Description: This panel presentation discusses how digital libraries can create a culture of open access on campus. Five panelists discuss their perspectives, strategies, challenges, and progress.

Description: This paper discusses improving access to web archives through innovative analysis of PDF content. Abstract: In 2008 five United States institutions collaborated to archive the U.S. federal government Web presence: the Library of Congress, the Internet Archive, the California Digital Library, the Government Printing Office, and the University of North Texas (UNT). Their objective was to document the changes coincident with the shift in leadership of the U.S. executive branch. The five partners identified key resources from the U.S. .gov Top Level Domain and completed crawls from September 2008 until March 2009. The resulting End of Term (EOT) 2008 Web Archive, a 16 TB dataset, was distributed to partners interested in providing local services and access to the archive. The UNT Libraries investigated Portable Document Format (PDF) files, a class of content many information professionals associate with the traditional notion of “discrete documents”. Over four million unique PDF documents were extracted from the Archive and a series of metadata and information extraction processes were conducted for each document. Additionally, derivative raster images of the first page of each document were created. These metrics were ingested into a database for further analysis, which brought to light previously hidden characteristics of the ...

Description: This document accompanies a poster discussing factors that affect digital resources discoverability. Abstract: In the last decade, a growing body of the scholarly information and instructional materials produced by universities existed primarily in digital format. New digital technologies increased the productivity of scholars. The purpose of an Institutional Repository (IR) is to manage their scholarly work in ways that facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration, and accelerate the pace of discovery and innovation. Academic institutions have increasingly recognized that IRs are a vital part of the scholarly dissemination infrastructure. The goal of an IR is essentially to collect, preserve, and make persistently accessible a variety of scholarly materials. This paper explores digital curation activities that enhance the visibility of IR in an ever-changing digital landscape.

Description: This poster discusses the Lifecycle Management of ETDs Project. Abstract: With most theses and dissertations now being created as digital products, lifecycle management of these valuable intellectual documents is an important new responsibility of academic libraries. But it is a responsibility that unfortunately not all libraries have the infrastructure or resources to support. The big question is: 'How will institutions address the entire lifecycle of ETDs, ensuring that the papers acquired from students today will be available to future researchers?' This two-year project, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), is a collaborative attempt to respond to this question. The authors will promote best curatorial practices to increase the capacity of academic libraries to reliably preserve ETDs by using a three-pronged approach: writing guidance documents, developing software tools, and creating educational materials. All of these resources will be available under an open access license at the conclusion of the project.

Description: This presentation discusses the management and curation of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs). It highlights and discusses the early findings of an IMLS-funded project on Lifecycle Management of ETDs.