In the framework of the European Higher Education Area, the Undergraduate Dissertation is a subject on the official curriculum for the bachelor's degrees that can be earned in Spanish universities, Carlos III University of Madrid among them. It consists of an individual dissertation in which students apply the knowledge, skills and competencies acquired throughout their 4-year courses to a problem specific to the discipline associated with the degree to which they aspire. Planning, conducting and evaluating the work involved in the dissertation call for ad hoc tools that must be designed to accurately appraise the command of specific competencies associated with the degree sought by the student. The present paper introduces three such tools developed for the Bachelor's Degree in Information and Documentation offered at Carlos III University since 2008-09: a guidance manual, a preview system and an evaluation rubric. The guidance manual provides students with clear and precise instructions on how to undertake their study. The preview system affords a consistent, clear procedure for all students and for suitable monitoring of their progress at specified intervals. The evaluation rubric is a consistent and objective marking tool for juries. The three enable students and staff to suitably monitor progress and for professors to consistently and objectively evaluate all students in accordance with the duly weighted categories into which the competencies associated with the bachelor's degree in Information and Documentation are grouped.

The research reported here aimed to ascertain the degree of transparency exhibited by Spanish public university libraries based on their active public disclosure practice. Transparency was measured by applying the TransPa_BA tool to the transparency-related information published by the country’s 50 public university libraries on their websites. The tool addresses 21 indicators grouped under eight areas, used in this study to measure university libraries’ public disclosure performance. The data collected were scored pursuant to the provisions of Spanish Act 19/2013 of 9 December on Transparency, Access to Public Information and Good Governance as adapted to university libraries, as well as in terms of other factors scantly developed in or omitted from the Act. The indicators and their respective parameters (content, form, accessibility, reusability, dating and updating or validity) constitute guidelines enabling libraries to enhance transparency and accountability by reporting their activities and practice in key areas to society in general and their stakeholders in particular. The objective is to help such institutions operate more transparently, for the information afforded by the indicators is deemed relevant to their activity while also monitoring their performance. The findings show that university libraries, which have become more transparent over time, are more transparent than other information units (national public libraries and historic and university archives). Some were nonetheless found to have room for improvement. On the grounds of their scores, these libraries can be classified under three headings: transparent, translucent or opaque. The parameters where good practices were most frequently identified included service usage rules and regulations, user charters and the annual report.