Electronic Theses Online Service

A CURL-BL project to support e-theses for UK higher education (EThOS)

 

[Project Plan version 1.0]

Overview of project

1. Background

The UK is currently well behind many other countries in providing full text electronic access to theses produced in its HE institutions. The EThOS Project intends within the 18 months of the project to address the issues relating to this and provide a working prototype for a national scheme.

The Project will build on the work achieved by the three FAIR Programme e-theses projects – Daedalus, Electronic Theses and Theses Alive! – as well as other FAIR projects focusing on the setting-up of institutional repositories, often including e-theses, for example SHERPA, and other related technologies such as harvesting of metadata (e.g. HAIRST). We are aware that there may be synergies with other relevant JISC activity including the Supporting Digital Preservation and Asset Management in Institutions Programme and will take cognizance of this.  We note that Index to Theses is interested in working with the project and will explore relevant opportunities.We will also investigate co-operation with Middlesex University (Professor M. Woodman) over architecture issues and their open source PAM software. We will also investigate co-operation with Dr Paul Watry and the Cheshire/Repository, in particular the document parser to display and index .pdf files.

These projects, through their complementary activities and on-going collaboration, both informally and formally via, in particular, the FAIR Programme cluster system, have succeeded in providing HEIs with workable technological and organisational solutions for the electronic production, submission, management, storage and viewing of theses within institutional repositories. However, some HEIs, for example smaller ones, may not be able to make their theses available via institutional repositories, nor is the lack of a single point of access helpful for users. Ultimately, the dissemination of UK theses will be fully maximised only when end-users are able to search and access them within an integrated and open access environment, through a single web interface. It is the purpose of the EThOS project to deliver the prototype for such a UK theses online service for all users of UK theses. EThOS will also explore and recommend viable and sustainable business models - based on a cost-recovery basis – that will meet the aspiration for the service to be free at the point of use while also sustaining a digitisation programme resulting in all UK theses being made available for electronic delivery. 

The project is directly relevant to at least four of the seven current areas of activities prioritised by JISC, as indicated in section I.1 of  the JISC Project Management Guidelines. EThOS aims to:

 

·         provid[e] access to online information resources’: theses in non-digital format are notoriously difficult to access and therefore under-used, while recent e-theses developments abroad have shown that their use spectacularly increases with electronic access. The number of requests for PDF files (mostly full-text) of Virginia Tech e-theses and dissertations increased by 33 times in five years from 221,679 in the year 1997/98 to 7,320,818 in the year 2002/03 (see http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/data/somefacts.html), while the British Library Thesis Service currently supplies only 15,000 UK theses a year.

·         achieve its aims through ‘collaboration and partnerships’: this is a project which can only be collaborative, as the outcome must be a distributed yet integrated prototype service whereby theses submitted in UK HEIs can be searched and viewed from a single point of access to be provided by a central institution-friendly host.

·         ‘promot[e] effective use of ICT’: theses constitute an excellent example of a distributed national resource that will become easy to access when digitally provided through a single interface.

·         enhance ‘support for research’ by providing the research, teaching and learning communities with a single point of access, from the desktop, to a national research resource that has so far remained mostly untapped.

 

2. Aims and Objectives

Broad aims

The purpose of EThOS is to deliver, over a period of 18 months, a fully operational, easily scaleable and financially viable prototype UK e-theses online service, and supporting infrastructure, that will enable:

 

·         students, researchers and other end-users, via one single web interface:

o        to search a UK Database of Theses (UKDoT) – the term ‘thesis’ referring to PhDs and other theses or dissertations submitted in UK HEIs for postgraduate degrees by research;

o        to access, from the desktop, the full text, in secure format, of electronically stored theses, following selection from the UKDoT;

·         HE institutions, in partnership with the British Library:

o        to promote and dramatically increase usage of their research output, of which theses are an important part, by having their theses indexed in a national online database and digitally available, in full-text and secure format, via their institutional repositories and/or a UK-wide service provided in partnership with the British Library;

o        to ensure the preservation in perpetuity of UK e-stored theses as well as a much higher level of national and international visibility for the UK research output.

Specific objectives

In order to achieve its overall aim, EThOS will seek to meet five main objectives:

 

The development and implementation of a hybrid IT infrastructure combining:

 

  1. A central host, to be based at the British Library, for HEIs wishing to have their theses stored centrally, whether for dissemination or preservation purposes, or both.
  2. Interfaces for the British Library to harvest the necessary data and metadata for the online supply of theses that are stored in institutional or consortial repositories only. (Note that in this context a consortium is a group of institutions sharing one e-theses or e-prints repository.)
  3. A single search interface of all e-theses repositories enabling users to search all theses indexed in the UKDoT and to access all electronically stored theses from one point of access whether they are stored on the central host or in institutional repositories.

 

The inclusion of HEIs with a wide range of administrative settings and subject interests. The selected partnership meets the following criteria, which are essential for the successful implementation of the project:

 

a.       It is of a manageable size, while also being representative of the whole HE community (e.g. CURL and non-CURL institutions; large and small institutions; university and national libraries; a good geographical spread).

b.       It includes several libraries with expertise in the field of e-theses, institutional repositories and digitisation, as well as a smaller number of institutions with little or no such expertise in order to minimise the risks of unreasonable assumptions being left unchallenged.

c.       It includes all the lead and some of the partner institutions of the three e-theses FAIR projects to ensure that the expertise, skills and knowledge these projects have acquired in this field directly feed into the setting-up of the national e-theses online service.

d.       It includes institutions using different platforms (e.g. DSpace, Eprints or neither) so that all the necessary technical options can be adequately tested.

e.       It includes libraries that have already started to engage their university senior administrators with the e-theses issue.

f.        It is capable of providing a critical mass of theses.

 

The development and integration of procedures to address all aspects of IPR, royalties and permissions related to theses, including digital rights management.

 

The development and implementation of a dissemination and advocacy programme targeted at all key players in the production, submission, storage and dissemination of theses, in particular:

 

a.       Academics and senior university administrators whose involvement is crucial to secure a revision of submission procedures.

b.       Information professionals in HEIs wishing to set up their own e-theses management system within the framework of the UK e-theses online service (see toolkit for institutions).

 

The development of a viable and sustainable business model (including, if deemed appropriate, recommendations on fund-raising initiatives) taking into account that the service:

 

  1. Will be run on a cost-recovery basis.
  2. Will need to be underpinned by a programme of retrospective digitisation to ensure critical mass.
  3. Will be optimised by a free-at-the-point-of-use policy.

