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
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-2227102539751141/
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
–


Student’s committee approves
Student submits online
–
–

E-mail notification programmatically sent to authors,
advisors, UMI
Library stores and provides access
–
–
–

Completes web form
Authors/advisors prescribe Internet access
Graduate School approves
–

Word processor, standard multimedia software
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
Equipment
• $15,000
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
Personal choice
Advice of faculty
Advice of publisher
20 01/0 2
July/Dec. 20 02
Patent pending
Advice of others
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

Security



Graduate student
authors give formal
permission to store
and provide access
Cooperative
Archiving
Commercial
Options
– 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