UK Electronic Theses On-line Service (EThOS)Project infrastructure, business model and IPR

Anthony Troman

British Library

EThOS workpackage leader

History of thesis supply in the UK• BL service since early ‘80s• Vast majority of UK HE involved• Supplied on paper or microfilm – sales & loans• Researcher paysBut, despite dedicated staff:• Out of date supply formats• Long supply times• Heavily administrative at BL & Institution –

expensiveMeaning:• Serious decline in use of the service = lack of

awareness of UK research output

JISC drives change

JISC initiatives:• 3 thesis projects ending late 2004 (or thereabouts)• Funding to take findings and develop a UK thesis

service• EThOS partnership selected to develop service

Project Aims:• A ‘one-stop shop’ for all UK theses• Open Access to all theses, yet financially viable and

sustainable

The Project Team

Partners

Also involved:

Workpackages

Workpackage Lead Institution1. Project Management Glasgow

2. Central Hub Development British Library

3. Interfaces Cranfield

4. Digitisation British Library

5. Intellectual Property Rights Edinburgh

6. Institution Toolkit Robert Gordon University

7. Business Model Glasgow/British Library

8. Dissemination & advocacy Birmingham/Warwick

Project Issues

• 500,000 UK Theses since 1700s• Stored on:- Paper – distributed across UK Institutions- Microfilm – 200,000 theses held at BL for supply- E-theses – small number held on Institutional

Repositories• Supply to the Researcher by download or on paper

or CD/DVD• Open Access

Infrastructure – Central Hub

Metadata + content

Institutional Repository

Consortium

Metadata + content

EThOS

direct

direct

Institutional Repository

Metadata + contentMetadata

only

Web Service

Metadata + content

Metadata + content

Metadata + content

Scan

Copy?

Scan

Scan

EThOS

Host institution

Electronic theses

Host institution

Papertheses

British Library

Microfilmtheses

EThOS

Researcher

Paper (soft bound)

Researcher

Paper(hard bound)

Researcher

CD/DVD

Researcher

Paper(loose leaf)

Researcher

Electronicdownload

digitisedigitise

harvest

HEI

Storage Location & Format

Requested Delivery Format

Hub

Added ValueOpen

Access

Researcher

Digitisation – why?

• Not many e-theses yet!• 80% of theses ordered via BL are from last 13

years – peak usage is 2 year old theses i.e. Researchers WANT the information held on paper theses

• Institutions will continue to produce paper theses for years to come

• Current service MUST be updated• Service needs to offer content of paper theses

to attract Researchers and encourage e-submission (the ‘critical mass’)

Central Hub - modules

Researcher Interface

Order Management

Delivery

Storage Finance

HEI (metadata only participation)

supply

order(email)

HEI (metadata & content participation)

job sheet for microfilm

thesis

register/login

search/results

order

Digitisation

BL microfilm

store

pape

r th

esis

ret u

rne d

the s

is

mic

rofil

m th

esis

retu

rned

thes

is

digitised thesisand metadata

order

request for paper thesis

(email)

HEI Repository

metadata & e-thesis

metadataorder

(alreadydigitisedThesis)

British LibraryThesis Unit

extract

inform

downloadAdded Value Processing

download

physicalmedia

authorisecredit card

take payment

£

EThOS HEI funds

credit

confirm despatch

update

Business model options• Author [but if they can supply an e-version of their thesis…]• Thesis (charge to the Researcher based on

age/subject/source..)• HEI (Open Access)

- do all HEIs want to offer Open Access?• Researcher (commercial/HE/contributor..) ?

- Download no charge (Open Access) - Added value services (print/bind/CD) charge

• EThOS practical definition of Open Access:- Supply of the intellectual content of a thesis is free. - Manual work undertaken to digitise the intellectual content from a physical format will be charged to the HEI.- Manual work undertaken to prepare the intellectual content into the desired supply format will be charged to the Researcher. - If HEIs ‘opt out’ of Open Access supply, digitisation will be charged to the first Researcher ordering the item.

