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<font size=3>Hi Scott,<br><br>
The nice thing about DSpace is that you can have a thesis (or any item)
appear in more than one community and collection. At MIT we have
all the theses together under the MIT Libraries community (in the thesis
sub-community), since that is the "owning" community (we are
the curators of the theses). But we also have mapped each thesis to
its degree-granting department. Take a look at
<a href="http://dspace.mit.edu/" eudora="autourl">http://dspace.mit.edu</a>.
<br><br>
I don't think anyone will look for them in the Libraries community, but
we will be putting a pointer to that sub-community on the home page once
we have finished loading the bulk of our thesis collection. <br><br>
Hope this helps,<br><br>
Margret Branschofsky <br><br>
At 05:01 PM 7/13/2005 -0400, Scott P. Muir wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>We are in the early stages of
creating a repository of Theses and Dissertations. I am trying to
develop an analysis of our options for organizing materials, especially
with an end-user approach.<br><br>
My reference librarians advise that most students come in and ask to see
all the (print) thesis written by students in a particular discipline,
e.g. Biology, History, etc. If we chose a "communities"
structure model that is based on our Colleges and Departments structure
that would readily address that issue. However, it could also create a
situation where in the initial stages of this work, one might find only
one thesis in the History repository, which might not look so good.
On the other hand, if we collected all the thesis into a single
"thesis" community, then it becomes harder for the History or
Biology department to claim those publications as part of their
community.<br><br>
As we weigh the pros and cons of the possible approaches, and there are
likely others, I thought perhaps many of you had already addressed these
questions. Would anyone out there be willing to share their
thoughts, the options you considered and why you chose one particular
model over another? I do realize that this is a question for which
there is not a right or wrong answer, but I would be interested in what
your processes were.<br><br>
My thinking has even led me to ask who is the end user? Is it a
community or is it what we librarians consider our typical library
patron, Designing for these two different communities could have
different outcomes too.<br><br>
Anyway thank you for any assistance you can offer.<br><br>
Scott P Muir<br>
Associate University Librarian<br>
Bruce T. Halle Library, Room 200F<br>
Eastern Michigan University<br>
955 West Circle Drive<br>
Ypsilanti, MI 48197-2207<br><br>
734.487.0020 x2222 (voice)<br>
734.484.1151 (fax)<br>
<a href="http://www.emich.edu/halle/" eudora="autourl">http://www.emich.edu/halle/</a><br><br>
<a href="mailto:scott.muir@emich.edu" eudora="autourl">mailto:scott.muir@emich.edu</a>
<br>
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