Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Today, human race is experiencing the knowledge age and research acts

as an important remedy to solve man's curiosity. According to Alzheimer Europe Office (2012) research is a general term which covers all kinds of studies designed to find responses to worthwhile questions by means of a systematic and scientific approach. The knowledge earned from researches can come in many different varieties, such as new facts that were previously unknown, theories about how facts are connected, or uncovering new questions that have yet to be answered. Conducting research is very important which can solve problems but it is a long way process and frustrating yet a challenge to everyone. Head and Eisenberg (2009) said that research is a very challenging task because it is a key to the improvement of mans quality of living. Research is time consuming in way that researchers need to look for reference materials to complete the research. Though research is frustrating and time consuming it helps to protect the public by letting the people understand what an object is, how it works and what it can do for them. Research is done with passion and patience because without these, people may not develop or discover things. Research brought to us technologies such as computer, cellular phone, Internet and other innovations, and people benefit from the use of these technologies because it aids in making mans work with promptness, reliability and efficiency (Cadornigara, 2009; Birman, 2005; Baase, 2004).
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In the society today all over the world, technology is the most important advancement, a necessity in bringing about progress as people move along in this computerized world. People nowadays refer now to the World Wide Web as their references for their assignments, thesis and etc. According Pew Internet & American Life Project and University of Illinois Libraries Survey (2007) there are 58% of the people surveyed answered Internet as their source of information while 13% for public library. Observing the survey done people chose to stay and look for information on online documents, articles and etc over printed books. Johnson (2011) said books have earned a trusted spot in our culture as legitimate sources of information, having been vetted by an entire network of people, the internet does not always have that same quality assurance but it does have the wisdom of the crowds, relying that at least one reader will catch and point out the mistakes. Therefore, it is upon the hands of the researcher what to cite and it depends on the perspective of the researcher. Anilkumar and Rajaram (2013) states that the most reliable way to know the contribution of research to the world knowledge base is through publication and citation data. The research papers and doctoral thesis are the instruments through which results of the research are communicated to the outside world. Both these scholarly publications conclude with the list of references. The study of these references (citations) gives an idea about the development of any research topic or a researcher and also indicates the kind of literature referred by the researchers. In today's world of ever escalating cost of serials, citation analysis is also being used to determine which titles to purchase and which ones to discontinue.
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Students are traditionally asked to look for research materials to support their studies in the library. Generally, though, a library is often described as a high building with many massive shelves including a compilation of many kinds of recent and an archive of out-dated research materials. As time goes by, wherein more and more reference materials are added to the stack and piled up, exploring the library looking for the right material means traveling through spatial and temporal area, with a minimum chance of finding relevant information within a great bulk of research materials as one walks from one shelf to another. Even with the availability of research materials, researchers still have hard time looking and scanning the pages for the precise study that they can use to support their study. The demand for user access to electronic publications has been growing for more than a decade. University libraries in Korea have been developing and utilizing Webbased bibliographic databases to provide users with full-text access to electronic publications, including theses, dissertations, academic journals, and research reports (Park E.G., May 2007). These research documents or references are also available on libraries. Academic libraries face the problem of the increasing costs of academic documentation with, at best, constant resources. Nowadays, it is already possible for vast quantities of digital information to be collected, stored, processed and transferred easily even to handheld devices, the whole shelves of book can be stored in low-cost data storage devices and several other information readily available through the Internet (Vibar,2008; Castro & Atkinson, 2009).
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The Internet has been a huge boon for information-seekers. In addition to sites maintained by newspapers and other traditional news sources, there are untraditional sources ranging from videos, personal Web pages and blogs to postings by interest groups of all kinds from government agencies to hate groups (Internet Accuracy, n.d.). Internet now will serve as the bridge to researchers to view research materials that are stored over data storage devices. Most of the people nowadays are engaging in high technology and keeping attached to the internet. People are more attached to the internet because of the availability of resources and also because people send feedbacks to articles, blogs and other publications available in the internet. Online researching will be more lot easier for researchers with the use of digital or online repositories of researchers or digitized book. A digital repository is where digital content, assets, are stored and can be searched and retrieved for later use. A repository supports mechanisms to import, export, identify, store and retrieve digital assets (Digital Repositories: Helping Universities and Colleges). In addition from the article, repositories are important for universities and colleges in helping to manage and capture intellectual assets as a part of their information strategy. A digital repository can hold a wide range of materials for a variety of purposes and users. Universities and Colleges produces research documents. A research document or thesis is a requirement to gain or acquire a degree. Colegio de Dagupan (CdD), being awarded with Center of Excellence in Information Technology Education, was able to produce many professionals in different fields. Each professionals produce a research document or also known as thesis.
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Researches after submission of students are book-bind and will piled in CdD's Library every year. The researches made by the alumni of CdD can be used by the current student of CdD as their reference to their research project. Colegio de Dagupan's library is exclusively to CdD's students and employees making the resources of CdD forbidden to other researchers from other institution. Theses and dissertations are an important part of information resources in any university. In India, access to these resources is generally limited to the university community. Most of the libraries don't allow photocopying, lending or distribution of theses and they are often difficult to obtain in full text (Sheeja, 2011). Considering the world today, the need for digitization of thesis and dissertation are now in need because the quantity of researches is increasing and making libraries bulky. Digitization is conversion of analog information into digital information. Digitized thesis and dissertations can be stacked to online repositories specifically with the use of Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) repositories. An ETD is a digital document suitable for machine archives and worldwide access. It may incorporate such features as enhanced graphics, sound, and animation. In addition, ETDs enable users to perform comprehensive searches using words, phrases, or symbols (Electronic Thesis & Dissertation, n.d.). ETDs increase the availability of research to the academic community worldwide, increase the exposure to potential employers, improve student understanding of electronic publishing issues and reduce the need for library space. (Electronic thesis and dissertation Guide, p.1, 2011)

An Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) is simply the digital (electronic) representation of your thesis or dissertation. It is the same as its paper counterpart in content and organization, and it meets the formatting requirements (Marquette University, 2013). An ETD is an electronic thesis or dissertation document expressed in a form simultaneously suitable for machine archives and worldwide retrieval. The document is similar to its paper predecessor, but differs in that ETDs provide a technologically advanced medium for expression. They may be prepared using nearly any word processor or document preparation system and, if desired, the incorporation of relevant multimedia elements. ETDs eliminate the requirement to submit multiple copies on fifty percent cotton bond paper. Consequently, ETDs consume virtually no library shelf space, and never collect dust. Furthermore, with your approval, they can be available to anyone browsing the World Wide Web (Brigham Young University, n.d.). ETDs solve the too much use of paper wherein you dont have to print dozens of manuscripts as you make changes and progress through the various stages of review where you can just convert your document file to PDF and submit it to the ETD. Also it increases the available space available in libraries. ETDs offer a new generation of theses and dissertations that can include color diagrams, color images, hypertext links, audio, video, animations, spreadsheets, databases, simulations, and virtual reality worlds. In addition to the multimedia aspects discussed above, the ETD will be given an address on the World Wide Web after it is publicly released so it can be accessible worldwide. In this way the ETD can answer
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others questions and inspire further research. Through the World Wide Web, people anywhere in the world can link directly to students ETDs or ETD collections at NC State and other universities. ETD is cost-effective for both student and university (Electronic thesis and dissertation Guide, p.2, 2011). One of the problems of researchers nowadays is the gathering of relevant and dependable information from the internet. Also time is considered by researchers. Since making use of ETDs lessens the time in information gathering and will make researchers to look for relevant, dependable and recent research materials, the researchers are inspired to initiate a project entitled Reliable Web-based Electronic Theses and Dissertations of Colegio de Dagupan. Making use of the project study will make scholars all over the world via the World Wide Web view or study research documents which are available in the said system. In this system reliability, availability, maintainability and security will be applied. Also with this, researchers will not be bothered anymore in going to spacious and bulky libraries to look for research material because with just tap of a finger, researchers may search for researches that they can use to support their study. In addition relevant information will be more accessible. The global move toward ETDs is a win-win situation. Everyone saves money and receives benets. New opportunities and possibilities abound: open access (Fox, McMillan, Suleman, Goncalves & Luo, 2004; Fox, 2005; Fox, Yang, & Kim, 2006); better preparation for the up-and-coming community of young researchers, increased visibility of individual as well as university research and broader collaboration inside and
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among universities. Students are improving their skills and universities are improving their infrastructures to work with online information, applying key library and information science concepts, and advancing scholarship. The Reliable Web-based Electronic Theses and Dissertations of Colegio de Dagupan will serve as a stash of the collection of knowledge collected by different researchers where it is accessible and available anywhere and anytime. Aside from the non-functional requirements mentioned, the said project will help students to produce better research projects making use of the resources available. Also this will enhance the teaching and learning capability of students based on the resources and services that the Reliable Web-based Electronic Theses and Dissertations of Colegio de Dagupan contain. Conceptual Framework The developers used Input-Process-Output (IPO) to present paradigm of the study that illustrates the relationship between the input and output. The paradigm of the study exhibits the skeletal framework of the research study. The paradigm in Figure 1.1 illustrates the conceptual framework of the study on how to come up with the output of the proposed system The first input in the Web-based ETD for Graduate Student of CdD are the researchers, future researchers, instructors, scholars and students. The functional requirements will provide the guidelines in the development of the system as well as the features of the system.

