Facilitating greater access to ETDs through CONTENTdm

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of the paper is to describe several stages in a university library's approach to providing access to theses and dissertations, culminating in a decision to use CONTENTdm and its Dublin Core-based metadata along with our ability to provide even wider access in the future through OCLC. Design/methodology/approach -The university's treatment of theses and dissertations, from paper through a homegrown electronic system through CONTENTdm and beyond, is recounted in this paper.Findings -Electronic open access to theses and dissertations increases their usage; a digital management software package streamlines their management and presentation. Practical implications -Proprietary software has advantages over home-grown approaches to digital library content. Originality/value -This paper updates the findings in earlier articles about the use of CONTENTdm for ETDs and the use of OCLC services for metadata harvesting.

A Review of Emerging ETD Initiatives, Challenges and Future Developments

“…Similarly, [2] demonstrated the important role of metadata standard for an interoperable environment hence, a standard based on Dublin Core (DC) element was also defined to cater the needs of the Chinese community of scholars for the China NDLTD. Aimed towards open and wider accessibility to ETDs, the University of Louisville's has adopted DC-based metadata in the migration of database to CONTENTdm [26].Reference [8] likewise described the University of Waterloo's E-thesis project towards open access. In partnership with Theses Canada and the NDLTD, the adoption of OAI-compliant metadata is one of the factors that contributed to the attainment of the objective.…”

“…first two years after submission); whereas, section-specific means that full text search is possible only within a portionof the document [9](e.g. first 128,000 characters) [26] or first 24 pages of the document only [14].…”

“…Thereafter, several members worldwide have joined the advocacy as shown in http://www.ndltd.org/about/membership.Likewise, affiliation to world-known organizations like NDLTD became a trend in aiming for wider visibility, example: China NDLTD [2]. [6], [8], [9], [26] Accessibility and interoperability -institutional ETDs in different structures -lack of provision for mandatory submission; limited participation -opposition concerns (purloined ideas; substandard graduate researches; Internet access rejections; confidentiality of research topic.…”

“…[1], [2], [5]- [9], [11], [12], [27] Visibility -mismatch between keywords provided by author and controlled vocabularies -permanent and secure preservation -cultural attitudes on IPR -limited technical skills in incorporating multimedia and interactive perspectives [14], [24], [26] [28]…”

Positioning Libraries for a New Bibliographic Universe

“…100 In a similar exploration of workflow and record enhancement, Howard and Goldberg detail how they transformed metadata from the simpler DC to the more granular MARC using the WorldCat Digital Collection Gateway. 101 …”