Walsh reported on Joe Lauer's trip to Kenya and the discussion of a database of abstracts of African dissertations. It was an idea from the Title VI centers to collect dissertations from African universities and to have each center contact a different university to cover major universities in Africa. There was much concern in Africa about who owns the dissertations and the loss of control. Goral suggested that dissertations not be lent out without a signature sheet acknowledging the author and indicating who the reader was. It is important to state exactly what such an insert should contain.
Dissertations are a gray area with questions of who has the right to copy or sell.
Dar es Salaam University is looking into document delivery. The Ford Foundation and Liz Levey would want this database to become a viable commercial product which may be unrealistic with a small market. It is questionable whether African libraries could afford subscriptions and to have such a database if one cannot obtain the dissertations seems frustrating. Electronic Journal of African Bibliography . Iowa University would like to keep this journal on the web.