An Analysis of Evolving Metadata Influences, Standards, and Practices in Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

LRTS 60(2) 99 This study uses a mixed methods approach to raise awareness of divergences between and among current practices and metadata standards and guidelines for electronic theses and dissertations (ETDsA s theses and dissertations have evolved in format from shelved print resources to electronic files housed in institutional repositories, recordkeeping practices have been developed to account for the description of theses' content and their administration across a lifecycle marked by institutional approval, deposit, publication, and preservation.1 These practices are based in standards and recommendations issued at institutional, regional, national, and international levels. As Pargman and Palme have argued, "What can and what cannot be expressed when it comes to electronic communication is, in the end, determined by the underlying and in many respects invisible infrastructure of standards that enables (and, at the same time, constrains and restricts) such communication." 2 This paper attempts to raise the visibility of the standards and infrastructure, philosophies and practices that enable and constrain the expression of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) as records. Development and Application of ETD Metadata StandardsThe development and application of ETD metadata standards, and the resulting quality, consistency, and interoperability of the metadata produced and exchanged, incur major implications for the discovery and long-term preservation of these unique student works. As Arms et al. asserted, "The goal of interoperability is to build coherent services for users, from components that are technically different and managed by different organizations." They noted that "This requires agreements to cooperate at three levels: technical, content Sarah Potvin (spotvin@library.tamu.edu) is a Digital Scholarship Librarian at Texas A&M University Libraries.

Developing an institutional repository using Digital Commons

“…A review of the literature on ETD metadata undertaken as part of the process of creating our ETD series made it clear as to how important interoperability is to long-term preservation of scholarship. There is a metadata standard for theses and dissertations, ETD-MS, developed by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, which consists of the 15 Dublin Core elements, plus an element for degree, discipline and institution (Potvin and Thompson, 2016). This is the basis for the Digital Commons template.…”

A Case Study of ETD Metadata Remediation at the University of Houston Libraries

“…10 Finally, Potvin and Thompson outline the challenges of managing a growing set of date metadata elements for ETDs. 11 They write that differing "philosophies about the role of metadata, viewed either as primarily descriptive or as a distinct component in the lifecycle management of electronic documents" have informed how dates are captured and expressed in metadata records. 12 Competing philosophies, in conjunction with repository software development, have caused date metadata to differ widely from prescribed ETD metadata standards (including the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations ETD-MS v1.1: An Interoperability Metadata Standard for Electronic Theses and Dissertations).…”