ETDs:

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Building an Institutional Asset

Gail McMillan Digital Library and Archives, University Libraries Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Georgia Southern University Feb. 28, 2003

The Current Situation

 Basic and substantial applied research in U.S. takes place in universities – 400,000 annual masters and PhD candidates  Small portion of valuable data and material published  Theses and dissertations relatively inaccessible and underutilized  Scanned paper documents are costly to store and less effective than born digital documents

The Vision for ETDs

   Improve graduate education – Training for technology skills and information literacy – Apply that knowledge to research, build, submit ETDs – Students learn about e-publishing and using digital libraries Faster and better information transfer – Empower students to convey richer message through use of multimedia – Universities publish their scholarship – Research is more easily and widely available Save students money – Use software in campus computer labs or purchase – Printing and special paper requirements eliminated

Library Goals for ETDs

   Improve library services – Better turn-around time – Availability • 24 x 7 • More widely shared among scholars regardless of ability to pay – Information more easily found • Word-indexed and searchable (Boolean, phrases too) • More extensive cataloging • Links everywhere Save money – Fewer staff required for greater access • Catalog from etext (programmatically or copy/paste) • Eliminate handling (shelving, circulating, binding, etc.) Save space – VT saves ~166 linear feet of shelf space annually

Status of ETDs at Virginia Tech

 Partnership of the Library, Graduate School, Faculty  Approved through university governance (Mar.1996) for full implementation Jan.1997

 Web submission – Students: http://etd.vt.edu

– Programmers: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ETD-db/  Workshops for students (and faculty)  Over 4,588 ETDs approved

ETDs Worldwide: NDLTD

Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations  www.ndltd.org

 144 universities, 21 associations – No charge to join, share the wealth of information – 66 US institutions have projects • 40 Council of Graduate Schools, 20 Land Grant; 24 ARL – Required at (41): Cal Tech, Concordia, Drexel, Duquesne,ETSU, LSU, NCSU, UF, UGa, [UKentucky, UMaine], UNT, USF, UT Austin, UVA, VT, WVU, WPI, Yale, and 22 international institutions  > 10,000 born digital ETDs

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-2227102539751141/ Q uickTim e™ and a Cinepak decom pr essor ar e needed t o see t his pict ur e.

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-32498-21232/

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-4220121649751351/

ETDs at Virginia Tech

      – Graduate student creates ETD Word processor, standard multimedia software Student’s committee approves – – Student submits online Completes web form Authors/advisors prescribe Internet access – Graduate School approves E-mail notification programmatically sent to authors, advisors, UMI Library stores and provides access – – – Server, search engine Appropriate levels of access to ETDs Catalogs What isn’t happening?

Library Resources--not just ETDs

   Hardware: server – Maintenance and security – Started small – Upgrades as needed Software – Submission and management scripts written by VT’s DLA – Log files analyzed with Analog – Surveys Search engine – Started small – Grew: InfoSeek’s ULTRASEEK • Index every word (including from PDF files) • Search: keywords, Boolean, and phrases • Browse any tagged field

Benefits: High use, low margin

 Include ETDs with other digital library activities – EJournals, EReserve, digital images, etc.

– Additional resources may not be necessary • On-hand staff, equipment, software, shareware • At VT: start-up costs = $0 – Estimate $65,000 from zero base for ETD project • $24,000 Staff (part time) • $36,000 • $15,000 Equipment Software  Available for adaptation: VT software for ETD submission, availability management, notification

Growing Popularity of VT ETDs

5,000,000 4,500,000 4,000,000 3,500,000 3,000,000 2,500,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 1,000,000 500,000 ETD files requested Abstracts requested 1997/98 231,709 165,710 1997/98 483,030 215,493 User surveys – 67% found VT ETDs easily – 61% found them by searching – 22% browsed by department – 16% browsed by author – 53% downloaded 1 or more ETDs 1999/00 578,152 260,699 2000/01 2,173,420 573,149 2001/02 4,497,199 471,917

Availability of 4,588 VT ETDs

Worldwide Access 58.5% VT-only Access 24.6% Mixed Access 2.6% Inaccessible 14.3%

VT Authors’ Reasons for Restricting Access

Othe r Pers onal ch oice Ad vi ce of facu lty Ad vi ce of p ubli sher Patent pend ing 20 01/0 2 July/Dec. 20 02 Ad vi ce of o thers 0.0% 10 .0% 20 .0% 30 .0% 40 .0% 50 .0%    Surveys of Publishers – No specific policies for ETDs – Consider submissions individually – Chapter greatly rewritten for different audience, peer review Surveys of VT ETD Alumni – None had problems getting published Early controversies waning 60 .0%

Challenges to ETD Initiatives

 Making information literacy an expectation of education  Informing students and faculty about copyright responsibilities  Informing students and faculty of their rights as holders of copyright their original works  Changing the attitudes of publishers about ETDs  Establishing a preservation system for e-documents that is as acceptable as paper or microfilm

ETDs and Copyright

 Author’s rights – Retain rights – Share non-exclusive rights • Permit library to store and to provide access • Publishers  Author’s obligation:

balance all 4 fair use factors or get permission

 Notification: optional, recommended  Registration: optional

Factors Effecting Archiving: Align Commitment and Resources

   Access – 24x7 online from stable server – Standard multimedia formats • Not necessarily paper-based • PDF: open source software – URNs • Preserve links to ETDs • Broken links within ETDs   Graduate student authors give formal permission to store and provide access Cooperative Archiving  Commercial Options Security – Frequent back-ups – Distributed copies Format migration – Library with university computing expertise and outside collaborators

Lessons from ETDs

 Easy and inexpensive to implement and maintain – Online access, security, archiving works  Implementation of new formats – Innovative ETDs fewer than expected – Text and book oriented – Not planning for online readers – Standard multimedia formats  If you have them, they will get used.

– Access far exceeded expectations: remarkable increase in exposure to research – Disappointing number are inaccessible – Increasing number and diversity of NDLTD institutions

ETD Information Resources

 Information about VT’s ETD initiative

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses

 Customizable automated submission/management software

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ETD-db/

 Student guidelines, training materials, FAQ's, multimedia educational materials

http://etd.vt.edu

 NDLTD: Networked educational institutions – Annual conferences: Berlin 2003, U of Kentucky 2004, Uof New South Wales 2005 (?)

http://www.ndltd.org