Integrating Electronic Dissertations in a Regular
Library Workflow
Dr. Alice Keller ETD2003, Berlin, 21 May 2003
History of ETD at ETH Library1
• Definition of e-strategy for library
• First ETDs online in 2000 (scanned print documents)
• Launch of document server ETH E-Collection in 2001
1 ETH Library: Library of the Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology
E-Library Strategy of ETH Library
E-Library Strategy of ETH Library
Project ETH E-Collection
• Document server of ETH Zurich• Umbrella project for electronic
dissertations and other e-prints• Fully integrated workflow• Supports e-learning• Part of the initiative ETH World
ETH E-Collection
Contents of ETH E-Collection (03-03)
Document type Nr. of docs
ETH dissertations (with full text) 1’300
ETH dissertations (only abstract) 892
Dissertations from other universities 4
Diploma theses 89
Reports 1’137
Conference papers / presentations 168
Other document types 132
Journals 34
Total 3’756
Document Workflow (ETD Full Text)
Document Workflow (ETD abstract only)
Situation at ETH Library: Dissertations available in electronic format.
Problems Getting ETDs
• Challenge how to raise the limit beyond 60%:– Improve information to all doctoral
students– Lack of motivation on side of students– Problems tracking authors down later in
life– “Paper” dissertations– Liaison with commercial publishers
Situation at ETH Library: Percentage of original pdf files from authors.
Getting Original PDFs
• Increasing number of full texts in original pdf
• Authors like to provide their own file• Are all print and electronic
documents identical?• Print documents remains official
version
Metadata Workflow ETH E-Collection
• All cataloguing done in OPAC (NEBIS / Aleph)
• Metadata extracted daily for:– Browsing lists (subject, doc type,
author)– Individual title pages
ETH E-Collection: Workflow Metadata + Full Texts
Author
Team E-Coll
Records of email corres-
pondence
PDF full text isarchived
Original data format
245: Title.700: Authors072: Subject area.856: URL.909EE: Doc‘type909EE: Inst/Dept
NEBIS
Title record in NEBIS with URL
List Doc‘type (909EE)
List Authors A-Z (700)
List Subject area (072)
List Dept (909EE)
Web title record with citeable URL
Full text InstituteNEBIS
Homepage Institute
Website E-Collection
Document server
Data
transfe
r from
NEB
IS,
(Perl scrip
ts)
Data may need conversion to PDF
Catalo-guing
URL is given
16.03.02/AK
Metadata Workflow ETH E-Collection
ETH E-Collection
Record in OPAC (NEBIS)
How to Integrate “Foreign” ETDs in Library Collection?
• Aim: as many references as possible in OPAC
• Method: Copy-cataloguing from other catalogues
• Conditions:
– Suitable subject area
– Stable URLs
– Guaranteed long-term access
Integration of German ETDs in OPAC
Records of German ETDs in OPAC of ETH Library
END