Leveraging Author-Supplied Metadata, OAI-PMH, and XSLT to Catalog ETDs: A Case Study at a Large Research Library

Abstract

Most academic theses and dissertations are now born-digital assets (i.e., electronic theses and dissertations). As such, they often coexist with author-supplied metadata that has the potential for being repurposed and enhanced to facilitate discovery and access in an online environment. The authors describe the evolution of the electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) cataloging workflow at a large research library, from the era of print to the present day, with emphasis on the challenges and opportunities of harvesting author-supplied metadata for cataloging ETDs. The authors provide detailed explanations of the harvesting process, creating code for the metadata transformations, loading records, and quality assurance procedures.