Creating Partnerships in Support of Students’ Scholarship: The Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Project at The University of Iowa

Janice Simmons-Welburn
Paul A. Soderdahl, University of Iowa
William Welburn

Abstract

Theses and dissertations are the required evidence of scholarship or creative activity for graduate students. Realizing that much of what graduate students accomplish cannot be captured in a traditional print thesis or dissertation, the University of Iowa has joined many universities across the United States that are seeking ways of enabling students to use new media in their scholarship. Electronic Theses and Dissertations—or ETDs—hold great promise in providing students with options on how their work might be presented, archived and preserved, and made accessible to a much larger community of readers.

The University of Iowa Libraries and Graduate College have joined forces to plan, implement, and manage an ETD option for graduate students. This new partnership found a myriad of issues that challenge conventions in presentation, access, and preservation of research and creative work that are represented in the technology of communicating ideas, in policy, and in the interpersonal relationships between students and their faculty mentors. The presentation that follows will focus on the process of enabling graduate students to engage in an electronic presentation of their scholarship through a discussion of the organizational and technical aspects of Iowa’s ETD option, and the issues and vision for the University Libraries.