 

3. Overall approach

EThOS is a multi-faceted project requiring a variety of methodologies.  These are defined within the framework of each workpackage. Given the complexity of the project, each workpackage will be led by one or (jointly) by two of the partner institutions, and the workpackage leaders will form a workpackage Project Management Group that will work in close collaboration with the Project Manager. Additionally, there will be significant horizontal, cross-workpackage activity to ensure compatibility and consistency across a number of issues, including technical platforms and business requirements. For example, technical teams working on Workpackages 2, 3 and 6 (central host, interfaces and toolkit) will work closely together to ensure full compatibility of technical solutions. It is a key part of the role of the Project Manager to put both formal and informal mechanisms in place to ensure the integration of all the different strands of the project and the implementation of coherent solutions to project-wide issues. 

Issues to be addressed

These are some of the main issues that will need to be addressed:

 

·         IT infrastructure: interoperability with a number of different platforms (D-Space, Eprints etc.); search interface design; nature of metadata required as well as its creation and storage within the pre-existing pieces of software used by the various repositories;

 

·         Rights and permission procedures: third party copyright; exploitation rights; royalty payments; student’s right to embargo use of thesis; retrospective permission and right to digitise existing physical theses; updating of submission practices;

 

·         Dissemination and advocacy: promoting understanding of the issues and proposed solutions, and securing the support of university senior administrators and academics, both for the revision of submission procedures and the implementation of the business model;

 

·         Business models: finding ways of offering the service free at the point of use while running it on a cost-recovery basis and supporting a programme of retrospective digitisation to ensure critical mass;

Scope

Definition of the term ‘thesis’

As indicated in Section 2.1 of this document, the term ‘thesis’ is understood to refer to PhDs and other theses (e.g. MPhil) or dissertations (e.g. MA, MSc) submitted in UK HEIs for postgraduate degrees by research. While the service will be able to manage and supply all these different types of theses, the primary focus, in the first instance, will be on PhDs.

Digitised and born-digital

While EThoS will focus on the development of a prototype supply service for e-theses, it will also include a targeted programme of retrospective digitisation in order (a) to secure a reasonable amount and diversity of content  for testing the system; (b) to explore and resolve rights management and organisational issues connected with the supply of retrospectively digitised theses. A more substantial programme of retrospective digitisation to ensure critical mass and therefore sustainability of the service will be costed in the course of the project as part of the work on business models. 

 

A sample of ca. 2,000 theses, including some originating from the partner institutions, will be retrospectively digitised with a view to testing the system. Some theses will be digitised from print (ca. 400) using the JISC-funded Digitising Line book scanner based at the University of Southampton. Others will be digitised by the British Library from its microfilmed collection of 150,000 theses.

 

Born digital theses will be supplied by partners and will be chosen to present  various technical challenges (different file formats, complex multi-file formats etc.).

The UK Database of Theses (UKDoT)

A major element of the service is a database of UK theses, which users will be able to search in order to select and locate all indexed theses as well as view those which already exist in electronic format, whether born-digital or digitised. It is hoped that the UKDoT will be a combination of the British Library’s current database of UK Doctoral Theses and of the Expert Information-owned Index to Theses, which contains records for 480,000 UK theses with abstracts for the majority of these records. The British Library is currently holding negotiations with Expert Information for access to their records in the long term and has already secured the use of up to 5,000 of their records to test the EThOS prototype development. 

Preservation

As part of its remit for e-publications, the British Library is currently developing, within the framework of its Digital Object Management (DOM) project, the necessary systems to preserve British e-publications in perpetuity. It is also committed to storing all UK theses that HEIs might wish to deposit centrally in the BL DOM System for secure storage. It will be up to each HEI to decide whether it will store theses (a) both locally and centrally (locally for access to the items via the institutional web interface and centrally for preservation purposes); (b) locally only (the assumption being then that the institution will be responsible for dealing with the preservation issue); (c) centrally only (if the institution does not wish to set up its own e-theses or e-print repository). The project partners will also draw on emerging lessons and services from the new JISC digital preservation and asset management in institutions programme (e.g. eSPIDA) and the Digital Curation Centre.

 

4. Project Outputs

Tangible deliverables

 

 

5. Project Outcomes

EThOS will provide the framework for a sustainable long-term service that will dramatically enhance access to, and use of the whole corpus of UK theses, which constitutes an essential part of the UK research output. The impact it will have on the research, learning and teaching communities can be summarised as follows:

 

 

6. Stakeholder Analysis

 

Stakeholder

Interest / stake

Importance

HE teaching and research staff

·         Greater visibility of their students’ graduate research output

·         Single online access point to locate all UK theses and access full text e-theses

·         Enhanced use of graduate research output in teaching

·         Revision of regulations for the submission of theses

High

HE postgraduates

·         Greater visibility of their graduate research output

·         Single online access point to locate all UK theses and access full text e-theses

High

HE undergraduates and life-long learners

·         Single online access point to locate all UK theses and access full text e-theses

·         Enhanced use of graduate research output in learning programmes

Medium

Non-HE based researchers

·         Single online access point to locate all UK theses and access full text e-theses

High

HE senior administrators

·         Revision of theses submission procedures

·         Support network (best practices etc.)

·         Promotion of institutional research output

·         Enhanced visibility for their institution

High

HE / BL information professionals

·         Support network (best practices etc.)

·         Improved resource discovery

·         Improved document supply

·         Space saving

High

HE / BL IT staff

·         Interoperability

High

 

7. Risk Analysis

 

Risk

Probability

(1-5)

Severity

(1-5)

Score

(P x S)

Action to Prevent/Manage Risk

Staffing

1

3

3

Team work structure across a number of institutions; project and technical documentation; most staff already in place; lead site with project management expertise

Organisational

1

3

3

Partnership agreement at start of project; project and workpackage management structure embedded in partner institutions

Financial

1

5

5

Commitment from institutions’ senior managers (see letters of support and partnership agreement at start of project)

Technical

2

4

8

Technical work spread amongst range of partners, so no single point of failure; Redundancy (e.g. RAID)?; institutional support

External suppliers

3

1

3

Evaluation; contracts

Software longevity

1

3

3

Established and supported technology, on-going development commitment

Legal

2

4

8

Use of professional legal expertise as recommended by JISC Legal

Lack of content

1

5

5

Use of available digitised theses (already ca.100 within the partnership); digitisation of 400 from paper and 1,500  from microfilms

Lack of community applicability

1

5

5

Representative mix of project partners

 

8. Standards

EThOS will, where appropriate, ensure that the following internationally recognised standards are utilised as and when necessary, and in line with JISC standards:

 

 

The project will also ensure that it takes account of developments with the Open Archival Information System (OAIS)model through liaison with the SHERPA Digital Preservation Project [funded as part of JISC 4/04]. It will also take into consideration developments at Middlesex University and with the Cheshire/Repository software.

