STS General Discussion Group [Conference Report]

  	
  	
  	
  


	Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship  	Winter 1998  


	DOI:10.5062/F41J97R3


    

Conference Reports
    STS General Discussion Group: Summary of ALA MidWinter Meeting, January  10, 1998
    Jill Newby
  Co-Chair, STS General Discussion Group
  Weber State University
  Ogden, UT
jnewby@weber.edu    

Digital Dissertations: Two Initiatives
    Digital dissertations was the topic of discussion at the STS General Discussion Group, Jan.  10th at the New Orleans Convention Center. The two presenters were Gail McMillan, Director  of the Scholarly Communication Project, University Libraries at Virginia Tech and Jeff  Moyer, from UMI, University Microfilms, Inc. Gail McMillan discussed issues and procedures  used at Virginia Tech for their electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) project which  began four years ago. In 1997, graduate students were required to submit their theses and  dissertations in a PDF format rather than a print copy to the library. As of Jan. 8, 1998,  there were 650 electronic theses and dissertations, 354 with unrestricted access, 166  access limited to the Virginia Tech community, and 130 without electronic access. The ETDs  contain graphic images, movies, and sound files. Some documents, such as architectural  drawings did not lend themselves to a digital format and were not converted to PDF format.      To provide support for graduate students, Virginia Tech Library staff assisted them in  image conversion in the library's multimedia lab. Once the dissertation is approved, and  the student has consented to the online display, the dissertation is made available on the  Internet, and UMI is notified of the address so that the dissertation can be copied and  microfilmed by UMI. 

    Gail McMillan, Director of Virginia Tech's Scholarly Communication Project, spoke of the  advantages of the electronic format including the fact that it enables graduate students to  be more flexible and creative in presenting their research. They could include color  images, movies and sound. Other advantages are that the EDTs don't take up shelf space and  save ILL and circulation staff time in circulating theses and dissertations. They are more  widely accessible on the Internet, and there was discussion at the meeting about the  greater visibility and use of electronic dissertations and theses. Virginia Tech's ETDs can  be searched by keyword or browsed by author and title. There are plans to provide  searching of electronic dissertations held at other Libraries involved in the Networked  Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (www.ndltd.org/).

    About 75% of Virginia Tech graduate students have given permission to display their  dissertations or theses on the Internet. Faculty and students both have concerns about  copyright and the future publishing of their dissertations in the form of books or articles  if the dissertation is available on the Internet. Students have the option of restricting  access to only the campus. 

    Future changes for ETDs include submission of ETDs in SGML formats. MARC records could be  derived from SGML text. For more information, see http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/. 

    Jeff Moyer, from UMI, presented information on UMI's Digital Library Program, and outlined  the issues that need to be addressed by institutions considering developing their own  digital dissertation project. Phase I of UMI's project is to scan dissertations and  convert them to PDF files. Phase II will be to include searchable texts and images. Phase  III will convert dissertations and theses into SGML formats. 

    The pilot program (wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/) allows free  access to the current quarter of Dissertations Abstracts Online, plus the ability to  download the full text of select dissertations in PDF format for a fee. Currently, graduate  students can submit documents in digital format or paper. UMI provides online guidelines  for submitting electronic theses or dissertations. An author can request restrictions to  the online access of their dissertation. The dissertation author retains copyright and  receives royalties from UMI sales. Submitting institutions have free online access to  their students' dissertations and theses. 

    UMI will provide a "Current Research" web page for participating institutions with  bibliographic information on dissertations published in the last 2 years at that  institution. The site is searchable by keyword and provides also browsing by subject. UMI  will also work with institutions to scan all of an institution's dissertations. They will  also add keywords and subject headings. 

    Some of the issues Jeff Moyer identified with digital dissertations are coordinating  activities among academic departments, the graduate school, the computing center, and  individual faculty and students. Publishing standards raise questions about which digital  formats are acceptable, PDF or SGML, LATEX, multimedia formats and viewers/readers.  Printing large PDF files-some dissertations are over 250 pages-can be a problem and are too  large for most e-mail systems. Other challenges relate to internal (local) security and  document maintenance issues and external access and control.