[Web4lib] ADT > Australasian Digital Theses Program

[gerrymck]

Colleagues/

Open Access To Dissertations / Theses From Oz+

/Gerry

The aim of the [Australasian Digital Theses] ADT program is to establish a
distributed database of digital versions of theses produced by the
postgraduate research students at Australian universities. The theses will
be available worldwide via the web. The ideal behind the program is to
provide access to, and promote Australian research to the international
community.

The initial project was funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) -
Research Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities (RIEF) Scheme grant
(1997/1998).

The ADT concept was an initiative of 7 Australian universities (listed
below) in association with the Council of Australian University Librarians
(CAUL).

The ADT model was developed by the 7 original project partners during
1998-1999. The program was then opened up to all CAUL members (all
Australian universities) in July 2000. The original 7 partners will continue
to guide and advise the national group in their role as the ADT Steering
Committee.

The original ADT membership group:

University of New South Wales (lead institution)
University of Melbourne
University of Queensland
University of Sydney
Australian National University
Curtin University of Technology
Griffith University

ADT Program Overview

The ADT program is designed to improve access to, and enhance transfer of,
the research information contained in theses by providing a full text
version available from the desktop via the web. The retrieval is enhanced by
the inclusion of metadata tags in the documents which are given a higher
weighting by the more sophisticated search engines.

It is also designed to provide a new model for deposit and archiving of
theses that takes into account the tools and technologies that students are
now using to prepare their theses.

The program has two major components, digitisation of theses as part of the
deposit process and the digitisation of a selected number of frequently
requested existing theses. As each University is responsible for maintaining
an archival copy of the theses of their own institution, each participant in
the program will mount their own theses on a server located in their
respective institution. The participants will use the same database
configuration, standards and metadata system to ensure compatibility. The
document format will be Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF)
ensuring that the data is independent of the platform on which it is
created. Adobe PDF ensures that a high quality printed version can be
provided if needed. Acrobat is relatively easy to use, with a high quality
free reader readily available. PDF has also become an electronic publishing
standard.

Access To The Search Page / News & Projects / Archive / Etc. Available At

[ http://tinyurl.com/y8m4lv7 ]

!!! Thanks To / Natalya Godbold / PhD Candidate / Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences / University of Technology, Sydney / For The HeadsUp !!!

Enjoy !

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

Follow Me On Twitter > http://twitter.com/GMcKBlogs

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