 

Appropriate web accessibility standards will be applied in the development of the project web site.

The project will ensure that the scanned theses conform with the Digital Library Federation’s ‘Benchmark for faithful digital reproductions of monographs and serials’[i]:  Digitisation of printed theses as greyscale master images at 300-400dpi resolution in uncompressed TIFF format as a master format and PDF with hidden text as a delivery format

 

The Digitising Line scanner is a world-class bookscanning facility, the first of its kind in a European research library and builds on the development work undertaken by Stanford University Library in collaboration with 4digitalbooks and i2s.

 

9. Technical Developments

EThOS will build upon the work of the three FAIR ETD projects and their technical developments. These developments will focus in particular on WP2, the Central Hub;WP3, the theses harvesting service and; WP6, the toolkit.

 

Enhancements to the most popular current repository software used in SHERPA and the UK HE sector as a whole (EPrints and DSpace) will be developed in conjunction with the respective development communities, which partner institutions in the EThOS project already have close relationships with (e.g. Southampton / EPrints and Edinburgh / DSpace). These developments will be interoperable with current specifications and standards, and sustainable beyond the project timescale.

 

EThOS will also greatly benefit from major British Library investment in discovery, order, finance, e-storage, ingest, preservation, security and DRM functionality and will make full use of best practice developed as part of other JISC-funded projects such as SHERPA.

 

The Open Archival Information System (OAIS) – Reference-model-not-standard will also be taken into consideration as will developments at Middlesex University and with the Cheshire/Repository.

The Central Hub prototype service will greatly benefit from major British Library investment in discovery, order, finance, e-storage, ingest, preservation, security and DRM functionality and will make full use of best practice developed as part of other JISC-funded projects such as SHERPA. Enhancements to the most popular current repository software used in SHERPA and the UK HE sector as a whole (EPrints and DSpace) will be developed in close conjunction with the respective development communities, which partner institutions in the EThoS project already have close relationships with (e.g. Southampton / EPrints and Edinburgh / DSpace). Thus any development will be of the highest calibre, interoperable with current specifications and standards, and sustainable beyond the project timescale.

 

10. Intellectual Property Rights

The central host will be using technologies for which licences have been paid by the British Library. All the software and technologies developed by the project will be open-source. All the standards that will be used and developed by the project will be in the public domain. All the theses made available by the prototype service will comply with IPR legislation, as recommended by Workpackage 5. 

Project Resources

11. Project Partners

The project partners and first point of contact are:

 

·         The University of Glasgow (lead institution) [Colin Galloway: c.galloway@lib.gla.ac.uk ]

·         The British Library [Anthony Troman: anthony.troman@bl.uk ]

·         Cranfield University [Simon Bevan: simon.bevan@cranfield.ac.uk ]

·         The National Library of Wales [Arwel Jones: arwel.jones@llgc.org.uk ]

·         The Robert Gordon University [Susan Copeland: s.copeland@rgu.ac.uk ]

·         SHERPA (consortium led by the University of Nottingham) [Bill Hubbard: bill.hubbard@nottingham.ac.uk ]

·         The University of Birmingham [Jill Russell: j.c.russell@bham.ac.uk ]

·         The University of Edinburgh [Theo Andrew: theo.andrew@ed.ac.uk ]

·         The University of  Southampton [Simon Brackenbury: scb1@soton.ac.uk ]

·         The University of  Warwick [ hywel.williams@warwick.ac.uk ]

 

Project Director: Chris Bailey [ c.bailey@lib.gla.ac.uk ]

Deputy Project Director: Colin Galloway [ c.galloway@lib.gla.ac.uk]

Project Manager:  to be appointed

 

The roles of the project partners are clarified in appendix B ‘Detailed Project Planning/Workpackages’.

 

The participation of the British Library and its commitment to running the service in partnership with the HE community after successful completion of the project and subject to a feasible cost-recovery business plan will ensure that the service is less vulnerable to the pressures of the commercial market than a service run by a private sector company. The significant involvement of the national libraries will help to avoid major financial burden being placed on users of the service, or force the sale of the service to an unknown organisation.

 

Consortium agreement: this will be signed by partners and sent to the Programme Manager at JISC before the end of March 2005.

 

12. Project Management

The project is managed by a full-time Project Manager based at the lead institution, whose responsibilities are listed in the Workpackage template (see Workpackage 1 in Appendix B), in partnership with a Project Management Group comprising all the Workpackage leaders. The Project Management Group will meet on a quarterly basis face-to-face or, when necessary, via telephone and/or video-conferencing.

 

The Project Manager is supervised by the Project Director, also based at Glasgow University Library, who will chair the Project Board. The membership of the Project Board is as follows:  Project Director (Chair), Project Manager, 1 representative of CURL institutions, 2 representatives of the British Library, 1 representative of non-CURL institutions, 1 representative of SHERPA, 1 academic, 1 representative from the Association of Heads of University Administrators (AHUA), and 1 representative from the Academic registrars’ Council (ARC).

 

The role of the Project Board is to oversee the project, endorse any proposed major changes to the original work plan (subject to approval by JISC), represent the interests of the project partners, advise the project team and contribute to maintaining a high level of visibility for the project among the HE community. The Board will meet at least three times over a period of 18 months.

Project Team

 

The Project team comprises the following

 

University of Glasgow

Chris Bailey : Project Director : mailto:c.bailey@lib.gla.ac.uk  :  0141 330 5637

Colin Galloway : Deputy Project Director : mailto:c.galloway@lib.gla.ac.uk  : 0141 330 6775

[to be appointed]: Project Manager*:    (JISC: F/T 18months)      

Annette Smith: clerical assistant (part time)*: mailto:a.smith@lib.gla.ac.uk  : 0141 330 8077 (JISC: P/T 18months)

William Nixon : professional staff : mailto:w.nixon@lib.gla.ac.uk  : 0141 330 6721

Morag Greig: professional staff: mailto:m.greig@lib.gla.ac.uk  : 0141 330 6797

 

University of Birmingham

Ruth Jenkins: r.jenkins@bham.ac.uk : 0121 414 5844

Jill Russell: j.c.russell@bham.ac.uk : 0121 414 5803

 

British Library

Jan Wilkinson : Jan.wilkinson@bl.uk : 020 7412 7879

Anthony Troman : Anthony.troman@bl.uk : 01937 546892

Technical Developer* : to be appointed (JISC: P/T 12 months)

(The British Library will also involve current staff with appropriate skills to develop the infrastructure as and where appropriate.)

