Daniel Gelaw Alemneh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) represent a significant body of original scholarship, yet they remain underrepresented within the scholarly communication infrastructure that supports citation linking, discovery, and research assessment. Although many institutions assign persistent identifiers to ETDs, relatively few expose their bibliographic references through services such as Crossref, limiting the integration of graduate research into global citation networks. To address this gap, the University of North Texas Libraries developed a scalable workflow that enhances the visibility and interoperability of its ETD collection by combining retrospective Digital Object Identifier (DOI) registration with large-scale reference extraction and reference deposit to Crossref. This poster describes the end-to-end implementation, including DOI assignment for tens of thousands of ETDs, automated extraction and normalization of bibliographic references, metadata quality assurance, and Crossref reference registration. By depositing references alongside ETD metadata, the initiative enables theses and dissertations to participate more fully in citation services and the broader scholarly citation ecosystem. The poster discusses the technical and metadata challenges encountered during implementation, lessons learned from processing a large institutional ETD corpus, and the broader implications of extending established scholarly publishing practices to theses and dissertations.

Introduction. The information professions encompass a range of interconnected disciplines that contribute to the effective creation, processing, management, dissemination, and preservation of information and knowledge in diverse formats and contexts. Major technological innovations of the 20th century, combined with the rise of open access, open educational resources, and digital publishing, have greatly impacted public engagement with information and changed how people learn, communicate, and participate in civic society. This paper examines the impact of open access and digital publishing on information science education and the broader digital transformation of the information professions. Method. The study adopts a historical and thematic analysis of major technological innovations and the emergence of open access (OA), Open Educational Resources (OER) and digital publishing platforms, focusing on pioneering initiatives in the information science field such as Information Research, First Monday, and the Journal of Digital Information (JoDI). Results. Early open access and digital publishing pioneering initiatives served as catalysts for democratizing information access and reshaping the information field professional identities. Open access dismantled traditional barriers, facilitating global participation and promoting pedagogical innovation and resource sharing. Conclusion. The study highlights the pivotal role of open access and digital publishing in the digital transformation of the information profession. It underscores the ongoing evolution of the information professions by positioning information professionals at the forefront of a global movement for equitable access to information and knowledge.

Data-driven decision-making is being increasingly adopted worldwide to improve the quality, accessibility, and equity of education. However, there is limited empirical evidence regarding its implementation in developing countries such as Ethiopia. This study aims to investigate the practice of data-driven decision-making in Ethiopian higher education institutions to improve education quality. The study utilized purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Two public universities in Ethiopia were selected based on purposive sampling techniques. 98 faculty members and 211 students and 16 stakeholder participants were selected based on simple random and purposive sampling techniques. The results reveal a lack of genuine data-driven decision-making practices, limited knowledge and awareness of data analytics, reliance on manual analysis and basic software, and a lack of training and support systems for data utilization. The study recommends that leaders collaborate with external organizations, provide training on data usage, prioritize investments in data analytics, and develop policies for data management and decision-making. Future research should investigate the awareness and readiness of top institutional leaders regarding data-centric education and its impact on education quality. The findings of this research will contribute to improving the quality of education in higher education institutions by promoting data-driven decision-making.

Scholarly communication has long been a central topic in the field of information science. However, philosophical, and even perhaps some legal reflections, including the moral and ethical considerations of the health of information ecosystems, are fairly recent developments. In fact, recent topics are propelled by various contextual factors including economic, disciplinary, societal norms, and cultures. This article explores literature discussing the plight of scholars in low‐ and middle‐income countries that struggle to engage in scholarly communications in their fields. This topic has been explored for years, however, has often been addressed in disciplines outside of information science and knowledge management. This study posits that critical investigations lift this issue to one of justice and suggest a new critical lens that would rely on several existing lenses, including those developed to expand epistemic injustice, as well as exploring areas and perspectives that have not yet found their way into the mainstream literature. The analysis provides alternative approaches and discourse around the democratization of scholarly communications, all toward achieving a just and healthier global information ecosystem.

