Preserving the past for future generations: UKZN Library's digitisation Journey

 

By Dr Roshini Pather

Have you ever wondered what happens to a thesis after it is submitted? Today, every UKZN thesis is submitted electronically and added to the University's growing digital research collection on ResearchSpace – the Institutional Repository.   However, this was not always the case. Before electronic submission was introduced in 2009, postgraduate research was submitted in print and stored on library shelves, meaning that valuable research could only be accessed by those who were able to visit the Library in person.

Over the years, UKZN Library Services has worked to change that. Through ongoing digitisation initiatives, thousands of theses have been converted from print to digital format and made available online through ResearchSpace. What was once accessible only within the walls of the Library can now be discovered and used by researchers across the world, ensuring that UKZN's research legacy remains visible, accessible and preserved for future generations.

Preserving older collections has become increasingly important. Printed materials can deteriorate over time due to age, frequent handling, environmental conditions and even unexpected events such as floods or fires. By creating digital copies, we can ensure that valuable knowledge is not lost and remains available for current and future generations.  Through digitisation, valuable resources can be preserved without compromising their long-term integrity.

Digitisation also opens up new opportunities for learning and research. Instead of travelling to a specific library location, users can access resources online anytime from wherever they are. This makes research more convenient and helps increase the visibility and impact of scholarly work produced at UKZN.

   Call to Action: Help Preserve UKZN's Research Legacy

One of the Library's key digitisation initiatives is the Retrospective Thesis Digitisation Project. The project focuses on converting older print theses into digital formats so that they can be preserved and made accessible through ResearchSpace.

As one of South Africa's early adopters of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), UKZN has been preserving and sharing its research outputs digitally since the launch of ResearchSpace in 2009. Over the years, the University has undertaken several large-scale digitisation initiatives to bring its valuable print thesis collection online. Major digitisation projects in 2012 and 2019 significantly expanded the repository, and by 2020, the remaining 13,077 theses dating back to 2000 were uploaded to ResearchSpace, making a substantial body of UKZN's postgraduate research more accessible to scholars around the world.

 When the country went into lockdown in 2020, UKZN Library Services turned a challenging period into an opportunity to further strengthen the University's digital collections. It was a remarkable team effort involving Library staff across all campuses, who worked together to digitise thousands of print theses representing decades of postgraduate scholarship. In just two months, more than 2,000 theses were digitised and added to ResearchSpace, ensuring continued access to critical research during a time when physical collections were inaccessible.

While the vast majority of the collection was successfully digitised, some theses could not be processed at the time due to missing copies, quality issues or other constraints. With the current Retrospective Thesis Digitisation Project, the Library continues to identify and digitise these outstanding titles, ensuring that as much of UKZN's research history as possible is preserved, discoverable and accessible for future generations and the project is helping to create lasting opportunities for learning, research and innovation. 

How You Can Help

The success of the Retrospective Thesis Digitisation Project relies on the support and collaboration of the entire UKZN community. From researchers and alumni to current students and academics, everyone can play a part in helping to preserve the University's rich research heritage.

If you are the author of a UKZN thesis and cannot find your work on ResearchSpace, we encourage you to get in touch with the Library and submit a copy for inclusion in this project. Similarly, if you are searching for a thesis that is not currently available online, please let us know. This helps us identify missing titles and prioritise them for digitisation.

By contributing to this initiative, you are helping to safeguard UKZN's scholarly legacy, improve access to valuable research, and increase the visibility of knowledge produced at the University. Together, we can safeguard UKZN's rich research heritage and continue building a digital collection that informs, inspires and supports future scholarship. As we preserve the past, we are also creating new opportunities for discovery, innovation and academic excellence.

Your thesis is more than just a requirement for a qualification—it is part of UKZN's knowledge legacy. Help us keep that knowledge alive, discoverable and available to researchers for years to come.

To contact the Library about a missing thesis or to submit a copy for digitisation, please email researchspace@ukzn.ac.za or contact your nearest UKZN Library. Our team will be happy to assist and provide guidance on the submission process.

Postgraduate support in the Library

by Roshini Pather

As the Portfolio Head for Library Information Services I often wondered what support we provide for postgraduate students in the Libraries. 

