Examining the ETD publishing ecosystem: a collaborative perspective

Abstract

Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) is an essential component of an institutional repository and plays an important role in scholarly communications. Publishing ETD is an institutional effort and requires a number of steps undertaken by various campus units. As such, the process often appears to be a loosely-connected chain. Through examination of the ETD publishing ecosystem, some potential areas for workflow improvement and further collaboration among campus units have been identified. This presentation will share some issues and challenges surrounding the ETD publishing ecosystem, both technical and non-technical, thoughts and suggestions on effective collaboration, and experience on initiating and implementing the changes. The discussion will be based on a platform consisting primarily of DigiTool, Minerva (administrative system), and a set of OCLC services and tools, such as discovery and batch load.