Presentations from ETD 2012 are now available.

Here's Joan K. Lippincott's keynote presentation, "Future Scholars and Professionals: The Opportunities of ETDs in Scholarly and Professional Communication."

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

James R.W. MacDonald and Daniel Yule have published "Jarrow, Electronic Thesis, and Dissertation Software" in the latest issue of the Code4Lib Journal.

Here's an excerpt:

Collecting and disseminating theses and dissertations electronically is not a new concept. Tools and platforms have emerged to handle various components of the submission and distribution process. However, there is not a tool that handles the entirety of the process from the moment the student begins work on their thesis to the dissemination of the final thesis. The authors have created such a tool which they have called Jarrow. After reviewing available open-source software for theses submission and open-source institutional repository software this paper discusses why and how Jarrow was created and how it works. Jarrow can be downloaded and the project followed at http://code.library.unbc.ca.

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Thomas Johnson and Michael Boock have self-archived "Linked Data Services for Theses and Dissertations" in ScholarsArchive at Oregon State University.

Here's an excerpt:

This paper details work at Oregon State University to create a Linked Dataset covering the University's theses and dissertations. Using data from existing MARC and Qualified Dublin Core records, we have established a process and model for crosswalking data from existing records into a variety of Semantic Web vocabularies. Our approach is to create basic services on a dedicated thesis and dissertation interface, incrementally extending those available through our institutional repository. We describe services implemented, those in progress and plans for continued work. We also address the limitations of our existing metadata and resulting challenges in crosswalking and interoperability.

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

College & Research Libraries has released an preprint of "Do Open Access Electronic Theses and Dissertations Diminish Publishing Opportunities in the Social Sciences and Humanities?"

Here's an excerpt:

An increasing number of higher education institutions worldwide are requiring submission of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) by graduate students and are subsequently providing open access to these works in online repositories. Faculty advisors and graduate students are concerned that such unfiltered access to their work could diminish future publishing opportunities. This study investigated social sciences, arts and humanities journal editors' and university press directors' attitudes toward ETDs. The findings indicate that manuscripts which are revisions of openly accessible ETDs are always welcome for submission or considered on a case by case basis by 82.8% of journal editors and 53.7% of university press directors polled.

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Nancy Stuart and Katy Nelson have self-archived "Trends from the Canadian IR/ETD Survey 2012" in UVicSPACE.

Here's an excerpt:

The purpose of the 2012 Canadian IR/ETD Survey was two-fold. The first was to show the growth of Institutional Repositories (IRs) across Canada. The second was to illustrate the state of the electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) submission programs at Canadian institutions granting graduate degrees, where a thesis or dissertation is a requirement for graduation.

| Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 | Digital Scholarship |

Digital Scholarship has released the Electronic Theses and Dissertations Bibliography, Version 6. It includes selected English-language articles, books, conference papers, technical reports, unpublished e-prints and other scholarly textual sources that are useful in understanding electronic theses and dissertations. Most sources have been published from 2000 through 2011; however, a limited number of earlier key sources are also included. The bibliography includes links to freely available versions of included works. It is available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

| Digital Scholarship's Digital/Print Books | Digital Scholarship |

Digital Scholarship has released the Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011. This 96-page book presents over 600 English-language articles, books, technical reports, and other works that are useful in understanding institutional repositories and ETDs. It covers institutional repository (IR) country and regional surveys, multiple-institution repositories, specific IRs, IR digital preservation issues, IR library issues, IR metadata strategies, institutional open access mandates and policies, IR R&D projects, IR research studies, IR open source software, and electronic theses and dissertations. Most sources have been published from 2000 through June 30, 2011; however, a limited number of key sources published prior to 2000 are also included. Many references have links to freely available copies of included works.

The Institutional Repository and ETD Bibliography 2011 is available as a $9.95 paperback (ISBN: 146377429X) and an open access PDF file. All versions of the bibliography are available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

For further information about Digital Scholarship publications, see the "Digital Scholarship Publications Overview" and "Reviews of Digital Scholarship Publications."

| Digital Scholarship |

Josh Brown and Kathy Sadler have self-archived Vision, Impact, Success: Mandating Electronic Theses in UCL Eprints.

Here's an excerpt:

These case studies form part of the ‘Influencing the Deposit of Electronic Theses in UK HE' project, commissioned by the JISC and led by UCL. They were designed to explore the practicalities of introducing and administering an institutional e-thesis mandate, and to draw out the benefits and challenges of mandates for the institutions that adopt them.

Each of the four institutions who made up the case studies was chosen because they offered a glimpse into the reality of a mandate at every stage.

• The University of Sussex has just introduced a mandate, and staff there offered the benefit of their experiences of creating the systems and processes that support the new policy.
• Aberystwyth University spent some time exploring what kind of mandate would be most effective, and their story shows how to get the best from the consultation process.
• Brunel University has been developing its e-theses collection since 2006, and has been reaping the rewards, both in terms of research impact and benefits to scholarship.
• The University of Glasgow was one of the earliest adopters of e-theses in the UK and its work showcases a mature service that is very much a part of the institution.

