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ETD Guide/Universities/Human resources and expertise needed for an ETD program

< ETD Guide | Universities

While each university’s situation with regard to personnel will vary, it has been shown that ETD programs do not require a large contingency of expert professionals to initiate the program or to maintain it. With a portion of the time of one librarian and one programmer, the Virginia Tech library established the ETD Web site and documented the sequence of events that lead to the computer programs for each stage of acceptance, storage, and access, and implemented the procedures for the university.

One step that should not be overlooked is to involve every person that had a role in traditional theses and dissertation handling. This includes, but is not necessarily limited to.

  • Graduate School personnel who, for example, receive the TDs as well as the various forms and payments, and who may be responsible for approving the final document
  • Library personnel such as the University Archivist, reference librarian, cataloging librarian, binding clerk, and business services personnel who, for example, are responsible for the long term preservation and access as well as those responsible for processing the microfilming invoices

LIBRARY STAFFING: programmer, student assistant, faculty liaison

A programmer may spend one-half to one hour per day during non-peak periods on maintenance and development. During peak periods this person may spend eight hours per day on problems, development, and system improvements.

One or two student assistants are helpful. One student who knows programming may spend a maximum of two hours per week during non-peak times, and up to ten hours per during the periodic submission/approval peaks. Another student assistant would work face-to-face with graduate student authors to train them and to provide assistance with word processing and PDF software. This assistant might also maintain the training materials, handouts, and Web pages, including instructions for preparing and submitting ETDs.

A faculty member from the library would supervise staff; draft policies; prepare budgets; collaborate with system maintenance and developers; and monitor workflow. This person would also be a liaison to faculty, staff, students, departments, and colleges to help them to become familiar with the processing, accessing, and archiving of ETDs. The faculty liaison from the library would also conduct workshops, write articles, participate in graduate student seminars, prepare handouts and Web pages, as well as collaborate with other universities and libraries.

Next section: Sources for funding

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