In practical terms…• A cost recovery only service i.e. every penny raised will be

spent on the service and digitisation of UK Theses. • Digitisation of each individual thesis must be paid for,

but once paid for the thesis will be available Open Access to all subsequent Researchers.

• HEIs offering content Open Access via EThOS have the choice of relationship type (see below).

• Any thesis supplied to the EThOS in e-format, or digitised as part of a digitisation project (see below) will be supplied Open Access to a Researcher.

• Added value services will be offered for delivery and will be chargeable to the Researcher.

• Note that HEIs buy theses from the current service• The proposed service will save effort at the HEI by

centralising services such as copying, packaging, etc.

Institution relationships

Open Access Sponsor:• Sponsorship flat fee with a minimum initial commitment: 3 years (paid

annually)• Guaranteed number of theses digitised from paper and microfilm per

annum including those ordered on-demand by Researchers• HEI choice of additional paper/microfilm theses to digitise should flat fee

value not be delivered on-demand.• HEI commitment to cover additional digitisation costs should the flat fee

value be exceeded i.e. if your theses are very popular! Open Access Associate:• No sponsorship flat fee• Digitisation paid for on a piecemeal basis with no minimum number

guaranteed • Monthly/quarterly invoicing for theses digitised on-demandAssociate:• Institution supplies theses to the service – Researcher pays for digitisationCollaborator:• Supplies metadata only – all orders are routed to the institutions

Sponsorship

HEIOpen Access

Sponsor

$

EThOSFunds

Researcher

£sponsorannual

Ch

arge

Deliver

EThOSServer

Load

1. The HEI credits a sponsorship payment to EThOS at the start of the financial year

Order

2. A Researcher orders one of the HEI’s

theses

Request

Supply

3. The thesis is requested from the

HEI and is supplied for digitising

4. The thesis is digitised and the HEI’s

credit is reduced by the appropriate sum

SponsorshipModel

Why sponsor?• Support Open Access• Service is expensive to run (staff, technical

infrastructure, admin, etc.) – but cheaper than alternatives!

• Set-up of digitisation studio and infrastructure represents a large risk to public money

• Guarantee a secure financial basis for the service and support Associates and Collaborators in making their theses available

For your money:• GUARANTEED no. theses digitised• All monies directly support the service (no profit!)

Intellectual Property Rights

• Current system (“opt-in”) is time consuming and administrative (i.e. expensive) involving forms from authors and from researchers - legal recommendation is that this continues, but that won’t allow us to meet the expectations of a modern e-commerce aware Researcher

• For future submissions (paper or e-) this can be streamlined using workflow and technology

• For existing theses (500,000) seeking permissions to digitise would be difficult and very expensive

• Many authors use 3rd party copyrighted material – BL has edited in the past – this will not be possible in future

IPR - proposals

Adopt an “opt-out” solution but:• Offer a “quick take-down” option• Ask institutions to contact as many authors as

possible• Publicise intentions via appropriate communication

media• Take out insuranceNote: there is no intention to abuse any IPR. The BL

has been described as a ‘trusted’ public organisation and is not making any money out of supplying theses. Theses are supplied in order to support UK HE and the authors.

BenefitsProject• A ‘one-stop shop’ for all UK theses (or all HEIs which wish to take part)• Open Access to all theses, yet financially viable and sustainable (provided UK HE

‘buys in’). Increasing store of Open Access theses for immediate download.Author• Thesis made available to the world (if wanted)HEI• A shop window to research effort• Options on level of involvement• Inclusive - support for smaller institutions• Reduction in load on Institutional Repository (where applicable)Service Provider (British Library)• Meets its remit as a public body• Cost-recovery, cost-effective serviceResearcher• Easy to find and obtain information in the format required• Clear delivery timetables and costs (if any)UK PLC• Demonstrates the quality of primary research going on in the UK• Attracts overseas investment

ETDs: An American Sampler

Gail McMillan

Director, Digital Library and Archives

Virginia Polytechnic Institute &State University

JISC/CNI: York July 6, 2006

Networked Digital Libraryof Theses and Dissertations

233 members worldwide 94 universities,13 associations,

consortia, etc. in the United States• 32 require ETDs• 32 Association of Research Libraries

