Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Geraldine McFeeleySub Librarian

Collection Management ServicesDCU

Lir Annual Seminar 2004

Overview

IntroductionPrint environment – IrelandNew developments - UKInternational developmentsThe transition from print to digital - benefits, issuesThe wider context of scholarly communicationThe scholarly communication crisis - the role of ETDsConclusion: The role of the university library in the development of ETDs

Introduction

Rapid developments in electronic publishingElectronic A+I services, e-journals, e-booksTheses slow to benefit from developmentsTheses remain in print formatSelf-archiving initiatives, opportunities for electronic theses

The Print Environment Republic of Ireland

Irish thesis environment is print onlySubmission format is printTheses held in print format in libraryPrint has advantages:

Tried and trustedNo complexities in relation to archivingCopyright is easily managed

Disadvantages in terms of access

Access to Print ThesesRepublic of Ireland

Awareness:Theses records in library OPACsIncluded in ‘Index to Theses’

AccessLimited - through home institution or ILL

Initiative to develop Irish Index to Theses Will increase awareness Will not improve access

UK - the transition from print to digital

Print environment prevails in UK‘Index to Theses’ and BL Thesis ServiceBL microfilms doctoral thesesBL microfilm service to be converted to digitisation-based serviceBL plan retrospective conversion of all theses to electronic format

UK - ETDsUTOG theses digitisation projectNational effort to promote ETDs - three JISC projects:

‘Theses Alive!’ at Edinburgh Universityhttp://www.thesesalive.ac.uk/‘Daedalus’ at Glasgow Universityhttp://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=project_daedalus

‘Electronic Theses’ at Robert Gordon Universityhttp://www2.rgu.ac.uk/library/e-theses.htm

Theses Alive!

Promote the adoption of a management system for ETDs in the UKTwo main deliverables:

Create an online repository of digital PhD thesesCreate an online submission system for ETDs that mirrors the current submission process

DaedalusWill establish a network of Open Archives compliant digital collections at the University of Glasgow:

Theses

Electronic ThesesThe Electronic Theses project is exploring methods of e-theses production, management and use in order to produce recommended models for use within the UK information environment.

International developmentsInternationally, major advances in development of ETDs NDLTD http://www.ndltd.org/Aims:

To improve graduate educationIncrease sharing of knowledgeHelp universities build their information infrastructureExtend the value of digital libraries

NDLTD

Union catalogue of ETDs http://oai.dlib.vt.edu/~etdunion/cgi-bin/index.pl14 contributing institutions including MIT and Virginia Tech1000’s of electronic theses freely available201 NDLTD members worldwideIndividual or consortial membership

NDLTD - benefits

Submission software availableEstablished standards for submission, conversion, storage, archiving, printingAdvice on implementation of ETD archiveProceed according to institution’s local requirements

Virginia Tech ETDs

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/Electronic submission mandatorySupporting infrastructureTraining in conversion to pdfStreamlined workflowTheses submitted to serverAccessed by academic and admin. staffAccessed by library, catalogued, made available on the web

Open Archives Initiative (OAi)

OAi develops interoperability standardsAims to enhance access to e-print archives as a means of increasing the availability of scholarly communicationOAi protocol for metadata harvesting (PMH)All archives should use OAi PMH compliant metadataDistributed documents can be jointly searched and retrieved as if they were in one global collection.

Institutional RepositoriesOpen Society Institute guide:

Identifies seven systemsOpen Source softwareOAi PMH compliantGlobal network of interoperable research repositories

Institutional Repositoriese-prints

http://www.eprints.org/‘A powerful tool for sharing scholarly works with the world’Extensive use - worldwideIn place in two Irish university libraries

Institutional Repositories DSpace

Http://dspace.org/index.htmlDeveloped by MIT and Hewlett PackardAccess to all the university’s research through a single interfaceUser community orientationFocus on developing long-term preservation for digital contentEdinburgh University has adopted DSpace for Theses Alive! project

Third party publishingAlternative to self-archivingProquest/UMI – long historyInternational ETD service – PQDDEach institution’s subset on web siteTheses microfilmed for preservationFree MARC records with hot linksRetro conversion of paper thesesElectronic or paper submissionE-submission procedure developedInterested in Irish marketCommercial publisher - issues

The benefits of ETDs

Increased access and availability of university research to the international communityStudents’ experience of publishing important for future of scholarly publicationSavings in shelf space, binding, storage, circulation costsRange of formats accommodatedEasily searchable and indexed by keywordsControlled levels of access possible

Issues

Resourcing the transition from printRetro conversion of print collectionsPrior publicationPlagiarismPeer reviewIPR

Issues - Archiving

Digital preservationLong-term accessUncertainties will impede growth and take-up of digital servicesCurrent options:

RefreshingMigrationTape backupsCopying to diskMicroformPrint

Issues - CulturalInclusion of stakeholders from wider university communityImpact of changeSupporting infrastructure for students Required culture change within the universities Little awareness of ETDsGradual transition period

Wider context - scholarly publication

Perception of theses as part of library collectionTheses - part of the scholarly output of an institutionValuable research content, deserve wider availability and easier accessAchieve this through ETDs

The scholarly publication crisis

The cost of scholarly communication is impeding accessAuthors/scholars surrender research output free to commercial publishersAcademic institutions buy this material back at huge costAuthors publish with prestigious journals - tenure and career progression

Finding a solution

Attempts to free up access to scholarly outputOAiSPARCAttempt to attract authors away from commercial publishing modelScholars must buy into the principle of open accessUniversities can influence graduate studentsto adopt this principleThesis – first major research project

Conclusion:Role of library in development of ETDs

Libraries suffering financial effects of scholarly publication crisisBudgets consumed by rising cost of journalsIn libraries’ interest to work towards solution - open access to scholarly publicationETDs support this principleLibraries - take the lead in promoting development of ETDs