Enhancing Bibliographic Access to Dissertations

Abstract

A study of dissertation cataloging practices of Association of Research Libraries (ARL) academic libraries was conducted to discern how they provide access to subjects as well as to names of academic departments and advisors. An analysis of catalog records revealed that this information is recorded in notes and uncontrolled access points more often than in established access points. Although these local practices reflect a move towards cataloging efficiencies, they must be considered in the context of information retrieval.

Liaising the Catalog: Collaborating Across Library Departments to Promote Successful Discoverability through Enhanced Cataloging

“…In a study of dissertation cataloging practices in ARL academic libraries, Catherine Sasson found that subject information was included more often in notes or local or uncontrolled access points than with Library of Congress subject headings. 6 This decline in the use of LCSH in dissertation cataloging was also reflected in the literature, which confirms the need to look beyond traditional controlled vocabulary when enhancing records.…”

Subject-access metadata on ETD supplied by authors: A case study about keywords, titles and abstracts in a Brazilian academic repository

“…In the case of English records, the values are slightly higher, with 2.87% without keywords and 4.45% with only one, but in the latter case, records without keywords in English are also counted because they present the formula "not available". To better contextualize these results, we can relate them to the data collected by Sassen (2017), who, analyzing the cataloging practices of theses and dissertations of 114 affiliated libraries of the ARL (Association of Research Libraries), found that the identification of subjects occurred in 87% of the records catalog. In the Digital Public Library of America, Tarver et al (2015) found 22.8% of records without subject identification, which represents almost a quarter of the total.…”

“…Other works have dealt with knowledge representation and information retrieval of ETDs, addressing the advantages and disadvantages of using keywords and descriptors and carrying out comparative analyzes (Ansari, 2005;Davarpanah & Iranshahi, 2005;Sassen, 2017;Voorbij, 1998). Voorbij (1998) conducted two studies with monographs in the humanities and social sciences, in the online catalog of the National Library of the Netherlands, in order to compare the value of subject descriptors and the keywords of titles as subject search entries.…”

Enrichment of Schema.org with cultural heritage context standards for the description and processing of electronic thesis and dissertations

“…The results showed the unbalanced and inconsistent use of elements in describing theses. Sassen (2017) in a study examined the mention of elements such as names of the supervisor team, university, college and discipline and their authority in the thesis bibliographic records. This scholar noted that attention to these issues has increased bibliographic access to theses.…”