Intriguing New Model for Improved Visibility and Access to Theses and Dissertations

The George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida (UF) are participating in an innovative program to explore whether making electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) available in print through online retail sites can have positive impacts for graduates, the University, and the general public. Digitization and metadata enhancement have improved discoverability and ease of access for ETDs in the Institutional Repository at the University of Florida (IR@UF). However, through this new program, research can be shared widely beyond academe with practitioners, corporate researchers, independent scholars, and international readers.

This paper will describe how the Smathers Libraries have worked with a corporate partner, BiblioLabs, to leverage online retailers’ discovery engines to promote print versions of ETDs while alerting readers to the free digital versions available in the IR@UF. This paper will also share how alumni, current graduate students, and other campus stakeholders have responded to the pilot of this new service. The Libraries are monitoring referred traffic to the IR and sales data. UF is the first university to contribute content to this effort, but we expect others to follow suit if the data supports the expectations of the University, the Libraries, and our graduates.