Electronic Theses and Dissertations: Developing Standards and Changing Practices for Libraries and Universities

As open access initiatives, electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) provide Internet access to graduate student research documents from hundreds of academic institutions, thus furthering international scholarly communication. The last decade has seen change and collaboration among colleagues of varied disciplines and across institutional boundaries. There is a need for practical information for academics, database managers and library catalogers in dealing with the complexities of developing ETD programs and workflow. The authors present a comprehensive treatise on ETDs, drawing on many years of collective experience within this specialization.

This book was published as a special issue of Technical Services Quarterly.

Robert E. (Bob) Wolverton, Jr. is Associate Professor/Database Maintenance/Authority Control Librarian at the Mississippi State University (MSU) Libraries. He is Liaison to the NACO program from the MSU Libraries and regularly contributes name and series authority records to the LC/NACO Authority File. In addition, he provides leadership to MSU Libraries Cataloging faculty and staff on authority control policies, procedures and training initiatives. Wolverton also serves as Library Liaison to the MSU Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education.

Lona Hoover is Associate Professor/Monographic Cataloger at Mississippi State University Libraries (MSU). She catalogs materials in various formats with a major focus on creation of full-level bibliographic records for print and electronic theses and dissertations.

Susan Hall is Associate Professor and branch head of the College of Architecture, Art and Design Library at Mississippi State University. She is a member of the Special Libraries Association, the Association of Architecture School Librarians, and the American Association of University Women.

Robert Fowler is an Assistant Professor/Monographic Cataloger at Mississippi State University (MSU) Libraries.  He carries out original cataloging on a variety of formats with a main focus on print and electronic theses and dissertations, as well as music and media.