Session notes: e-Theses developments in the UK

Speaker: Jill Russell

ETHOS www.ethos.ac.uk

http://ethostoolkit.rgu.ac.uk  

There are currently 14,000 PhD’s submitted a year in the UK.  They are an under-used resource.   Microfilm is no longer an acceptable medium of storage or delivery.

The Vision of EThOS is to improve visibility and accessibility.

Partners are universities with existing e thesis repositories, and those in process of adopting them, and the BL.  They are also consulting stakeholder groups – administrators, postgrads, librarians and repository managers.

Ethos is aiming to develop content – not just of those already available.  It is acknowledge that there are rights issues – hence the toolkit of guidance has been produced.

The aim of Ethosnet is to take the concept forward to a live service by:-

  • Establishing  a critical mass of suppliers in HEI’s to respond to researcher requests

  • Expand coverage to all UK HEI’s

Significant issues:-

  • IPR
  • Supporting authors
  • Permissions
  • Confidentiality and no-disclosure
  • Plagiarism detection

  EThOSnet has taken a two pronged approach:-

  • Establishing a procedure for ingest of new born-digital theses through agreements
  • Retrospective digitisation

  Demand so far has been for older material, with on average theses 2-3 years old the most popular.

 

Questions for institutions surveyed have been:-

Is it a current or near-future option?

Do you supply older theses to researcher and other libs on request?

Do you have a repository?

Do you know who owns rights to IPR?

Supply of the intellectual content of a thesis is free to download.  Any digitisation work to be charged to the institution. Work to prepare content to alternative format will be charged to the requester

There are two tiers of membership:-  

Open Access Sponsor

Sponsorshjp fee according to JISC banding

3 year commitment

Theses digitised in response to demand, according to agreed service levels

HEI prioritises these to digitise to make up annual quota

Open Access Associate

No fee

Invoicing for theses digitised on demand

Option to pay for additional digitisation if capacity allows  

There is a Standard license for deposit.  

 
Question

There is an Issue of retrospectively getting the rights to a thesis?

To be discussed in the session tomorrow

 

Speaker: Bill Hines

Repository Bridge

http://www.inf.aber.ac.uk/bridge/

This JISC-funded project is following an existing pattern for paper theses: agreement between University of Wales and Nat Lib of Wales for theses has been in existence for 100 years

Hard copy archival is undertaken by both the institution and NLW  

Repository Bridge Project aims:-

    • To preserve and adapt procedure for electronic theses
    • To automate transfer
    • To streamline the manual process  

It has been a problem aligning with individual university regulations on IPR

 

Speaker: Jackie Knowles

Repositories Support Project  in Wales

Enabling the implementation, management, and development of digital institutional reps

In Wales, it has been the catalyst for the rapid development of centrally co-ordinated collaborative network of repositories.  There are several elements to the service:-  

  • Site visits
  • Info gathering
  • Practical advice

Themes:-

  • Collaboration
  • E-Theses
  • Resorting
  • Workflows  

RSP web site soon to be available shortly

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