The phases of Extreme Programming (XP) will be the basis for the development of the system. This includes the following phases; requirements gathering, analysis, design and implementation. The result of the study would be a Web-based ETD for Graduate Student of CdD.

Input Output

Process

Data needed for the Web-based Extreme Programming Requirements Analysis System Design Development Testing Maintenance Reliable Web-based Electronic Theses and Dissertations of Colegio de Dagupan

ETD for Graduate Student of CdD.

Hardware and software

requirements of the system

10 Feedback

Features of the system

Figure 1.1 Research

Paradigm

Statement of the Objectives The project study aims to design and develop a Reliable Web-based Electronic Theses and Dissertations of Colegio de Dagupan. Specifically, it sought to attain the following objectives: 1. to identify the data needed for the proposed system; 2. to determine the hardware and software requirements of the system; 3. to specify the features of the system. Significance of the Study The project study intents to contribute reference materials over the internet and to promote conducting researches. The beneficiaries of the study are the following: Researchers. The availability of thesis and dissertations over the web will help the researchers to be more productive. Furthermore, in just a push of a button, research materials and related literatures will be showed and will have more ideas and proofs to support their research. Also researchers can have more time to look and evaluate research materials that they have to provide relevant research work. Instructor. With the use of the Reliable Web-based Electronic Theses and Dissertations of Colegio de Dagupan, a professor can access electronic thesis and dissertations over the internet 24 hours a day. In this way a professor can read full text thesis documents to earn knowledge about the abstract of the studies and help their students to understand the literatures of the study to be used in their research study.
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Furthermore professors can enhance their teaching skills and to point out and sourcing out studies about subject matters that he will transmit to the class. In addition the said ETD will provide a means of verifying if a certain proposal already exists to avoid plagiarized works and redundant works. School. Institution benefits from improved access to the increased levels of use of the materials produce, by helping to promote research profile of the school. Also storage space in the library will be decreased, as well as, the amount of staff time spent in retrieving and re-shelving hard-copy thesis is also lowered. The production of statistics is easier and the provision of an improved service to users should lead to improved level of customer satisfaction. Scope and Limitations The project study focuses in the development of Reliable Web-based Electronic Theses and Dissertations of Colegio de Dagupan. The system includes studies of students from Colegio de Dagupan. Project study manuscripts can be uploaded in the Reliable Web-based Electronic Theses and Dissertations of Colegio de Dagupan. Software packages, audio material, visual images, video links and hyperlinks are not included. Details and abstracts of the project study manuscripts will be presented initially and as an added feature, the entire manuscript is downloadable in pdf format. Metadata will be also added on the manuscript uploaded.

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Security mechanism is also included in the system. The user will simply login the system their username and password to gain access in the system. Search mechanism is also included for the ease of locating of theses and dissertations. The system has three types of users which are the admin, registered and guests. The admin is the one responsible for maintaining the system also reviews the submitted project manuscripts. Registered users are the one who can add and view full-text project manuscripts which are uploaded in the system. Guest users are the ones who are entering the site which can only view the abstract of the project manuscripts. Web-based ETD will be implement as a client/server system, accessible over the world wide web also a link is integrated on the Colegio de Dagupan web portal. Definition of Terms The following terms used in this study were operationally defined by the developer to facilitate understanding. Digital Repositories. This is an online stash which are for collecting, preserving and disseminating research journal and dissertation in digital form. Digitization. Digital version of something. For example from a book to an e-book. Dissertation. This is the research study conducted by students taking up their doctorate degree. Electronic. These are digital files which can be view on a device or in a computer.
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Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD). Digital version of project manuscripts of undergraduate and graduate students. Instructors. The lecturers of the educational institutions. Metadata. This are data about the files or manuscripts uploaded in the ETD. This is used to arrange ETD contents. Researchers. These are people who seek for answers or information about a study that they want to prove. In addition this are people who are trying to get a degree. Student. The people who are taking up their degree. Theses. The project study conducted by students as their requirement to get a degree. Web-based. The ETD applications characteristic of being implemented on the Internet.

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