From djbennet@facstaff.wisc.edu Thu Mar 26 15:36:27 1998 Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 11:38:06 -0600 From: John Bennet To: alap@macc.wisc.edu, djbennet@facstaff.wisc.edu, pope@macc.wisc.edu, boston@macc.wisc.edu, frazier@macc.wisc.edu, beecham@mail.bascom.wisc.edu, nordheim@facstaff.wisc.edu, msusman@facstaff.wisc.edu, sccook@facstaff.wisc.edu, dieter@pheno.physics.wisc.edu, yandell@cs.wisc.edu, simo@geology.wisc.edu, ccgibson@facstaff.wisc.edu, waheiss@facstaff.wisc.edu, mbranden@facstaff.wisc.edu, pcgorman@facstaff.wisc.edu, jmfarmer@students.wisc.edu, cnkierga@facstaff.wisc.edu Cc: pjsmith@mail.bascom.wisc.edu Subject: March meeting notes (long) Electronic Dissertation Submission Committee Room 362 Memorial Library March 20, 1998 9:00-10:30 a.m. NOTES PRESENT: John Bennet, Jeanne Boston, Maggie Brandenburg, Mike Farmer, Chere Gibson, Peter Gorman, Cleo Kiergaard, Rick Nordheim, Lou Pitschmann, Nolan Pope, Toni Simo, Pat Smith, Brian Yandell, Dieter Zeppenfeld ABSENT: Susan Cook, Joe Cutter(on leave), Ken Frazier, Bill Heiss, Millard Susman NEWS AND UPDATES *Bennet will not be here for the meeting in April. Yandell will be in charge of the meeting in Bennet's place. *An email from Heiss stated that he had asked his students for their opinions on submitting dissertations electronically. The majority were in favor, but they strongly suggested having a contact person (for help), and well written instructions. Bennet will make a few additions to the questionaire and distribute it to all of us to administer to our own department's Grad students. *Bennet will have a draft of the article for _Wisconsin Week_ soon. We want to make sure that it is clearly stated that electronic submission does not start this semester. *Gorman now has enough dissertations to test in the pilot. Zeppenfeld and Simo will give names of other students to Gorman, to contact as he sees fit. The production environment is set up. The suggestion was made to "pilot" the instructions with some students. DISSERTATION GUIDE Yandell led the discussion. We looked at a draft of the Guide. Faculty will be teaching students not only how to design a dissertation, but how to design it for electronic suitability. Most professional publications are now done electronically. *Some of the questions brought up were: What tools are available now? What tools will be available in five years? What tools will the library be able to support in the long term? Will it be costly? Where will the money come from? What forms currently used can be combined and/or eliminated? What forms will need to continue? The cost to submit the abstract to UMI is $50. If we submit the abstract only to UMI, and submit the dissertation only, to the Memorial Library, we could be more flexible in format. *Discussion was held involving help for students. Questions were raised such as: Where should the help be located? Grad school, DOIT, etc. All were in agreement that the help needs to be *user friendly* (especially in the first couple years). A suggestion was made that a web site be available for "frequently asked questions." Storing an electronic dissertation was discussed. Some concerns were: How much of the dissertation will be stored in the Memorial Library? Will data bases, interactive videos, etc. be stored on the Library server or in the departments - with stable links to them? How much of the auxiliary materials will actually be part of the dissertation? It has to be downloadable in a reasonable amount of time for other users. It was agreed that, some things would be attachments, other than embedded in the dissertation. Links and equipment for the attachments would have to be included by the student. Faculty would continue to determine the content of dissertations, including how much electronic material to include. REDESIGNING THE 3 D's Due to lack of time, it was decided to wait until April*s meeting to discuss the 3 D*s. Bennet will coordinate the effort. All are encouraged to send Bennet their comments, changes, and suggestions as soon as possible. Gorman will look into the *process* of the 3 D*s, with regard to VT*s software. It was suggested that the new document should not be any longer than the existing 3 D*s. Faculty were reminded and encouraged to participate on both committees. Mike Farmer will also join the 3 D*s committee. OTHER BUSINESS: TECHNICAL ISSUES If the dissertation needs specialized software: What kinds of guidelines do we need? Data bases should be protected. Students need to be made aware that if the dissertation is too long, fewer people may want to read it. Reminder of future meetings: April 17, May 15 John Bennet, Chair Dept of Classics 908 Van Hise Hall University of Wisconsin-Madison Ph: 608/262-3320 1220 Linden Dr. Fax: 608/262-8570 Madison, WI 53706 EMail: djbennet@facstaff.wisc.edu U.S.A. WWW: http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/classics/jbennet.htm