includes bibliographic citations and abstracts from 1919 to the present, updated monthly

• More than 12,000 entries• Data contributed to Aust Education Index since 1978• Subject headings are assigned from ATED, the

Australian Thesaurus of Educational Descriptors• Core grant to produce ERT was phased out in 2002

at which point it became available by subscription

Education Research Theses (ERT)

• ERT has a small number of subscribers (20)• ADT is trawled to identify further theses for

inclusion in ERT with monthly updates• Libraries are now providing this information

as it is received rather than waiting to be asked

• 1,900 database searches per month

Education Research Theses (ERT)

Australian Education Index (AEI)

• Comprehensive database containing over 133,000 entries and abstracts from 1978 to the present

• Subject area includes educational research, policy and practice

• Australia’s largest source of education information – updated monthly

• Full text to over 16,000 entries are available via AEI and a further 9,000 in A+Education

Australian Digital Theses (ADT)

• Aim is to create a national collaborative distributed database of theses in digital format providing access PhD and Masters by coursework

• Provision of a central metadata repository• 150,000 records, Kinetica records have been added

to the metadata repository with quarterly future updates, daily updates from the ADT

• Links to 4,500 full text theses• New redeveloped metadata repository with enhanced

functionality• Latest communication protocols for sharing data

Australian Digital Theses (ADT)

Education Research Theses (ERT) Survey

• A survey of existing customers of the ERT has been undertaken in August 2005

• Investigate the proposition that a subset of the education theses be generated from the AEI or ADT if there is a demand for it

• Survey sent to 20 university subscribers• Responses received 14

Survey Results Question 2 - Satisfaction

• Search functionality could be better x 4• Expensive when it duplicates data accessible

elsewhere• It isn’t as necessary any more because of

institutional repositories and ADT• No longer subscribe as AEI covers the

material

Survey ResultsQuestion 3 – Other Products

• Later theses on AEI• Libraries Australia seems to contain all except

a very few theses (but no abstracts)• UMI Digital Dissertations • Australian Digital Theses (ADT)• Free OAI theses databases• Networked Digital Library of Theses

Survey ResultsQuestion 4 - Future Role for Education Research

Theses (ERT)

• Do you see a role and future for the ERT database• Yes x 7, No x 3• Comments:• Yes, but not unless it can offer something that is not

offered elsewhere• It is confusing to ask researchers to look in different

places• ADT is taking over this role, roll into ADT • There is a move for free access to theses• While I think it is an important resource, I think it is

impracticable

Survey ResultsQuestion 6 – Value of Education Research

Theses (ERT)

• I know there are a few academics who refer to ERT, but generally we access theses through AEI

• We have a large Education school with many postgraduate research students. This is an important resource

• It is recommended to and used by all our Higher Degree students and research staff. It is valuable both to students and staff

• Limited as some information is found elsewhere

Survey ResultsQuestion 7 – Future Options

• Add to AEI (9 responses)• Continue new business model (2 responses)• Other suggestions : continue the database as

a freely accessible Open Archive Initiative compliant database

• I would be loath to add to AEI because of problems limiting the search to research theses only

New Business Models

• Add value to the AEI by adding in 900 pre-1978 theses that are currently not in AEI with improved record quality and coverage

• Provide unique content which is not in ADT or Kinetica to the Australian Digital Theses, abstracts, ATED descriptors (metadata)

• Develop linkages between ACER and ADT for linking AEI and ADT

• Ask Deans of Education for funding to make the ERT database free and available on the web

Challenges / Benefits for ACER

• Value add the AEI• Improve resource discovery search and

retrieval functions by moving the theses to new software

• Remove double handling – reduce costs• Find new business model• Loss of revenue stream

Challenges / Benefits for ADT & Research Community

• Professional and research organisations have a range of services available to their members and stakeholders

• Develop linkages between ADT and ACER to explore how ACER fits into the national information infrastructure

• Researchers want less places to look when finding theses information.

Conclusion

• ACER is strategically placed to work with the educational research community and collaborative partners to explore new business models, develop metadata and document repositories to avoid duplication of effort and fragmented collections of resources

Contact

• Sue Clarke • clarke@acer.edu.au

• www.acer.edu.au• I would love to hear from people at the

conference who are interested in this topic