13 require

• 71 Council of Graduate Schools 29 require

http://www.ndltd.org/

Key Issues for ETD Initiatives1. Getting started2. Software

ETD-db: submission and management IRs: institutional repositories

3. Accessibility Authors’ choices OAI: Open Archives Initiative

4. Training Tutorials online ETD Guide

5. Copyright6. Preservation

ETD Issue: Getting StartedUniversity of Washington

Library • Space needs • Institutional repository • Initiated

Graduate School • Policy changes• Procedural adaptations• “Golden Promise” to faculty Students• Timely online availability

ETD Issue: SOFTWARE

ETD-db: submission and management http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ETD-db/ http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ETD-db/developer/

IRs: institutional repositories http://repositories.tdl.org/handle/2249.1/1 http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/ http://eidr.wvu.edu/

ETD-db http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ETD-db/

• Web pages, perl scripts interact with MySQL• Standard interface for web users, authors, graduate

school, library personnel • Enter and manage files and metadata

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ETD-db/developer/• Software and hardware requirements • Instructions on downloading, installing, and customizing

scripts Improvements coming: September 2006

• Timed release• Merged databases• Improved OAI

ETD-dbHardware Requirements

VT uses a dual-processor Sun Enterprise 250 with 384 Mb of RAM, running Solaris 2.7. 18Gb drive is allocated solely for the ETD collection.

Web server (e.g., UNIX-based server platform) Disk space for submissions

• VT averages 2.5 Megabytes per submission• ETD-db is not designed to span multiple drives.

Memory for web server, database server, other tasks

Software Requirements Mysql Perl and CGI, DBI, DBD, and Tie-IxHash modules Web server software, e.g., Apache Web Server

Florida State University

ETD-db• Workflow advantages for Graduate School

DigiTool (ExLibris)• Search engine

DSpace• Missing functionality• Programming personnel needed

West Virginia Universityhttp://eidr.wvu.edu/

eIDR: Electronic Institutional Document Repository• ETDs since 1998• Digital library system: collections serve

entire university community

Texas Digital Libraryhttp://repositories.tdl.org/handle/2249.1/1

More than 40 campuses, 375,000 students; over 4,000 theses and dissertations in 2004.

ETDs with MODS• XML based, web friendly, transportable, processible, configurable,

sufficiently descriptive without being too complex, extensible• Why not MARC: isn’t XML based, can’t easily be output from web

forms, requires special “cataloging” knowledge and systems to implement.

• Why not Dublin Core: insufficient specificity, doesn’t specify a syntax and is inconsistently applied, isn’t extensible.

Manakin: enables communities and collections to establish a unique look and feel that is distinct from the default installation of DSpace.

ETD Issue: ACCESSIBILITY

Universities offer options• http://di.tamu.edu/bsurratt/ETDPolicies/

Authors’ make choices• http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/data/

OAI: Open Archives Initiative• http://www.ndltd.org/join/union.en.html

ETD Access Policies at ARL Institutions: A Preliminary Study

4% Non-exclusive right to reproduce 4% Open access only46% Open access or withhold for limited time42% Open access; restrict and withhold for

limited time 4% Restrict and withhold for limited time

Brian Surratt, Texas A&Mhttp://adt.caul.edu.au/etd2005/papers/0555Surratt.pdf

http://di.tamu.edu/bsurratt/ETDPolicies/

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

No accessMixed accessVT-only--scannedVT-only born-digitalWorldwide access

Snapshot of Availability May 2000-2006

13. If you restricted access to your ETD, on what did you base your decision?

55%

20%17%

4% 3% 2%

46%

10%

23%

10%

6% 5%

Advice offaculty

Other Personal choice Advice ofothers

Advice ofpublisher

Patent pending

2004/20052000/2001

NDLTD develops global resource discovery services to promote the visibility of ETDs.• http://rocky.dlib.vt.edu/~etdunion/ • http://www.ndltd.org/join/union.en.html• http://alcme.oclc.org/ndltd/• http://zippo.vtls.com/cgi-bin/ndltd/chameleon

Union Catalog Project: distributed members’ collections appear as one digital library of ETDs.

