ETD 2004 Presentation Abstracts (second set)
Title: Requirements to
Document and Publication Repositories
Authors: Peter Schirmbacher
Abstract:
Installing and institutionalizing document and publication repositories at universities
creates the opportunity to offer and archive scholarly publications that were
produced at the respective universities for a worldwide audience. This new service
by the infrastructure institutions library and computing center helps disseminate
the idea of electronic publishing as a new tool for academic work.
DINI – the Deutsche Initiative für Netzwerkinformation (German Initiative for Networked Information) – supports this development to reach a higher level of scientific and scholarly communication nationwide and internationally. To reach this goal it is necessary to network document and publication repositories. The publication of electronic theses and dissertations on the internet is a good example for this process. Major prerequisites for success were:
• A nationwide development of metadata standards,
• publication on local repositories through cooperation of libraries and computing centers,
• a workflow for the upload to the German National Library (Die Deutsche Bibliothek), which in turn assumed responsibility for long-term archiving of the theses.
Taking the DINI publication “Electronic Publishing in Higher Education” (March 2002), which was published as a first guideline, as a starting point, this new initiative aims at three targets:
• give a detailed description of the requirements of a certified document and publication repository,
• highlight directions of development in the areas of configuration of repositories and of information exchange through theses repositories,
• offer a certificate visible to both users and operators to certify the adherence to defined standards and recommendations by this repository.
By issuing this certificate, DINI for the first time introduces a quality control for document and publication repositories.
A set of minimum requirements of a repository and its operator mandatory for modern scholarly communication is formulated. At the same time DINI makes recommendations highlighting foreseeable developments that might turn into future requirements.
A working group within DINI audits the criteria for the DINI certificate against international standards and developments and updates them accordingly.
Title: “Developing DSpace for
ETDs at The Robert Gordon University and The University of Edinburgh”
Authors: Andrew J Penman , Richard Jones
Abstract:
As part of the UK JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) FAIR (Focus on
Accessing Institutional Resources) Programme, both Edinburgh University and
the Robert Gordon University have been funded to carry out work for the development
of ETDs within the UK under the Theses Alive! and Electronic Theses projects
respectively.
As these projects approach their completion, this paper aims to share our experiences and research towards creating a national model for adoption by UK institutions. This paper offers a more technical perspective on the actual creation and customisation of an institutional repository. The main areas addressed are:
The paper concludes with a look back at what the projects hoped to achieve and how far along this course they have got. It then looks to the future with suggestions on how to overcome challenges still faced and what additional developments might add desirable functionality to the systems.
Title: Using international best
practice to create a UK ETD national model
Authors: Susan Copeland, Anthony Troman, Richard Milne
Abstract:
In 2002 the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) awarded funding to
three projects to further the development of electronic theses and dissertations
in the United Kingdom. This paper concentrates on the work of the project led
by The Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland.
Phase 1 of the Project commenced in August 2002 and is scheduled to last until July 2004. The Project Consortium comprises representatives from The British Library, The University of Aberdeen, Cranfield University and The University of London Library. Throughout the first twelve months of the project a study was undertaken to obtain examples of best practice from a wide range of existing ETD projects with a view to creating a model for such development within the UK. Work is now ongoing to disseminate the findings and to obtain feedback from librarians and personnel involved with graduate studies.
Part way through the project additional funding for the period October 2003 to September 2004 was obtained from the JISC in order to test the model created in Phase 1 by developing e-theses in a service environment. A representative from the JISC funded Daedalus Project at The University of Glasgow joined the Consortium members for this stage of the exercise.
In January 2004 a major seminar was organised by RGU, JISC, The British Library and The University of London Library to promote the findings of the project and to provide university representatives from throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland with an opportunity to comment on the suggested model. This seminar, which was oversubscribed within a few days of its announcement, proved popular amongst a diverse range of institutions and the findings form the basis of the current paper.
This paper aims to provide information about developments in the UK, emphasising the issues associated with the adoption of a nationally co-ordinated approach. The establishment of individual institutional ETD collections and the work towards designing a UK wide repository of electronic theses feature amongst the topics discussed. The value of having access to examples of best practice, the key role of The British Library in supporting ETD developments, and the benefits of collaborative efforts amongst institutions are considered.
