OpenstarTs: a "lean" approach to ETD publishing

In November 2004, almost all Italian Universities subscribed the Berlin declaration on open access during a seminal workshop promoted by the Italian Conference of Rectors. The University of Trieste accordingly put forward a project aimed at setting up an institutional repository for archiving, storing and preserving electronic theses and dissertations (OpenstarTs). Theses are to be considered both administrative documents and intellectual works. They are all born digital; therefore they can be digitally archived. The whole workflow of the submission of theses needs to be redesigned by integrating the schedules already in place while avoiding duplications. This entails the elimination of paper copies altogether; a godsend, given our dramatic space problems! Digital archiving through and OAI compliant system enhances the visibility of graduates in the eyes of potential employers as their works are widely and effectively disseminated thanks to interoperability and compliance to the metadata harvesting protocol. DSpace, an open source software maintained by MIT and HP, which can rely on a lively international federation, was chosen as it fulfilled our requirements and was duly customized to reshape the workflow as follows. Students (as well as administrative and academic staff) are recognized through their registration numbers via the on campus authentication system (LDAP). The registrar’s department data warehouse holds all the relevant information on the students’ academic careers. These data are certified and have a legal value, as awards are automatically produced by the system. The data required when submitting theses and dissertations are therefore checked and validated within the registrar’s existing system. Self-archiving procedures are consequently simplified to a huge extent, and students find the submission interface extremely friendly and usable. They only have to type their registration number and the system retrieves the metadata related to their theses, such as faculty, course, supervisor and tutor names, academic year, and provisional title (which is modifiable). The error probability fall downs to zero. Students can then focus on providing accurate “semantic” metadata: keywords, abstracts and tables of contents. The last step is to attach as many files as the chapters of their theses and to specify the permissions on each file. Students are entitled to the intellectual property of theses, as the law protects the form and expression of ideas, not ideas themselves. The theses submitted can therefore have a mixed availability status, according to the will of their authors. As soon as the students submit their theses, OpenstarTs accordingly notifies it to the registrar’s department data warehouse, and students can relax and prepare until the defence day comes. No need to print out and bind expensive paper copies, let alone queuing up to hand them in! After the successful presentation and defence of theses, metadata are validated and theses enter the repository to all purposes. In time our institutional repository will be opened up to all the University intellectual production by tailoring the OpenstarTs model to educational and research purposes and needs.