NDLTD: Preparing the next generation of scholars for the information age

The NDLTD is an international consortium aimed at improving graduate education, enhancing universities’ information infrastructure, and increasing scholarship by sharing through digital libraries. The NDLTD's success can be measured in different ways. For example, overall we can look at the number of universities that are members, and by the completion of milestones at each individual university. For the ETDs themselves, we can look at the number of ETDs received, and at the quality of those ETDs. The NDLTD is emerging at a time when there are widespread efforts at establishing digital libraries. As digital libraries become central to the scholarly enterprise, it is necessary that all new works be prepared in electronic form. The success of the NDLTD depends on adopting sensible strategies for the future. Standards must be developed, interoperability must be assured by overcoming both technical and social issues, and the NDLTD must demonstrate the necessary scalability to continue to grow. During its firs...