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Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) have been a recent addition to the library's online access system, or digital project. This chapter traces the history of dissertations, from their printed form and issuance in microform by various agencies. It examines the changes in textual content and its presentation from the pre-digital to digitized documents, and the relation to software developed for music and other fields. It then examines the evolution of audio and video formats for the accompanying materials, particularly in the performing arts, and the content of these materials. It concludes with issues in ETDs Management and Ensuring Long-Term Access and Preservation, such as digital quality and copyright.

Important products in an academic library’s collection are Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations since they represent a wealth of scholarly and artistic content created by Masters and Doctoral students in the degree-seeking process. Each has experienced an evolution to a new format, electronic. Many of these are PDF files, using the Adobe Acrobat software. Until very recently, though, those files with accompanying materials were separated. This chapter further discusses several issues inherent in this process. These include access, use, re-use, preservation, storage, integration with other systems, copyrights, and permissions. The successful management of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) requires effort across the entire lifecycle to ensure that ETDs are managed, preserved, and made accessible in a manner that today's users expect. Given the pressure of reading more in less time, today's users demand access to various formats regardless of temporal and spatial restrictions and the types of devices used.

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