 

Cranfield University

Hazel Woodward: h.woodward@cranfield.ac.uk : 01234 754446

Simon Bevan: s.bevan@cranfield.ac.uk : 01234 754445

Paul Needham*:            paul.needham11@btinterent.com :          01793 511358 (JISC: 8 months)

 

University of Edinburgh

Theo Andrew*: theo.andrew@ed.ac.uk,  0131 6503395, (JISC: 8 months)

Richard Jones*: r.d.jones@ed.ac.uk,  0131 6503811, (JISC: 14 months)

John MacColl: john.maccoll@ed.ac.uk,  0131 6513814

 

SHERPA (University of Nottingham)

Stephen Pinfield (SHERPA Project Director): stephen.pinfield@nottingham.ac.uk :  0115  95 15109

Bill Hubbard (SHERPA Project Manager):  bill.hubbard@nottingham.ac.uk : 0115  84 67657

 

National Library of Wales

Arwel Jones : arwel.jones@llgc.org.uk

 

Robert Gordon University

Susan Copeland mail to: s.copeland@rgu.ac.uk  01224 263453

Richard Milne r.milne@rgu.ac.uk 01224 263656

Andrew Penman* a.penman@rgu.ac.uk 01224 262478 (JISC: 16 months)

 

University of Southampton

Simon Brackenbury:  scb1@soton.ac.uk

 

*denotes full or partial funding from JISC.

The Project Manager will work full time on the project.

There are no training needs identified for the project.

 

Project Board

Chris Bailey (Project Director)

[To be appointed]  (Project Manager)

Bill Hubbard (SHERPA representative, University of Nottingham)

Susan Copeland (Non-CURL representative, Robert Gordon University)

Phil Sykes (CURL representative, University of Liverpool)

Jan Wilkinson (British Library representative)

Anthony Troman (British Library representative)

John Town (Loughborough University Registrar; Association of Heads of University Administration (AHUA) representative)

XXX [to be confirmed] (Academic Registrars’ Council (ARC) representative)

David Miller  (Director, Biological & Life Sciences Graduate School, University of Glasgow; Academic representative)

 

13. Programme Support

The partnership is expected to seek support from the JISC Programme Manager in the following areas: legal advice (see Workpackage 5); development of new standards (see Workpackages 2-4); liaison with related projects other than the three e-theses projects and SHERPA. Input from Stuart Dempster (CSR2 Programme Manager) may be required in order to authorise (via the CSR2 board) use of the Digitising Line scanner.

 

14. Budget

 

See Appendix A

 

Detailed Project Planning

15. Workpackages

In order to achieve its aims and objectives EThOS will implement eight workpackages (see details of workpackages in Appendix B). The project team will include several members of staff who have been actively involved with the three FAIR e-theses projects, i.e. Electronic Theses [ET], Theses Alive! [TA] and Daedalus [DD] .

 

Workpackages (WP)

WP leaders

Project officers

In partnership with

1 Project management

 

Chris Bailey, Project Director  (Glasgow / DD)

Project Manager (to be appointed)

All WP leaders

2 Building of a BL-based  central host with a single search interface

Anthony Troman (BL / ET)

 

 

·         Stephen Pinfield (Nottingham / SHERPA)

·         Southampton (Eprints)

·         Richard Jones (Edinburgh / DSpace / TA)

3 Building of interfaces to harvest data from institutional hosts

 

Hazel Woodward (Cranfield / ET)

·         Paul Needham (Cranfield / ET)

·         Simon Bevan (Cranfield / ET)

·         Richard Jones (Edinburgh / DSpace / TA)

·         Anthony Troman (BL / ET)

·         William Nixon (Glasgow / DD)

·         Theo Andrew (Edinburgh / TA)

·         Southampton (Eprints)

·         Stephen Pinfield (Nottingham / SHERPA)

4 Implementation of a pilot programme of retrospective and current digitisation

 

Anthony Troman (BL / ET)

 

 

 

Simon Brackenbury (Southampton / Digitising Line book scanner)

5 Development and integration of rights and permission procedures

 

Theo Andrew (Edinburgh / TA)

 

Theo Andrew (Edinburgh / TA)

 

·         Arwell Jones (NLW)

·         Anthony Troman (BL / ET)

·         Stephen Pinfield (SHERPA)

6 Production of a start-up e-theses toolkit for institutions

 

Susan Copeland (RGU / ET / member of the NDLTD Board of Directors)

·         Andrew Penman  (RGU / ET)

·         Richard Jones (Edinburgh / DSpace / TA)

 

·         Simon Bevan (Cranfield / ET)

·         Richard Milne (RGU / ET)

·         Ruth Jenkins (Birmingham)

·         Robin Green (Warwick)

·         Stephen Pinfield (Nottingham / SHERPA)

7 Development of business models (service and digitisation) for long-term sustainability

 

Chris Bailey (Glasgow / DD) and Anthony Troman (BL / ET)

 

 

Mick Wilkin (BL)

8 Dissemination and advocacy programme

 

Ruth Jenkins (Birmingham) and Hywel Williams (Warwick)

 

 

·         Morag Greig (Glasgow / DD)

·         Arwell Jones (NLW)

·         Susan Copeland (RGU / ET / member of the NDLTD Board of Directors)

 

An overview of the Workpackages and their outputs is listed here. A detailed list of activities is in Appendix B.

 

Workpackage (WP)

Activity & Responsibility

Earliest start date

Latest completion date

Outputs

(deliverables & reports in bold)

 

WP1: Project management

 

Leader: University of Glasgow

 

Objective: to ensure that all the strands of the project are managed coherently and that all the project outcomes are delivered within the agreed deadlines and budget

 

01/01/05

 

30/06/06

 

The Project Manager  will:

·         produce a work [project?] plan based on the proposal

·         organise the project meetings (agenda, papers, minutes etc.)

