Senior Design Thesis: Moving to an electronic collection by collaborating with the School of Engineering

University Library

Senior Design Theses: Moving to an

electronic collection by collaborating

with the School of Engineering

Susan BoydSpecial Libraries Association Annual Conference

June 10, 2013

www.scu.edu

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Who’s Collaborating…

Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies, School of Engineering

School of Engineering – Seniors, Administrative Assistants, and Faculty

University Library Management

Engineering Librarian

Scholarly Communications Working Group, University Library

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Exception to the Rules

Oversized materials (maps, drawings, etc.)

Asked the Association for Engineering Education (ASEE)

Engineering Libraries Division (ELD) listserv for feedback on

possible solutions – most recommended high resolution scanner to

digitize.

In the absence of such equipment and funding to purchase, decided

to accept print in such cases.

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Interdisciplinary Projects

Where to submit interdisciplinary projects, ie. students from

different departments working on one project

Solution: Submit senior theses to undergraduate studies office

rather than to a departmental office.

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Communications Communicating the new submission procedure to students, staff

and faculty.

Students: Fall quarter 2012 – Went over the research and submission

process in technical writing classes specifically designed to help

seniors with their projects.

Created a research guide (LibGuides) with research tips, publication

agreement form, departmental guidelines, and submission procedure.

E-mailed explanation and URL for the research guide to students,

staff, and faculty.

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Sending Senior Theses to the Library The student submission procedure stopped at the point of

giving their completed senior design thesis (in PDF format) to

their departmental administrative assistant—what’s the next

step?

A library submission procedure for departmental administrative

assistants was written by one of them using Google Drive as the

method for electronic transfer.

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Accessibility and Storage

Making the PDF format senior design theses accessible and

searchable to users.

Problem: Current ILS system does not handle PDFs in the catalog.

Solution: Outsource an institutional repository for storage and

accessibility.

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The Institutional Repository

Outsourcing was the best solution for the University

Library—given cost and staffing constraints.

Vendor: Longsight

Application: Dspace

Name of the repository: Scholar Commons

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Scholar Commons Administered by the University Library’s Scholarly

Communications Working Group (SCWG)

SCWG Members: Digital Initiatives Librarian, Science Librarian, and

Engineering/Math Librarian

Initial “seed” collection: Senior Design Theses

Adding other student, staff, and faculty publications to highlight

SCU’s intellectual content and unique materials

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Learning from the Experience

It takes TIME (see Project Timeline)

Being a “mediator” between another organization and yours can be

challenging.

The best scenario is the win-win one—both the School of Engineering

and the University Library made positive changes.

Say “Thank you” to everyone involved for a job well-done.

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Project Timeline - 2012

August 2012 – Initial meeting with Associate Dean of Undergraduate

Studies.

August 2012 – Began work on revising existing print submission

procedure, and existing Senior (Undergraduate) Student Thesis

Publication Agreement.

September 2012 – Created a research guide (LibGuide) for required

tech writing classes for engineering seniors.

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Project Timeline - 2012

October 2012 – Conducted one-shot library research classes for

engineering seniors, pointing out that the research guide would be

their one-stop place to see requirements, forms, etc. for their senior

design theses.

November 2012 – Announced to engineering students, faculty and

staff that there was agreement on the new library submission

requirements and the publication agreement. Also included the URL

for the research guide where the information was provided.

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Project Timeline - 2012

November 2012 – University Library management made the

decision to go with Longsight as the hosting platform for an

institutional repository.

December 2012 – Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies

discussed whether to have the senior design theses collection

open to the public or not. Engineering faculty consensus: Yes.

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Project Timeline - 2013 January 2013 – One of the engineering administrative assistants

volunteers to write a procedure and create a Google Drive system for

submitting the senior theses electronically from engineering to the

University Library.

May 2013 – Training held for engineering administrative assistants to

familiarize them with the electronic submission process.

Senior design theses submitted electronically to the University Library

between the senior design conference date (May 9th) and graduation

(June 15th).

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Acknowledgements Dr. Ruth Davis, Associate Dean, Undergraduate Studies, School of

Engineering, Santa Clara University

Nicole Morales, Administrative Assistant, School of Engineering

Class of 2013 – School of Engineering

Jennifer Nutefall, University Librarian

Elizabeth McKeigue, Associate University Librarian for Public Services

Thomas Farrell, Digital Initiatives Librarian

Michal Strutin, Science Librarian

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Senior Design Conference 2013

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Senior Design Project Example

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Senior Design Project Example

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ICARUS: Portable Aerial Camera System

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Research Guide

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Scholar Commons