IPSWICH, Mass. — April 9, 2018 — OpenDissertations.org, the project from EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) and BiblioLabs, has gone live. More than 800,000 Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD) are now available for public search and discovery, with more than one million expected by June.
EBSCO Open Dissertations™ is committed to providing open and free access to ETD metadata and content. In addition to the fully open website (www.opendissertations.org), EBSCO will include ETD metadata in EBSCO Discovery Service™ to facilitate access and improve content discovery for researchers. With more and more universities now hosting and distributing their own ETDs on the open web, EBSCO and BiblioLabs have created a service that freely aggregates and exposes this valuable content. EBSCO Open Dissertations extends access to any interested researchers worldwide and drives traffic to Institutional Repositories.
BiblioLabs CEO Mitchell Davis says the project is open to libraries around the world, and some of the first data made available for public search includes ETDs from across the U.K. that are included in the British Library’s EThOS Service. As UKSG 2018 approaches, he says there could be no better time to launch. “We are working to drive more discovery of U.K. ETDs through this project, and what better time to launch than ahead of this important U.K. Higher Ed. event. The British Library has been an amazing innovation partner working with us for years, and this project is an exciting way to extend our partnership.”
Davis says the response from libraries is letting BiblioLabs and EBSCO know they are on the right track. “We know from the number of libraries that have committed to join the project (especially the reactions we have seen in such a short time) that we have hit on a real need. We intend to build on our work with EBSCO and libraries in a way that supports the ETD community and this stream of research for the long term.”
More than 30 institutions from four continents are currently participating in the EBSCO Open Dissertations project. These institutions represent more than one million dissertations that will be searchable from www.opendissertations.org. Since the project was launched in November, more than 50 institutions have reached out to discuss the project and commit resources.
EBSCO Information Services’ Senior Vice President of Product Management Michael Laddin says the positive response to the project in such a short time shows that EBSCO Open Dissertations is meeting a real need to make ETD information more accessible. “We are committed to supporting more open source software models in the library industry. With OpenDissertations.org, we are creating new content discovery paradigms around which EBSCO and libraries can partner more closely, and we are working with BiblioLabs to unlock that potential.”
Opendissertations.org is the next step in an ongoing effort to open access to dissertations. In 2014, EBSCO and the H.W. Wilson Foundation created American Doctoral Dissertations, which contained indexing from the H.W. Wilson print publication, Doctoral Dissertations Accepted by American Universities, 1933-1955. In 2015, the H.W. Wilson Foundation agreed to support the expansion of the scope of the American Doctoral Dissertations database to include records for dissertations and theses from 1955 to the present with the goal of creating a single portal for ETDs which could be added to university profiles and accessed online.
To see a demonstration during UKSG in Glasgow, visit the EBSCO booth. To learn more about the Open Dissertations project, visit www.opendissertations.org or find out how to become part of EBSCO Open Dissertations. Libraries interested in participating can also contact their EBSCO representative.
About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 11,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 1,000,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family-owned company since 1944.
About BiblioLabs
BiblioLabs is a leader in Open Education Resource (OER) and OA content creation, curation and distribution software to academic institutions. Based in Charleston, South Carolina, their BiblioBoard platform aims to transform student and researcher access to information by delivering a simple, intuitive and modern user experience and delivering the best OER and OA content creation tools. They work with public and academic institutions of all sizes to democratize access to information and lower costs for students.
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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Vice President of Communications
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebsco.com
