Over 5 Million WVU ETDs Served


The West Virginia University Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) collection documents have now been accessed over 5 million times since inception.

Implemented as a requirement in August 1998, the ETD Initiative at WVU has several purposes, including helping students promote their careers, assisting learners and researchers within and external to WVU, and making available many scholarly works that were previously inaccessible.

The main program goals we have been successfully achieving are:

  • for graduate students to learn about electronic publishing and digital libraries and to apply that knowledge as they engage in their research and build and submit their own ETDs for distribution on the Web

  • for universities to learn about digital libraries, as they collect, catalog, archive, and make ETDs accessible to scholars worldwide

  • for universities to learn how to unlock the potential of their intellectual property and products

  • for graduate education to improve through more effective sharing

  • for timely sharing of technology, knowledge and peer review

Other notable collection statistics include:

  • WVU ETDs are accessed 145,000 percent more than their printed counterparts

  • WVU ETDs are accessed on average about 1 million times per year

  • There are over 2,500 documents currently in the WVU ETD collection

  • The most popular WVU ETD has been accessed over 15,000 times in the first 6 months

  • WVU ETDs are accessed in over 93 countries worldwide

  • Access to the WVU ETD research documents has grown at an exponential rate, making it the most popular collection on and off campus

  • There are a growing number of interesting WVU ETD multimedia submissions

  •  Over 77% of WVU ETDs are available worldwide on the Web (Note:  Campus-restricted ETDs are still available through the Inter-Library Loan program)

  • WVU ETDs are transforming West Virginia's economy by providing research access to the world

Additional program information and collection access can be found at http://www.wvu.edu/~thesis/ or by contacting John H. Hagen of the University Libraries at John.Hagen@mail.wvu.edu 

        

Released June 2, 2005
John.Hagen@mail.wvu.edu