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When Universities Put Dissertations on the Internet: New Practice; New Problems?. Sarah C. Maza Susan Ferber Edward Fox Stuart Shieber. Electronic Dissertations Panel AHA 2011 Boston, 1/7/2011. Ed Fox, fox@vt.edu Executive Director, NDLTD http://www.ndltd.org
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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.