National Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
or
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
or
Whither Graduate Scholarly Publishing?

Project Briefing for Spring 1997 CNI Meeting

Edward A. Fox, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA

http://etd.vt.edu
etd@vt.edu

Key Facts Related to Session

• Funding is provided by SURA, FIPSE

• Support is provided by ACM, Adobe, Arbortext, CGS, CNI, CSGS, IBM, Microsoft, OCLC, SOLINET

• 50K/yr. works (mostly dissertations) go to UMI

• 400K/yr. students get masters or doctorate in US

• Virginia Tech requires electronic theses & dissertations (ETDs)

• ETDs seem to be accessed 10+ times as much as paper versions

• Students learn about electronic publishing and digital libraries through ETDs

• Preparing an ETD using PDF is easy and less expensive for students

Why You Should Attend This Session

• Everyone:
  • Since this is a classic CNI-type-project, with all the challenges

  • Since this will build an important national (international) resource

  • Since this will prepare future scholars and researchers for the Electronic Age

  • Since this will become an important vehicles for knowledge sharing

• University Personnel:
  • Since in the long term this can save you and your students money

  • Since this will make your research much more accessible world-wide

  • Since this should lead to higher quality and more expressive publications

  • Since this is a model project to see how "going digital" can aid your institution

• Publishers:
  • Since this will prepare your future authors to submit electronically

  • Since this will help your future authors understand copyright issues

  • Since this will supplement your publications with longer, multimedia works

Discussion Questions Relating to Access and Archiving

• Options for Access
  • Through card catalogs

  • Through WWW search engines

  • Through a distributed digital library (e.g., Dienst as in NCSTRL: http://www.ncstrl.org/)

  • Through UMI's centralized services with Dissertation Abstracts

  • Through OCLC's electronic journals / electronic archiving services

• Options for Archiving
  • By university

  • By state or regional organization (e.g., Monticello Electronic Library, CIC)

  • By national libraries or other government agencies

  • By for-profit organizations (e.g., UMI)

  • By not-for-profit organizations (e.g., OCLC)

• Technical Issues
  • Paper vs. Microfilm vs. Electronic

  • Costs, Economic Models

  • Migration of Media

  • Role of Standards vs. Rich Hypermedia / (Inter)Active Programs

• Economic: Students, Universities, Access Providers, Archivers

Discussion Questions Relating to Publishing

• Copyright
  • What rights should students keep?

  • What rights should universities keep?

  • How does Fair Use apply?

• Right of First Publication
  • How are derivative works defined in this context?

• Electronic Rights Management
  • How can new tools/policies maximize open sharing in a sustainable situation?

• A New Genre for ETDs?

Edward A. Fox
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
http://etd.vt.edu
etd@vt.edu

webmgr@cni.org