Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations ETD2003 (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 20.05.2003 - 24.05.2003)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://edoc.hu-berlin.de/18452/31
Impressum
Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD2003)
20.05.2003 - 24.05.2003
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Herausgeber
Peter Schirmbacher
Erscheinungsdatum
24.05.2003
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Recent Submissions
Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungOASIS Open Office XML File Format(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Löschky, Dieter; Schirmbacher, PeterPublication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungLaTeX as an Archiving Format: Benefits and Problems(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Fischer, Thomas; Schirmbacher, PeterToday, LaTeX is the standard format for writing papers in Mathematics as well as the preferred format for a major part of Physics. For presentations on the Web, these formats are usually transferred to PDF, a convenient format available for many different platforms, allowing direct viewing with appropriate rendering ("Reader") software. On the other hand, PDF is not the optimal format for long-term storage, because - it is owned by a commercial company - it is not stable over time (some older files cannot be read using the newer rendering software) - it is not fault-tolerant: compressed versions of PDF in particular may become completely unreadable if corrupted. - some PDF files do not allows the efficient extraction of the text behind the presentation, which prevents efficient indexing for search and retrieval. Since LaTeX is a pure text-based format with additional mark-up and available as open source software, LaTeX is a much safer choice for long-term preservation. But this presents several other problems: - While the PDF format is not the original, it provides the fixed pagination for reference - different compilations of the same LaTeX file under different conditions may provide different paginations. - LaTeX version of a dissertation may involve several different files: TeX, images, styles, macro packages etc., some of which may be necessary, some others not. - Some LaTeX files do not compile correctly, because some necessary files are missing. Although these problems exist, the advantages of using LaTeX as an archival format outweigh the problems. But for its efficient use, some developments are necessary: - automated validation of (collections of) TeX files - efficient administration of auxiliary files It might be useful to consider the packaging of LaTeX files into one (opaque) file, which could be rendered using a "TeX-Reader". This could increase the acceptance of the LaTeX outside of the mathematics community tremendously.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungDigital Library Initiatives in PRL(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Anilkumar, Nishtha; Schirmbacher, PeterInformation Technology (IT) is most commonly used to mean computer technology and communication technology. The technologies of optical/video systems like CD-ROMs are also included in the computers group by the books and periodicals on computer technology. For a librarian IT has a wider connotation, which includes the technologies and systems like microfilms, microfiches, CD-ROM, computers, information networks, etc. It includes all those technologies which the libraries and information centres use for collection, processing storage, retrieval and dissemination of recorded information. Traditional libraries' budgets are devoting an ever increasing share of their funds to electronic services - CD ROMS, online access and OPACs. This trend will continue as digital storage costs go down relative to the cost of library shelf-space and as electronic services become more user-friendly, affordable and available. To meet its objectives, the PRL library has embarked on major initiatives to meet user needs, improve access to the collection and to resources beyond our own collection. It is our aim to develop and manage the collection for the benefit of our users today and for posterity, and to ensure that we function efficiently and effectively as a unified library. PRL library's major thrust areas have been: 1. Creating and maintaining a Digital Library 2. Electronic Journals : Achieving the optimum balance The main goal in developing DL is to provide the researchers at PRL, opportunities for accessing and using variety of information in highly flexible manner.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungWriting with LateX(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Pokutta, Sebastian; Schirmbacher, PeterAlmost all publications in mathematics and other natural sciences are originally created using LaTeX. This format has many advantages, especially concerning the retrieval of information. Moreover, given a LaTeX-document, it is possible to generate almost every customary format, for instance, one can easily obtain the corresponding dvi-, ps-, or pdf-file. In contrast to its importance, however, the LaTeX-format has been widely neglected in many library projects. The question concerning us in this presentation is: What does a LaTeX-coded publication look like? We will focus our attention on LaTeX as format discussing a specific example, namely a PhD thesis. Furthermore, the talk includes a short introduction to the handling of LaTeX-sources and the role of LaTeX in the natural sciences.