Title: Using DSpace to Administer
an ETD Program: The Drexel Experience
Authors: Stephen T. Janick , Tom McLaughlin
Abstract:
DSpace is a digital library system designed to facilitate the archiving of scholarly
materials and the establishment of institutional repositories. It was developed
jointly by MIT and Hewlett-Packard and is available free-of-charge to institutions
at http://www.dspace.org. The creators of
DSpace assumed that one component of an institutional repository would be a
collection of electronic theses and dissertations. However, to our knowledge,
the ability of DSpace to support a dynamic and growing collection of electronic
theses has yet to be reported in the scholarly literature. This paper will explore
the use of Dspace to administer an ETD program. We will look, briefly, at the
history of ETDs at Drexel as well as at the University’s decision to deploy
DSpace for use with its ETD program. We will discuss the deployment process
(especially from a technical standpoint) and we will examine the current procedures
employed at Drexel with regards to ETDs. We will also discuss the strengths
(search/browse capacity, notification feature, OAI compliance) and weaknesses
(authorization procedures, ingest process, administrative interface, and data
model in general) of DSpace in supporting these procedures. Lastly, our paper
will look at some of the remaining issues regarding ETDs at Drexel (copyright
notification, policy development, scalability, preservation) and we will make
recommendations for improvements to DSpace to strengthen its effectiveness as
a tool for administering ETD programs.
Title: ERA: Capturing Edinburgh's
Research
Authors: Theo Andrew
Abstract:
Every year postgraduate researchers at the University of Edinburgh produce a
large body of research material. While some of this material is published commercially
in books and journals, much is not, and it remains largely invisible because
of the dominance of the print and microform formats for thesis literature in
the UK. It is clear that the current demand for access to thesis literature
is inhibited by both physical restrictions and cost. In the digital age we are
learning the importance of being impatient.
Many universities around the world are now taking steps to capture the research output of their own academics. Since the vast majority of this research output is created in digital format, it is now possible to capture it using web-based digital repositories. Edinburgh University Library is currently funded by the UK?s Joint Information Systems Committee to run the Theses Alive! project [www.thesesalive.ac.uk] which is investigating the issues surrounding the use and management of electronic theses and dissertations in the UK. Initially the project is based at Edinburgh University, but will eventually involve other partner institutions in a UK-wide pilot study, including Cambridge University, Cranfield University, Leeds University and Manchester Metropolitan University.
Later on this year, Edinburgh University Library intends to launch an online digital repository of theses and dissertations from Edinburgh (Edinburgh Research Archive or ERA). Before this service is adopted university-wide we are embarking on smaller scale pilot projects to see what challenges and problems may lie in store for the creators, users and administrators of electronic theses.
This paper offers a practical insight from our firsthand experience into some of the key challenges faced whilst building and populating the Edinburgh Research Archive including; choice of software platform, addressing students needs, intellectual property and prior publication concerns, organisational and institutional policy change needed to support and achieve electronic submission of theses and long term sustainability.
Title: Electronic Theses and Dissertations
(ETDs) at ETSU
Authors: Celia M. Szarejko , Katherine A. Libby , Bill R. Williams
East Tennessee State University (ETSU) began working to implement electronic publication of theses and dissertations in 1999 through a collaborative effort initiated by the Graduate School with the Sherrod Library. The Graduate School saw electronic publication as a way to reduce turnaround time and cost to students in the publication process and to increase the visibility of ETSU research. The Sherrod Library saw the partnership as an opportunity to integrate access to ETSU theses and dissertations in both print and electronic formats, gain experience with building and managing a digital library collection, and reduce operating costs associated with storing, cataloging, and providing interlibrary loan service for theses and dissertations. After pilot testing in 2000, ETDs became mandatory at ETSU in 2001.
The Sherrod Library Systems Department manages both the ETD and Voyager library collection management systems at ETSU. Working with both systems provided an opportunity to explore ways to link the two for resource discovery and access purposes. We developed Perl scripts to create MARC bibliographic and holdings records for ETDs from data in the ETD database, load them into the library catalog, and send a summary log to the Cataloging department by e-mail so that staff could review and correct the records if needed. A more recent script-writing effort built support for the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting into the ETD archive so that ETSU ETD metadata can be included in the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) Union Catalog.
This electronic poster session (web site) reports on ETSU’s experience to date with ETDs from the perspective of the Sherrod Library.
Title: Electronic Thesis and Dissertation
System Development in China
Authors: Yang Zhao, Airong Jiang
Abstract:
Theses and Dissertations are a type of valuable resource. At present there is
not any institution like UMI that digitalizes all Chinese theses and dissertations
and provides a service with them in China. Although, several database venders
have started making ETD databases. With the development of network technology
and successful experiences with ETD projects in other countries, some universities
in China are attempting to collect native ETD resource files submitted by students.
