ETD 2008 Road Trip: Fettercairn Distillery

ETD 2008 Road Trip: Crathes Castle and Gardens

Closing Session: Future Plans

Besides the the promotion for ETD 2009 in Pittsburgh, the remaining conference delegates were taking theorugh successive ballots to assist in the determination of themes, tracks, and places for future ETD meetings.

Innovation Track: the ABES STAR system

Marianne Giloux and Isabelle Mauger Perez from the Agence Bibliographique de l'Enseignement Supérieur (ABES), France presented the plan for the implementation of STAR, which includes:

• saving and recording the Theses
• gathering and extracting metadata used for description, indexation, long term preservation and dissemination
• transfering the theses to a national system of preservation
• allocating a permanent identifier ( URL)

Data and metadata are ingested in STAR either on-line, through Web forms, or by importation of normalized files extracted from various locals systems, or with a mixed method.

Innovation Track: Open Electronic Library of Kyrgyzstan

Sania Battalova, from the American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyz Republic and President of Library and Information Consortium of Kyrgyzstan, reportedabout the Open Digital Libraries of Papers of Kyrgyzstan scientists, implementing a cooperative across 12 libraries in Kyrgyzstan. The Library community implementing new technologies and projects, and building team work for sustainability.

The Innovation Track: Peru

Libio Huaroto from the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Library System in Lima, Peru, has already provides an earlier blog update on the developments of his ETD efforts in Peru. At ETD2008, he spoke about the implementation of the Digital Thesis Peruvian Network. Libio also set up a slideshare site to share presentations.

Friday: the UK EthOS Project!

The UK’s Electronic Thesis On-line Service (EThOS) team presented a live demonstration and discussion of the next-generation EthOS system and the harvesting technologies they will use for thesis metadata held in the servers and on the shelves of up to 120 UK university libraries to be accessed from a single point of contact. The EThOS partners highlighted why this service is important to UK research and how it benefits UK Higher Education and those who want access to a primary research resource.

ETD Leadership Award: Susan Copeland

John Hagan presented ETD 2008 co-chair Dr. Susan Copeland with the 2008 ETD Leadership Award. Dr. Copeland is largely responsible for ETD developments in the United Kingdom and she has influenced activities in this area in Europe. She has also worked extensively on international projects with the NDLTD and the American Library Association.

ETD Student Awards

The NDLTD ETD Awards for 2008 were already announced, yet warmly celebrated with the student thesis authors. One of the highlights was the presentation by Nursing thesis author Colin Macduff, who as part of his presentation re-enacted the "non-digital birth" of the print thesis, in order to make the point that his digital thesis deserved better neonatal care.

Thursday Evening Conference Dinner

The ETD 2008 conference delegates traveled by charter bus to the Ardoe House Hotel for a wonderful traditional Scottish formal dinner, followed by special entertainment: A Celtic musician trio performing Scottish country dance standards. They also insisted on audience participation, which resulted in the inevitable collision of cultures when the direction "inside foot, then outside foot" cannot be translated into left or right!

Plenary Session: Open Sesame!

John Hagan provided an overview of the longitudinal evidence he has gathered over the decade-long e-volution of the West Virginia U. ETD Repository program and it morphed into the institutional repository framework. The successful WVU program (yes, the graphic at left demonstrates the formula for that famous 146,000% figure you hear rumored at ETD meetings) still faces challenges to persuade faculty in the humanities that open access of creative theses is a winning proposition for students.

Poster Session!

Dr. Shalini Urs from the U. of Mysore in India presented a poster on an experiement to create an ontology based retrieval system for ETDs in the Vidyanidhi Digital Library.

Poster Session!

Antanas Streimikis from the Kaunas U. of Technology in Lithuania presented a poster session describing the Lithuanian eLABa ETD collection, its regulations, documentation, and software applications.

Poster Session!

Jane Aucock from the U. of St. Andrews and the Scottish Digital Libraries Consortium explains how her university developed and implemented their ETD deposit program.