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungWorkshop: XML-based Approaches for ETDs within OpenOffice(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) John, Volker; Schirmbacher, PeterAs more and more academic institutions decide to implement XML-based publishing processes for ETDs, the need for efficient and easy-to-use authoring solutions grows. This workshop will focus on using OpenOffice functionality to create ETDs based on XML-DTDs and/or XML-Schemas. The goal of the workshop is to discuss OpenOffice's capabilities in this area and to allow attendees to decide whether or not OpenOffice provides enough structured editing capabilities for their particular requirements while working with ETDs.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungComponents for an extensible Enterprise e-Learning Environment(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Eichler, Gerald; Schirmbacher, PeterToday the life cycle of technical knowledge decreases dramatically. Human resources departments e.g., Telekom Training Center (TTC) and Telekom Business Academy (TBA), look for well-developed, process-based concepts to identify, plan and carry out high-level qualification according to enterprise's current needs. While the past was driven by presence seminars, today a wide range of computed-aided multi-medial tools are available, which allow distance learning, even in virtual groups. But, there is a strong need for methodical and didactical concepts to meet successfully individual customs of trainees. Multiple criteria are taken into consideration to create efficient and modular curricula, which can be handled in parallel to daily duties. Elements like Computer and Web Based Training (CBT/WBT), Virtual Classrooms and Multimedia Knowledge and Skill Databases are brought together using IP networks to create a flexible learning environment, which can be accessed by a portal, called Learning or Training Management Systems (TMS/LMS), anywhere and anytime. Besides vocational and further training support, especially sales departments are looking for distribution of latest product and solution information to the area-distributed sales persons. E-learning at Deutsche Telekom has a long tradition. Learning, communication and networks specialists of the T-Systems' Service Line Systems Integration work together to create customer individual learning solutions, filling the slogan Plan - Build - Run with life. Modular building blocks with different focus, e.g. communication systems, document management systems and process tools are integrated for single-sign-on. Role concepts with different views of trainee, tutor, event~, system~ and network administrator are consequently supported. T-Systems enforces the specification and development of enhanced learning systems, e.g. GlobalTeach. and participates in international research projects. The presentation will emphasise important technical components and development concepts to create an environment, which meets today's requests for an enterprise e-learning solution.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungIntegrating Electronic Dissertations in a Regular Library Workflow(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Keller, Alice; Schirmbacher, PeterThe Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich introduced electronic dissertations in the year 2000. During the first phase the ETH Library scanned print dissertations retrospectively and made them available over the Internet. Later authors were encouraged to provide the library with their own digital versions. With this very pragmatic approach a large collection could be built up within a short time. During the initial phase, a special project team was set up to develop the new service. However, the aim of the management was to integrate all electronic dissertations in the regular workflow of the library. Today all electronic documents are processed by the regular departments (exchange section, cataloguing and classification depts). Furthermore, electronic dissertations form part of the library's major electronic publications initiative ETH E-Collection. All electronic dissertations are catalogued in the library system Aleph 500 according to international standards (AACR2, MARC). However, the library also wanted to offer direct access over the ETH E-Collection web pages. For this reason selected metadata is extracted daily from Aleph 500. Perl scripts are used to create HTML title, author and subject lists and individual title pages for all electronic documents. Besides offering access to internal dissertations, the ETH Library tries to integrate metadata into its OPAC from as many external electronic dissertations as possible. This work is done by copy-cataloguing, mainly from the German national bibliography. The task is fully integrated in the regular cataloguing and classification departments. This presentation gives an overview over the chances and problems a library experiences if it tries to integrate a large number of internal and external electronic dissertations into the regular workflow.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungIt's about Time!(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) McMillan, Gail; Schirmbacher, PeterIt's about time the NDLTD did something really significant for the membership. Of course, this is to say it's about time we did something for ourselves such as collaborating to ensure the long-term preservation and archiving of each other's ETDs. This presentation will outline the broad considerations for archiving ETDs as well as the necessary actions that the NDLTD Executive and Steering Committees should initiate on our behalf. Audience participation will also be a component of this presentation so that conference participants can tell the organization what they think it should do for them.