JNU’s ETD Repository

Theses and Dissertations are one of the important primary sources of information; and generally, libraries of every academic institution maintain a separate collection of theses and dissertations for reference of their user community. Normally, theses and dissertations are meant to be used within the library premises, therefore, access to and use of these valuable resources of every library is limited.

The Central Library of the University has been receiving theses and dissertations from various schools, centres and affiliated institutions of the university. The Library maintains a separate collection of theses and dissertation, and its bibliographic details are maintained along with other library resources. Users can search it in the online public access catalogue (OPAC) of JNU Library which is available at or can be accessed from Home Page of Central Library http://www.jnu.ac.in/Library

The date of oldest thesis available in the library goes back to the year 1960 when the doctorate degree was awarded to Tarun Chandra Bose by former Indian School of International Studies (ISIS), University of Delhi which was later merged in JNU. The thesis of first PhD awarded by JNU in the year 1970 is also available in the library. As on March 2014, JNU library has over 21,000 theses and dissertations awarded by the University and its affiliated institutes. The research topics of this collection are from various subject domains of humanities, social sciences & sciences disciplines. The collection contains approximately 18,000 unique theses and dissertation titles.

Advent and proliferation of information and communication technologies has greatly influenced the way information sources are managed and disseminated by libraries. Simultaneously, it has also impacted the information seeking behaviour of library users and has raised their expectations from libraries. Therefore, the library envisioned to make Table of Contents (TOC) of theses and dissertations available online along with the its bibliographic details in OPAC.

In 2007, the library started in-house project to digitise title page and TOC of theses and dissertations in order to make them available as part of bibliographic records. Approximately, ten thousand theses and dissertations were scanned and their TOC were uploaded bibliographic database of the library. This increased users’ satisfaction level as well as commitment of the library towards applications of ICT Infrastructure in library activities.

In 2012, the library took one more gigantic step towards increasing visibility and usage of its theses and dissertation collection by digitizing them and started project for digitization of all the theses and dissertations available with library. Digitization work has been outsourced and till date, more than 17,000 hard volumes of theses and dissertations have been digitized. More than 30 lacs digitized pages restrain knowledge of over 5,500 PhD theses and more than 12,000 M.Phil. dissertations. Almost all available back volumes of theses and dissertations have already been digitised; and, the work on the newly received theses and dissertations is in progress. It is expected to be completed in near future.

Recently, the University has signed an MoU with INFLIBNET Centre and accordingly has provided digitized copy of more than 5,000 PhD theses to INFLIBNET Centre to make them available in Shodhganga.

Furthermore, the University envisioned and started developing its own online repository of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). Although, JNU’s PhD theses are available in Shodhganga, its ETD Repository envisages making MPhil Dissertations available in public domain along with PhD theses. The university has framed its policy for availability of ETDs under open access with an embargo period of three years. The requisite infrastructure for development of JNU’s ETD Repository is ready; work is progressing with a rapid pace and it is expected to make it available at http://etd.lib.jnu.ac.in very soon.

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