Thursday Plenary I- The SPECTRa-T Project

Peter Morgan from Cambridge University presented the initial results of the SPECTRa-T project, using a text mining tool for extracting chemical terminology and object identification from both PDF and non-PDF files. Peter stressed that this project met its goal of establishing a proof of concept approach, prior to the actual establishment of a production model.

Thursday Keynote: Herbert Van de Sompel

Dr. Herbert Van de Sompel, from the US Los Alamos National Laboratory, presented a fascinating and engaging introduction to two projects he is currently engaged in as a member of the Digital Library Research and Prototying Team at his institution: OAI-ORE, which focuses on digital object re-use and exchange, and MESUR, a demonstration project to establish a new scholarly metric based on usage, not publication. At left is Dr. Van de Sompel's explanation of aggregated object clusters and the need to address object grouping and similarity, beyond individual documents or web pages.

Libio arrives from Peru!

Libio Huaroto, delegate from the La Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Library System, has arrived at ETD2008 on Thursday morning. Welcome, Libio!

Entertainment at the Beach Ballroom

Entertainment at the Beach Ballroom Civic Reception was provided by the City of Roses Chorus of Sweet Adelines, a female chorus which performs in shows in Aberdeen and throughout the country.

City of Aberdeen Welcomes ETD 2008

The Aberdeen Beach Ballroom was the site of the Aberdeen Civic Reception to welcome the delegates to ETD 2008. The delegates queued up up outside and enjoyed the pleasant weather and views of the sea.

Ana Pavani's Plenary Session focused on making ETDs accessible to the visually impaired and blind. She drew on the work of Cátedra UNESCO de Leitura PUC-Rio a UNESCO project devoted to reading activites that suggested that the ETD global library could be enhanced to be used by those with other than normal vision. Ana began her talk by giving credit to James Clark Maxwell(1831-1879), the Scottish scientist and inspiration for their institutional repository system.

ETD 2009 is coming!

Tim Dellyannides, Information Systems leader at the U. of Pittburgh Library System, and John Hagan from the U. of West Virginia Libraries, were in the poster area to promote ETD 2009, co-sponsored by their library systems. The 2009 conference will be held June 10 – 13 at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA, U.S.A.

ETD 2009 will provide a forum to:

• Share the secrets of successful ETD, institutional repositories and open access programs.
• Learn about new developments related to ETD authoring, archiving and dissemination.
• Meet and discuss ETD challenges and issues with peer participants in your region.
• Build skills that will facilitate ETD implementation at your university.
• Review issues that influence the success of your ETD program.
• Share experiences and research with the ETD community.

Poster Session!

Dr Raj Kumar is the Sr Library & Information Officer at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigar. His poster presented the challenges he faces with promoting ETDs and making health sciences scholarship available in a global context.

Poster Session!

The SHERPA team of Sophia Jones and Bill Hubbard presented poster sessions on the Intute Repository Search and the constellation of SHERPA Services available to repository managers, librarians, publishers, and research funders.

Keynote Address: Dr. Paul Ayris

The first Keynote Address, Digital Strategy: Implications for E-Theses, was presented by Dr. Paul Ayris, the Director of UCL Library Services and UCL Copyright Officer. Among the topics presented was the UCL 5-year stratic plan 2005-2010, the UCL Superbook Project, and his desire to move the digital library planning process toward a model of placing "Charlie", the library user, at the center of the digital library program. Can you find Charlie in the Dr. Ayris diagram at left?

Conference and NDLTD Welcome

Professor Peter Robertson, the Vice Principal of RGU, welcomed the delegates to ETD 2008. Then Professor Edward Fox (pictured) , the Executive Director of NDLTD, provided an update on the growth of the global consortium and the current focus of research on ETDs.

Pre-conference Worksops

Pre-Conference parallel workshops took place on Wednesday 4 June. John Hagen led the Newcomers' Workshop (for ETD rookies), while Gail McMillan and Martin Halbert (pictured) led an introduction to facets of Distributed Digital Library Preservation.

The RGU Georgina Scott Library- site of ETD 2008

The Georgina Scott Sutherland Library is a vertical wonder. Open and airy, there are study locations on several floors. Users are so self sufficient...a central Inquiry desk near the front door triages requests from library users and summons librarians that are on-call and steps away.

