Book Proposal for

The ETDs Sourcebook : Theses and Dissertations in the Electronic Age

PURPOSE OF TEXT

Researchers and scholars in higher education are currently concerned with how new electronic technologies will affect the composition, storage, and dissemination of intellectual information. Many universities and libraries throughout the world are already making digitized versions of theses and dissertations available online. Some schools are even requiring graduate students to submit work in electronic formats. As this newest form of scholarship emerges, graduate students, educators, and researchers will need a source to help de-mystify both the theoretical and technical underpinnings of electronic theses and dissertations, or ETDs .

The ETDs Sourcebook offers insights into the impact of technology on graduate scholarship; examines how electronic formats might allow for a broader conception of writing, including hypermedia, multimedia, and virtual reality formats; suggests ways that librarians and administrators might implement ETDs projects at their schools; and presents authoritative yet easy to understand explanations of what technologies are being used to publish and maintain ETDs .

AUDIENCE/MARKET

Graduate students across the disciplines are our primary audience, because they will need The Sourcebook when they are required to compose their theses and dissertations in electronic formats. In addition, this book will be of interest to nearly everyone involved in the production, evaluation, and dissemination of graduate research and scholarship.

▪ Librarians will be particularly interested in this book because they are often responsible for initiating the conversion from print to electronic formats.

▪ Faculty members mentoring theses and dissertations will find this book invaluable as more and more graduate students submit their scholarship electronically.

▪ Researchers and scholars will soon find themselves forced to rely upon technology to search for information and will turn to this book as a preliminary research tool.

▪ Administrators will want this book to be informed about how the trendsetters in academe are making the move toward electronic scholarship.

▪ Additionally, systems administrators and " techies " will appreciate a text that will help them understand how to most easily provide technological support.

TENTATIVE TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword: Graduate Education in the Electronic Age by Stephen Bennet (?)

The foreword situates electronic scholarship and ETDs within the broader spectrum of graduate education.

Preface: Overview of the ETD Initiative

The preface provides an overview of the ETDs Initiative, exploring the issues and implications involved in the move from paper to electronic formats.

PART I: Students' Perspectives on ETDs

1. "The Evolution of ETDs : A History of Innovation" by Christian Weisser

This chapter provides a brief history and case-study examples of how ETDs have developed. It chronicles early efforts by students and faculty to write and submit theses and dissertations in various electronic forms and explores some of the obstacles that these pioneers were forced to overcome. The chapter closes by examining how the concept of the ETD has evolved and transformed through the influence of new technologies and institutional efforts.

2. "_Electronic_ ETDs : Hypermedia and One-Inch Margins" by Matthew G. Kirschenbaum

This chapter will seek to define the scope and potential of ETDs which are intended to be native to some form of digital media, and which use their digital environment to support scholarship which could not be undertaken in print. Topics to be discussed include hypertext and multimedia as formats for scholarly work, and professional concerns for graduate students engaged in non-conventional scholarship.

3. "Innovations in Faculty and Student Roles" by Susan Powers and Joshua Powers

This chapter examines the new roles of faculty and students as ETDs become standard at many universities. It will examine specifically where the concerns of students and faculty overlap and complement each other, and where there is direct conflict in the development process.

PART II: Guidelines for Writing and Designing ETDs

3. "SGML, HTML, XML — The Story of Mark-up Languages" by Neill Kipp

This chapter will focus on the various types of mark-up languages which are being used in the composition of ETDs . It will also explore the problems and possibilities of institutionalizing a universal mark-up language in the production of ETDs .

4. "Choices of Electronic Formats" by Steven Salik (?)

This chapter will examine how to create documents that are flexible enough to be read by a variety of users, yet still preserve the document's original formatting. The primary focus of this chapter will be Portable Document Format ( PDF ) and the ways in which it overcomes the limitations of other formats. Also, the chapter will discuss the best ways to create PDF documents along with suggestions for post production enhancements such as images and digital video.

5. " TEI and ETD— The Text Encoding Initiative" by John Price (?)

