Date: Mon, 15 Feb 1999 10:59:23 -0600 ETD Proposal to Graduate School Executive Committee Summary of Recommendations 1. Stick with paper copy of dissertation for the short term (2 years). 2. Change deposit locus from Memorial Library to Graduate School 3. Move microfilm archival processing from UW to UMI at some cost savings. 4. Enter into agreement for electronic access to UW dissertations via UMI. 5. Plan for review commencing in 1 year, with revised recommendations on electronic deposit in 2 years. The Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) Committee believes that nationally, nearly every dissertation will be deposited and archived electronically within the next few years. Many students are asking for this now. We strongly encourage the Faculty of UW-Madison to prepare themselves and their students for this migration. However, we do not feel it is advisable to make this inevitable shift at this time. Instead we propose (a) some immediate changes that should make this transition easier, and (b) a review of changing technology in one year with the goal of allowing electronic deposit in two years. Proposed Immediate Action to be in place for Fall 1999: 1. Deposit of Dissertation a. Maintain requirement of paper copy. b. Deposit copy to Graduate School (rather than Memorial Library). c. Raise deposit fee to $90. 2. Transfer of Dissertation to UMI a. Graduate School to ship original copy to UMI for microfilming. b. Maintain standing order for paper copy from UMI to be placed in Memorial Library. 3. Electronic Access to UMI Dissertations a. Review language of the UW-UMI agreement viz. digital access. b. Enter into digital agreement for two-year period. [Cost analysis indicates that replacing local UW microfilming by paper shipping (a) to UMI might lower costs slightly, but other costs have risen and are not yet reflected in the filing fee. The Access Agreement provided by UMI is vague; we have suggested changes with advice from UW legal counsel.] Proposed Future Action over Next Two Years: o Migrate toward allowing supplemental electronic transmission via FTP or CD-ROM. o Reconstitute the ETD Committee in 2000-2001 to review technology options. o Modify recommendations, possibly including optional (or mandatory) electronic deposit process for 2001-2002. o Review Access Agreement with UMI in two years. Rationale UW-Madison dissertations come in a variety of forms, with departments having a wide range of needs. Some departments are ready now to establish electronic deposit, while others are more comfortable with paper. The current technology for electronic deposit supports Adobe PDF (Portable Data Format), which is essentially a digital photocopy of the page format. We will have access to that via UMI with the Access Agreement stipulated in item 3 above. Some publication sites have been exploring web Markup Language formats (HTML, SGML, XML) and inclusion of ancillary material (color images, stream video, sound/music). However, the technology has changed markedly during the course of this committee's deliberations, and is still changing. In addition, the dissertation warehouses (UMI, Networed Digital LIbrary of Theses and Dissertations, Dissertation.com) have not settled on details of the process to our satisfaction. We explored maintaining our own electronic warehouse, and decided the risks of hidden costs in terms of personnel and changing technology were too high at this time. In addition, we felt that the increased demands on the Graduate School inherent in an electronic deposit process would be better postponed until after ISIS and the Y2K issues have been adequately resolved. Therefore, we recommend a pause at this time. We recognize that some departments may wish to move ahead with electronic archiving of material not formally deposited with the dissertation. We view this as consistent with current practice, as is done for instance in Geology and in Music with "rocks" and "tunes". Departments may maintain any additional material, in electronic or other format, as they see fit, consistent with requirements of the Graduate School and of departmental degree requirements.