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungTutorial: OAI(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Müller, Uwe; Stamerjohanns, Heinrich; Schirmbacher, PeterOriginally developed as a means for metadata dissemination of preprint and eprint servers, the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) meanwhile has become a widely known solution to connect distributed electronic archives of all kinds. The OAI-PMH owes much of its acceptance not only among experts to its simplicity and the comparatively very low costs of its implementation. After a brief outline of the protocol's genesis and its development to date this tutorial will give an introduction to the main ideas of the OAI-PMH, its general functioning and some protocol details. Then we will deal with special implementation issues for data providers and service providers including both the necessary steps for a local implementation and several examples of freely available and adaptable tools for implementations. The tutorial will also provide an overview of the implementation of a data provider metadata set. Handouts including a glossary of terms will be provided. The tutorial should be attended by persons who are interested in more technical aspects of the OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungTutorial: Introduction to XML(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Schulz, Matthias; Schirmbacher, PeterUsing XML for electronic publishing has a lot of advantages, as the format is vendor independent, readeable on any soft- or hardware platform and most suiteable for long term preservation. Unfortunately XML is always a question of the Document Type Definition used for defining the structure of a class of documents and the support for potential authors. This tutorial will give general introduction into XML, XML processing and XSLT as well as demonstrate some useful tools. Within this tutorial we will work with the DiML, the Dissertation Markup Language DTD developed at Humboldt-University and show different strategies to convert dissertations written in Microsoft Word into XML. We we also introduce Staroffice/Openoffice as a good tool for students to write their dissertation directly in an XML based editor.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungScientific information for equitabel knowledge societies(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Plathe, Axel; Schirmbacher, PeterPublication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungWelcome(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Fox, Edward; Schirmbacher, PeterWelcome to ETD'2003, the Sixth International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). On behalf of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD, see www.ndltd.org), I encourage you to learn and to share, to listen and to speak, to observe and to report. Do not be shy! There will be many new to ETD activities, and people from varied perspectives, as well as a relatively small number who have wide experience. As the number of members of NDLTD reaches 180, it is time to begin to plan for efforts in every country of the globe, and to target much larger numbers of works. We must remove barriers and increase collaboration. Please enjoy the short time we are together, and benefit as much as possible from interaction with this devoted and talented group.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungVidyanidhi - the evolving Indian Digital Library of Electronic Theses Initiative(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Urs, Shalini; Schirmbacher, PeterThis paper outlines the context, premises, goals, objectives, strategies and the architecture of the Vidyanidhi Project. Vidyanidhi is a project conceived with the objective of demonstrating the feasibility of Electronic Theses and Dissertations in the Indian context. The pilot phase of the study has been successfully completed. In the second phase, Vidyanidhi is evolving into a national effort to improve the research capacities of Indian Universities by developing appropriate enabling frameworks for the creation, archiving, and accessing of Indian doctoral research. The goals of Vidyanidhi are two - to evolve into an information infrastructure and enabling framework for enhancing the quality of doctoral research and to develop a mechanism for depositing and accessing Indian electronic theses/digital theses from anywhere, anytime Vidyanidhi strategies are centred on - evolving appropriate policy framework through meetings, participation, liaison and other methods; offering education and training; building content; developing resources and tools - for online depositing of theses, interfaces, online thesauri and others Currently Vidyanidhi is working towards a collaborative and cooperative organisational model for the depositing and archiving of ETDs by the participating universities.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungMarketing for participation: How can Electronic Dissertation Services win authors?