1. ETDs for Life Panel ETD 2014: 17th Int’l Symposium on ETDs Leicester, England Edward A. Fox Executive Director, NDLTD, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA USA

2. Many lives
Graduate researchers – from early in the careers of the most innovative scholars
Information life cycle
NDLTD and the global ETD movement
Computational thinking
Digital libraries

3. OVERVIEW: general
Opportunities
Challenges
Benefits
Global Movement
All TDs as ETDs
Expressive ETDs
Spreading awareness
Overcoming inertia
Providing aid
Empowered students and universities
Enhanced research collab.
Computing
Literacy -> compu-tational thinking: ePub, text, data, metadata, multi-media, linking
Infrastructure
Training
Assistance
Life skills for researchers
Improved quality and effectiveness of systems/flows
Digital Libraries
ETD collection
ETD DL services: local, global
Limited DL knowledge
Emerging DL systems and support
Open access to research worldwide

4. Spirit of NDLTD Key: graduate researchers –> global future leaders
Assuage fears -> empower, build confidence -> promote sharing
Have fun helping others, make a smaller world
Build on every advance in technologies, standards
ETDs are expressive, high quality, preservable, (re)usable
Win-win-win (everyone can benefit)
Doable, feasible, learnable, affordable
Please join/support NDLTD!

5. Information Life Cycle (adapted)
Creation
Active
Authoring
Modifying
Classifying
Tagging
Recommending
Indexing
Social Context
Using
Citing
Retention
/ Mining
Downloading
Storing
Retrieving
Discovering
Semi-
Active
Utilization
Filtering
Distributing
Networking
Inactive
Searching
Borgman et al. 1996

6. OVERVIEW: NDLTD
Opportunities
Challenges
Benefits
Global Movement
NDLTD
Membership
Priorities
ETD activities
More ETDs
More members
Computing
Apply advanced technologies
Collaborate with partners
People to experiment
Value propositions
Liaison efforts
Improved support
Improved services
Improved ePub
Increased collaboration
Digital Libraries
Union catalog
Discovery services
Usage/text analysis & reporting
Quality control
Use of standards
Local support
Interoperability
NDLTD resources
Better DL support for NDLTD members and the global research community

7. How You Can Participate
Global: NDLTD Committees, Working Groups
Please volunteer!
Local: Improve infrastructure and services
Trip report from ETD2014, local discussion
Personal: communication and mentoring efforts
Blogs, tweets, forum
Activities:
Training resources and other documentation
Outreach to other individuals and institutions
Research, development, application of systems / services