Kimberly Douglas, Betsy Coles, George Porter, Eric Van de Velde: Taking the Plunge: Requiring the ETD

2. Phase One: Voluntary Submission of the ETD

The Caltech Libraries successfully launched its ETD effort to the Caltech community in the spring of 2001.

2.1 Preparation

In the two years between March of 1999 and June 2001 library staff prepared the basic platform for the ETD:

  1. Selected and implemented an applications program. A single applications developer was identified who worked on this project part-time in combination with other duties. The ETD-db (NDLTD) software was selected largely because it was free and was openly supported by the developers at Virginia Tech. In addition it was OAI compliant; it met design criteria necessary for a repository of theses and provided a functional user interface. This software met our requirements of no cost and it supported the capability to restrict access to specified files. The latter was not supported by other applications, such as Eprints.
  2. Established the policy and syntax for a unique and persistent identifier and in connection with the library‘s other digital collection projects developed a permanent resolver mechanism, the PURR.<2> Each thesis is assigned a unique identifier by the ETD-db (NDLTD) software. The identifier is exported in the OAI_dc metadata (OAI Dublin Core metadata subset) and is used in the URL to point to the service page. Since it is unique to the archive, it can be used by the resolver to make an ETD Persistent URL. Even though the identifier number is created by this specific application software, the Caltech Libraries will permanently maintain the same unique identifier for the thesis even if the application software were to change.

    Example:

    Unique Namespace Identifier: CaltechETD

    ETD-db Unique Local Namespace Specific String or identifier:

    etd-11252001-103911

    ETD Persistent URL:

    http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-11252001-103911

  3. Continued developing interest on campus and gaining permissions of the Graduate Deans. Caltech had undergone turnover in Graduate Deans. The Grad Dean of 1999, who was present for Ed Fox‘s presentation in the spring of 1999, was not the same Dean in 2000-01 nor the same in 2002-03. The primary rationale was the necessity of advancing Caltech‘s operations into the networked digital environment. Caltech‘s deans are also active researchers with graduate students and a teaching requirement. The library‘s arguments resonated with the perspective that the students were also bringing to the table.<3>

2.2 Experience

In June of 2001, the then Graduate Dean announced that PhD candidates who wished could voluntarily submit an electronic version of their theses to the Caltech site. The library provided only very minimal support at that time. The student needed to have already prepared a PDF file from whatever source application they used. A PhD candidate who wished could connect to the Caltech ETD site and submit the electronic version of their thesis.

Of the 299 theses of 2001 and 2002, sixty-three (63) were submitted voluntarily from the following disciplines. : Engineering_22_; Biology_9_; Chemistry_12_; Geology_8_; Physics_11_; Math _1_. None were submitted from Economics or Political Science.

The students who participated the library‘s effort experienced very few problems. Many students also voluntarily submitted positive comments referring to their desire to make their work more generally available. The students saw the posting of their thesis as a constructive step in making themselves known within the research community.


Footnotes:

<2>

Sponsler, Ed (2001) PURR - The Persistent URL Resource Resolver. http://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechLIB:2001.003

<3>

Graduate students in 2001 were, on average, about 26-27 years old. They were about 20, juniors in college, when the WWW gained ubiquitous following.



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