(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Berendt, Bettina; Brenstein, Elke; Li, Yunfan; Wendland, Bert; Schirmbacher, PeterTechnical progress in electronic publishing affords increasingly sophisticated archiving and retrieval options for authors as well as readers of ETD and other university document publishing services. The "marketing" of these services has received less attention, despite its great importance for success. In particular, an ETD service must market to its potential authors - their work is what constitutes the service's content. Providing such content may require additional time and effort: The creation of an adequate electronic document involves the intellectual and technical (re-)structuring and markup of a text. What forms of information policy and author support are needed to meet these new challenges for authors? This paper describes a large-scale, questionnaire-based study of the marketing strategies of the Document and Publication Server of Humboldt University Berlin (http://edoc.hu-berlin.de). This service emphasises long-term archiving and structured retrieval, which requires authors to prepare their texts for conversion into the relatively complex, SGML-based format DiML (Dissertation Markup Language). In this study, the experiences, assessments, plans, and wishes of two central target groups of authors were investigated: people working on their doctoral and "Habilitation" dissertations. The results show that a large percentage of authors do not know the service, and if they do, start using it very late. The paper concludes with recommendations for improving the information flow between ETD service and authors.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungA workflow model for digital theses and dissertations(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Müller, Uwe; Schirmbacher, PeterHumboldt University at Berlin was one of the first German universities offering its PhD students to accomplish their duty to publish their theses and dissertations in an electronic way. To date Humboldt's document server is considered a national benchmark concerning technology and publication policy. Documents publicised on the document server satisfy strict quality standards and are mostly stored in an XML format which was generated from the original document source. Combined with the permanently rising quantity of published documents these facts lead to huge administrative expenditures. Starting from the development of document styles and other necessary tools and the permanent support for authors the Computer and Media Service's and University Library's staff has to perform a lot of different tasks for each single publication, e.g. formal check of submitted documents, conversion to XML and HTML, cataloguing and categorising, signing and storing of the different source and target files. In order to manage this branched publication process a workflow model has been developed. It has been realised by several tools including a web based workflow system, a modular and extensible database for document metadata, and a content management system with different applications and interfaces. Beeing aligned to electronic publication of theses and dissertations the workflow system and its appendant implementation can be adapted to other publication types such as scientifc journals and conference proceedings. The talk will also go into implications to the workflow in case documents contain multi media elements.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungSave as XDiML (DissertationMarkupLanguage), Writing and Converting digital Theses and Dissertations using OpenOffice(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Schulz, Matthias; Henneberger, Sabine; Schirmbacher, PeterFor 5 years now, doctoral candidates of Humboldt- University at Berlin can choose the digital publication as one option to publish their dissertation. The ?Electronic Publishing? Group provides stylesheets for Microsoft Word, WordPerfect and Staroffice/Openoffice in order to allow the authors to structure their digital documents semantically. It is neccessary to prepare documents that way, because they are converted into an XMl format afterwards. The XML document than is an instance of the xDiML.DTD (DissertationMarkupLanguage). This DTD has been developed within several electronic publishing projects at Humboldt-University. Since 1997 an SGML/XML- based concept for the long term preservation of digital publications has been used, in order to store digital documents in an media neutral archival format, to use the possibilities of a structered retrieval within the semantic structures of documents, and to enable an automated production of different information products (like PDF format for print, HTML for WWW layout, metadata for use within different retrieval networks). In order to increase the efficiency of OpenOffice with it?s end format XML, a document style sheet and a filter for Openoffice was developed at the Computer- and Media Service of Humboldt- University. Authors are enabled to write their digital dissertation using this document style sheet and to save those within an XML based format. At the same time the ?Electronic Publishing Group? uses OpenOffice as a conversion tool to convert Microsoft Word documents written with the digital dissertation stylesheet as XML. This talk will focus on demonstrating the needs for a dissertation.dtd and it?s structure. Secondly the converter ?save as xDiml? will be presented and the advantages and disadvantages of writing a complex document as a dissertation using OpenOffice will be discussed.