ETD Software:
Toward the Future with
Retrospective Hindsight
Gail McMillan
Digital Library and Archives, Virginia Tech
ETD 2008: 10th International Symposium
Uppsala University
June 13, 2007
ETD software should
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Provide interfaces for communities
Provide interfaces for activities
Use existing information
Accept files
Assign persistent URLS
Warrant copyright
Link to/from/among
Communicate
Approve
Disperse copies appropriately
Sort
Access
Expose
Run on any platform
ETD software should provide
1. Provide interfaces for communities
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Authors
Faculty
Administrators
Managers
Public
Library
Systems personnel
NDLTD
ETD software should provide
1. Interfaces for authors and faculty
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Authors
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•
•
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Submit 1 or more files from anywhere
Modify their files until "finished"
Communication
Use several templates
• This could incorporate tags into the works such as title,
paragraphs, tables, references, etc.
• Free form
•
Faculty
•
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Online committee approval
Committee chair
•
Communication
ETD software should provide
1. Interfaces for ETD Administrators
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Committee chair
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Review submitted files
Communication
Approval
Institution-level
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Review submitted files, forms, etc.
Communication
Approval
Maintenance/manage
ETD software should provide
1. Interfaces for Public, Libraries
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Browse (by which fields)
Search (which fields, text)
Sort
Meaningful error messages
Seamless redirection from damaged files
Communicate with authors
ETD software should provide
1. Interfaces for Systems Personnel
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Rewrite from Perl to Java
Easily customizable scripts
Meld 3 databases into 1 (submit, available, withheld)
CONTROL: Appropriately limit access
Administrative access only by reviewer/approver; manager
Faculty access only by students’ committees
Inaccessible: Systems Administrator and ETD manager(s) only
Restricted: IP addresses associated with author's home
institution (e.g., 128.173… .vt.edu)
Backup
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

Frequently, periodically
Multiple locations on/off site
ETD software should provide
2. Interfaces for activities
•
•
•
•
•
Submit
Communicate
Backup
Review/approve
Preserve
• Maintain/manage
• Adapt for other uses
• Display
• Browse
• Search
• Sort
ETD software should
3. Use existing information to
•
•
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Fill out submission form
Derive subsequent records
Sort
Assign call numbers
Map keywords to controlled vocabularies
Display
ETD software should
3. Use existing information
Human resource systems
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Names, email addresses
Official administrative records
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Type of doc, title, degree, dept, committee, chair, date of
defense
Detected by ETD software
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URN, file name, size, download time,
Author’s add:
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Keywords
Availability/accessibility
Copyright warranty
ETD software should
3. Use existing information for
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Library catalog records
Metadata
Indexing
Display
Browse pages
Lists
Title page
ETD software should
3. Use existing information

Sort for various user communities
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Assign call numbers based on formulas
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
LD5655 V855 1996 G885

Gerald Gutierrez’s VT masters thesis
Map key words to controlled vocabularies
ETD software should
4. Accept all files:
Any number, any size, and all formats
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Text
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.txt
.pdf
.xml
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.tif
.jpg
.gif
.png
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ASCII
PDF
XML
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Images
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TIFF
JPEG
GIF
PNG
Video
.mpg
.mov
.qt
MPEG
Apple
Apple QuickTime
Audio
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.wav
.mpg
.mp3
WAV
MPEG
MPEG-3
ETD software should
5. Assign persistent URLs
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PURL
URN
URI
Handles
DOI
Etc.
ETD software should
6. Warrant copyright
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Functionality
Sharing
License
ETD software should
6. Warrant copyright: Functionality
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Recognize when authors use others’ works
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Formal permission
Public domain
Fair use
ETD software should
6. Warrant copyright: Sharing
Provide authors with the opportunity to formally
share copyright with their home institutions
I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and
attached hereto a written permission statement from the
owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be
included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report,
allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the
version I submitted is the same as that approved by my
advisory committee.
ETD software should
7. Link to/from/among
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Policies, guidelines, catalogs
Tools
Examples
Multiple files of one author
Administration and administrative functions
Help
Surveys
ETD software should enhance
8. Communication
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Allow
Track: administrator, author, advisor
Sequence: date stamp, group
Administer: prompt, add recipients
Store
ETD software should
9. Approve
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Who approves?
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Committee members
Administrator
What does “approve” mean?
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Forms submitted
Forms completed
Fees paid
• To home institution
• To vendors
• Signatures received
• ETD completed
ETD software should
10. Disperse copies appropriately
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Redundancy: standard operating procedures
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Mirror on separate equipment
RAID: mirror across drives
Institutional repository
Digital library
Preservation, e.g. permanent digital preservation
system (e.g., NDLTD LOCKSS)
ETD software should
11. Provide appropriate access
•
Administrative users
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Limited
Public
•
Worldwide
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Open Archives harvesters
Search engines
Contracted vendors
Limited/Withheld
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Automatic timed release
ETD software should
12. Sort
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At any stage in the process
Depending on
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User constituency
Purpose
ETD software should
13. Expose
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Software appropriately
Share intellectual property appropriately
Metadata to appropriate harvesters:
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OAI-PMH
Search engines
NDLTD Union Catalog
ETD software should
14. Run on any platform
•
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Robust or conservative
Open or proprietary
Bring It Together at VT:
Translate Needs into Workflow
Ganesh Chunungad Narayanaswamy, Srinivasa Raghavan Santhanam, Sriram Gopal
ETD Software: Toward the Future
with Retrospective Hindsight
Thank you!
Gail McMillan, gailmac@vt.edu
Digital Library and Archives, Virginia Tech