New Developments in Library and Archives Canada’s ETD Program

1. New Developments in Library and Archives Canada’s ETD Program 11th International Symposium on ETDs Aberdeen, Scotland, June 5, 2008 Sharon Reeves, Manager, Theses Canada

2. History of the National Theses Program in Canada • 1965 NLC established centralized program for Canadian theses & dissertations • Mission: to acquire, preserve and provide access to TDs in Canada and around the world • Based on TDs reproduced on microfilm/fiche

3. Theses Canada’s ETD Acquisition Program • Development began in 2002 • Long-term goal – to phase out the acquisition of microfiche • Theses Canada Portal launched January 2004 • Provides access to close to 50,000 ETDs and over 280,000 TDs in LAC’s collection • www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/thesescanada

4. ETDs on the Portal • Initially seeded with 45,000+ digitized theses acquired from ProQuest • 2004 – 2005 LAC developed an ETD acquisitions program based on OAI-PMH • LAC acquires both metadata and ETDs

5. LAC’s Trusted Digital Repository • Digital preservation an issue at LAC • 2005 LAC decided to develop TDR • Goal: to provide “reliable and long-term access to [its] managed digital resources”

6. LAC’s TDR • TDRs based on OAIS Reference Model • Include components for ingest, data management, archival storage and access • When fully developed TDR will virus scan, extract descriptive & technical metadata, migrate formats at risk, etc.

7. LAC’s Digital Collection • LAC is a national library, a national archives and a museum • Its collection includes: • Digitized and digital publications • Photos and portraits • Harvested websites • E-records of Government of Canada

8. TDR Ingest Module – the VLD • 2007 LAC began to acquire e-publications on legal deposit • 2007 – 2008 Virtual Loading Dock ingest mechanisms developed for “FTP in” (push) and Web form upload from publishers • Worked on ingest mechanism for government e-records • Future ingest mechanisms: “FTP out” (pull) OAI harvesting, web harvesting, digitization products & manual download

9. Future TDR Modules • TDR modules yet to be developed: • Archival storage • Data management • Access • VLD currently a “dark archive”, i.e. no access yet • Until access module developed ETDs will be accessible on another server

10. ETDs and the TDR • ETDs slated for eventual inclusion in TDR • Will guarantee digital preservation • “FTP in” will be developed for ingest of ETDs from ProQuest (1st quarter 2009?) • OAI ingest mechanism will be developed next fiscal year

11. E-theses Project • 2002 – 2005: initial development of Portal and e-acquisitions program • By 2007 work on e-theses system required in order to meet long-term goal of acquiring only ETDs from universities

12. E-theses Project • Project split into phases to spread out resource requirements • Phase 1 took place October 2007 – May 2008 • Compatibility of e-theses system with TDR not taken into account in initial planning • Resulted in phase 1 slow downs

13. Scope and Results for Phase 1 • Phase 1 Scope/Results: • Redesign of e-theses system according to standards and for compatibility with TDR • Redesign of OAI server • Development of capacity to ingest ETDs monthly from ProQuest (on hold pending availability of VLD)

14. Phase 2 • Not yet scheduled –resources remain to be identified • Includes development of capacity to ingest complex ETDs • LAC is looking at OAI-ORE data model • Original scope included addition of full-text indexing and OCR to ETDs – this will now be done by the TDR

15. Conclusion • Development of TDR will take several years • Will enable LAC to guarantee digital preservation and to provide better access to digital material through full-text indexing and OCR • LAC will monitor development of OAI-ORE data model as a means of ingesting complex electronic objects

16. Questions?

17. Contact Information • Sharon Reeves: • sharon.reeves@lac-bac.gc.ca • (819) 994-6882