REPORT ON ORGANIZATION OF THESES AND DISSERTATIONS INTO ELECTRONIC DATABASE FOR

MULTIPLE ACCESS

INTRODUCTION
For sometime now, accessibility and dissemination of research output submitted t
o UCC has been problematic. This has been so because hitherto, the organization,
management and dissemination of the research output had been done manually. Fur
thermore, the processing of this special collection has been left unorganized fo
r a very long time because of the peculiar problems associated with them. Howeve
r, with the advent of information and communication technologies, their processi
ng, management and dissemination have been rendered much easier. The library hop
es to achieve this through the acquisition of specified equipment and requisite
training of some staff. To this end, a proposal on the above subject was submitt
ed to TALIF for consideration and approval. The proposal was subsequently approv
ed and the project awarded on the 25th January 2005. The project number is uccs/
3/002/2005 and the total grant amount is usd19, 963.00.
PERFORMANCE GOAL
The performance goal of the project is to create the capacity at the University
of Cape Coast Library for the collection, management and dissemination of theses
and dissertions electronically so that student and researchers can have simulta
neous access to all the research output by postgraduate students.
PROJECT MILESTONES
The specific milestones the project is expected to achieve have to with the acqu
isition and installation of equipment for the project, training of selected staf
f for the implementation of the project and evaluation.

INITIAL CHALLENGES
The release of funds for the implementation of the first milestones-acquisition
and installation of equipment suffered a serious setback when only ¢17,508,408.00 o
ut of the ¢77,404,000.00 was credited to the UCC special account. This was in May,
2006, the project originator drew the attention of the stakeholders to this setb
ack and a promise was made to rectify the anomaly. On the 26th September, 2006 t
he Director of Finance wrote to inform me that the shortfall of ¢59,896,000.00 had
been credited to the said Account.
At the time of the supply of the equipment, information on the internet indicate
d that Flatbed Scanner 8200 was a discontinued product. Armed with this informat
ion, the supplier was quickly alerted to supply one (1) equally powerful and mor
e improved model 8270 instead of two (2) 8200.
The acquisitions of the pro cite 5 and Omni Page softwares which have to be purc
hased under an international agreement has taken a long time.

ACQUISITION AND INSTALLATION OF EQUIPMENT

The project equipment has been acquired and installed. These included 2 Dell Opt
iplex GX620 computers, I printer, and 1 scanner. The rest are 2 TWIMOS, 12TNER49
A, 2 UPS with 50 imation CD recordable. All these were acquired at the cost of ¢71,
850,000.00 less ¢5,554,000.00 of the projected cost of the equipment. Invoices for
the purchase of the Pro Cite 5 and Omni Page software have also been acquired an
d forwarded to the Director of Finance for the necessary action. Indeed, at the
time of writing this report, both softwares have not yet been acquired.

EFFECTS OF THE CHALLENGES

The effect was long delay in the implementation of the project. Consequent to th
is, it has delayed the start of the training programme which is the second miles
tone of the project. At the time of writing this report, funds for the second an
d third milestones have been applied for but are yet to be released. Mainly for
these reasons. The project originator has applied for the extension of completio
n time for the project.
ACHIEVEMENT
Notwithstanding these bottlenecks, the project has taken off slowly with a total
number of 200 hundred documents partially processed. This has to do with the su
pply of and inputting bibliographic data as well as scanning abstracts. It is ho
ped that when the softwares are acquired and the training work is carried out, t
he project will take off in earnest.
CONCLUSION
All in all, the project is viable and all stakeholders should play their respect
ive roles to bring it to fruition. Not only will it facilitate access to researc
h output of the university but also establish it as a serious research minded on
e.