Welocme to ETD 2008!

• "ETD2008: Spreading the Light" has kicked off at The Robert Gordon University Garthdee Campus, with registration in front of the Georgina Scott Sutherland Library . Some important notes on conference survival:
• All conference sessions take place in the Business School and The Faculty of Health and Social Care Building.
• Luggage may be stored in the Seminar Room within the Library.
• Please wear your badges at all times, to assure access to all venues.
• Please switch off your cellular phones during sessions, in consideration of speakers and those sitting next to you.
• Wireless internet access information is available in your registration packet, with troubleshooting at the registration area.
• An ATM is available in the atrium of the Business School.
• Do not smoke in any campus facility.
• To use RGU Sport (the gym facility), provide proof of membership in a gym to receive a discount.

Winners of the NDLTD ETD Awards Powered by Scirus

Elsevier Announces Winners of the NDLTD-ETD Awards Powered by Scirus: Awards Recognize Excellence in Grey Literature and Highlight Elsevier’s Dedication to the Future Scientific Leaders

AMSTERDAM, 2 June 2008 - Elsevier, world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, is proud to announce the winners of the first awards for Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) with the NDLTD-ETD Awards Powered by Scirus. Elsevier Journals Publishing and Scirus, the most comprehensive science-specific search engine, conducted the awards competition in partnership with the NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations), the international organization dedicated to promoting the dissemination and preservation of electronic theses and dissertations, to sponsor this year’s first-ever NDLTD-ETD Awards, which seek to recognize outstanding contributions to the body of electronically available ETD research.

With the advent of the ETDs, and optimized subject-specific search tools like Scirus, it is now easier than ever to access materials that have not been available through traditional publishing alternatives. Once difficult to discover because they consist largely of masters theses and doctoral dissertations stored in print versions at university libraries, vertical search platforms like Scirus have revolutionized access to these valuable, often overlooked materials.

“Elsevier is proud to be working with the NDLTD and recognizing these important additions to the body of scientific knowledge,” said Stephen Cawley, Product Marketing Solutions Manager, Elsevier. “With tools like Scirus, we can now easily access ETDs and other important but often neglected research materials that are hastening the speed of discovery in science and the humanities.”

This year’s winners of the NDLTD-ETD Awards: Powered by Scirus are:

Physical & Life Sciences

• Lawretta Chineze Leaticia Ononye, “The Effect of Implantation Temperature and Ionizing Radiation on the Microstructure of Ion Implanted Sapphire”


• Mohan N. Thakare, “Pharmacological Screening of Some Medicinal Plants as Antimicrobial and Feed Additives”


• Benedikt T. Huber, “Microprocessor Systems Data Transfer Interface Design: An Expert System Approach Using Signal Timing Behavior Patterns”


• Anders Ek, “Ultrasonic Treatment of Sewage Sludge in order to Increase Biogas Yields”


• Louis Lesage, “Écologie Estivale Du Cerf De Virginie A La Limite Nord De Son Aire De Distribution : De La Étapopulation A L'individu”


• Nathan Crane McClintock, “Production and Use of Compost and Vermicompost in Sustainable Farming Systems”


• Danny J.Y.S. Pagé, “Neutron And Gamma Radiation Effects On The Viscoelastic Behaviour Of Poly”


• Gerald W. Ferris, “An Elastic Plastic Approach: Modeling Deformation Of Dense Sand”
  

Business, Social Sciences & Humanities

• Simon A. Nuttgens, “Bereavement Following Suicide: A Narrative Study”


• Mmakgomo Roseline Laka-Mathebula, “Modeling the Relationship Between Organizational Commitment, Leadership Style, Human Resources Management Practices and Organizational Trust”

The 10 winning ETDs were selected through a rigorous selection process which combined a shortlisting of the most downloaded ETDs per subject area through Scirus, and adjudication by scientific editors from Elsevier Journals Publishing unit.

“Elsevier’s recognition of the scientific minds of the future further enhances their position as a forward-thinking company,” said John Hagen, Awards Committee Chair of the NDLTD. “The NDLTD congratulates all of the winners, who are most certainly going to be the drivers of scientific discovery in the years to come.”

