EThOS: Where have we got to and where do we go next? FIL Conference 29 June 2015 Sara Gould

2 Where have we got to?

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4 Where have we got to? 2010 aims: To offer a ‘single point of access’ where researchers the world over can access ALL Doctoral theses produced by UK HE via an Open Access model. To support HEIs through the transition from print to e-theses. To help UK HEIs expand available content by digitising paper theses. To demonstrate the quality of UK research and help attract students and research investment into UK HE.

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6 Records in EThOS

7 Source of new EThOS records

8 Title pages received

9 Full theses available via EThOS

10 Access to the full texts

11 Annual usage, by month

12 Usage – downloads v. clickthroughs

13 Digitisation on demand

14 Where do we go next?

15 Open access & institutional repositories

16 The road ahead ‘Central hub’ just one option Digitise born e- Download Link ‘Supply’ Provide access Where is the value of EThOS today? We want to find out by asking you …

17 Consultation coming up … 1. Preservation for theses –Long-stated commitment from EThOS –What does it mean? –Is it something institutions want? –By institution or for all HE? –EThOS or British Library service? –How could it work?

A national collection? British Library content strategy for doctoral theses Held by BL but not via EThOS? How could it work (how would BL build a collection without a mandate?) Does e-Legal Deposit have a role?

Role and value of EThOS We want all traffic to come to our repository We like the fact that users have to register to use EThOS Offering a repository link and a downloadable copy in the same record is confusing We don’t want EThOS to hold our theses but we do want BL to archive them EThOS has the best metadata around The search interface is not good Almost all our users comes direct from Google.

Metadata De-duplication Aggregation from multiple sources – and multiple formats (Marc, Dublin Core …) Dewey Re-use of the aggregated set – harvestable by institution; by subject; full-text only Advice on repository set-up and metadata export New initiatives – ORCiD, ISNI, DOI identifiers.

Technology and the future EThOS product needs enhancement What’s the best approach? New types of PhD & thesis formats Research data & supplementary files Monograph publication & OA theses Time to stop treating them separately to other works?

22 Consultation planning Institutions are our major stakeholder –Formal consultation exercise Users – repeat survey from 2013 Funders & Research Councils –Potential mandates –Value of aggregated metadata (Research Fish) –Trend analysis British Library.

23 Thank you