ETD Guide/Students/Typical workflow, local policies and procedures

Apart from the ADT Program support processes described above, local workflow and policies within the ADT membership will vary. Typically, what is most common across all members is that the libraries are driving the ADT Program through their respective institutions, providing all levels of support and provision of information, and that only research theses are acceptable - i.e. PhD or Masters by research. What is less common is the local procedures insofar as how theses are deposited to the local server, who has the authority to approve/make public and administer the program and how the ADT theses are integrated within the local IT infrastructure. Access to theses also varies between institutions. While most encourage and actively support free and unrestricted access, some take a much more conservative approach and restrict all theses to the local domain. Obviously, all institutions will apply some temporary restrictions to access if required, for reasons of patents pending, copyright and upcoming publications. An example of workflow, policies & procedures at The University of New South Wales [UNSW] Library is as follows:
 * UNSW Library provide support as required, see 3.4.1. above.
 * When theses are deposited, auto alerts are sent to the student, supervisor, the ADT coordinator and the cataloguers
 * The cataloguers are responsible for checking the theses are original and have been awarded. They edit the metadata to include appropriate thesaurus terms/subject headings. The cataloguers are also responsible for approving the theses and making them public. They also catalogue the theses into the local OPAC and the National Bibliographic Database. These ETDs are then available via the national distributed ADT database, the local view of the ADT database [i.e. UNSW-ETDs only], the local OPAC and the National Bibliographic database.  Most are available unrestricted with a few restricted to the local domain due to copyright reasons
 * Two separate units are responsible for the ADT Program at UNSW Library. The General Services Department's Learning Support Unit provides all support, promotion and associated information. The cataloguing department is responsible for administration of the ETDs when deposited to the server. The ADT coordinator at UNSW is also the overall coordinator and is responsible for liaising and guiding the program at the national level.

Next Section: Becoming a researcher in the electronic age