Three Disposition Policies of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, we examine the disposition policies of Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) among three institutions: National Documentation Centre of Greece (NDC), Virginia Tech (VT) and West Virginia University (WVU) of USA. Also, we compare the implemented disposition policies by the three institutions. We analyze their similarities and differences. We select the three institutions because they comprise a representative sample of different national ETD initiatives. At this new stage of the ETDs, there are various problems such as the security of the digital material, the control of the access to the digital content and the selection of disposition policy or policies of the digital content. These questions demand further investigation. While the content of the dissertations and the technologies to provide them exist, the availability is limited by the absence of decisions concerning the applicability of policies. We suggest alternative access policies in order the ETDs to be more open and accessible to all. We analyze these questions and make suggestions about the solution approaches of these problems, especially solutions about the disposition policies of the digital material. In these proposed disposition policies, we take into account some criteria, such as, to be acceptable from all (Students, Universities, Providers, Publishers etc.), to conform to the current national legislation on copyrights, to ensure the viability of the digital libraries of ETDs etc. Finally, we compare the implemented and the proposed policies. The more restricted proposed policies try to ensure better security of the digital material, to eliminate the fears of the publishers about prior publication, to ensure funds for the viability of the digital libraries of ETDs or to serve the different classes of users according to their various needs and their financial capabilities.