Programme for Friday 6th June
- 08.30 - Information Desk Open
- 09.00 - Sponsor Presentations
- 10.00 - ETD Awards sponsored by Adobe Systems
(Session chaired by John Hagen, West Virginia University)
Award Categories:
ETD Innovation, ETD Leadership, and Innovative Learning through ETDs
Paper by the winner of the Innovative Learning through ETDs Award
Title: Evaluating the process and impact of active dissemination of an e-thesis: a new authorial model
Authors:
Dr Colin Macduff * and Colin MacLean (The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, U.K.)
Abstract:
Objective: To present a new model of e-thesis publication and dissemination from an author’s perspective.
Methods: The recent publication and active dissemination of a nursing PhD thesis via an Institutional Repository has been evaluated through an integrated research study which focused on the product, key processes and impacts. A reflexive, evaluative case study approach was taken, drawing on Stake (1995)’s ideas of the intrinsic interest of a particular case and its instrumental value in highlighting more general issues. Formative research processes included documentary recording of key meetings, activities and decisions. Summative research processes included collation and analysis of data indicating the nature and extent of reader engagement.
Results: The study suggests the relevance of a new four stage model of the initial ETD authorial experience: conceptualisation/re-conceptualisation; preparation; dissemination; and evaluation. The paper will describe the key processes that were found to characterise each stage, and will identify related impacts. Conceptualisation of the thesis as a live electronic entity emerged as essential, and authorial motivation was seen as a key component within this. Linking the author’s academic home web page to the IR thesis web page provided contextual “framing” and emerged as an important part of the preparation process. A specific dissemination strategy targeting key policy and professional practice e mail contacts was taken forward along with more generalised web based initiatives. Evaluation highlighted strengths and weaknesses of the approach taken.
Conclusions: The value of thinking through an initial publication and dissemination strategy and incorporating ongoing research is strongly suggested. The new four stage authorial model offers a way of realising this that may have potential value for many disciplines.
Reference
Stake, R (1995) The art of case study research Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
- 10.45 - Coffee Break
- 11.30 - Plenary Session
11.30 – 12.30
Title: UK EThOS – Opening access to UK theses
Authors:
Kevin O’Leary* (Imperial College London, U.K.)
Paul Needham* (Cranfield University, U.K.)
Tracy Kent* (University of Birmingham, U.K.)
Anthony Troman* (British Library)
Abstract:
The UK’s Electronic Thesis On-line Service (EThOS) will go live in the 2008 UK academic year. During the 'ETD 2008' conference presentation, the EThOS partners will offer a live demonstration of the service from submission to distribution. They will talk about:
• the technologies and standards involved in harvesting e-theses from institutional repositories
• how the information from paper theses held on the shelves of up to 120 UK university libraries can be made available free at the point of use from a single point of contact
• the UK Thesis Digitisation Project funded by the JISC which will deliver 20,000 theses digitised from paper originals
• the digitisation facility being built by The British Library to digitise paper theses as they are ordered
• how the UK service integrates with workflow in the member university libraries to offer best value for money and ensure that theses are supplied in the shortest possible time within a viable and sustainable service
• the legal issues surrounding supply of theses originating from the UK, the risks have had to be taken and the safeguards put in place to offer a service which meets the needs of the Google generation
The EThOS partners will highlight why this service is important to UK research and how it benefits UK Higher Education and those who want access to a primary research resource. They will discuss how they are addressing specific problems (such as plagiarism), technical aspects, and 'what happens next'.
- 12.30 - Lunch
- 14.00 - ETD Awards Powered by Scirus
- 14.30 - Parallel Sessions:
Innovation
(Session chaired by Professor Gail McMillan, Virginia Tech)
14.30 – 14.50
Title: Cybertesis as a cooperative process for the implementation of the Digital Thesis Peruvian Network
Author:
Libio Huaroto (Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Library System, Lima, Peru)
Abstract:
Summary of the cooperative efforts developed in Peru by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) and other higher education institutions, towards the implementation of the Digital Thesis Peruvian Network.