Each of these institutions had experiences in common, and each faced similar questions from students and supervisors. In highlighting different aspects of best practice in each case study, the aim is to demonstrate an effective approach to meeting the challenges of e-theses. While these challenges can seem daunting, these case studies show that they can be overcome by a combination of communication, education and balanced policies.

| Digital Scholarship |

Presentations from the Texas Conference on Digital Libraries 2010 are now available.

Here's some representative presentations:

• Directions for Digital Repositories, Leslie Carr
• Preservation Network at TDL, Peter Nürnberg
• Texas Digital Library Update 2010, Mark McFarland and John Leggett
• Texas Learning Object Repository, Junius Rowland and Otto Fox
• Vireo ETD Submission and Management System—Update 2010, Peter Nürnberg

The Rutgers University Libraries have released OpenETD.

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The Rutgers University Libraries are pleased to announce the availability of OpenETD, a web-based software application for managing the submission, approval, and distribution of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). OpenETD is the open source release of the Rutgers University Libraries. RUetd application and will be maintained on the RUetd annual release schedule. Releases will include fixes for known problems and recommendations for enhancements received from internal projects and the user community at large.

OpenETD can be used as either a standalone ETD submission system, or it can be implemented as a component of an institutional repository by using its METS/XML export functionality. Using the METS/XML export functionality, native to OpenETD, implementers can export acquired ETDs to their local institutional repositories for preservation and presentation purposes.

Features of OpenETD include:

• UTF-8 Compliant

  UTF-8 compliance ensures that diacritics, foreign languages, mathematical symbols, and other characters will be preserved in the metadata and abstract.

• Support of multiple graduate schools

  Large universities often have several graduate schools. OpenETD provides a centralized system for managing submissions from a System Administrator perspective while also limiting Reviewers' access to only their schools. OpenETD also allows schools to have their own unique degree types, program/curriculums, and submission terms and policies and embargo period(s).

• Site configuration

  Configurable unique title, logo, color scheme and footer information for the entire university or for each graduate school.

• Local or Centralized Authentication

  Configurable authentication module to use a centralized LDAP system or local system, or both. LDAP support is limited in release 1.1-beta of the software.

• Support of supplementary files.

  The ETDs often have supporting materials, all with unique metadata. Restrictions may be applied to acceptable filetypes.

• Automated Margin and Page Number Validator

  No more rulers! Reviewers can check margins and page numbers on PDF documents with this handy tool.

• Email Notification System

  Users are notified when the status of their paper changes. Reviewers are notified upon submission and resubmission. Email notifications may be turned off.

• Graduation Report

  Generate an Excel compatible report of all students with accepted papers for a given semester. This is useful for graduation role call, or the printing of name tags, letters, etc.

• Semi-Automated Export to ProQuest/UMI

  Export tools generate metadata and zip files of "accepted" ETDs for easy FTP upload to ProQuest's ETD processing facility.

• Export in METS/XML

  Export tools allow for the generation of METS/XML from submitted papers.

The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations now contains records for over one million electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs).

Here's an excerpt from the press release:

The NDLTD, OCLC (Online Computer Library Center), VTLS and Scirus maintain and provide access related to the NDLTD Union Catalog of ETDs available in institutional repositories around the globe.

The NDLTD is an international non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the creation, dissemination, use, adoption, and preservation of digital theses and dissertations. The NDLTD assists students and universities in using electronic publishing and digital libraries to more effectively share knowledge in order to unlock potential benefits worldwide. The NDLTD also promotes student efforts to transform the genre of the print dissertation through the use of innovative software to create cutting edge hypertext/multimedia ETDs.

The NDLTD is comprised of many individual member institutions and consortia, each of which has or plans to put in place a process for archiving and distributing ETDs; others are welcome to join if they have similar interest. The Union Catalog Project is an attempt to make these individual collections appear as one seamless digital library of ETDs to students and researchers seeking out theses and dissertations.

In 1997 the first ETD program requirement was instituted at Virginia Tech. Over the course of thirteen years ETD programs have now been implemented in thousands of colleges and universities around the world. The one millionth ETD milestone indicates that ETD implementation is beginning to reach a critical mass. Indeed, in January, the count exceeded 800K records, while as of April 19, the record count reached 1.6 million, though there may be some duplicate records.

In the higher-GDP countries, institutions are rapidly adopting ETDs on a per-institutional or state-wide basis. Many lower-GDP countries are adopting ETDs at a national level as one means of jump-starting and disseminating research and development activities. The NDLTD anticipates that the number of ETDs worldwide will increase rapidly as more schools in every region around the globe implement ETD programs.. . .

Many institutions around the world are represented in the NDLTD Union Catalog. Universities can participate by implementing the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) to contribute metadata records to the union catalog. The NDLTD provides free resources to implement OAI-PMH in an institutional repository.

In "Five Dozen Doctoral Students Chose Bits and Bytes over Ink and Paper," Kathleen J. Sullivan discusses Stanford University's ETD program.

Here's an excerpt:

Most of the Stanford graduate students who uploaded their dissertations—47 out of 60—chose to display their dissertations in their entirety.

Most of the students—52 out of 60—selected the "attribution non-commercial" license from Creative Commons. . . .

More than half of the doctoral students—36 out of 60—chose to release their dissertation immediately. Ten of them chose to delay the release for six months; nine chose a one-year embargo; five chose a two-year delay.