Mary Jo Venetis: Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

I am happy to report that I completed my dissertation and graduated in August 2008 from the University of North Texas with a doctorate degree in information science! My dissertation title is “Identification of Remote Leadership Patterns in Academic and Public Libraries.”

When I applied for the Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in February 2008, I had already written two chapters of my dissertation. In order to continue the work on my dissertation, it was going to be necessary for me to obtain postal addresses of library directors in academic and public libraries to complete my research.

The award of the Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship made it possible to purchase these addresses from Market Data Retrieval (MDR), a D&B company, who has such lists. Therefore I was able to finish my research much sooner because the award gave me the ability to focus on my survey’s methodology, analyze the results, and complete the last three chapters and discuss my research’s implications by June 2008. I successfully defended my dissertation in June 2008, and graduated in August 2008. My dissertation was approved by the Graduate Reader at the University of North Texas in December 2008, and I am now waiting for it to be entered into the UMI/Proquest’s dissertation database.

If not for the Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, I would not have been able to complete my dissertation so quickly. Upon graduation I was also invited to join the Beta Phi Mu organization. I will be eternally grateful to Beta Phi Mu and the Eugene Garfield Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for the critical part they played in my receiving my doctorate degree.