·         manage cross-strand technical and organisational dependencies

·         manage the budget

·         produce bi-monthly progress reports and the final report

·         meet the reporting requirements of JISC and CURL

·         assist in the production of all key project documentation (including the toolkit) as and when necessary

·         develop the project web site

·         assist in the implementation of the dissemination and advocacy programme in collaboration with the partners

 

WP2: BL-based central host  with single search interface

 

Leader: British Library

in partnership with the University of Edinburgh, the University of Southampton and SHERPA

 

Objective: to set up a fully functional central host service using standard British Library technical infrastructure components, metadata developed by the EThOS partnership and content from the partner institutions

 

 

01.01.05

 

31.12.05

 

The central host will:

·         accept, load and store e-thesis metadata and material sourced from remote institutional host systems

·         accept, load and store standard format e-thesis metadata from institutions which wish to supply their own content

·         support a one-stop-shop ‘identify and locate’ function – i.e. a single search interface  for all UK theses users

·         support secure electronic delivery functionality for material held by the central host

·         define procedures for generation and delivery of material in physical formats

·         route orders to institutions for material held and supplied locally

·         investigate full text searching for digitised and e-theses

·         present abstracts to aid identification and location of material

·         administer rights, royalty and permission requirements and payments if and where appropriate

 

WP3: Interfaces to harvest and

          gather  institutions’ data            

         

Leader: University of Cranfield

in partnership with the British Library and the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Southampton

 

Objective: to set up fully tested and functional interfaces to harvest and gather metadata and content from institutional hosts

 

01/02/05

 

30/09/05

 

This workpackage will investigate, develop and test the interfaces needed to harvest and gather metadata and content into the BL-based system for a range of scenarios, including:

·         direct submission of metadata and content

·         OAI harvesting of metadata with and without upload of content via FTP or other appropriate protocols

·         Dynamic cross-searching of distributed repositories employing Z39.50 and SRW/SRU or other web services

·         physical loading via DVD/CD etc.

 

Developed interfaces will be integrated into the BL-based central host system delivered by WP2 and tested against the partner and other institutional hosts.

 

 

WP4: Retrospective digitisation 

         

Leader: British Library

in partnership with the University of Southampton

 

Objective: to digitise 400 volumes of paper-based theses (bookscanning) and 1,500 volumes of microformed theses (microfilm scanning); to develop 

processes and inform the business model for a sustained programme of digitisation

 

01/01/05

 

31/12/05

 

The retro-digitisation workpackage will deliver:

·         a representative sample of theses (400) digitised from paper and sourced from partner institutions

·         a representative sample of theses (1,500) digitised from the British Library stock of microformed theses

·         loading of the digitised set to the central host

·         costings and recommended processes for the digitisation of all UK theses (to be fed into Workpackage 7)

·         a process to support the retrieval and digitisation of individual theses not already digitised but requested by a user

 

WP5: IPR and permission

          procedures 

         

Leader: University of Edinburgh

in partnership with the British Library, the National Library of Wales and SHERPA

 

Objective: to produce best practice procedures related to rights, royalties and permissions prior to the development of the national host service and the institutional toolkit

 

 

01/01/05

 

31/08/05

 

This workpackage will comprise  three strands:

5a: IPR & Digitisation (retrospective and on-going)

  • Investigate best practice for obtaining digitisation permissions, if required at all
  • Determine the necessary legal agreements required between thesis authors and the BL
  • Develop model licences (if required), pragmatic procedures and supporting documentation

5b: Author IPR recommendations

  • Investigate the role of author royalties in the online arena taking into account the aspiration of a free-at-point-of-use service
  • Determine the necessary legal agreements required between authors, institutions and the BL

5c: End User IPR recommendations

  • Determine recommended practical legal agreements between end-users, institutions and the BL
  • Advise the national host development team how to implement recommendations into a live service

The group will provide a report summarising all the issues and recommendations (to be fed into the system) and will contribute to the advocacy activities of WP 8 . External legal expertise will be called upon, as recommended by the JISC legal service.

 

WP6: Start-up toolkit for

           institutions 

       

Leader: The Robert Gordon University in partnership with Cranfield University and the universities of Birmingham,  Edinburgh and Warwick

 

Objective: to support the set-up of an e-theses system within an individual institution and its integration within the UK-wide online service

 

 

01/01/05

 

30/04/06

 

The toolkit will include recommendations, guidelines and, when necessary, minimum requirements for the following:

·         hardware for storage and delivery

·         software (DSpace, Eprints, others) incl. staff time / skills level

·         metadata

·         standards for linking with central host

·         digitisation

·         workflows for processes within the institution and for deposit in central host incl. business models (Note that there will be a number of workflow diagram scenarios depending on the state of institutional development in e-theses and the different thesis submission systems.)

·         advocacy incl. culture change and the updating of institutional regulations

·         procedures for IPR, royalties and permissions (from Workpackage 5)

·         preservation

·         advice on training authors in creation of e-theses

·         support network (mentoring institutions, useful contacts etc.)

·         recommendations for sustainable support and development of the toolkit

 

WP7: Business models (service

          & retro-digitisation)

 

Leader: University of Glasgow and British Library (joint lead)

 

Objective: to produce viable and sustainable business plans for the running of the service and for a  post-project programme of retrospective digitisation

 

01/01/05

 

30/06/06

 

The workpackage will develop and recommend a viable and sustainable business model (including, if deemed appropriate, recommendations on fund-raising initiatives) taking into account that the service: (a) will be run on a cost-recovery basis; and (b) will need to be underpinned by a programme of retrospective digitisation to ensure critical mass. It will also explore the possibility of delivering a free-at-the-point-of-use policy (as long as it is compatible with a & b). External financial expertise may be called upon.

 

WP8: Dissemination &

          advocacy 

       

Leader: Universities of Birmingham and Warwick (joint lead)

in partnership with the University of Glasgow,  the National Library of Wales and The Robert Gordon University

 

Objective: to prepare and pilot a template of advocacy measures that will support users in persuading their institution to accept digital submission of theses and to participate in UKDoT; to disseminate information about UKDoT to appropriate target groups within HEIs to achieve an awareness of UKDoT as a service; to disseminate information about the EThOS project to relevant groups.

 

 

01/01/05

 

30/06/06

 

The activities will include:

·         Literature review on use of advocacy in cognate areas - e.g., e-theses, e-prints, e-journals - to inform development of the advocacy template through identification of successful and less successful methods and models

·         Identification of institutional and human processes involved in progressing from a pre- to a fully implemented e-theses environment and culture

·         Mapping of possible institutional scenarios on the continuum from a pre- to a fully implemented e-theses environment and culture

·         Mapping of stakeholder groups to be covered by the advocacy and dissemination workpackage

·         Interviews with stakeholder groups – e.g., administrators (and in particular with the AHUA), academics, research students – in institutions with e-theses systems and in ones without, to: (a) elicit perceptions on e-theses and UKDoT; (b) identify positive and negative selling points for inclusion in the template

·         Production of first version of template, dissemination to project partners and other appropriate groups for review, and revision as necessary

·         Design and production of publicity material: advocacy messages; institutional requirements to set up e-theses; UKDoT material; scenarios demonstrating the benefits of a successfully implemented service

·         Piloting of template in selected institutions    

·         Review of template pilot, with revision as necessary

·         Build template into Workpackage 6, start-up toolkit

·         Publicity and promotion of template

·         Conference / seminar presentations; providing input for relevant area of project web site

 

16. Evaluation

An independent evaluation study will be commissioned by JISC. However, an evaluation process is built into the work plan of each workpackage whereby all developments are tested with users, including the partnership, the wider information community, the HE community and individual end-users.