“We’re happy to participate in these awards and play a key role in helping to recognize the future published researchers,” said Rose Olthof, Business Development Manager, Elsevier Journals Publishing. “The ETDs that were chosen were of the highest quality and we’re delighted to see such a high caliber of research at the graduate-level.”

The awards will be presented at the ETD 2008 Symposium, to be held June 4-7 at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland. Award winners will each receive a $500 cash prize, an NDLTD-ETD Awards: Powered by Scirus medallion and honorary recognition on the Scirus homepage.

You can search Scirus at http://www.scirus.com/

Congratulations to all of the winners!

Finding World Religions in Aberdeen

A Student Services web page at RGU provides guidance about how to find a global representation of religious and spiritual life in Aberdeen. There are also plenty of regularly scheduled services in church and parish locations.

ETD Update from Peru (Spanish Language)

El movimiento de las tesis digitales en Perú se inicia en la Biblioteca Central “Pedro Zulen“, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos (UNMSM) en el año 2002. En esta fecha se aprueba el proyecto de digitalización de las tesis y se pone en funcionamiento el primer portal web. En el año 2003 se firma un acuerdo de colaboración con la Universidad de Chile, Lyon y UNESCO para aplicar la metodología de Cybertesis, y a partir de Junio de 2004 se pone en funcionamiento el nuevo portal de las tesis peruanas, utilizando estándares internacionales para el intercambio de información. Hasta la actualidad se han desarrollado 08 talleres de capacitación sobre el uso de esta metodología, se han firmado 06 convenios con universidades, y 03 que están en proceso de firma. La tarea de la UNMSM se ha estado enfocado en la capacitación, optimización e implementación de nuevas aplicaciones informáticas sobre la metodología de Cybertesis. Recientemente se ha incorporado una sección de videos de los autores cuyo objetivo es diseminar este conocimiento mediante aplicaciones multimedia; así mismo, se ha puesto en funcionamiento el portal web al cual hemos denominado Red Peruana de Tesis Digitales (RPTD – http://www.rptd.edu.pe/) donde se encuentra los metadatos de las tesis digitales peruanas. RPTD se inicia a principios del mes de marzo de 2008, y tiene como objetivo principal brindar un acceso fácil y rápido a la información de las tesis producidas por estas instituciones. La implementación de RPTD se realizó mediante el software ARC (A Cross Archive Search Service), cuenta con servicios como RSS y estadísticas de visitas web por países, descargas, entre otros. El trabajo realizado es consecuencia de la aplicación de políticas orientados a tres aspectos: difusión, capacitación y alianzas estratégicas; en este último punto podemos destacar el trabajo realizado con la Comunidad Andina, específicamente con la Biblioteca Digital Andina (BDA), que nos ha permitido impulsar el movimiento de las tesis digitales en los países miembros de esta organización.

ETD 2008: Pack your exercise gear

Whilst at ETD 2008 you can exercise your body as well as your mind by visiting RGU:Sport. Conveniently situated on campus, and adjacent to the conference venue, the Sports Centre is a modern facility featuring a 25m swimming pool, three gyms, climbing wall and bouldering room, three exercise studios and a vast sports hall. (Non-members of RGU:Sport are welcome to use the fitness facilities if they either produce proof of membership of a gym or undergo a gym orientation.) All facilities are available to conference delegates at a discount price. Follow the link for more details:-
http://www.rgu.ac.uk/rgusport/facilities/page.cfm?pge=37458

Japan and ETDs

Wondering what's going on with ETDs in Japan? Sugita Izumi from the Japanese National Informatics Institute (NII) Institutional Repository Program, provided this update:

"A Japanese ETD Working Group was organized. Members of the Working Group are National Institute of Informatics (NII), National Diet Library (NDL), University libraries, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). Their future agenda includes:

• Digitization of past doctoral dissertations.
• Registration of future doctoral dissertations to IRs.
• Development of the one stop portal system for ETD.
• Monitoring and responding to the revision of Japanese ministerial ordinance for dissemination of doctoral dissertations.

NII is now the establishment of a one stop portal system and is hoping to link it to NDLTD in the future. We wish to be able to report the situation of Japanese ETD at the ETD2009."

