West Virginia University’s Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) collection has received more than 2 million hits since its inception.
“WVU is the second institution in the world to have implemented an electronic submission requirement for theses and dissertations,” said Library Technical Consultant John H. Hagen. “We followed the lead of Virginia Tech, the founder of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) consortium, to which WVU belongs.
“Provost Gerald Lang and the University Libraries were instrumental in getting our campus involved in the NDLTD consortium back in 1997,” continued Hagen. “By summer 1998 we had put together an ETD task force, delivered educational presentations to faculty, students, staff and WVU governing bodies, developed policy, and achieved a campus-wide consensus that this was the right step to take. Now we’re seeing the benefits come to fruition, both for the institution and the student.”
The program not only benefits WVU and its students, but residents of the state as well. “Students benefit from the tremendous exposure that Web distribution of digital library collections can provide,” stated Hagen. “The state benefits because WVU is now getting worldwide attention for its research. A rapid transfer of technology is taking place, transforming West Virginia’s economy by providing research access to the world.”
The most popular ETD in the WVU collection is titled “Process Control of Applied Laser System for Enhanced Glass Production” by Liyun Zheng. It was submitted to the College of Engineering and Mineral Resources to fulfill requirements for a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 2000. This document has been accessed more than 15,000 times since January 2001.

Angela Jones can be reached at:
DANewsRoom@mail.wvu.edu