Retrospective Digitization of Theses and Dissertations: Case Studies of Selection Criteria and Funding Sources Scott Eldredge, BYU Austin McLean, ProQuest / UMI

Agenda Why digitize retrospective dissertations? How to digitize retrospective dissertations? What selection criteria should be used? Case study in selection criteria: BYU

Why Digitize? Create easier access for institution and world-wide audience Showcases institutional history for a discipline Faster dissemination of research Digital preservation component Reduces ILL expense for library

How to Digitize Library / Institution Incorporate dissertations/theses into existing digitization workflow Service Provider ProQuest / UMI offers digitization / microfilming services 80 institutions worldwide in last 5 years have contracted with ProQuest / UMI Digital and microfilm can be created Titles can be included in Dissertations Abstracts / PQDT as well as distributed OA by institution in repository

Selection Criteria Variety of criteria can be used including ILL Requests (University of Texas – Austin) Subject (University of Tulsa – Civil Rights Content) Department (Washington State - Education) Distance Learners (Union Institute and University) Year (Popular with Reference) Ascending (Yale, University of Virginia) Descending (Stephen F. Austin State University) Format (University of Oklahoma) Space / Preservation (Rice University) Funding Source (Purdue University)

BYU Case Study

Retrospective Conversion of Masters Theses at Brigham Young University: Two Models

The Projects Mormon Theses Mormon Theses Benson Institute Theses Benson Institute Theses

Mormon Theses

Selection Limited by topic Limited by topic Importance to institution Importance to institution User demand User demand

Rights Management Permission forms Permission forms

Outsourcing Vendor Selection Vendor Selection RFI RFI RFP RFP Proposal Review Proposal Review

Outsourcing Vendor Selection Vendor Selection RFI RFI RFP RFP Proposal Review Proposal Review

Outsourcing Vendor Selection Vendor Selection RFI RFI RFP RFP Proposal Review Proposal Review

Document Prep Pulling Pulling Checkout Checkout Review – PNT Review – PNT Disbinding Disbinding Packaging Packaging Shipping Shipping

Document Prep Pulling Pulling Checkout Checkout Review – PNT Review – PNT Disbinding Disbinding Packaging Packaging Shipping Shipping

Document Deprep Receiving Receiving Review Review Reprinting (Optional) Reprinting (Optional) Rebinding Rebinding Re-tag (bar-code, etc.) Re-tag (bar-code, etc.) Check in Check in Reshelving Reshelving

Billing Review and approve invoices Track Budgets

Conversion Receipt of files Receipt of files FTP FTP CD CD

Quality control Image files Image files Text files Text files Mark up Mark up

Access Decisions driven by capabilities Decisions driven by capabilities Databases Databases Hyperion Hyperion CONTENTdm CONTENTdm Convert to HTML Convert to HTML OPAC records OPAC records 856 field 856 field Separate record? Separate record? Harvested by NDLTD/OCLC Harvested by NDLTD/OCLC Return to Stacks? Return to Stacks?

Benson Institute

Selection Decisions made by Institute Focus on developing countries

Rights Management Secured at time of submission International copyright laws apply

Document Prep Pulling Pulling Transcription (abstract) Transcription (abstract) Translations (abstract) Translations (abstract) Review Review Disbinding Disbinding

Scanning In house In house

Quality Control Post-scan review Post-scan review

Document Deprep Rebinding Return to Institute No copies in library

Post Scan processing Despeckle/Deskew Create PDFs

Metadata MARC record in OPAC URL in MARC record (856 field) Metadata for CONTENTdm from MARC record Harvested by NDLTD/OCLC

Load into Digital Library CONTENTdm

Major Issues Selection Rights Management In house vs. outsource Standards Text Conversion Mark-up Scanning Metadata Access Digital Library Products or Databases Bandwidth considerations Costs

Future Directions Decision not to digitize all theses Resources Quality concerns Rights issues “Best of the Rest” Identified by college faculty

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