Full-text ETD retrieval in library discovery system: designing a framework

Abstract

This paper discusses designing an open source software based library discovery system for full-text ETD retrieval on the basis of a cataloguing framework developed by using available global standards and best practices in the domain of theses cataloguing. The purpose of this prototype framework is to provide a single-window search and retrieval system for end users for discovering ETD at metadata level and at full-text level. The prototype framework is based on three-layer architecture with Koha ILS as backend metadata provider, Apache-Tika as full-text extractor and VuFind as discovery system. A MARC-21 bibliographic format, especially designed to handle TDs, is working as data handler mechanism in Koha ILS and the harvester of VuFind is tuned to fetch bibliographic data related to ETD in marcxml format. The user interface of VuFind is also configured to support accessing ETDs from global-scale services like NDLTD, OATD, IndCat, ShodhGanga etc. apart from the local level ETD collection in order to provide an all-in-one search interface for users.