Development of Transferable Knowledge: Electronic Theses and Dissertation (ETDs) Publications in Academic Libraries in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Zimbabwe has adopted Education 5.0 which is an educational transformation typified by five missions of Teaching, Community Outreach, Research, Innovation and Industrialization. The Education 5.0 seeks to produce relevant and cost effective knowledge products that results in the production of new goods and services towards the modernization and industrialization of Zimbabwe. Electronic Thesis and Dissertations (ETDs) are at the core of knowledge production by universities in Zimbabwe. ETD's are important data sets for research and development and are critical in the knowledge creation and production that must lead to innovation and industrialization driven by academic institutions. The management of e-scholarship underpins the success of academic institutions to cause the industrialization and modernization of Zimbabwe under the new transformation. The chapter explores the opportunities in managing ETDs in Zimbabwe. The chapter explored how ETD's are transforming scholarly communication landscape through knowledge creation and sharing for industrialization and modernization. The chapter highlights new transformation by academic institutions in creating and developing ETD's to be linked with innovation hubs. Furthermore, the chapter explored the extent to which academic libraries are grappling with the emerging genres of ETD's for example the use of linked data to enhance discoverability. The chapter suggested strategies to enhance the ETD's culture.