A National Collection:

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A National Collection A view from the British
Library Anthony Troman Product Development
Manager British Library
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Contents
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Background Issues and proposals Next steps
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Background
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E-theses are becoming increasingly important for
UKHE, the BL, and JISC
Background

• The electronic submission, administration and
  supply of theses is an important issue for UK
  universities, the BL and JISC, with institutions
  investigating how to make their work more
  visible. One way of doing this is to make theses
  more available.
• A number of other countries already have
  established models
• Experience in these countries suggests that
  e-theses increase use, research impact, and offer
  potential space savings to institutions
• Different institutions are looking at different
  solutions to the access problems
• The JISC FAIR programme has been testing
  approaches to e-theses
• Within the programme, a role for a national hub
  has been suggested providing a national OAI based
  index, and an e-thesis service on behalf of
  institutions who wish to store/disseminate via a
  service provider
• The BL has an existing role with UK theses and is
  keen to work with institutions and JISC to
  maintain and develop that role, and to play a
  full part in a national hub solution
• The BL will develop and submit a proposal to JISC
  for the National Hub service provider alongside a
  partner UK HE Institution

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The BL has offered the British Thesis Service for
some time, but hasnt invested for many years
BL approach

• Long-established BL Thesis Service based on
  microfilm holds some 160,000 copies of theses.
  However the service has been allowed to stand
  still and needs to develop in terms of new
  relationships with institutions, storage and
  delivery formats.
• The BL is modernising its services
• Secure electronic delivery for document supply
  materials
• New online resource discovery and ordering
  methods
• New (or re-packaged) services offered in a user
  friendly way
• and in relation to theses
• Updating delivery formats to match other types of
  material (e.g. secure electronic delivery)
• Involvement in the FAIR RGU e-thesis project
• Analysis of digitisation options for BL stock or
  stock held by HEIs

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Issues and proposals
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A solution to thesis provision must meet a number
of important requirements, or challenges
Theses service solution requirements

• Cost effective and efficient support structure
  for initial set up of an e-thesis service and for
  ongoing support
• Agreed models/licences for administration of
  rights, royalties and permissions.
• A critical mass of theses to justify the
  development of a service.
• Support from Registrars and University
  Administration as well as University Librarians.
• Secure Preservation of e-theses in perpetuity.
• Independence for UK institutions to find the most
  appropriate solution for them, and freedom to
  change/develop that solution.
• But an easy to use, coherent overall service for
  users of UK Theses.

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Independence for UK institutions to find the most
appropriate solution for them
The best solution for a given Institution may
depend on institution size, availability of
funds, technical support or other variables

• Some institutions may wish to develop their own
  solution and make e-theses available from their
  own server (Large or technically inclined
  institutions?)
• Some institutions may not be able to afford to
  develop an independent solution a national,
  centralised store may help (Smaller
  institutions?)
• Some institutions may want to make their e-theses
  available sooner rather than wait for their own
  server to be developed, and then re-consider
  their options
• Some institutions may want to make their theses
  available via more than one route
• However, all institutions will want to retain
  control of their own theses and the routes by
  which they are made available

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The National Hub (or Index) supports this level
of freedom
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Traditionally, there have been two primary
economic model options
Description
The researcher purchases the item Free submission
of material for writer Free access for
institutions to their own material, Library
Privilege price for non-commercial use, full
price for commercial use The Institution,
author or other body pays for storage and
supply Items free to all customers whether
commercial or non-commercial
User pays (current British Thesis Service
model) Submitter funded (Open Access)
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but the National Hub allows a third, hybrid
option
Description
Hybrid
A National Hub solution would accommodate both
traditional and Open Access models The
institution can decide which model it prefers
(though a hybrid solution may lead to
inconsistent supply times and pricing, which may
be confusing for the user)
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Regardless, all solutions imply roughly the same
categories of costs
Cost category
Description
Hosting Database creation and
management Access management Fulfilment
Cost of servers to host electronic
theses Creation of metadata (transition from
manual to automatic?) and management of search
functionality Management of access to database
and to theses themselves (and payment
transaction?) Packaging and despatch of theses
(CDROM, email, SED, paper etc.)
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Rights, Royalties and Permissions need to be
fair, but administration MUST be addressed
The current UK situation makes an efficient and
effective service impossible!

• Agreements must be reached with each individual
  institution (140)
• A potential user must declare fair use for all
  theses from some institutions, for some theses
  from some institutions, etc..
• Some authors from some institutions must give
  permission to supply/use as part of the
  submission, some institutions will give carte
  blanche permission, authors must be contacted
  for royalties, etc..
• This leads to a slow, inefficient system
  incapable of reacting at the speed expected by
  modern day users of information resources.
• Payments to authors are very small (c.3-4) and
  cost much more to administer than the value of
  the payment!