Please contact Izumi and the other members of the NII Library Liaison Team for more information on their ETD initiative.

Weather Watch on Aberdeen

Deciding what to pack? Here's one weather link for Aberdeen. Seems a bit cooler than my U.S. Connecticut weather, although our spring has been on the cool side. Bring sweaters, hats, and something that will keep the sprinkles out.

Chronicle Article on ETDs, Open Access & Creative Writing

As promised, The Chronicle of Higher Education has just published an article titled "Readers Not Wanted: Student Writers Fight to Keep Their Work Off the Web"... is available online.

For those of you who cannot access the link we have archived a copy via NDLTD.

I have also archived a local copy of the print edition (content is same as online but different picture).

I hope the student outcome survey data, comments and policy recommendation I have provided will help move this debate along in a more constructive fashion.

For those of you who are interested, I will be presenting a paper at the ETD 2008 Symposium in several weeks on this very topic; the full paper, WVU ETD policy recommendation and analyses will be available as open access in the NDLTD institutional repository.

Obtaining a Kilt in Aberdeen

There are a number of Kilt shops in Aberdeen: Philip King II at 256 George Street; Georgian Dress Hire at 64 Leadside Road; Alex Scott and Co. at 43 Schoolhill; and M^cCalls LTD at 15-17 Bridge Street. Perhaps there are even smaller neighborhood establishments that will have a selection of Kilts among the apparel section. I think we should check with our conference hosts to get the scoop on the best place for a real kilt deal.
Picture Source: Scotland-Map.com

ETD Journal Article

Here it is gang, hot off the press. Information World Review has just published an article on grey literature, ETDs and the Scirus connection. The article titled "Don't let the grey fade away" is now available online. Happy reading!

NDLTD Announces ETD Award Winners for 2008

ETD Awards sponsored by Adobe Systems

The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) consortium is pleased to announce this year's award winners. The awards recognize students who have written exemplary electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). These ETDs demonstrate new dimensions of scholarship being explored by individuals who have made significant contributions to the worldwide ETD movement.

The Awards Program includes several categories of appreciation. The Innovative ETD Award recognizes student efforts to transform the genre of the print dissertation through the use of innovative software to create cutting edge ETDs. Use of renderings, photos, video and other multimedia objects that are included in the electronic document were considered as part of the innovation of the work. The Innovative Learning through ETDs Award recognizes a student whose professional life has been enhanced by the ETD process. Finally, the ETD Leadership Award recognizes members of the university community whose leadership and vision has helped raise awareness of the benefits of ETDs, and whose efforts have improved graduate education through the use of ETDs. The awards will be presented at the ETD 2008 Symposium, to be held this year at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland, June 4th - 7th.

And the winners are...

Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums

Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums offer a varied programme of special exhibitions and displays, workshops, talks, concerts and other events. Further details can be found in the Events Calendar on the Aberdeen City Council website. The programme is also contained in a printed Diary, published every three months, which is available free from any of our venues, as well as selected places throughout Aberdeen and Grampian. Highlights of the collection include Hall Russell Shipyard Archive, Little But Good: The Great North of Scotland Railway, A Portrait Collection, and Aberdeen's History and Landmarks

Aberdeen in 1411- Saved by the Earl of Mar

From the The History of Scotland CHAPTER X. EARLY STEWART KINGS: ROBERT II. (1371-1390)

The Celtic North, never quiet, made its last united effort in 1411, when Donald, Lord of the Isles, who was in touch with the English Government, claimed the earldom of Ross, in right of his wife, as against the Earl of Buchan, a son of Albany; mustered all the wild clans of the west and the isles at Ardtornish Castle on the Sound of Mull; marched through Ross to Dingwall; defeated the great northern clan of Mackay, and was hurrying to sack Aberdeen when he was met by Alexander Stewart, Earl of Mar, the gentry of the northern Lowlands, mounted knights, and the burgesses of the towns, some eighteen miles from Aberdeen, at Harlaw. There was a pitched battle with great slaughter, but the Celts had no cavalry, and the end was that Donald withdrew to his fastnesses. The event is commemorated by an old literary ballad, and in Elspeth's ballad in Scott's novel, ‘The Antiquary.' (Before you take me to task, yes, the image is the famous William Wallace(1272-1305), the rebel of Braveheart fame, who had nothing to do with the attempted sacking of Aberdeen, except stirring up discontent a few decades earlier)

