Ionian University
Department of Archive and Library Sciences
Three Disposition Policies of Electronic Theses and
Dissertations
Alexandros Koulouris, Sarantos Kapidakis akoul@ionio.gr, sarantos@ionio.gr
Preface
• Examination of the implemented disposition policies by three Institutions:
– National Documentation Centre (NDC) / Greece – Virginia Tech (VT) / USA
– West Virginia University (WVU) / USA
• Comparison among the policies
• Proposals of alternatives disposition policies based on some criteria
• Comparison among the proposed and the implemented disposition policies
• Conclusions
National Documentation Centre of Greece – Throwback of the digital library
• 1986: Creation of the print archive and the bibliographic database of the dissertations
• 1986 – November 1999: Provision of the database though the mainframe “HERMES”
• July 1998 – November 1999: Digitization of 12.000 dissertations
• November 1999 – : Digital Library of Dissertations (WEB database linked with images or full text).
Provision though Z39.50 protocol
Digitization limitations
• Proprietary digitisation and retrieval software was incapable of handling colour and large size images
• The digitisation software could not import or export metadata, and the retrieval software was not reliable
• Solution: original cataloguing, provision of the
metadata and the full content with ABEKT software (UNIMARC, UNIMARC Authorities, Z39.50 etc.)
• “Chapterization” of the dissertations
• Partial application of OCR
Disposition policy – retrieval
• The metadata and full content of dissertations are freely accessible through the Internet (URL:
http://theses.ekt.gr)
• The user can view, download and print the
dissertations page by page without restrictions or fees
• Each page is served as a (low resolution) tiff format
• There is a watermark in all pages retrieved
• Some dissertations may be unavailable to all users for up to three years by request of the author
Evaluation – issues
• Increased usage of the digital (versus printed)
material for the period November 1999 – July 2001
• The digitized content inaccessible from July 2001 – November 2002 due to some issues:
– Security of the network
– Security of the digital content
– Ambiguous legislation for copyrights and intellectual property
– Selection of disposition policy
Virginia Tech – Disposition policies
• Unrestricted access
– Metadata and ETDs are freely accessible for onsite and offsite users
• Restricted access
– Metadata are accessible for all
– ETDs are accessible only to onsite users (within the VT Community, either by an IP address or a valid ID)
– ETDs could be restricted for up to three years and then are released for worldwide access
automatically, unless...
Virginia Tech – Disposition policies
• Mixed access
– The author (student), has the opportunity to release parts of the ETD but not others, or to publish two versions of a chapter, each with different access levels
• Withheld access
– Metadata and ETDs are inaccessible for all users
– Information about ETDs in this category is held only within the Virginia Tech Office of Research and
Graduate Studies
West Virginia University – Disposition policies
Four disposition policies or four distribution options:
• World access or world wide distribution
– Metadata and ETDs are freely accessible for onsite and offsite users
• Campus only access or WVU only distribution
– Metadata are accessible for all
– ETDs are accessible only to onsite users (limited to WVU IP addresses)
– ILL is provided by free electronic copy or print copy for a nominal fee
– Students can embargo the ETDs for up to five years
West Virginia University – Disposition policies
• Campus encrypted access
– Metadata are accessible for all
– The access to the ETDs, is limited to WVU IP addresses with password
– ILL is provided only by print copy for a nominal fee – The ETDs may be embargoed initially for three
years
• No access or restricted access
– Metadata and ETDs are inaccessible for all users
– Students may embargo their ETDs for up to one year
Comparison among the implemented
disposition policies of the three Institutions
The implemented policies have common characteristics:
• Metadata are freely accessible for all except:
– Withheld access of VT – No access of WVU
• ETDs are freely accessible for onsite users except:
– Free access of NDC (up to three years) – Withheld access of VT
– No access of WVU (up to two years)
• ETDs are not always accessible for offsite users after submission but after two, three or five years
• The delivery method is usually online
• ILL [by free electronic copy or by print copy for a nominal fee]
is provided in few cases
Policy/ Institution Metadata
accessibility Access Delivery
method Conte
restrint ctions
Time restric tions
Onsite users Offsite users Onsite users Offsite users
Unrestricted access/VT,
World access/WVU Yes Yes Yes Yes Online No No
Free access/NDC Yes Yes Vary Vary Online, ILL No <=3y Restricted access/VT Yes Yes Yes No Online No <=3y Campus only access/WVU Yes Yes Yes No Online, ILL, ILL No <=5y Campus encrypted access/WVU Yes Yes Yes No Online, ILL No <=5y
Mixed access/VT Yes Yes Yes Vary Online Yes No
Withheld access/VT No No No No No No No
No access/WVU No No No No No No <=2y
Differences among the implemented disposition policies
Proposals of disposition policies for ETDs
• Proposals of alternatives disposition policies based on some criteria:
– To be acceptable from all (Students, Universities, Providers, Publishers etc.) – To conform to the current national legislation on copyrights
– To be compatible with the common practice
– To ensure the viability of the digital libraries of ETDs
– To ensure the interoperability, the simplicity, the easier definition and extraction of statistics about the policies
• Some proposed policies may seem more restricted
• The more restricted proposed policies try:
– To ensure better security of the digital material
– To eliminate the fears of the publishers about prior publication – To ensure funds for the viability of the digital libraries of ETDs
– To serve the different classes of users according to their various needs and their financial capabilities
Comparison among the proposed and the implemented disposition policies
• The proposed policies, unlike the implemented, have [new] common characteristics:
– The metadata are freely accessible for onsite and offsite users – Access to ETDs is always provided to onsite users
– ILL is provided by electronic or print copy for a fee – ETDs accessible to offsite users for a fee
– Content restrictions and access with charge for offsite users – Access to specified offsite users
– Diversified offsite access according to the user category – Diversified ways of charging for the offsite access
Policies Access for
offsite users Delivery
method Content
restrictions Full access for a fee
Free access Yes Online, ILL No No
Partial access Partial Online, ILL Yes Yes
Controlled remote access Specified
users Online, ILL No Yes
Content restrictions access Yes Online Yes No
Content restrictions access with
charge Yes Online Yes Yes
Access by user category Diversified Online, ILL No Diversified
Access by university Vary Online, ILL Yes Yes
The most general Diversified Online, ILL Yes Diversified
Proposals of disposition policies for ETDs
New disposition policies
• The following policies are different from the implemented disposition policies:
• Partial access
– For offsite users parts of the ETDs are freely
accessible but others are accessible only with charge
• Controlled remote access
– The access for offsite users, is restricted only to specific groups of users (registered libraries and clients) with charge
New disposition policies
• Access by user category
– The access for offsite users is provided for a fee
– The access and the ways of charging for offsite users are diversified according to the user category
• The most general
– Similar to the access by user category policy, except that content restrictions are applied
• The access by university policy can be implemented in a union catalogue of ETDs
– Each university has access to its ETDs and for the ETDs of the other universities a fee should be paid by the user
Conclusions
• The availability of ETDs depends on the selection of the disposition policy
• In most of the cases, the ETDs are freely available for onsite and offsite users
• However, there are restrictions
• The ETDs belong to the category of the “grey literature” which is essential to be known to the researchers, academics, students etc.
• Except for the cases of patent pending, ETDs should be open and accessible to all
• The electronic submission and access of ETDs:
– Helps the students and academics to know about the evolution of the research in their topic
– Ensures the promotion of the research and the development of the new technologies
– Increase the usage of ETDs
• In contrast, the printed ETDs were (unknown and) rarely used
• Purpose: global digital library of ETDs
