Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Date of Original Version
9-27-2016
Abstract
Slides from a presentation,"Unlocking Past & Present Research: Open Access ETDs at the University of Rhode Island," presented at the US Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Association (USETDA) 2016 Conference in Columbus, Ohio.
The University of Rhode Island Libraries recently implemented an Open Access ETD program for both current and past (retrospectively digitized) theses and dissertations. For new ETDs, which students had submitted to ProQuest since 2012, we began depositing a gratis Open Access copy to our institutional repository, DigitalCommons@URI. Around the same time, the Libraries began digitizing and making available past theses and dissertations from our print collections. These two parallel projects presented both unique and overlapping considerations in the areas of rights issues, collaboration and communication, and workflow challenges. My presentation will examine the successes, challenges, and lessons learned from our two-pronged Open Access ETD implementation.