In Ethiopia, healthcare service delivery faces various challenges, specifically in relation to prescribing the right medicine to the right patient at the right time. Thus, patients are exposed to challenges ranging from staying on treatment plans longer than necessary, leaving treatment too early and dying of complications. This paper aims to explore the trends, challenges and opportunities of applying big data analytics (BDA) in precision medicine in other locations around the globe and taking lessons for Ethiopia through a systematic review of 14 peer-reviewed articles from three popular databases. The findings indicate that cancer, epilepsy and systemic diseases altogether are areas currently getting big attention. The challenges are attributed to the nature of health data, failure in collaboration of data sharing, ethical and legal issues, interoperability of systems, poor knowledge skills and culture, and poor infrastructure. In addition to the adoption of modern technologies (new and experimental methods, cloud computing, Internet of Things, social networks, etc.), Ethiopia’s government initiative to promote private technological firms could be an opportunity to use BDA in precision medicine in Ethiopia.

When educators have difficulty accessing peer-reviewed research, it is inequitable to expect them to compete with educators who have access to a plethora of resources. Inequities have been a historically-identified educational problem; however, the forced online learning that occurred during COVID-19 restrictions amplified discrepancies experienced by tertiary educators. Scholars who were forced to work without strong information communication technologies infrastructure and who experienced limited access to online resources struggled more than those that had 24-hour uninhibited access. Education came to a near standstill for those that could not easily move their activities online. Prior to the pandemic, individuals working with curricula were already feeling handicapped by the lack of access. When physical libraries were closed, it became nearly impossible for many to move forward. This chapter explores the changing publishing paradigms, particularly the role of OA and how increasing open dissemination of scholarly outputs can reduce inequities in curricula and research activities.

Ethiopia is one of the world's oldest civilizations with a population of about 120 million (2022 estimate). Ethiopia suffers from declining higher education quality, resulting from the rapid growth in the number of institutions (from three in 1990s to 50+ public Universities and 327+ private higher education institutions in 2022), the rapid expansion in tertiary student enrollment, as well as the lack of basic entrance qualifications. The quality of education in Ethiopia is further impacted by their limited access to critical content or knowledge as evidenced by limited subscriptions to scientific and technical databases. In recognition of open access's (OA's) potential to fill disadvantageous access gaps and enhance the overall educational quality, Ethiopia adopted a National OA policy in 2019. Among other enforcement mechanisms and guidelines, the policy requires universities to deposit all publicly funded publications in the National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia as well as in an institutional repository. In this chapter, the authors outline the state of OA policies and practices in Ethiopia's higher learning institutions.

There is an increasing uptake of digital technologies across African countries. Public, private, and government services have adopted and utilized digital technologies to improve work processes, productivity, create jobs, and better service delivery. This short paper seeks to answer these questions: What is the current state of digital readiness in African countries? Do existing digital readiness assessment tools, indicators, or metrics, help to assess the digital readiness of countries in Africa? Analysis of publicly available data from Cisco index of readiness score and Broadband speed ranking by cable.co.uk, reveal that: 1) African countries' digital readiness score is below the global average of 11.96, on a scale of 0 to 25 (except Tunisia with readiness average score of 12.05); and 2) African countries' broadband speed is below the global mean speed of 25Mbps (mean speed of 4.51 and 3.80 Mbps for sub‐Saharan Africa and North Africa, respectively). Second, analysis of various assessment tools show that the existing metrics can't be used as is to diagnose and evaluate Africa's digital readiness. Instead factors such as availability of adequate infrastructure; last‐mile connectivity to homes, schools, businesses, and government agencies; and skill gaps should be considered. The implications of this study are to show the need for an appropriate assessment tools so countries in Africa prioritize efforts to embrace digital readiness.