Disseminating PhD Thesis through ETD: The Challenges before University Libraries in Developing Economy like Nigeria

International audienceThe Problem: PhD is the apex academic certification anybody can earn, provided you satisfy the requirement for the admission and have the competency to run the programme, the requirement for PhD admission dictate that it would be incomplete without writing thesis and dissertation. Also, PhD means Doctor of Philosophy Degree awarded by a university to acknowledge student academic prowess and contribution to knowledge building. PhD thesis and dissertation is a written statement of facts, principle, theory, knowledge undertaken by students seeking to be awarded Doctor of Philosophy Degree (PhD). Thesis and dissertation being what it is has certain obligation to fulfill and the obligation of any thesis is the discovery of new knowledge, fill research gap and dissemination. It is very clear from the above fact that PhD thesis has the tendency of solving human curiosity and problems, so also, the developmental quest of a Nation. Surprisingly, Nigerian universities, Nigerian citadel of learning seems not to place serious premium on the dissemination of their PhD students thesis and the PhD students can do nothing, absolutely, nothing in disseminating their thesis. Nigerian universities through their respective libraries cannot continue to keep PhD thesis in their shelves. Rather, full scale digitalization and uploading into Institutional Repository must take place, if not, number three of five laws of Ranganathan (1931) would be violated, i.e. ‘'Every books its readers'' which will be ‘'Every thesis its readers''. With the growth in the number of PhD intake or enrollment in Nigerian universities, there is urgent need to start discussing the method and the best approach to get the PhD thesis out of our libraries shelve into the global arena via institutional repositories. In order, to serve Nigerian developmental quest better, universities should be ready to supply the necessary knowledge required to move the country to next level. The Nigerian Universities must all her functions as the knowledge industry that Nigerian economic development depends on. Methods: The study would adopt survey research methodology with purposive sampling technique and would be guided by well formulated research questions. The data for the research will be solicited through the instrument of interview, observation and questionnaire. The findings will be analyzed and presented in tabular and chart form including other statistical instrument. Results: The study is expected to unveil the true picture of the situation PhD thesis and dissertation in ETD format among Nigerian Universities. And provide answers to Nigerian Universities inability to show their presence in the ETD global map. Contributions: The research shall among other things recommend the way forward for Nigerian Universities to fulfill their role as citadel of learning to supply Nigeria economy the required knowledge for accelerated development and the study would fill a research gap in area of PhD thesis dissemination through ETD