A few days ago I was at the Information and Communication Services (ICS) helpdesk having my computer upgraded, when a tearful student rushed in crying:  “Can you please help me, my entire thesis has been deleted from my flash drive.  And all I was trying to do was print the copies for submission and all my files disappeared.” “A common and frequent complaint”, said the gentleman from the helpdesk.  A staff member also waiting for assistance, shared her experience of her PhD study and recounted how she lost a year of her study when her computer crashed just as she saved the last bit of her raw data.  It took a whole year to re-do that and currently she uses DropBox for everything.

This got me thinking, as a librarian and university employee whose responsibility is it to assist this student?  Many students do not have the necessary research or technology-related skills when they begin their degree and supervisors do not have the time to teach them these basic skills.  Students doing postgraduate studies are generally mature students, with family/life responsibilities, have been out of the academic setting for a while, have full-time work and are not necessarily up-to-date with technology and are at differing levels of technological literacy.

Was it the supervisor’s responsibility to ensure that the student is adequately computer literate before embarking on the degree or the students?  But this is not just about the student’s computer literacy, what about her language proficiency, knowledge of bibliographic management tools like Endnote, Refworks, plagiarism software - Turn-it-in, statistical packages and the list goes on. 

Is this the domain of the Library, the subject specialist, the IT department or the academic staff?  Whose task is it to train her in all these elements so that she is able to submit a thesis worthy of examination and publication? Is it the librarian’s task only to teach them how to use the library resources or to prepare them for lifelong learning and getting that degree at the same time?

The library is the first point of contact (and continuous contact) outside of the academic leader or supervisor.  Aren’t we ideally placed to offer this support to students.  The library is the visible part of the Research portfolio and has the advantage of being geographically placed. It may not be our area of expertise, but we have the necessary competencies, skills and expertise. By being the first point of contact and working daily with postgraduates, we can see where the issues and questions arise, and the pressures they experience.  Our key responsibilities is to provide support and assistance to researchers.

As a PhD graduate, I think the library can contribute a great deal to this process.  I would have valued some advice and support at the beginning of my studies, tips if you want to call them:

·        Format your document right at the Research Proposal stage with the headings, tables, footnotes, line-spacing, etc,

·        Save your references according to your chapters because once you reach submission stage and you have 300 some odd references and want to check you have correctly cited them, then it is a struggle to find that reference.

·        Use EndNote right from the start.

·        Save, save and save again.  Nowadays you have DropBox, Microsoft’s OneDrive, Apple’s ICloud, Google Drive, your flash drive and hard-drive.

Academic libraries have changed tremendously in the last few years from their physical spaces to how the service is provided.  Information resources are available in many different formats and librarians are able to train users on how best to use them and therefore understand how software is connected, which vocabulary to use, programming and script languages and web design.  Users are using a variety of technology in their research.  So smart (post-PC) devices are being used more and more – and the librarians provide assistance with these devices and understand the capabilities and limitations

Research Commons: Edgewood Campus

As the student is our client, we should be able to assist or direct them to the necessary expertise.  Librarians’ roles are evolving beyond that of information gatekeepers and this is largely being dictated to by technology.  Our services and collections are changing and therefore our skill set should also adapt as we are required to perform more and more non-traditional library functions.  More importantly, in order to remain relevant, and of value to our users, we should adapt to the changing environment but bear in mind that the traditional library will still remain for many years to come.  Librarians should be embedded in the entire research cycle right from the research proposal stage to final submission.

As no single university department is capable of providing all postgraduate services, there is an opportunity for libraries to capitalise and build on their strengths in delivering services to the postgraduate community and to strategically partner with Student services, Information Communication Services, Research Office, Teaching and Learning, Writing Centre and Postgraduate offices/departments to offer a diverse range of events, workshops and courses, which provide critical communication, writing, teaching and professionals skills to postgraduate students and researchers.  Intentionally or not, many of these partnerships will address the segmentation and differing lifecycle stages of postgraduate students. At the same time this should be matched with staff development programmes and in-house training to ensure that our librarians are trained to assist in the research process.