The following questions and answers are the results of the ETD Project Team discussion with representatives of the Graduate School: Liz Leis, Barry Kendall and Richard Hoover.

How do students get started with their ETD? Do they go to the Graduate School website, the ETD website, or the library website, or somewhere else?

• We determined that the students use both the Graduate School and the VU Library's ETD websites to get information on submitting their ETD's. We will continue to update these websites in order to give the students access to the information they need.

Who actually “owns” the metadata pages and how open are they to having library staff edit information or add information to them?

• We decided that the metadata page can be edited and added to by the catalogers in order to correct spelling and add subject headings and an authorized name heading for the author. Mary Charles agreed to provide an example of what kind of headings could be added to the metadata page.

If we can edit the metadata information, can we also add fields to the form asking for the student’s preferred name and perhaps other information for cataloging and retrieval purposes?

• Mary Charles provided an example of a form used by another University to obtain a preferred name from the students. We decided that we will use a similar form for our use. The form also includes an explanation of why this information is important for consistency in the publishing and library world. Nancy will look into having this form available to the student from the ETD website.

Can we ask that the student follow certain guidelines when filling in the metadata page, such as the title not being in all caps?

• We agreed that this can be done by changing the guidelines from the Graduate School. Liz will see that this gets done, but there may be a period of time before it is adhered to by all students.

What determines when a withheld or restricted ETD changes status and how are catalogers notified of the change? Would it be possible for us to go ahead and catalog the withhelds and then add the URL later when they are released?

• We discussed the issue of withheld and restricted settings and what these mean. Withheld ETD's are not available in any way and are not catalogedor archived until they are released. Restricted ETD's are cataloged, but are only available for viewing on campus. They do, however, go to ProQuest along with the unrestricted ones. We decided that a 2 year limit will be put on both withheld and restricted ETD's. Liz will make sure that the students are aware of this and that they know that unless they notify the Graduate School otherwise, the restrictions will be lifted after that time. Nancy will add a paragraph to the submission instructions on the ETD website that will explain this as well. She will also add more information about what each level of restriction means to the student. Nancy will look at the ETD software to see if the releasing of the ETD can be done automatically based on the release date that is generated.

What information on the metadata page should NOT be edited or added to?

• We agreed that the faculty advisor names should probably not be edited, but misspellings in the title or author's name will be corrected in order to ensure retrieval by search engines.

What does the Graduate School think of the preservation issues associated with the ETD’s? Do they feel that having the CDROM copies in the library is necessary?

• We all agreed that for the foreseeable future, we will continue to create CDROM archive copies of each ETD to be stored in the Vanderbilt Library offsite storage facility.

Where on campus can students get help with formatting their Word document so that it can readily be converted to PDF without some of the problems we have encountered in the past? They need access to a computer with Adobe Acrobat version 7.0. This is not available to them in the Electronic Classroom in the GLB.

• We all agreed that there is a need for both access to conversion software and help with formatting Word documents. Nancy will talk to LITS Networks and Workstations supervisor, George Anglin, about making software available to students on the public workstations in the libraries and in the Electronic Classroom. Barry and Liz will look into other places on campus where the software and help with Word may be available to students. Once we have this information, it will be added to the ETD and Graduate School websites.