ETD Implementation

The Two Virginias and Their Strategies for Successfully Requiring the Electronic Submission of Theses and Dissertations

John H. Hagen, West Virginia University

Gail McMillan, Virginia Tech

What is the situation? Universities generate substantial basic and

applied research Documented in theses and dissertations Only some research revealed in scholarly

journal articles Traditional theses and dissertations unused

What is the long-term vision? ETDs are rich hypermedia works Graduate education more effective; and

students more productive Universities publish university research Faster and better knowledge and technology

transfer

What are we doing?

Improving content and availability with technology

Educating future scholars to publish effectively using digital libraries

Helping students be more creative in their scholarship

Providing easy and widely available access to information

78 NDLTD University Members

Air University, Maxwell AFB, Alabama Marshall University University of GeorgiaAustralian National University Miami University of Ohio University of Guelph (Ontario, Canada)Baylor University Michigan Tech University of Hawaii at ManoaBiblioteca de Catalunya Nanyang Technological U.(Singapore) University of Iowa Brigham Young University National U. of Singapore (School of Computing) University of Kentucky California Institute of Technology Naval Postgraduate School University of MaineChinese University of Hong Kong North Carolina State University University of Melbourne (Australia) Chungnam National U., Dept of CS (S. Korea) Pennsylvania State University University of New South Wales (Australia) City University, London (UK) Rhodes University (South Africa) University of North Texas Clemson University Rochester Institute of Technology University of OklahomaCollege of William and Mary Shanghai Jiao Tong University University of Pisa (Italy) Concordia University (Illinois) St. Petersburg State Technical U. (Russia) University of Queensland Curtin University of Technology (Australia) Universidad de las Américas Puebla (México) University of South Florida Darmstadt University of Technology Universidad Politecnica de Valencia (Spain) University of Sydney (Australia) East Carolina University Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona University of Tennessee, KnoxvilleEast Tennesse State University Universitat d'Alacant University of Tennessee, Memphis Florida Institute of Technology Universitat de Barcelona University of Texas at Austin * Florida International University Universitat de Girona University of VirginiaFreie Universität Berlin (Germany) Universitat de Lleida University of Waterloo (Canada)George Washington University Universitat Oberta de Catalunya University of Wisconsin-MadisonGerhard Mercator Universitat Duisburg (Germany) Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya Vanderbilt UniversityGriffith University (Australia) Universitat Pompeu Fabra Virginia TechGyeongsang National University, Chinju (S. Korea) Universitat Rovira i Virgili West Virginia UniversityHumboldt-Universität zu Berlin Université Laval (Québec, Canada) Western Michigan University Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay University of Colorado, Health Sciences Center Wilfrid Laurier University (Ontario, Canada)

University of Florida Worcester Polytechnic Institute

ETDs in the NDLTD14 Air University

41 Australian DT Group

2 Concordia University

50 Dissertationen (German)

4032 MIT (scanning project)

87 North Carolina St. U.

10 Pennsylvania St. U.

24 Rhodes U. (South Africa)

57 University of Florida

8 University of Maine

200 U. of North Texas

9 U. of Tennessee, Memphis 3 U. of Texas, Austin

17 U. of Virginia

23 U. of Waterloo

2360 Virginia Tech

485 West Virginia U.

33 Worcester Poly.

T = 7455

ETD Implementation Tour

Virginia TechWVU

Support Elements Necessary for Successful Implementation

• Top level administrators• Graduate School• University Library• Faculty• Students

How to Achieve Support

• Information technology implementation• Recruit implementation team• Develop networking• Educate• Promote and publicize• Engage discussion• Design careful planning• Build support infrastructure• Set reasonable timeline for implementation

Virginia Tech Team Collaboration

• Graduate School• University Libraries• ETD Task Force• Faculty: Governance, VT Advisory

Committee

Status of ETDs at Virginia Tech:Graduate School

Jan. 1, 1997 began requiring ETDs Training workshops for graduate students Approval form for advisors and committees All ETDs reviewed by Graduate School

staff

VT ETD requirement: an outcome of faculty governance

DRSCAP– Degree Requirements, Standards, Criteria, and

Academic Policies Committee

CGS&P– Commission on Graduate Studies and Policies

DRSCAP Concerns

Allow voluntary submissions with incentives prior to Jan. 1, 1997 requirement

Establish university oversight committee Publicize the requirement widely Avoid significant burdens on departments

Other faculty concerns

Participation in decision-making lacking Notification of requirement not broad

enough Harmful to future scholars

Status of ETDs at Virginia Tech: Library

Students submit via Web; Graduate School approves Held in secure directory if unavailable for

patent/proprietary reasons Immediately available to university or world on Web Available through online library catalogs within 1-2

weeks Accessible by author or department and searchable

using UltraSeek (OpenText, freeWAIS) Submission software: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ETD-db/

WVU Team Collaboration

• Office of the Provost• Office of Graduate Education (decentralized

graduate programs)• ETD Task Force• Academic Computing• University Libraries (Library ETD