The digital thesis project in Peru began in 2004, when the UNMSM library system published a website applying the modified Cybertesis methodology. Since then, the UNMSM library system initiated a training program with the aim of sharing its expertise and encouraging the implementation of similar projects in other Peruvian universities.
The implementation of this project in other local institutions has been challenging; only a handful of them have the infrastructure and skilled human resources required by this endeavor. Nonetheless, with the support provided by the UNMSM library system and the cooperation of other academic institutions, six digital thesis projects have been developed in Peruvian universities. Based on those efforts, in January 2008 the Digital Thesis Peruvian Network website started functioning as a service provider.
The Digital Thesis Peruvian Network has also benefited from the experience gained by UNMSM after supporting the implementation of the Biblioteca Digital Andina of the Andean Community (CAN). UNMSM participation in this project has brought our expertise to Colombia and Bolivia. As a result, Bolivia has just implemented a digital thesis website at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés applying the modified Cybertesis methodology.
Services provided by the UNMSM Cybertesis website — discussion forums, mailing, personal profiles, statistical indicators, rss, and recently the uploading of thesis’ authors videos — have been also installed in websites in other Andean countries and the Peruvian Network.
Increasingly Peruvian universities are showing interest in implementing digital thesis websites that can provide the aforementioned services, especially regarding audiovisual materials; consequently, the Peruvian Network is including the dissemination of those processes to add value to their digitized materials.
14.50 – 15.10
Title: Open Electronic Library - from initiative to reality at the community of Kyrgyz Libraries
Author:
Sania Battalova (American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyz Republic / President of Library and Information Consortium of Kyrgyzstan)
Abstract:
American University of Central Asia initiated the project on Open Digital Libraries of Papers of Kyrgyzstan scientists. We have used Open Source software - Dspace. Experience of the University stimulated to implement the corporative project in 2007, and 12 libraries of the country participated in establishment of Corporative Repository (Open Electronic Library)of Dissertations Abstracts. The electronic archive is the first project on Open Electronic Library Establishment in Central Asia, which combines Academics full text abstracts of dissertation on social, humanities, medicine and technical sciences.
Our corporative projects are called not only for achievement of their goals but also sustainable development of a project in future.
Library community of our country has devised tactics for implementation of new ideas, technologies and projects, which includes phases of selection, evaluation, analyses, testing, integration levels determination and opportunities of corporative work, and building work team to implement new programs, software, corporate principles and develop normative basis for sustainability.
Pilot group of 12 leading academic and special libraries working together created normative base on corporative resource formation and copyright observance in open electronic library. Author’s Contract, interlibrary agreements, guidelines, instructions has been developed with the support and cooperation of state institutions that coordinate copyright issues. Web site of Corporative Repository is created: http://krad.bik.org.kg/ and Open Electronic Library (OEL) of Dissertations Abstracts of Kyrgyzstan scientists is accessible on http://oel.bik.org.kg/. More then 100 users all around the world visit the OEL web-site every day. At present, the library includes 159 documents and grows every month. Number of participant-libraries has increased up to 14 in 2008.
On the basis of AUCA, we work for the information provision of documents in open electronic libraries in HTML format, which is easy to work, provide information more visually. We work on cross-reference links between resources of the repository and Electronic Catalogues of the Libraries. We consider that formation of Database of students’ theses, research results and academic papers is an important informational base for e-learning development. Technological, normative and legal environment is created for future development of the project not only in our country but also in Central Asia. We intend to open electronic library of scientists’ papers of Central Asia countries and Kazakhstan.
15.10 – 15.30
Title: A new French circuit for the electronic theses
Authors:
Marianne Giloux* and Isabelle Mauger Perez (Agence Bibliographique de l'Enseignement Supérieur, France)
Abstract:
Libraries of higher education institutions in charge of granting theses have to catalog theses, make them available for research and preserve them. Technological changes, especially electronic production of theses gives way to a new situation.
The French law organises a flexible system for the 11.000 theses granted each year and bind some rules in order to preserve a minimal cohesion all over the country.
