Where Have all of the Dissertations Gone? A Comparison of RILM, Music Index, DDM-Online, and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Kirstin Dougan University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Presented by John Wagstaff Music Library Association Annual Meeting March 2010, San Diego, CA

What’s the problem here? Locating dissertations Various formats, including emergence of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) Various online tools for identifying, and now with ETDs, accessing Physical and/or ETD copy of dissertation may be deposited with Library, Department, Graduate School, and/or directly with UMI/ProQuest Challenges of author-supplied content and metadata

Dissertation Formats Dissertation Print Electronic Thesis or Dissertation (ETD) Microform

Findability Citation Local Library Catalog Local ETD Depository Local Institutional Repository Other ETD or Scholarly Repositories Abstracting and Indexing Databases WorldCat RILM, Music Index, DDM- Online, etc. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

Description of the Study Comparison of online versions of RILM Music Index Doctoral Dissertations in Musicology-Online (DDM) ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) Searching for known dissertations in musicology Schools with similar PhD programs chosen: UIUC, UNC-CH, IU

Coverage Comparison RILMMIDDMPQDT Dissertation types Doctoral and non-doctoral Doctoral onlyDoctoral only; Finished and in progress Dissertations and theses US Degree typesPhD, DMA, EdDPh.D., D.M.A., A.Mus.D., Ed.D., D.Ed. D.M.E., D.A. Primarily PhD and DMA, some EdD PhD, D.M.A., Ed.D., D.Ed. D.M.E., A.Mus.D., Mus.D. SubjectsAll music Musicology, Performance, Music Education (PhD) All Dates covered1969-present1972-present1897*-present1861*-present AbstractsYesNo Yes Student-supplied metadata? YesYes/NoYes International?IntlU.S./CanadaIntl Cost ?$$Free$

Search Options Comparison RILM, Music Index, and PQDT allow searching by specific fields and/or keywords anywhere RILM and PQDT include abstracts, so more data for keyword searches to search DDM only allows keywords anywhere does have an author index does have time-period index does allow searching of “all,” “completed,” or “in-progress” dissertations

RILM Field Choices

Music Index Field Choices

PQDT Field Choices

Field comparison chart-1 RILM (via Ebsco) Music Index (via Ebsco)PQDTDDM* Title Title [includes school, degree and date]Document Title[title] Record Type Document Type [dissertation]Publication TypeSource type Authors Author[author] Major Topics SubjectsSubject TermsSubject name/code Index terms (Keyword(s)) [additional keywords] Abstract Abstractor Name Publication Date[see title above]Date

Field comparison chart-2 RILM (via Ebsco) Music Index (via Ebsco)PQDTDDM* Dissertation Source [school and degree][see title above]Degree[degree] School name/Code[school] School Location Publisher [UMI]Source [DAI] Country of Publication Pagination Physical Description Language Document Language ISBNISSNISBN RILM Source UMI Number[UM[I] number]

Field comparison chart-3 RILM (via Ebsco) Music Index (via Ebsco)PQDTDDM* ISBNISSNISBN RILM Source Accession Number ProQuest Document ID [DDM code, DA[I] number, RILM number] Volume/Issue (DVI) [DAI?] Journal Subset Advisor[Research director] Committee Member Dissertation FieldDepartment Publication Number Supplemental files Dcoument text

Search Methodology Master lists of completed dissertations were obtained from three school’s Musicology web sites Musicology focus because of manageability and because DDM is somewhat more limited in scope than the other databases General searches were conducted in each online resource to cast wide net for each school for PhD dissertations in musicology between 1979 and 2008 Search results were compared against master lists Any dissertations not found in general searches were searched by name and/or title

Percent of Titles Found & Not Found RILMMIDDMPQDT Found Not found Found Not found Found Not found Found Not found UIUC82.30%17.70%93.70%6.30%46.80%53.20%100%0% UNC- CH 82.30%17.70%94.90%5.10%88.60%11.40%100%0% IU88.80%11.10%97.30%2.80%100%0%97.20%2.80% Average84.47%15.50%95.30%4.73%78.47%21.53%99.07%0.93%

Ranking by titles found* 1. ProQuest99.07% 2. MI95.03% 3. RILM84.47% 4. DDM78.47% *Average across all three schools

Analysis of anomalies/not-founds RILM and Music Index Not-founds generally newest (3 years old and newer) When necessary to find by name or title was because key data such as full school name or degree information missing DDM Depends heavily on whether school requires submission ProQuest Almost 100% find rate--one not found because “music” not listed in subject

Other data issues observed Degree notation varies by school and/or over time DMEd vs EdD Challenges in student-assigned metadata and findability Self-chosen keywords/subjects Often omit key information such as department

Electronic Theses & Dissertations Since late 1980s Many universities now only accept electronic copies (usually PDFs) of dissertations as the official format University may have ETD repository and/or a general institutional repository OR may just house ETD with PQDT Potentially many access points to the ETD beyond the ones already discussed

ETD Sources Besides PQDT Thesis repositories Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations CRL’s foreign dissertation collection Scholarly repositories/indexes OpenDOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories) Google Scholar (working with PQDT) Country or topic-specific sources (not all ETDs, not all music) Theses Canada Portal Music Theory Online Dissertation Index Individual schools Institutional repositories Institutional ETD repositories