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The solution must be developed by all relevant
parties on a Working Group
The Working Group will

• Consist of representatives of all stakeholders
  including large institutions, small institutions,
  librarians, registrars, administrators, JISC,
  CURL, the National Hub host, legal
  representatives, etc..
• Think creatively about issues and ideas, propose
  solutions and engage the HE community
• Develop a standard model(s) acceptable to all
  interested parties, fair and flexible enough to
  allow a cost effective, efficient and nimble
  system to be achieved
• Work quickly!

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To offer a viable solution, and to justify the
investment required, a critical mass of
e-theses is required
Paper theses will be around for some time

• The British Thesis Service currently holds
  160,000 microfilmed theses
• c.480,000 UK theses have been written and are
  currently held in institution libraries.
• Since 1992, the British Thesis Service has
  operated on an on-demand basis for the majority
  of UK Institutions i.e. a thesis is obtained,
  microfilmed and supplied only when it is
  requested.
• Index To Theses acts as a metadata and abstract
  database for its subscribers to the national
  collection and links to the BL for delivery. The
  BL catalogues all theses to MARC21 standard.
• It is expected that a large number of theses will
  be submitted and administered on paper for a
  number of years to come. Only a small fraction of
  theses are currently submitted in electronic
  form, and only a small number of pioneering
  institutions can handle them in this form.

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The critical mass can be generated by
digitising paper theses
The British Library microform collection can get
the process off to a flying start

• The digitisation process can begin with the
  160,000 theses held on microform i.e. Institution
  Librarys need not have theses temporarily
  removed. By definition, an on-demand service
  means that these would seem to be the most
  popular theses. This solution subject to Rights
  and Permissions being granted!
• Other items and all future paper theses can be
  digitised as requested or scheduled (back file),
  or as submitted (new) all theses will be
  digitised at no cost to institutions.
• Technical format will be PDF with hidden OCRd
  full text will allow full text searching but
  supply with no worse plagiarism dangers than
  currently i.e. will NOT allow cut, copy and paste
  of text.
• BL estimates all theses digitised within 5 years
  i.e. 480,000.
• BL is discussing closer links with Index To
  Theses (ITT) to offer a seamless service
  combining the ITT database with BL catalogued
  records will give the most complete description
  available for a thesis (until full text
  digitisation)
• JISC are also investigating OAI metadata
  harvesting from institutions and the BL has OAI
  harvesting capability

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It is important to ensure that UK theses are safe
and accessible for future generations
The British Library is developing e-preservation
techniques

• Under legal deposit, the BL receives 1 copy of
  every item published in the UK.
• Legislation has been passed to extend this
  requirement to electronically published material.
• UK theses, generally speaking, are not published,
  so dont fall under this requirement
• The BL is developing a Digital Object Management
  System (DOMS) to enable it to fulfil its legal
  requirements for published material note that
  the requirement is to preserve in perpetuity!
  DOMS will be one of the most advanced stores of
  its kind in the world.
• Should the BL have a role to play in the National
  Hub, it will store and preserve e-born and
  digitised theses on its DOMS store and subject
  them to any current or future preservation
  techniques.

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So, what help will be available to assist an
Institution in setting up its e-thesis service?
An Institution Toolkit

• The JISC FAIR e-thesis projects have developed
  software and processes to support the submission
  and administration of e-born theses within
  Institutions, and to investigate the options for
  making those theses more widely available.
• However, that work needs to continue to develop
  an industrial strength, fully documented
  solution which can be rolled out to any
  Institution and which can offer options for
  implementation most appropriate to their needs.
• Subjects covered and options offered should
  include approved software, workflow, recommended
  best practice, preservation, National Hub
  access/hosting, standards, Frequently Asked
  Questions, things to avoid, university
  regulations, etc.
• The chosen software (DSpace and E-prints) is
  still under development, and that development
  needs to be influenced to accommodate the optimum
  solution for UK theses.
• Cost considerations for each of the solutions on
  offer.

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Next steps
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Some key actions are needed to take this forward
Action
Who
Identify and develop relationship with partner
institutions/ organisations Develop response
to Invitation To Tender Milestone Establish
Working Group Develop prototype system
Current e-thesis related projects, current
related JISC FAIR projects, criteria for
representative partners (size, thesis service,
etc.), JISC, CURL, engage partners. Further
develop proposal to include all JISC
requirements, write response with partner lead
institution, understand deliverables from
existing JISC FAIR projects, submit Award of
contract Form group with reps from large
inst., small inst., CURL, JISC, AHUA,
etc. Modular development of various strands of
the project
BL / JISC project managers / institution
managers BL / lead inst. / JISC FAIR project
managers JISC BL / lead inst. BL / lead
inst. / partner inst. / project team