Manage ETDs

This page provides resources for librarians, academic managers, and faculty to start and manage an electronic thesis program and to build and manage a thesis repository.

We invite all NDLTD members and other interested parties to submit resources for inclusion in this web site. We also invite academic institutions to submit links to web pages and documents that may serve as valuable examples to others. Please send any contributions to admin@ndltd.org.

Start and Manage an ETD Program

• Set up an ETD Program
• Publishers and ETDs
• Guidance Documents for Lifecycle Management of ETDs

The Guidance Documents for Lifecycle Management of ETDs are a series of topical briefs to assist ETD stakeholders with the long-term curation and preservation of their ETDs. They cover the following issues:

Introduction: Guidance Documents for the Lifecycle Management of ETDs
Guidelines for Implementing ETD Programs – Roles and Responsibilities
Guide to Access Levels and Embargoes of ETDs
Briefing on Copyright and Fair Use Issues in ETDs
Guidelines for Collecting Usage Metrics and Demonstrations of Value for ETD Programs
Managing the Lifecycle of ETDs: Curatorial Decisions and Practices
Metadata for ETD Lifecycle Management
Guide to ETD Program Planning and Cost Estimation
Guide to Options for ETD Programs

The Lifecycle Management of Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETDs) Workshop consists of a modular set of Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) licensed materials that are available for ETD programs or professional associations to make use of (and adapt) for educating a wide-range of ETD stakeholders. Modules include:

1. ETD Lifecycle Management Overview
2. ETD Lifecycle Guidance Documents Overview
3. ETD Lifecycle Management Tools Overview

The ETD Lifecycle Management Tools Manual provides resources and instruction to cover five major areas of lifecycle curation for ETDs, including:

1. Virus Checking
2. File Format Identification
3. Preservation Metadata
4. ETD SubmissionReference Link Archiving

• Best Practices

The Educopia Institute has published the ETDplus Guidance Briefs and ETD+ Toolkit, a set of free introductory training resources on crucial data curation and digital longevity techniques. Focusing on the Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) as a mile-marker in a student’s research trajectory, the series provides in-time advice to students and faculty about avoiding common digital loss scenarios for the ETD and all of its affiliated files.
The Guidance Briefs were produced by the ETDplus project (generously funded by the IMLS) and were authored by a team that includes representatives from the NDLTD, HBCU Alliance, bepress, ProQuest, and the libraries of Carnegie Mellon, Colorado State, Indiana State, Morehouse, Oregon State, Penn State, Purdue, University of Louisville, University of Tennessee, the University of North Texas, and Virginia Tech.
Access the materials now using the links below!

• Copyright Guidance Brief
• Data Organization Guidance Brief
• File Formats Guidance Brief
• Metadata Guidance Brief
• Storage Guidance Brief
• Version Control Guidance Brief

• Examples of ETD Web Sites
• OhioLINK’s Summary on Cataloging electronic resources, including ETDs 
• Online PhD Program resources for theses and dissertations
• Proquest, Proquest-optional, or NoQuest? See how various institutions deal with the question.
• We welcome content contributions on the following topics:
  • Lobby for an ETD Program
  • Estimate Cost of an ETD Program
  • Provide Support to Students
  • Provide Support to Faculty
  • Assess your ETD Program

Build and Manage an ETD Repository

Open Source Repositories

• ETD-db
• E-Prints
• DSpace
• Fedora
• Islandora

Commercial Repositories and Repository Services

• Bepress Digital Commons
• Ex Libris DigiTool
• hykuUP
• OCLC ContentDM
• Open Repository
• SimpleDL
• VTLS Vital

ETD Submission Systems

• Jarrow – Submit theses and dissertations to an Islandora repository.
• OpenETD – Export ETDs in METS/XML for ingest into a variety of repositories.
• ProQuest ETD Administrator – Submit theses and dissertations to ProQuest.
• Valet for ETDs – Submit theses and dissertations to a Fedora repository.
• Vireo – Submit theses and dissertations to a DSpace repository.

Contribute to the Open Access Initiative and to the ETD Global Search

ETD Preservation

ETD Preservation is a collection of resources about ensuring long-term open access to ETDs with sound, affordable preservation strategies.

ETD Metadata

To give maximal exposure to your institute’s ETDs, you must provide accurate and complete metadata. NDLTD recommends that you use the ETD Metadata Standard ETD-MS.

For broader coverage of digital libraries, see https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Digital_Libraries.