2011-2014

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Lifecycle

Exploring the evolution of research products by authors on the cusp of their careers and the cutting-edge of their fields.

Increasingly, colleges and universities worldwide are accepting and archiving only electronic versions of their students’ theses and dissertations. While this move from print-based to digital-based theses and dissertations greatly enhances the accessibility and sharing of graduate student research, it also raises grave concerns about the potential ephemerality of these digital resources. How will institutions ensure that the electronic theses and dissertations they acquire from students today will be available to future researchers?

This project aimed to better understand, document, and address the preservation challenges presented by ETDs to ensure that colleges and universities have the requisite knowledge to properly curate these new collections. This project addressed these and other challenges by developing and disseminating guidelines, educational materials, a workshop, and a set of software tools for lifecycle data management and preservation of ETDs.

Project Outputs:

• ETD Lifecycle Management Tools, published 12 November 2014
• ETD Lifecycle Management Tools Manual, published 30 September 2014
• ETD Lifecycle Management Workshop, published 30 September 2014
• Guidance Documents for Lifecycle Management of ETDs, published March 2014

Advisory Board:

• Gail McMillan
• Geneva Henry
• Bill Donovan
• Xiaocan (Lucy) Wang
• Patricia Hswe
• Yan Han
• Daniel Alemneh
• Shannon Stark

Project Partners:

• University of North Texas
• Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
• Virginia Tech
• Rice University
• Boston College
• Indiana State University
• Pennsylvania State University
• University of Arizona