 

17. Quality Assurance

Quality assurance mechanisms are built into the work plan of each workpackage to ensure that the standards listed in Section 8 and the relevant examples of best practice are strictly observed.

 

18. Dissemination Plan

Between March 2005 and June 2006 the Project Web Site (to be www.ethos.ac.uk) will be established and developed to make available information to the widest possible audience, domestically and internationally.  WP1 will ensure that work plan is kept up to date and is a dynamic document;  other dissemination duties of the Project Manager as expressed under WP1 (outputs) would also be carefully monitored. WP8 is dedicated to dissemination/advocacy  and will ensure institutional buy-in from all the necessary professional groups (academics, administrators, postgraduate students, librarians etc.) – for further information see under WP8.

 

19. Exit / Sustainability Plan

The project’s exit strategy will be two-pronged:

 

  1. Development of a business model ensuring the long-term sustainability of the service:

This will be an integral part of the project (see Workpackage 7).

 

  1. An end-of-project workshop:

It will demonstrate the prototype service and promote the start-up toolkit to a targeted audience of academics, senior administrators and information professionals outside the partnership.

 

The lead site will maintain the EThOS website and ensure continued access to the projects outputs and deliverables.

 


Appendix A

 

EThOS Budget Template: Version 1.0 : 19th January 2005

 

N.B. YR1: January – December 05; YR2: January – June 06)

EThOS Estimated Budget

JISC YR1

JISC YR2

JISC Total

Partners YR1

Partners YR2

Partners Total

Total budget

STAFF (incl. on-costs)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WP1 Project Manager Glasgow @ALC3/5 CONTRIBUTION from CURL

 £  12,726.00

 £ 6,363.00

 £  19,089.00

 £ 33,333.00

 £16,667.00

 £  50,000.00

 £    69,089.00

WP1 Clerical support Glasgow over 18 months

 £  10,752.00

 £ 5,700.00

 £  16,452.00

 

 

 

 £    16,452.00

WP2 Host developer BL Grade B (half contributed by BL) over 12 months

 £  13,672.50

 

 £  13,673.00

 £ 13,672.50

 

 £  13,673.00

 £    27,345.00

WP3 Project officer Cranfield over 8 months

 £  15,000.00

 

 £  15,000.00

 

 

 

 £    15,000.00

WP4 Digitisation of 400 theses from paper (incl. hardware, software etc.)

 £  19,578.00

 

 £  19,578.00

 

 

 

 £    19,578.00

WP4 Digitisation of 1,500 theses from microfilm (incl. hardware, software etc.)

 £  15,000.00

 

 £  15,000.00

 

 

 

 £    15,000.00

WP5 Project officer Edinburgh 5% FTE @ALC2 over 8 months

 £    9,000.00

 

 £    9,000.00

 

 

 

 £      9,000.00

WP6 Project officer RGU at Research Assistant grade over 16 months

 £  15,502.00

 20,684.00

 £  36,186.00

 

 

 

 £    36,186.00

WP6 Project officer Edinburgh 3 days per week over 14 months

 £    9,722.00

 12,500.00

 £  22,222.00

 

 

 

 £    22,222.00

CONSULTANCY (incl. VAT)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 £                  -  

WP2 Configuration for central host BL

 

 

 

 £   6,000.00

 

 £    6,000.00

 £      6,000.00

WP5 Legal expertise

 £    5,000.00

 

 £    5,000.00

 

 

 

 £      5,000.00

WP7 Business model expertise

 £    5,000.00

 

 £    5,000.00

 

 

 

 £      5,000.00

STAFF TIME contributed by institutions (across all workpackages)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 £                  -  

Birmingham 7% FTE @ALC5 and 15% FTE @ALC3 over 18 months

 

 

 

 £ 12,314.00

 £  6,157.00

 £  18,471.00

 £    18,471.00

BL 5% FTE senior manager, 50% Grade SB4 & retro-digitisation support work

 

 

 

 £ 28,000.00

 £14,000.00

 £  42,000.00

 £    42,000.00

Cranfield senior managers over 18 months

 

 

 

 £ 11,333.00

 £  5,667.00

 £  17,000.00

 £    17,000.00

Edinburgh 7% FTE @ALC5 and 7% FTE @ALC4 over 16 months

 

 

 

 £   6,864.75

 £  2,288.25

 £    9,153.00

 £      9,153.00

Glasgow 5% @ ACL6, 10% @ALC5 and 20% @ALC3 over 18 months

 

 

 

 £ 17,137.00

 £  8,568.00

 £  25,705.00

 £    25,705.00

National Library of Wales 10 days at Band 4 (£34,712)

 

 

 

 £   1,580.00

 

 £    1,580.00

 £      1,580.00

RGU 5% of senior librarian post and 5% of librarian post over 16 months

 

 

 

 £   3,848.25

 £  1,282.75

 £    5,131.00

£       5,131.00

Southampton bookscanner staff

 

 

 

 £   1,500.00

 

 £    1,500.00

 £      1,500.00

Warwick 7%  FTE @ALC5 and 15% FTE @ALC3 over 18 months

 

 

 

 £ 12,314.00

 £  6,157.00

 £  18,471.00

 £    18,471.00

TRAVEL & SUBSISTENCE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 £                  -  

Board (£3,000) & Management Group (£6,000) meetings

£ 9,000.00 

 

 £    9,000.00

 

 

 

 £      9,000.00

EQUIPMENT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 £                  -  

BL PC with CD/DVD burner

 

 

 

 £   2,000.00

 

 £    2,000.00

 £      2,000.00

Glasgow PC for Project Manager

 

 

 

 £   1,000.00

 

 £    1,000.00

 £      1,000.00

Southampton bookscanner running costs

 

 

 

 £ 10,000.00

 

 £  10,000.00

 £    10,000.00

DISSEMINATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 £                  -  

3 workshops (travel and catering) for WP8 & final workshop (£1,500)

 £    5,000.00

 £ 2,500.00

 £    7,500.00

 

 

 

 £      7,500.00

Travel for advocacy (£5,000), publicity material (£2,300)

 £    4,867.00

 £ 2,433.00

 £    7,300.00

 

 

 