As one of the first universities in China, Tsinghua University began to collect
its own ETDs by an online submission system in 2000. So far, about 30 universities
in China have established their own ETD submission and retrieval systems and
an ETD is required of all Master and PhD candidates.
To share ETDs among the universities in China, the China Academic Library Information System (CALIS) funded the CALIS-ETD digital library project. The Tsinghua University staff is in charge of implementing the project in 2003-2005. The project includes about fifty member universities in China now and will expand to more members in the future. In this paper, four major topics about CALIS-ETD project are introduced and discussed.
There are still many questions to research and discuss: for example long-term preservation of ETD, accessing and displaying of special characters such as mathematical expressions or chemical molecular formula etc. Finally, we wish to share our ETD experiences and learn a lot from the other countries' project in ETD implementation.
Title: The Appalachian Regional ETD
Consortium
Authors: John H. Hagen
Abstract:
The formation of the Appalachian Regional ETD Consortium (AR-ETD) is now well
underway. I am creating the AR-ETD by networking with the present members of
the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) consortium
in Appalachia, with the goal of building toward NDLTD membership of all major
academic institutions in the entire Appalachian region. The thirteen federally
defined Appalachian regional states are Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland,
Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Virginia and West Virginia. Presently there are 25 academic institutions from
this region that are members of the NDLTD consortium.
The first phase involved formation of the core regional consortium membership (current regional NDLTD members). These members have been encouraged to actively participate in helping to build the consortium. Various levels of membership are available through the NDLTD, ranging from a commitment to consider and study ETD implementation, initiating pilot projects for departments or an entire campus, to adapting required Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) submission policies. Presently 40% of the existing NDLTD members require the electronic submission of theses and dissertations. The second phase involved the identification of those institutions, key contact persons and contact information for each campus that are not currently a member of the NDLTD. The third (current) phase has involved a public relations campaign to increase regional NDLTD membership by contacting over 200 graduate institutions in the region.
The primary goal of this project is to achieve full participation, regardless of level, with the NDLTD in the Appalachian region; this will have important implications regarding the economic and technological development of Appalachia. ETDs play an important part in the effective and free distribution of knowledge, they allow for the creation new means of expression and new ways of thinking, and they drive technological innovation and economic development. Certainly, the experiences borne out of the West Virginia University and Virginia Tech ETD programs have had profound effects on the distribution of graduate research via digital library technologies, with millions of ETDs being distributed worldwide over the past five years. We have seen that information technology development has been transforming state and regional economies, shifting them away from natural resource exploitation and moving towards fostering the growth of the information age, which is so vital to the survival of economically depressed areas such as West Virginia and Appalachia. Our findings will also have broad implications regarding the formation of regional ETD consortia in various parts of the world; this project will serve as a guide to those wishing to launch their own consortia endeavors.
As we stand today, we are in a critical period in the evolution of the NDLTD and the digital frontier. The NDLTD has become an incorporated non-profit organization and is taking on the task of organizing international standards for ETDs as well as continuing the promotion of the adoption of ETD programs and digital libraries. This more formal and independent phase of the NDLTD qualifies the organization for additional UNESCO and other funding to promote ETD programs in developing nations, and will be increasingly perceived much more readily in the academic, corporate and government sectors and communities which NDLTD serves. It is therefore imperative that NDLTD membership increases dramatically during this transition. Academic institutions need to prepare themselves for this information revolution, particularly in Appalachia and places just like it across the globe. Building the Appalachian Regional ETD Consortium will help ensure the survival of these regions as well as that of the NDLTD. The information age is already here, the question is, are we prepared for it yet?
Title: Electronic Dissertations at
West Virginia University: Resources for Effective Promotion
Authors: John H. Hagen
Abstract:
Implementation of the West Virginia University (WVU) Electronic Thesis and Dissertation
(ETD) program has proven to be one of our most effective marketing tools to
promote the graduate research of our students, faculty and programs. A multimedia
demo will be presented which highlights notable multimedia submissions of actual
WVU ETDs, including video clips, still shots, and informational slides accompanied
by musical background themes. The merits of adopting ETD and other digital document
publication programs will be emphasized in terms of positive exposure for the
student and institution, new modes of communication, facilitation of research
via Web distribution, and cost efficiency. More importantly, the successes of
digital library programs have contributed to a process that is transforming
West Virginia's economy by shifting its base towards technology and diversification
by providing academic research access to the world. During the past year WVU
has also completed a major migration project, having successfully moved to an
Oracle based environment. Highlights of this project will be included as well.