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungHandling of LaTeX-ETDs and TeX-Conversion(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Törner, Günter; Pokutta, Sebastian; Bahne, Thorsten; Schirmbacher, PeterWithin the natural sciences, in particular in mathematics, most of the ETDs are based on LaTeX-coded sources whereas the presentation format is more or less PDF. However, in the international library systems the LaTeX source files are not stored in general, they are ignored since there is no competence in this format type in the libraries. On the other hand there exist servers, e.g. the ArXiv-Server or MathDiss International , accepted by the scientists, which trust in LaTeX-files exclusively and which believe in their archiving quality. So the question arises: * How should we handle LaTeX-ETDs in the library system? In the context of ETDs in natural sciences and especially in mathematics we have to discuss further aspects of LaTeX-files: * How to check the inner consistency of delivered LaTeX-documents consisting of various LaTeX-Files? * LaTeX as archiving format? * Conversion aspects (e.g. TeX to XML, in particular TeX to MathML)Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungA Union Catalog for ETD's(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Chachra, Vinod; Schirmbacher, PeterTwo years ago the NDLTD steering Committee requested that VTLS Inc. build a union catalog for NDLTD. Such a catalog has now been built and can be accessed at www.vtls.com/NDLTD. This presentation will discuss the nature of the NDLTD Union Catalog for ETDs and why it was important to build such a catalog. The present status of this multilingual union catalog will be discussed followed by a brief demonstration of the system. The presentation will finish with a discussion on how the union catalog is kept updated and how your library can participate in this project. Suggestions for improving the union catalog and increasing its usage will be discussed with the audience.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungImplementing an Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Initiative within the South African Context(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Rensleigh, Chris; Schirmbacher, PeterThe end of 'Apartheid' in 1994 left Higher Education in South Africa with an unfair divide with two distinct groups, the so-called Historically Disadvantage Institutions (HDIs) and the ones that benefited from the ideology. This divide is still visible after eight years of democracy. In the South Africa context the term 'Higher Education' is predominately used to refer to learning that takes place in universities and technikons. Numerous challenges like the depreciating currency (an effective devaluation of 73% in 2001), shrinking budgets, lack of IT infrastructure and skilled IT staff are making the implementation of ETD initiatives on an institutional level very difficult for these HDIs. Fortunately working together in consortia or being part of an international project like the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) makes it possible for these Historical Disadvantage Institutions to make their theses and dissertation available electronically. There are currently five regional and one national Higher Education library consortia in South Africa. With the cooperation within a consortium comes the prospect of foreign donor funding like in the case of the South Eastern Library System (SEALS) one of our regional consortia who received a grant for $79 600 to buy the required infrastructure for an ETD initiative. The paper based on a case study of the implementation of an ETD pilot project at the Rand Afrikaans University. Special reference is given to the criteria that impact on the implementation of these kinds of initiatives in the South African context. By implication the regional, national and international level initiatives are best suited for the Historical Disadvantage Institutions.Publication 2003-05-24KonferenzveröffentlichungResistance to ETDs in Academe(Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) Edminster, Jude; Schirmbacher, PeterElectronic theses and dissertations are a technological and organizational innovation. As a technological innovation, they may redefine the content, structure or audience of the traditional print dissertation; as an organizational innovation, they may redefine faculty, student, graduate school, and library perceptions of graduate student research and the purposes it serves within the university. The inclusion of content in visual and/or audio form, the use of hyperlinks to provide alternative reading structures, and the potential broad accessibility of ETDs via the WWW are all "new" features typically not associated with the writing of dissertations, which have for many years been almost exclusively text-based. As universities accept the challenge of accommodating students who choose to write ETDs that reflect new content, structure, and audience choices previously unavailable to seasoned faculty, change will inevitably occur. Part of my purpose in researching and reporting on the development of this new academic genre is to examine some of the resistance to its adoption, particularly in the United States where adoption appears to be slower than in several other member countries of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. Innovation produces change, and some resistance to change seems inevitable in the human arena. In this presentation, I examine ETDs as an innovation currently undergoing the diffusion process, as defined and elaborated by Everett Rogers in his seminal work, The Diffusion of Innovation. According to Rogers: "Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system . . .[it] is a kind of social change, defined as the process by which alteration occurs in the structure and function of a social system" (Rogers 5-6). The characteristics of the innovation, the nature of the communication of the innovation among members within the social system, and the structure and norms of the social system all affect the rate at which the innovation diffuses (15-24). This presentation provides an overview of the characteristics of ETDs as a technological innovation, the structure and norms of the university as a social system undergoing change during the diffusion process, and the effect of this structure and these norms on the rate of ETD adoption.