 £      7,300.00

EVALUATION separately financed study; internal evaluation costs incl. above

 

 

 

 

 

 

 £                  -  

TOTAL (amount from JISC in columns 1,2 and 3)

£ 149,820.00

 50,180.00

£ 200,000.00

£160,896.00

 £60,787.00

 £221,683.00

 £  421,683.00

 

                               

 

 


Appendix B: EThOS: Project Plan Workpackages

version 1.1: 19th January 2005

 

 

Workpackages

Month

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1: Project Management

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2: BL-based central host and search interface

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3: Interface to harvest institutions’ data

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4: Retrospective digitisation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5: IPR and permission procedures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6: Start-up toolkit for institutions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7: Business models (service and retro-digitisation)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8: Dissemination and advocacy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Separate independent evaluation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Project start date: 05-01-2005

Project completion date: 30-06-2006

Duration: 18 months

Workpackage 1: Project Management

 

This is detailed in section 14 (above)

 

Workpackage 2: Central Host

 

Objective: To build a BL-based central host to allow access to all UK Theses via a single search interface

 

Workpackage and activity

Earliest start date

Latest completion date

Outputs

(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)

Milestone

Responsibility

2.1 Employ Technical Developer

03/01/05

31/03/05

Developer with appropriate technical skills

 

AT

2.2 Central store hardware installed and configured

01/02/05

15/05/05

Disc space bought and installed

Server partitioned and configured

 

BL Technical Developer

2.3 Content Management application configured

01/05/05

31/07/05

Content Management store configured

Descriptive metadata configured

Admin interface developed

User interface developed

 

BL Technical Developer

2.4 UK Database of Theses developed

01/02/05

31/09/05

Record Extract Criteria agreed

Data Transfer format agreed

5000 BL catalogue records extracted

5000 ITT records extracted

Record loads and matching developed

 

AT & BL Technical Developer

2.5 Develop mechanism and load digitised theses

01/10/05

31/12/05

Mechanism to load theses as and when they are digitised.

Create/match to metadata

Sample set of 1900 theses loaded

 

BL Technical Developer

2.6 Develop central hub data harvesting mechanism(s)

01/11/05

31/03/06

A harvesting/access mechanism per agreed and prioritised standard

 

BL Technical Developer

 

AT = Anthony Troman (BL)

BL Technical Developer (to be appointed)

The British Library will also involve current staff with appropriate skills to develop the infrastructure as and where appropriate

 

Workpackage 3

 

Objective: to set up fully tested and functional interfaces to harvest and gather metadata and content from institutional hosts

 

Workpackage and activity

 

Earliest start date

Latest completion date

Outputs

(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)

Milestone

Responsibility

3.1 Initial investigation into metadata harvesting and gathering interfaces (following meeting of WP3 participants)

01/02/05

30/04/05

Document detailing investigation, with recommendations for appropriate software options to be adopted

 

Literature review and desk research completed

Interviews with experts in the field completed

 

SB,PN, AT

3.2 Development and testing of interfaces at partner institutions

01/05/05

30/09/05

Functional harvesting and gathering interfaces

Document partners and roles in testing the harvesting and gathering interfaces

Complete development of interfaces at the partner institutions

Complete testing metadata retrieval from interfaces

SB,PN, AT

3.3 Development and testing of interfaces against content management store

01/10/05

31/12/05

A harvesting/access mechanism per agreed and prioritised standard

Begin interaction with content store

Complete testing

SB,PN, AT

 

PN = Paul Needham (Cranfield)

SB = Simon Bevan (Cranfield)

AT = Anthony Troman (BL)

 

Workpackage 4: Retrospective digitisation

 

Objective: To digitise 400 paper theses and 1500 microform theses

 

Workpackage and activity

 

Earliest start date

Latest completion date

Outputs

(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)

Milestone

Responsibility

4.1. Agree standards

01/02/05

15/02/05

Agreed digitisation standards across suppliers (Univ Soton & bureau) and BL delivery systems

 

AT

4.2 Digitise from paper

15/01/05

30/04/05

400 paper theses collected and collated from partner institutions and passed to Univ Soton

400 theses digitised

 

AT

4.3 Digitise from microform

15/01/05

31/05/05

1500 microform theses collected and collated from partner institutions and passed to bureau

1500 theses digitised

 

AT

 

AT = Anthony Troman (BL)

 

Workpackage 5: IPR and permission procedures

 

Objective: to produce best practice procedures related to rights, royalties and permissions prior to the development of the national host service and the institutional toolkit

 

Workpackage and activity

Earliest start date

Latest completion date

Outputs

(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)

Milestone

Responsibility

5.1 Determine IPR Working Group membership

01/03/05

07/03/05

Co-ordinate membership

 

TA

5.2 Convene Working Group meeting

07/03/05

31/4/05

Co-ordinate logistics for working group meeting, e.g. Time/Date, Venue, Agenda

Attend IPR Working Group meeting

 

TA

 

TA/AJ/BH/AT

5.3 Preliminary report

1/05/05

31/06/05

Circulate minutes from meeting

Prepare first draft of IPR report

 

TA

5.4 External Legal Advice

1/07/05

31/09/05

Liaise with JISC Legal Information service to find appropriate Legal Advice

Liaise with Legal Expertise to draft sample licences/ input for report

 

TA

5.5 Final IPR report

1/10/05

31/10/05

Draft final report

Delivery of Final Report and Licences to Project Manager

 

TA

 

TA = Theo Andrew (Edinburgh)

AJ  = Arwel Jones (NLW)

BH = Bill Hubbard (SHERPA-Nottingham)

AT = Anthony Troman (BL)

 

Workpackage 6: Production of a start-up e-theses toolkit for institutions

 

Objective: To support the set-up of an e-theses system within an individual institution and its integration within the UK-wide online service

 

Workpackage and activity

Earliest start date

Latest completion date

Outputs(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)

Milestone

Responsibility

6.1 Assessment of potential models for structuring and presenting the content of the toolkit

05/01/05

31/03/05

Report to project manager on findings

Identification of appropriate tools used in projects of a similar nature.

SC, AP, RJ, RM

6.2 Ensure user needs will be met with toolkit structure

 

01/02/05

31/03/05

Composition of chosen toolkit structure

Liaison with project members

SC, AP, RJ

6.3 Compile draft of the first section material (Technical)

01/03/05

31/12/05

Presentation of draft of section covering: Hardware, Software and Metadata issues

Relevant information identified and gathered.

SC, AP, RJ, RM

6.4 Compile draft of second section material (Organisational)

01/03/05

31/12/05

Presentation of draft of section covering Workflow and Preservation

Relevant information identified and gathered.