Implementation Team)• Faculty Senate, Council of Deans• OIT Advisory Committee

813

0

500

1000

Number of Accesses

WVU Paper TDs Accessed: 1998-99

WVU ETD Monthy Accesses

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

5000

1998 0 0 0 0 0 9 0 466 899 804 3707 4728

1999 1409 1775 1695 3639 5826 546 0 0 148 2988 2584 4160

January

February March April May June July August Septe

mberOctob

erNovem

berDecem

ber

WVU ETDs Accessed 1998-1999

10613

24770

0

10000

20000

30000

11998 1999

37864

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

Total WVU ETDs Accessed:1998 - Present

1997

211,698

1998

532,093

1999

1,090,113

0

200000

400000

600000

800000

1000000

1200000

Yearly Access to VT ETDs

484

0

200

400

600

Total WVU ETDs as of March 2000

WVU ETDs Searched

0

2000

40006000

8000

10000

1200014000

16000

18000

1998 338 538

1999 3124 15457

Within WVU Outside of WVU

WVU ETDs Browsed

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

1998 1484 1448

1999 1974 2849

Within WVU Outside of WVU

ETD Usage at Virginia Tech

1996 1997 1998 1999

Total requests 37,171 220,752 532,093 1,090,113

Daily requests 102 586 1,457 3,016

ETD requests 4,600 74,028 300,673 671,981

Abstract req. 25,829 109,420 210,833 217,796

Hosts served 9, 015 22,885 35,593 77,062

WVU ETD Web Distribution Type:1998-1999

World56%

Campus-Only41%

Patent3%

Web Distribution of WVU ETDs:1999-2000

World53%

Campus-Only42%

Patent2%

Campus-Encrypted

3%

VT ETDs: AVAILABILITY

Mixed access3%Withheld

19%

University-only25%

Unrestricted53%

pdf98.97%

pdf & RA.21%

pdf & jpeg.41%

pdf & html.21%

pdf & PP.21%

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%

WVU ETD Format Types

371 345 358

0

100

200

300

400

1997-1998

1998-1999

1999-2000

WVU ETD Submissions

ThesesDissertationsTotals

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

1993-1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

VT ETDs Submissions: 1993-2000

dissertations masters theses papers/reports

National Use of VT ETDs

.com 34.1%

.edu 50.7%

.net 10.1%

.org 1.2%

.mil 2.9% .gov

1.0%

International Use of VT ETDs

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000 #reqs 1999 #reqs 1998 #reqs 1997

WVU ETD Web InformationPage Accesses

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

1999

Library ThesisandDissertationReference

Library ThesisandDissertationSubmissionGuideWVU ETDHome

Total

2515

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Total

Maser / Technology Education

WVU ETD Most Accessed

Costs and Benefits: WVU and Virginia Tech

Collection Maintenance

• WVU Academic Computing• Server and maintenance: (.3 fte; existing

personnel utilized) Dell 20 GB hard drive, Windows NT OS, initial programming, archiving routine

• VT Digital Library and Archives• Server: Sun Enterprise 250, 384 Mb RAM,

running Solaris 2.7, 9 Gb; Apache Web server

Education: WVU

• WVU Workshops / Consultants:• 1.0 FTE; rotates among 4 consultants existing

personnel utilized

• ETD Document Preparation and Conversion• Many students need lack basic word processing and

multimedia skills

• ETD Program Overview and Submission Process (University Libraries)• Many students complained initially, now accepted and

exploring new formats• Web Information Page Accesses

Virginia Tech Digital Library and Archives • Supporting ETDs at a Typical University

Library• http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/data/setup.html• Staffing

• Programmer, student, faculty liaison

• Software• Free or home-grown and free to NDLTD

• Get details at Tony Atkins’ session tomorrow

WVU Libraries / Technical Services Division • Submissions

• 1.0 fte; existing personnel utilized): Technical Consultant and occasional backup (equivalent to submission & review by graduate school)

• Cataloging• 1.5 fte; existing personnel utilized:

• Cataloging Librarian, Library Technical Assistant

• Cost reductions for binding, handling, etc: $6.00/ dissertation unit; Library formally subsidized ½ of cost; current savings of at least $1,000 annually. Handling: no book processing required (labor intensive)

ETD Cost Savings: Virginia Tech 3000 paper copies/year no longer stored and

shipped from Graduate School to Library 166 ft. shelf space per year in Library

– No binding, shelving, circulating, etc.

No additional equipment or staff necessary

– $65,000US projected library start-up costs: staff, equipment, software

Students

• WVU:• Master’s Theses: $55.00 submission fee

(covers UMI submission and $10 archiving fee); copyright fee of $45.00 is optional; Doctoral Dissertation: $65.00 submission fee (covers UMI submission and $10 archiving fee); copyright fee of $45.00 is optional

Students

• Virginia Tech• Master’s Theses: $20 archiving fee is required;

copyright fee of $45.00 is optional; • Doctoral Dissertation: $65.00 submission fee

covers UMI submission; $20 archiving fee is also required; copyright fee of $45.00 is optional

Libraries / Public Services DivisionWVU and VT• Reference / Document Delivery:

• Existing personnel utilized; minimal impact; required initial training, augmented use of electronic delivery & copy services

Realities of Digital Publishing

• Student Publishing Concerns• Dissent from History Department students

• How have publishers reacted to articles from ETDs?

• University Tenure Systems and Digital Publishing• Is digital publishing being recognized for basis

of granting tenure and promotion to university faculty?

Positive Outcomes from Implementation • WVU

• Heightened sense of awareness on campus of the profound effects of information technology

• Rapid Technology Transfer:• Transforming West Virginia’s economy

• Providing research access to the world

• Va Tech• Heightened sense of awareness on campus of

the profound effects of information technology

NDLTD’s Role

• Provide Implementation Support• Networking University Communities• Federated Searching• Consortium Research and Development:

Commitment to the Future• What should its role be in the future?

Epilogue: the Continuing Dream

Excerpt from “Changing Landscape”

ETD Web Resources

• Virginia Tech • http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses• http://etd.vt.edu• http://www.ndltd.org

• West Virginia University• http://www.wvu.edu/~thesis/• http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/theses/index.htm• http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/thesis.htm

ETD Contacts

Gail McMillan, Virginia Techgailmac@vt.edu

John H. Hagen, West Virginia UniversityJhagen2@wvu.edu

Presented at the

Third International Symposium on

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

University of South Florida

March 16, 2000