ETDs at the University of Saskatchewan or

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ETDs at the University of Saskatchewanor

• David Fox Darryl Friesen
• University of Saskatchewan
• October 4, 2003

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Dude, Wheres my Thesis?!

• David Fox Darryl Friesen
• University of Saskatchewan
• October 4, 2003

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The UofS ETD Process

• Illustrates some important current trends in info
  dissemination/retrieval
• Open source software
• Automatic metadata generation
• OAI harvesting
• Automatic library catalogue updates
• Intent is to be maintenance free
• minimal staff intervention

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Short History of ETDs at UofS

• meeting with Grad Studies, Jan 2002
• Support from Dean of Grad Studies, Library
  Director
• D. Dombrosky, D. Fox, D. Salt attended ETD 2002
  Symposium at BYU

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ETD 2002 Symposium Provo, Utah May 30 - June 2,
2002
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ETD 2002 Symposium Provo, Utah May 30 - June 2,
2002
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NDLTD - Networked Digital Library of Theses and
Dissertations

• a loose federation of member institutions and
  organizations that publish ETDs. (Suleman Fox)
• Founded in 1996 185 member universities and
  supporting organizations worldwide
• NDLTD provides support to universities,
  libraries, faculties and graduate students to
  encourage authoring, indexing, archiving,
  retrieving and disseminating ETDs
• software tool for publishing and disseminating
  ETDs
• ETD-ms metadata standard for theses and
  dissertations
• NDLTD union archive
• annual EDT symposia

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The ETD International Symposia

• ETD 2002 Provo, Utah
• ETD 2003 - Berlin
• ETD 2004 7th International Symposium on ETDs
• Lexington, KY June 3-5, 2004

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Short History of ETDs, continued

• Internal report to UofS Library staff, June 2002
• A lot has happened on the past year!
• ETD Implementation Task Force
• D. Fox, D. Friesen, D. Salt, VT Lam, D. Dombrosky
  
• Implementation/customization of ETD-db software
  from Virginia Tech
• Pilot project with 49 ETDs to date

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UofS ETD Program tentative plan

• Fall 2002 pilot project with 20-50 volunteer
  grad students
• Fall 2003 ETDs optional for all grad students
• Fall 2004 ETDs compulsory for all grad
  students
• Development of UofS ETD Site

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ETD-db software

• Open source software developed at Virginia Tech
  as a joint project between their Grad School,
  Digital Library and the Networked Digital Library
  of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD)
• Implementation of ETD-ms specification developed
  by NDLTD (and others)

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ETD-db what it is

• Web-based system for data entry and theses
  management
• Written in Perl
• Uses MySQL database as the backend datastore
• Uses a series of templates to allow customization
• Can be installed, configured and customized in a
  matter of days

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ETD-db what it does

• Captures source info from grad student
• Manages the ETD development process
• Communicates by email with grad student, thesis
  supervisors, Grad Studies
• ETD isnt published until reviewed and approved
  by Grad Studies
• Installs an OAI server
• Makes records available for harvesting in a
  variety of metadata formats, incl. DC, ETD-ms,
  MARC
• Separate local file of MARC communications records

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ETD-db how it works
SQL Database (MySQL)
OAI Server
Web Server
MARC
DC, ETD-ms, MARC
Library Catalogue
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ETD creation and approval

• ETD creation process
• Login to Library ETD site
• Complete Add New Main Record form, add
  supervisor info, upload files
• ETD approval process
• Login to ETD administration site
• Review and manage submitted, approved, withheld
  ETDs

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ETD output

• ETDs in the Catalogue
• Run the marc.php script to display the MARC
  source
• Do local call number search for Electronic
  Thesis to display ETDs in Web OPAC
• ETDs on the Web
• Google Search
• OAI Repository Explorer
• NDLTD OAI ETD Union Catalog
• OCLC XTCat NDLTD

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Conclusions

• Dude, wheres my thesis? everywhere!
• In the Catalogue, in the general Web search
  engines, in the OCLC XTCat NDLTD thesis union
  list, and elsewhere
• DC is sufficient to describe theses and many
  other types of publications. MARC is overkill for
  ETDs
• The ETD-db model for creation and dissemination
  of metadata has relevance for other types of
  local information e.g. archival, special
  collections materials

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Some Useful URLs

• NDLTD - http//www.ndltd.org/
• ETD-db software - http//scholar.lib.vt.edu/ETD-db
  /
• ETD Digital Library - http//www.theses.org/
• ETD 2004 - http//www.uky.edu/ETD/ETD2004/
• Suleman, H., and Fox, E.,
• Towards Universal Accessibility of ETDs
  Building the NDLTD Union Archive, 2002
• Leveraging OAI harvesting to disseminate theses,
  2003