Stopping the collection of print theses and dissertations

[Margaret Heller]

Hello,

My university is considering no longer collecting a print copy of a thesis or dissertation, and going solely with our digital copy as the copy of record. I know this is becoming more and more common, and I am looking for some anecdotes about the advantages of no longer collecting print copies, as well as policies or procedures that aided this process.

Thank you!

Margaret Heller

Digital Services Librarian

[Les Harrison]

Do you have a creative writing MFA? At my Uni (VCU) the majority of depts are fine with digital dissertations. The AAWP is opposed to digital dissertations if made publicly accessible.  

LH

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[Strand, Judith K [G COL]]

Iowa State University stopped collecting hard copies in 2010. At about the same time a digital repository was created that made available all the theses /dissertations.  

Seems to be working well.

Judy Strand

Graduate College

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[Ramesh C Gaur]

Since 2013, we are accepting digital copies only. Even we have digitized the entire collections of 22000 old Theses and Dissertations. we have created a digital repository, with three years embargo period.

Now We are planning to dispose off old print copies.

 

regards

ramesh

 

************************************
Dr. Ramesh C Gaur
PGDCA, MLISc,Ph.D. Fulbright Scholar (Virginia Tech, USA)
University Librarian & Chair- ETD 2015 India
Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU)
New Meharuli Road, New Delhi - 110067
Tele +91-11-26742605, 26704551
Fax : +91-11-26741603
Email: rcg...@mail.jnu.ac.in ;rcga...@gmail.com
URL: www.jnu.ac.in
Brief Profile:http://lib.jnu.ac.in/Ramesh_C_Gaur

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[Larry Tague]

At the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, we have been collecting digital ET/Ds (only) since 2008. We started our digital collection in 1998, but digital was optional until 2008. 

We will soon start digitizing our entire paper collection of theses and dissertations. 

Larry Tague

Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Graduate Health Sciences
University of Tennessee Health Science Center
920 Madison Ave., Suite 807
Memphis, TN 38103
Phone Bus.: 901-448-7152

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[Joseph Thomas]

At East Carolina we no longer accept paper copies--and haven't for the last five years--although we do still get fiche for dissertations.
Joseph Thomas

[Gail McMillan]

When the Graduate School asked Virginia Tech Libraries about going ETD-only, I said it was the only way to go. The Libraries could not take on more work by processing both ETDs and BTDs (bound theses and dissertations). With ETDs we cut our workload, and radically improved the time from author submission to public access.

Virginia Tech stopped requiring print copies in 1996 and began requiring e-only theses and dissertations on Jan. 1, 1997.

Best, Gail

Gail McMillan

Director, Scholarly Communication

Professor, University Libraries

Virginia Tech

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[Matthew Dumouchel]

Good morning Margaret,

 

While we were in the process of developing our ETD solution in 2010/11 we took a long look at how often print copies of a thesis would be accessed in their first year of publication.   In that timespan 116 PhD theses were published and available for access in the library.  These paper copies were circulated a total of 35 times (averaging 0.3 circulations per thesis) in their first year of release.  In the first year of our ETD repository we released 258 theses for download and those theses were downloaded a total of 50,320 times (averaging 194.7 downloads per thesis).  With the work involved in binding and archiving paper copies and the cost incurred on our students we had little trouble determining that print copies were of little use now and made the digital publication of our theses the one and only method for releasing these works at our institution.

 

Please let me know if you’d like to discuss this decision further.  I’d be happy to help in any way I can. 

 

Matt Dumouchel
Manager, Information Systems
International and Graduate Affairs Building, Room 1N07
London, ON, Canada | N6G 1G9
p. 519.661.2111 x82684 f. 519.661.3730
mdum...@uwo.ca | grad.uwo.ca

 

[Margaret Heller]

Thank you so much to everyone who has responded. You've given me a lot of good support for this position, and some useful ideas for policies we might need to improve.

Best,

Margaret Heller

Digital Services Librarian

Loyola University Chicago

[Y H]

To my knowledge, Virginia Tech is No.1 leader who did this back to 90s and definitely inspired us in this area. When the graduate college approached the library for ETD in 2005, I seized the opportunity and worked with all the depts at the library to get ETD project moving, stop manually cataloging metadata and stop purchasing microfilm /microfiche copies. 

The ETD collection is one of the highest used digital collection here. Over the years, it saved us at least $300k. ( $300,000 = $30/title for cataloging/shelving space/Microfiche purchase + $20/title for digitization if were not in electronic format  x 600 title/year x 10 years). Also the library waived publishing/archival fee for students, which saved $55 - 75 per student and some trees.

Yan Han

The University of Arizona Libraries

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