Each university defines the theses style sheet and formats used for diffusion. However, as far as preservation is concerned, the documents must be in XML or PDF formats, the documents have to be in XML or PDF, and the metadata joined must comply with TEF recommendations (Thèses Electroniques Françaises), a recommendation on French Electronic Theses.
ABES (Agence Bibliographique de l’Enseignement Supérieur) is currently implementing a system called STAR.
STAR’s main features are :
• saving and recording the Theses
• gathering and extracting metadata used for description, indexation, long term preservation and dissemination
• transfering the theses to a national system of preservation
• allocating a permanent identifier ( URL)
Data and metadata are ingested in STAR either on-line, through Web forms, or by importation of normalized files extracted from various locals systems, or with a mixed method.
Delivery
(Session chaired by Dr David Lawrence, Linköping University)
14.30 – 14.50
Title: ETD Management in the Texas Digital Library: Lessons Learned from a Demonstrator
Authors:
Adam Mikeal* (Texas A & M University, U.S.A.)
Jay Paz (The University of Texas, U.S.A.)
Scott Phillips (Texas A & M University, U.S.A.)
Tim Brace (The University of Texas, U.S.A.)
John Leggett (Texas A & M University, U.S.A.)
Mark McFarland (The University of Texas)
Abstract:
As a consortium of libraries from public and private institutions across the state of Texas, the Texas Digital Library (TDL) exists to promote the scholarly activities of its members. One of its earliest initiatives was a federated collection of ETDs from across the state. There are currently 16 participating schools in TDL, four of which are contributing over 4000 ETDs per year, and both of those numbers are growing. A diverse set of content contributors introduces the problems of inconsistent metadata and incompatible storage and access methods, making it difficult to offer effective tools and services. This drove the decision to create a state-wide system for managing the entire life-cycle of ETDs, from the point of ingestion to final publication; pooling resources on this common problem was appealing for both technical and economic reasons.
In 2007, we reported on the status of the functional system prototype. This paper reports on the results of the demonstrator event that is taking place in spring 2008 at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas, and discusses the requirements for moving forward into a production environment. These include testing and scaling the system to handle the large numbers of users dispersed over a significant geographic area (Texas is the third-highest producer of PhDs in the US). Our intention is to embrace international standards for ETD metadata and policies as they continue to evolve through community efforts, such as the NDLTD union catalog of ETDs.
Finally, we will examine the status of the project’s release as an add-on component to a DSpace repository through the Manakin interface framework under an open source license. A primary design goal of this project is to produce a product that satisfies TDL’s requirements, and also provides a turnkey implementation for ETD management and publication that can be scaled to the broader academic community.
14.50 – 15.10
Title: Scholarly Communication through ETDs: Perspectives from Developing Countries
Authors:
Kamani Perera* (Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Sri Lanka)
Dinesh Chandra (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India)
Presentation cancelled.
Abstract:
The acceptance of electronic theses and dissertations – working rich digital documents in electronic form, submitting them electronically and “publishing” them digitally via the library – is growing around the globe as faculty, students, librarians and technologists see the advantage of digital scholarly communication (Lippincott, CNI). Librarians play a significant role in the modern world to spread the light among the users globally. It has become a challenging task to acquire, provide access, maintaining of digital objects in an electronic environment. E-documents as well as p-documents are giving paramount importance to its users in the world of scholarly communication. In this digital era, ETD can be defines as a specialized form of scholarly communication.
Through ETD programs individual students can publicize their work through their respective university websites. Future employers of these students can assess their work through the university Websites and students get global impact of their work. ETD programs help employers to recruit innovative people for their organizations. Developing an ETD program is not an easy task. It needs cooperation of many sectors of the university.