This chapter will examine the potential impact of the Text Encoding Initiative and how it might affect access and distribution of Electronic Theses and Dissertations.

6. "Multimedia in ETDs " by Ralph Steinmetz (?)

This chapter discusses international standards for authoring multimedia dissertations.

7. "Electronic Documentation" by Janice R. Walker

This chapter explores how documentation is informed by the electronic publication of theses and dissertations. It also will examine whether active links in ETDs to URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) outside the text should be permitted, or if ETDs should contain internal links only.

PART III: Campus Perspectives on ETDs

8. "Enhancing Graduate Education" by John Eaton

This chapter looks at how electronic publication of theses and dissertations might enhance graduate education. Topics to be discussed will include greater access to scholarly information, improved knowledge of electronic publication technologies and methods, and wider distribution of an author's work.

9. "Innovative Pilot Projects: An Overview" by Christine Jewell and Martin Bunch

Based upon an international survey of universities involved in ETDs pilot projects, this chapter discusses the phases that universities go through to develop and institutionalize ETDs . It explains how an awareness of these steps might ease the transition from paper to electronic theses and dissertations at other schools.

10. "The World of Publishing" (?)

This chapter discusses the reactions of academic journals, university presses, and trade publishers as theses and dissertations become more easily accessible.

11. "Legal Issues of ETDs " by Kenneth Crews

This chapter explores the legal issues surrounding ETDs , focusing specifically on intellectual property issues and copyright.

12. "Implementing ETD Services in the Library" by Gail McMillan

Using the experience of the Virginia Tech ETD Initiative, this chapter discusses the mutual and diverse concerns revealed by librarians and information technology personnel. It also examines the new and evolving roles of library staff as they implement ETD services in their libraries and universities.

13. "Cataloguing and Accessing ETDs " by Ilene Frank, Monica Metz- Wiseman , and Walter Rowe

This chapter discusses how libraries might most effectively catalogue ETDs to ensure that they can be easily found by scholars worldwide. Further, it explores the various access points for indexing and cataloguing ETDs .

14. "The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations" by Virginia Tech ETDs Team

This chapter addresses using the emerging digital library of ETDs , digital library searching, and other concepts and technologies. This chapter will also explain how NDLTD will allow for greater access and distribution of scholarly work.

15. "Predicting the Future of ETDs " by Ed Fox, Christian Weisser , and Joe Moxley

What will ETDs be like in ten years? What are the broad implications of Electronic Theses and Dissertations in the "Electronic Age"?

SCHEDULE

After securing a publishing agreement, we will ask our colleagues to complete revisions to their chapters by February of 1998. Our goal is to complete preparation of the manuscript in its final form by May of 1998.

LENGTH

While we will allow authors 4,500 words, we will encourage shorter essays so we can submit an approximately 300 page manuscript.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Dr. Edward A. Fox, who directs the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University and B.S. from MIT. Since 1983, Dr. Edward A. Fox has been at Virginia Tech ( VPI & SU ), where he serves as Associate Director for Research at the Computing Center, Professor of Computer Science, and directs the Information Access Laboratory. He is editor for the Morgan Kaufmann Publishers book series on Multimedia Information and Systems, serves on 7 editorial boards, and has authored or co-authored numerous publications in the areas of digital libraries, information storage and retrieval, hypertext/hypermedia/multimedia, and electronic publishing.

Christian R. Weisser teaches professional writing, computer-assisted composition, and computer-assisted technical writing at the University of South Florida ( USF ). He is a member of the USF Task Force on ETDs , and has delivered presentations on ETDs at several international conferences. He has co-authored two articles on ETDs (forthcoming).

Joseph M. Moxley , Professor of English at the University of South Florida, chairs the USF Task Force on ETDs . Moxley has published ten books, including *The Politics and Processes of Scholarship,* *Publish, Don't Perish,* and *Writing and Publishing for Academic Authors.* He has published over thirty articles and served as an editor for several academic journals, including the American Bar Association's Web Site on Legal Writing [ http :// www.abanet.org / lpm /writing/].*