Gail McMillan

The evolving genre of electronic theses and dissertations

Electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) are a unique genre that is emerging in part as a result of the work to build the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). Virginia Tech began requiring ETDs January 1, 1997 and has since received over 1350. Quality has already improved and what one has learned is more broadly shared now due to the intense interest in ETDs. This is a flexible genre that will enhance digital libraries in part because over half contain color images or other multimedia, including audio, video, or VRML files. Due to free access, many have been downloaded thousands of times. As the NDLTD expands, tens of thousands of these will be created each year all over the globe and in the near future the NDLTD will broadly support multilingual and federated searching. This paper presents findings at Virginia Tech as a case study of shifting book-length works to electronic documents for the global digital library.

The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations: Changes in the University Community

DIGITAL LIBRARIES are one of the most effective vehicles for change in higher education. They facilitate collaboration involving universities in an international cooperative venture, unlocking scholarly resources, and carrying out functions previously limited to publishers. They allow faculty and students to improve learning by drawing on rapidly growing collections of valuable content—heretofore largely hidden behind the doors of the library—that include an increasing proportion of multimedia elements or interactive software.The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD), launched in 1996 and building upon work started in 1987, is a federated effort involving well over 120 universities scattered around the globe. Rapidly growing as a result of local, state, regional, national, and international efforts, it aims to enhance the skills of all graduate students preparing theses or dissertations, so they are empowered to create an electronic thesis or dissertation (ETD) and to effectively use digital libraries. As universities move to require submission of ETDs, they build the local infrastructure to support their own students in this regard and to dramatically enhance access to this important genre of scholarly publication. NDLTD supports these changes and helps ensure that the move to ETDs remains a sustainable initiative that will continue to enhance university libraries and publishing.

Digital Preservation of Theses and Dissertations through Collaboration

Abstract While university libraries have a long tradition of preserving scholarship, they are less experienced in the technology-dependent and computer networked environment. By taking advantage of current activities and expertise that exist in various parts of the institution, policies and practices can be linked that will engender long-term accessibility. Under ideal circumstances preservation is not an isolated process; rather, it is built into the information life cycle beginning with a works creation and continuing through to storage and access. Electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) provide a good starting point to determine the processes and policies that will lead to confidence in digital preservation.Abstract While university libraries have a long tradition of preserving scholarship, they are less experienced in the technology-dependent and computer networked environment. By taking advantage of current activities and expertise that exist in various parts of the institution, policies and practices can be linked that will engender long-term accessibility. Under ideal circumstances preservation is not an isolated process; rather, it is built into the information life cycle beginning with a works creation and continuing through to storage and access. Electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) provide a good starting point to determine the processes and policies that will lead to confidence in digital preservation.

Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Sciences

In academia, there is a growing acceptance of sharing the final electronic version of graduate work, such as a thesis or dissertation, in an online university repository. Though previous studies have shown that journal editors are willing to consider manuscripts derived from electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), faculty advisors and graduate students continue to raise concerns that online discoverability of ETDs negatively impact future opportunities to publish those findings. The current study investigated science journal policies on open access ETDs and found that more than half of the science journals responding (51.4%) reported that manuscripts derived from openly accessible ETDs are welcome for submission and an additional 29.1 percent would accept revised ETDs under certain conditions.

FERPA and Student Work: Considerations for Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Information privacy is an important consideration when transitioning university collections from paper to electronic access. Yet the protection of -- and limits to -- student privacy regulations have rarely been addressed in the literature for online electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and its relevance to student work should be a consideration when widely distributing scholarship like e-portfolios, ETDs, and senior capstone projects. In this article, we share several campus approaches to FERPA and electronic student work.

Report from the Embargo Workgroup

The Embargo Working Group began by defining “embargo,” encapsulating it into four main types and then focusing on the post-publication and subscription embargoes. Among other things, we discussed the dispersed nature of usage metrics and their possible impact on the duration of embargoes. This, in part, led us to recognize the lack of an evidence on which to base decisions surrounding the need for embargoes and their duration. Therefore, we focused on what it would take to address the key issue: ‘What are the impacts of embargoes on scholarly communication?’ We concluded by considering how to fund a global survey of key stakeholders and what data the survey should collect in order to provide data about the issues surrounding embargoes. OSI2016 Workshop Question In an information system where so much information is destined for subscription journals, the assumption has been that embargos allow publishers time to recoup their investments, and also allow the press time to prepare news articles about research. Is this assumption warranted? Why or why not? Is the public interest being served by embargos? What about by embargos on federally-funded research? Are there any facts or options that haven’t yet been considered to address the concerns animating the embargo solution?