SC, AP, RJ, SB

6.5 Compile draft of third section material (Cultural)

01/04/05

31/12/05

Presentation of draft of section covering Advocacy, Copyright and IPR

Relevant information identified and gathered.

SC, AP, JR, HW

6.6 Compile draft of fourth section material (Training)

01/04/05

31/12/05

Presentation of draft of section covering training aspects for providers and users

Relevant information identified and gathered.

SC, AP, WP 6 Members

6.7 Collate and format toolkit sections

01/09/05

31/12/05

Information formatted into structure of toolkit.

Liaison with project members.

SC, AP, RJ

6.8 Ensure sustainable support and development of the toolkit

01/12/05

31/03/05

Creation of a future plan to ensure continuing support for the toolkit

Agreement of recommendations amongst project members.

SC, AP, RJ & WP6 Members

6.9 Testing the proposed toolkit

01/07/05

28/02/06

Record of results of toolkit testing and provision of feedback to RGU

Provision of feedback.

WP 6 Members

6.10 Revisions to the toolkit in the light of feedback

01/02/06

31/03/06

List of revisions required for final version of toolkit

Confirmation from partners that propose changes to the toolkit will solve the problems identified during testing.

SC, AP, RJ

6.11 Production of final version of toolkit

01/04/06

30/04/06

Final version of toolkit

 

SC, AP, RJ

* It is assumed that dissemination of the output of workpackage 6 will be coordinated during months 17 and 18 of the project as part of the overall promotional activities.

 

 

 

 

 

 

SC = Susan Copeland (RGU)

AP = Andrew Penman (RGU)

RM = Richard Milne (RGU)

RJ = Richard Jones (Edinburgh)

SB = Simon Bevan (Cranfield)

SP = Stephen Pinfield (Nottingham / SHERPA)

HW = Hywel Williams (Warwick)

JR = Jill Russell (Birmingham)

 

Workpackage 7: Business models

 

Objective: To develop a business model which supports a service operating on a cost-recovery basis to fund digitisation of all theses

 

Workpackage and activity

Earliest start date

Latest completion date

Outputs

 

Milestone

Responsibility

7.1 Understand the current process and issues

Take the timing of this further back in light of the timescale for the appt

01/02/05

28/02/05

Tour of the current BL facility and discussion - document process and issues

 

AT+ EThOS Project Manager

7.2  Understand future service factors

01/02/05

28/02/05

Discuss the future service and cost/charging aspirations and options - document

 

AT+ EThOS Project Manager

7.3  Develop draft business model

01/03/05

30/04/05

Develop the first draft of the business model

 

AT+ EThOS Project Manager

7.4 Finalise business model

01/05/05

31/05/05

Quality assure the draft business model, comment and update. Develop final business model

 

AT+ EThOS Project Manager

 

 

AT = Anthony Troman (BL)

PM = Project Manager: to be appointed (Glasgow)

Also input as required from Project Director (Glasgow)

 

Workpackage 8: Dissemination and Advocacy

 

Objectives: Prepare and pilot a template of advocacy measures that will support users in persuading their institution to accept digital submission of theses and to participate in UKDoT; Disseminate information about UKDoT to appropriate target groups within HEIs to achieve an awareness of UKDoT as a service; Disseminate information about the EThOS project to relevant groups.

 

Workpackage 8

Dissemination and advocacy

 

Earliest start date

Earliest completion date

Outputs

(clearly indicate deliverables & reports in bold)

Milestone

Responsibility

8.1 Literature review on use of advocacy in cognate areas - e.g., e-theses, e-prints, e-journals, scholarly communication - to inform development of the advocacy template through identification of successful and less successful methods and models.

01/01/05

28/02/05

Identification of latest practice and optimal advocacy approaches: published overview

 

AJ/MW

8.2 Identification of institutional and human processes involved in progressing from a fully pre- to a fully implemented e-theses environment and culture. This will involve liaison with project partners, JISC FAIR projects, and relevant groups in other countries.

01/01/05

28/02/05

Identification of activities to be undertaken, advice/support for and information required by stakeholders, relating to e-theses implementation

 

AJ/JR/HW

8.3 Mapping of possible institutional scenarios on the continuum from a pre- to a fully implemented e-theses environment and culture.

01/02/05

4/03/05

List of possible options institutions may select on the spectrum between fully print and fully digital  theses submission

 

AJ/JR/HW

8.4 Mapping of the processes required in Activity 2 against each scenario in Activity 3.

01/03/05

31/03/05

Matrix of optimal advocacy approaches to institutional and human requirements identified in Activity 2, against institutional options for theses submission identified in Activity 3

 

AJ/JR/HW

8.5 Mapping of stakeholder groups to be covered by the advocacy and dissemination Workpackage.

01/03/05

31/03/05

List of stakeholder groups required to be included within the template

Milestone 1

AJ/JR/HW

8.6 Interviews with stakeholder groups – e.g., administrators, academics, research students – in institutions with e-theses systems and in ones without to:

  • elicit perceptions on e-theses and UKDoT
  • identify positive and negative selling points for inclusion in the template.

01/03/05

30/06/05

Understanding of how to design publicity and promotional material to greatest effect

 

 

8.7 Production of first version of template, dissemination to project partners and other appropriate groups for review, and revision as necessary.

01/06/05

31/08/05

Template version 1

Milestone 2

AJ/JR/HW

8.8 Design and production of publicity material:·

  • advocacy messages
  • institutional requirements to set up e-theses·
  • UKDoT material
  • scenarios demonstrating the benefits of a successfully implemented service.

01/08/05

30/09/05

Print and e-based publicity and information material

 

 

8.9 Pilot template in selected institutions.

01/09/05

28/02/05

 

Milestone 3

AJ/JR/HW

8.10 Review of template pilot, with revision as necessary.

01/02/06

28/02/06

Template completed

 

AJ/JR/HW

8.11 Build template into Workpackage 6, startup toolkit.

01/03/06

31/03/06

 

Milestone 4

PM/HW

8.12 Publicity and promotion of template, e.g., conference/ seminar presentations; provide input for relevant area of project Web site

01/03/06

30/06/06

Awareness of EThOS and template

 

 

 

AJ  =  Arwel Jones (NLW)

HW =  Hywel Williams (Warwick)

JR =  Jill Russell (Birmingham)

PM = Project Manager: to be appointed (Glasgow)

RG  = Robin Green (CURL)

MW = Martin Wolf (Warwick)

SH  =  Stuart Hunt ( Warwick)

 



[i] http://www.diglib.org/standards/bmarkfin.htm