ETD can be easy to locate, any time, anywhere access and delivered over the Web. Due to the rapid development of networking and digital library technologies ETDs are obtaining progress in the universities globally. Most of the developing countries have realized the importance of establishing an ETD program and some have started local ETD programs. ETD can be printed thesis, which has been scanned and converted into PDF or recently completed work, which made available in word format and converted into PDF. These theses can be defined as born again or born digital theses. Audio and video materials can be included into born digital theses rather than born again one. ETDs enhance the quality, content, form and impact of scholarly communication. It helps for networking, computing multimedia and related technologies on scholarly communication.
15.10 – 15.30
Title: From ETDs to Institutional Repository: Opportunities and Problems at the University of the West Indies
Author:
Swarna Bandara (University of the West Indies, Jamaica)
Abstract:
University of the West Indies (UWI) is a multi Campus University that serves the English Speaking Caribbean and major campuses are situated in Jamaica (Mona), Barbados (Cave Hill) and Trinidad & Tobago (St. Augustine). Strategic plans of the UWI clearly specify the need to increase impact of its research and this presented an excellent opportunity for an ETD project in 2002 and to be a member of NDLTD. There was immediate response from Mona Campus and unanimously a decision was made to make the ETD Project a UWI wide initiative and very small team worked towards implementing the project. In 2004, Dspace was selected as the methodology with the hope that ETD initiative will pave the way for an Institutional Repository without having to go through the normal procedures for getting a project approved.
A few academics with some knowledge on technology and graduate students were interested in the Project, but at the administrative level where decisions needed to made recognition and acceptance of the concept was slow and cautious. A number of introductory sessions on Open Access and ETD Project were offered to all three campuses, to further educate the community, using “bottom up” approach. Highlights of the progress include obtaining a server from Dell, a graduate student in Computer Science undertaking update Theses Alive Plug-in for Institutional Repositories (TAPIR) to prepare workspace for ETD submission to Dspace and also a commitment from Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences to make self archival of research mandatory. However, lack of knowledge on technology and current trends in research communication, fear of Open Access”, copyright implications and personal differences hampered the ETD project to the extend that in 2008, no policy decisions were made regarding ETD submissions.
The paper discusses what achievements were made and what progress could have been possible, implications of multi campus implementation of the Project, lessons learnt in the process and Institutional Repository on Dspace moving ahead while ETD Project is set in the back burner.
Impact
(Session chaired by Sharon Reeves, Library and Archives Canada / Bibliothèque et Archives Canada)
14.30 – 15.30
Title: Subject and Bibliographic Access to Electronic Theses and Dissertations in the Sciences and Technology: Perspectives of U.S. and U.K. Science Librarians
Authors:
Sophie Bogdanski* (West Virginia University, U.S.A.)
Anne Christie* (University of Alaska Fairbanks, U.S.A.)
Bryna Coonin (East Carolina University, U.S.A.)
Simon Bevan* (Cranfield University, U.K.)
Susan Copeland (The Robert Gordon University, U.K.)
Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to disseminate the key findings of a recent (Web-based) survey which collated information about the experiences of U.S. and U.K. science librarians in three key areas relating to the impact of ETDs: institutional ETD policies and procedures, information contained in bibliographic records for ETDs in IRs and OPACs, and search strategies for ETDs. The results of the survey, which was undertaken in 2007, provide an up-to-date overview of ETD developments in both countries. They indicate the extent to which institutions provide electronic access to their dissertation and theses collections, the reasons for providing this access, priorities for retrospective digitization, levels of satisfaction with bibliographic records, and the variety of strategies employed to find sci-tech ETDs within their own collections and in those of other institutions.
The findings provide a useful insight into ETD initiatives in the U.S. and the U.K. A comparison of the results highlights the similarities and differences between developments in the two countries. Those involved in designing and analyzing the survey (the ACRL STS Subject and Bibliographic Access to Science Material Committee and representatives from the recently completed ‘Electronic Theses Online Service Project’) are keen to encourage, for comparison purposes, similar studies in other countries and in other disciplines.
- 15.30 - Tea Break
- 16.00 - Future Plans and Events
- 16.30-17.00 - Closing Session
Professor Edward A Fox (Executive Director, NDLTD)
Dr Susan Copeland (ETD 2008 Conference co-Chair)