Conference Dinner Site: Mercure Ardoe House Aberdeen

Following the programme for the afternoon of Thursday 5th June, conference attendees will retire to the Mercure Ardoe House Aberdeen. Inspired by the royal residence of Balmoral Castle, this 4 Star 19th Century mansion house is situated 3 miles outside the city centre of Aberdeen, in 30 acres of countryside. Ideal for shopping, theatres, scenic walks and Balmoral Castle visits.

Image Source : youngrobv's photo stream

The Grand Sport of Scottish Walking

According to Walk in Scotland, the official walking site of Scotland's National Tourism Organization, Scotland was "Created for Walking." Aberdeen is considered to be in the North East walking area, with famlands, mountains, and sea and lots in between:

"Visitors are often surprised to discover that north-east Scotland has a gentle landscape with plenty of easy walking. In Moray and Aberdeenshire the Cairngorm mountains drop to low, rolling hills, which soon give way to undulating farmland. Scenic river valleys dissect the arable and pasture fields, and a good road network links the many towns and villages. Numerous fishing harbours dot the long coastline, which has vast stretches of dune-backed beaches and cliffs punctuated by coves. "

Check out this very healthy 10.5 Kilometer walk entitled "River Don, Beach and Old Aberdeen"

ETD 2008 Paper/Poster Final Deadline: 19th May

If you have been concerned about conflicting versions of the "drop-dead" submission deadline for papers and posters, please consider the 19th of May the final deadline. As with previous ETD meetings, the conference respository for papers and posters will live well beyond ETD2008.

Pre-Conference Workshops on the 4th of June

09.30 - 12.30 Wednesday 4th June

Newcomers' Workshop:
ETDs for Rookies

Workshop Leader
John H. Hagen
(West Virginia University Libraries)

Distributed Digital Preservation Workshop:
ETDs Can Be as Secure as Their Paper Predecessors

Workshop Leaders
Prof. Gail McMillan
(Director of the Digital Library and Archives, University Libraries,
Virginia Tech)

Dr. Martin Halbert
(Director for Digital Programs and Systems, Robert W. Woodruff Library, Emory University)

European Workshop:
Information will be available shortly

Keynote Speaker Herbert Van de Sompel

Dr Herbert Van de Sompel graduated in Mathematics and Computer Science at Ghent University, and in 2000, obtained a Ph.D. there. For many years, he was Head of Library Automation at Ghent. After having left Ghent in 2000, he has been Visiting Professor in Computer Science at Cornell University, and formerly Director of e-Strategy and Programmes at the British Library. Currently, he is the team leader of the Digital Library Research and Prototyping Team at the Research Library of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Team does research regarding various aspects of scholarly communication in the digital age, including information infrastructure, interoperability, digital preservation and indicators for the assessment of the quality of units of scholarly communication. Herbert has played a major role in creating the Open Archives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, the OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services, the SFX linking server, and the info URI.

About Keynote Speaker Paul Ayris

Dr Paul Ayris has been director of University College London(UCL) Library Services since 1997, as well as coordinator of their Senior Management Team. He is also the UCL copyright officer. He is a member of the LIBER (Ligue Internationale des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche) and SPARC Europe boards. He chairs LIBER's access division, and the OAI organising committee for the Cern workshops on scholarly communication. He also chairs the UK's SHERPA management group. He is deputy chair of the JISC’s repositories and preservation advisory group. He is a member of the JISC's journals working group, of SCONUL's health strategy group and of the CURL/SCONUL joint scholarly communications group. He has a PhD in ecclesiastical history and publishes on English reformation studies.