Built by harvesting metadata from Open Archives of electronic theses and dissertations• OCLC’s NDLTD Union Catalog

247,390 NDLTD from >60 entities (135,166 US)

Ohio Library and Information Network

Worldwide ETD Search: 162,057 • http://search.ohiolink.edu/etd/world.cgi• Internet-available ETDs collected by OhioLINK

OIA harvesting per NDLTD Union Catalog Crawls “handful of sizeable ETDs collections…which run

on ETD-db software.” Indexes only if full text and freely available online.

OhioLINK ETD Search: 8,968• http://search.ohiolink.edu/etd/

Key ETD Issue: TRAINING

Tutorials http://www.adobe.com/education/etd/tutorials.html http://gradsch.osu.edu/Depo/ETD_Tutorial/ETD_Tutorial.pdf

ETD Guide http://www.etdguide.org/ http://flexwiki.etdguide.org/

Online ETD Tutorial Modular program stepping authors

through series of 5 lessons PDF with text, images, audio, movies 2-7 interactive exercises linked to movie

demonstrations Usability tested including compatibility

with 3rd-part screen readers

PSU: Acrobat how-to for ETD authors: http://cac.psu.edu/etd/howto/acrobat/

Lesson 1: Read an ETD: download, browse, navigate, search within Lesson 2: Create a PDF File

• Use Acrobat PDFMaker within Microsoft Word• Use Print Command in a word processing application • Combine two or more PDF files into a single document

Lesson 3: Modify a PDF File• Change page numbering• Move a page • Insert new pages; delete, rotate pages

Lesson 4: Add PDF Navigation to an ETD: bookmarks, page and destination links

Lesson 5: Add Multimedia: movie and sound clips

ETD Guide

http://www.etdguide.org/• UNESCO• French, Spanish, Greek

http://flexwiki.etdguide.org/• Share best practices• Celebrate exemplary ETDs

ETD Issue: PUBLISHING and COPYRIGHT

I hereby grant to [university] and its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible…in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation, or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report.

Authors inadequately understand ©

Rights as copyright holders Responsibilities when using others

materials Future rights before signing publishers’

agreements• Works for a dissertation • Reusing materials for teaching or book

chapter

Pennsylvania State University

Promotes intellectual property rights through ETDs• Library teaches law seminars to graduate students

Limitations on exclusive rights http://www.etd.psu.edu/faq_pub.html

1. Others may excerpt portions of your thesis for scholarly work or research without obtaining your permission; they must credit you as the source. (fair use)

2. ProQuest/UMI receives authors’ permissions to sell copies.

3. Penn State has the right to make single copies of the thesis for nonprofit purposes.

Copyright Law and the Doctoral Dissertation: Guidelines to Your Legal Rights and Responsibilities

www.ifla.org/documents/infopol/copyright/crews.txt

Bowling Green State University Conflict of interest

• Worldwide access• ETD ≈ prior publication

Extended negotiations• Graduate College• Creative Writing Programs

MFA: 21 of 22 do not have ETD initiatives Publication-dependent careers

• Scientific & Technical Communication

ETD Issue: PRESERVATION

Preservation Strategies • Dark archives• Replication w/geographic dispersion• Verification• Format migration

6 Association of SouthEastern (US) Research Libraries Adapted LOCKSS to a private, independent network using OAI-

PMH Crawled and collected web content based on permissions Each university cached every other universities’ ETDs Audited file integrity Addressed policy issues: dark archiving, removing files, adding

programs

LOCKSS tutorial http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/lockss/introduction.htm

QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Dark Archive In The Sunshine State

Digital preservation repository application (open source license) developed by Florida Center for Library Automation with:

• Ingest functions• Data management and dissemination• Format normalization

Mass format migration Migration on ingest

http://www.fcla.edu/digitalArchive/

An American ETD SamplerThank you!

Questions? Comments?

JISC/CNI: York July 6, 2006

Gail McMillanDirector, Digital Library and Archives

Virginia Polytechnic Institute &State University