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Learn about the advantages of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) for research, students, faculty, and universities. Explore how universities can optimize ETD initiatives in the digital age. Discover best practices and significant benefits of transitioning to electronic formats.
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When Universities PutDissertations on the Internet:New Practice; New Problems? • Sarah C. Maza • Susan Ferber • Edward Fox • Stuart Shieber
Electronic Dissertations PanelAHA 2011Boston, 1/7/2011 Ed Fox, fox@vt.edu Executive Director, NDLTD http://www.ndltd.org Professor, Computer Science
How • Universities launch ETD initiatives • Universities include ETDs in institutional repositories • Best practices for ETD programs become more widely understood and followed • (NDLTD can assist, including through its service for individuals.)
Benefits to Research • Open access to substantive body of research • Easier to reference works for classes, research studies • Significant increase in citations & building on related work • Higher quality theses and dissertations
Benefits to Students • Cheaper than paper • Expression expanded through electronic representations (video, audio, images, animations, simulations, virtual reality environments, datasets) • Faster visibility and expanded social network • Learn skills useful for future publication & dissemination efforts
Benefits to Faculty • Greater visibility of research results • Easier to leverage student work into teaching, follow-on studies • University can help preserve and provide access to datasets that faculty and students wish to share.
Benefits to Universities • Greater visibility of research • Savings in space, handling • Increased proficiency in working with digital libraries and related systems, and in handling of electronic resources • Aid in making the transition to new models of information dissemination, library activity, archiving, and preservation
AHA Followup • AHA could collaborate with NDLTD and offer annual awards for best history ETDs. • AHA could help make sure that history faculty and students understand the best practices related to ETDs and so achieve maximal benefit. • AHA could leverage ETD efforts to better disseminate findings of American historians.