GeoTheses: development of union catalogue of Indian geoscience theses using GSDL

Abstract

PurposeThis paper aims to describe a model to provide a mechanism for the development of a union catalogue for geoscience theses based on open source software (GSDL) and to show how libraries can use open source as a vehicle for promoting library services. It is used for the geoscience community and educational users in India.Design/methodology/approachThe system is based on open source software (GSDL, Apache, PERL, JRE). GeoTheses can be used both in offline mode (i.e. self‐installable CD‐ROM) and online through the web.FindingsThe findings of this study suggest that GeoTheses can serve as an online distributed digital library for geoscience theses held in India and will enhance the geoscience research activity by providing nascent information pinpointedly, exhaustively and expeditiously.Research limitation/implicationsThis is a pilot study, with the only limitation being that very few samples have been considered. This will be investigated further with a wider population, which will improve the GeoTheses system.Practical implicationsThese results suggest that a system like GeoTheses could be used by the geoscience research communities, which would help to serve students and scientists working in the field to access information from other geoscience institutes around the world quickly.Originality/valueThe paper describes the application of open source software, GSDL as a form of resource sharing, an electronic archive and a high quality, central database of records for geosciences theses in India.