ETD after Hours- Jazz Aberdeen

Jazz Aberdeen is a not for profit charitable organisation whose aim is to promote jazz in Aberdeen through regular live jazz performances involving both visiting international artists and local musicians and through the bi-annual Aberdeen International Jazz Festival. Since February 2003 Jazz Aberdeen has presented over 200 live jazz events in Aberdeen featuring local and international artists. These performances have attracted a total audience of over 20,000 and have greatly contributed to developing Aberdeen as a vibrant and culturally stimulating place to live and visit for its inhabitants and visitors alike. Some downloads of local musicians are available. The Blue Lamp Pub is a popular place for music. Also good for a cold brew after a hard day of conference activity. Here's their location.

Forthcoming ETD Articles

On the heels of ETD 2008 we have a couple of very nice forthcoming journal articles about ETDs - that should make for some excellent discussion at the conference and around the globe.

The first article will be published in the Chronicle of Higher Education in the coming week or so on the topic of ETDs, creative writing and publishing issues. The Chronicle published an article back in March about faculty and students at University of Iowa ready to revolt against a campus-wide mandate for open access ETDs. We brought into the discussion some rationality, hard data from case studies and success stories regarding open access ETDs, creative works and policy implications. I think you will all be very pleasantly surprised at the results. I don't know if we've won this battle but we surely made some good points.

The second article will be published in Information World Review in June, just in time to coincide with ETD 2008. The topic will be on the history of ETDs and the NDLTD, the importance of ETDs in scholarly communications and the significance of sponsored programs like the "ETD Awards Powered by Scirus". Nothing really controversial here, but the coverage for the ETD movement will be phenomenal - IWR is the leading information science related journal published out of the UK. Many thanks to the folks at Reed Elsevier for lining this up!

Cheers,

- John Hagen
NDLTD Board of Directors

ACCOMMODATION AT ETD 2008

The conference organisers would like to remind delegates that accommodation in Aberdeen ('The oil capital of Europe') can be in strong demand. Those intending to book hotel rooms are encouraged to take advantage of the arrangements in place for the conference - details of which are available at http://www.rgu.ac.uk/etd/accommodation/page.cfm?pge=44852 These rooms will only be held specifically for conference attendees for another couple of weeks.

Information about rooms in RGU student flats is available at http://www.rgu.ac.uk/etd/accommodation/page.cfm?pge=44842

Susan Copeland
ETD 2008 Conference Co-Chair

NDLTD ETD Awards

Here is the latest news on the NDLTD Awards programs...

February 29th (tomorrow) is the deadline to submit nominations for the Innovation and Leadership ETD Awards sponsored by Adobe. Awards winners receive cash prizes of up to $800 for ETD multimedia works, up to $1,000 for ETD leadership as well as special recognition in Adobe higher education and NDLTD promotions. We could still use a few more nominations so keep them coming!!

We are also very excited to announce our latest awards program, "NDLTD ETD Awards Powered by Scirus". We will announce winners by early May. This awards program factors in the most popular ETD searches via the Scirus Search Portal as well as quality peer-reviewing by the Elsevier journals division editors. Winners will receive a $500 cash prize, commemorative medallion and special mention in Reed Elsevier online and print publications.

Look for award winner announcements in the coming month both here at at the "ETD 2008 - Spreading the Light" Web site.

Cheers,

- John H. Hagen, NDLTD ETD Awards Committee Chair

'ETD 2008' acknowledged at Aberdeen Convention Bureau Ambassador Awards Dinner

On 20 November 2007, over 100 guests attended the 6th Annual Aberdeen Convention Bureau Ambassador Awards Dinner at the city's Town House. Aberdeen Convention Bureau (which is assisting with accommodation arrangements for ETD 2008) works in partnership with representatives from key industry sectors and academic institutions in the area to secure conferences and provide support for such events. This year The Robert Gordon University was represented amongst the winning Ambassadors by Dr Susan Copeland who received a certificate from the Lord Provost in recognition of securing the 11th International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations.

The photograph above shows the conference co-Chairs, Christopher Pressler (Director of Research and Learning Resources at The University of Nottingham) and Susan Copeland (Senior Information Adviser (Research) at RGU), with the certificate. Christopher travelled from Nottingham, in central England, to Aberdeen, in the north-east of Scotland, to spend time discussing arrangements for the conference with members of the RGU planning team.