A copy of the WVU ETD multimedia presentation is available at: http://www.wvu.edu/~thesis/Presentations/WVU_ETD_Demo.exe (Windows projector file format) or http://www.wvu.edu/~thesis/Presentations/WVU_ETD_Demo.swf (Flash file format)
Title: ETD search services
Authors: Ming Luo, Edward A Fox
Abstract:
Section 1: Many services should be provided for ETDs, allowing searching, browsing,
submission, etc. Arguably, searching is the most important. We all want to get
the right answer as soon as possible--that's why Google is so popular. Our goal
is to provide a good searching service for the acadamic/research community all
around the world.
Section 2: We survey the current situation of NDLTD "central" search services, including VT, VTLS, OCLC SRU. We highlight these as well as services provided by individual universities. Though there are several options, all could be improved. A comparision of the features, licenses, and prices will be presented.
Section 3: A new search engine has been developed and will be deployed to improve the speed and precision of the service provided by VT's Digital Library Research Laboratory. This search engine affords: componentized parsing, indexing, and retrieving. An open digital library extension is added so the searching and user interfaces can be decoupled.
Section 4: As the Internet evolves, the next step we planned is to modularize the digital library as web services. A plan to promote searching as a web service is discussed.
Title: ETD Implementation in Six Months:
Five Principles
Authors: Dianne Harrison, Ph.D. Judith Devine, Ed.D. Althea Jenkins, Ed.D. David
Johnson, Ph.D. Robert McDonald.
Abstract:
How was Florida State University able to implement an ETD initiative that had
most students submitting their theses or dissertations electronically within
six months and all students submitting electronically within one year, with
an online digital library for disseminating that information? This paper proposes
that the five principles guiding FSU’s ETD project can be used by other
institutions to successfully implement a similar program.
Leadership flows from the top down. Although the National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) created resources that lay the groundwork for initiating the ETD project, an FSU senior administrator (Provost) was first identified and sold on the ideas behind an ETD project. The ETD leadership flowed from the top down, providing the commitment needed to initiate and energize the ETD project as it moved toward the Fall 2002 pilot, then campus-wide for all graduate students Fall 2003.
Problem Solving comes from the ground up. Synonymous with the top down framework for management and the institutional “buy-in” was the “bottom-up” creative problem solving by a core group which laid the technical groundwork for enabling such rapid implementation.
Leadership means finding the right people. The FSU ETD Initiative included the right people at the leadership table, with the Office of Graduate Studies, the University Libraries, the Office of Distributed and Distance Learning, Computer Services, the University’s Graduate Policy Council, and a graduate student representative collaborating as equal partners.
Conduct flexible negotiations. Collaborative, flexible negotiations were key to a smooth transition to ETDs at FSU. The ETD leadership team worked with each of the three initial pilot groups’ faculty and graduate students, providing an overview of the ETD project, training opportunities and individualized assistance, and a forum for questions.
Keep graduate student interests at the forefront. From the first discussions of ETDs, to the beginning of the Fall 2002 pilot phase, the ETD leadership team kept the interests of graduate students at the forefront of discussion. For example, the Office of Graduate Studies burned two personalized CD Rom copies of the ETD for each student (one copy for the student and one copy for the major professor).
This presentation will include a discussion of the five guiding principles, obstacles encountered and strategies used for the successful and rapid implementation of an ETD initiative in a large public university.
Title: Retrospective Conversion
of Theses and Dissertations
Authors: Scott J. Eldredge
Abstract:
While many universities have been moving forward with their efforts to support
the submission of ETDs, a smaller number have made attempts to mine the huge
store of traditional print theses and dissertations by converting them to electronic
format for improved access. These efforts are complementary to the submission
of ETDs by students and provide access to a previously difficult to search and
access body of knowledge.
The retrospective conversion process can be difficult, and is not to be approached blindly. There are complicated issues such as content selection, outsourcing vs. in-house work, vendor selection, formats, processes and standards. Before moving ahead with such a project one should know what the issues are and have some sense of how one’s institution and its projects will be affected by the decisions made along the way.
I propose to moderate a panel discussion in which representatives from a variety of universities or organizations share their experiences, struggles, and successes, and give advice for those considering conversion projects.
The panelists have not been selected but some possibilities might be:
Scott Eldredge, Manager, Brigham Young University (Moderator) Keith Glavash, Head of Document Services, MIT Libraries Delphine Lewis, Product Manager, UMI (Division of ProQuest) Someone from the Australian Digital Theses Program