Final Recommendations of the Electronic Theses and Dissertations committee for vote be the Faculty Senate 5/5/05

The University of Montana- Missoula will embark on a program for Electronic Doctoral Dissertations.

R1) The student, in consultation with their committee, will recommend one of 5 levels of access restrictions to the Graduate School for their online dissertation. The 5 levels follow:

1. Freely available worldwide.

2. Freely available to current students, faculty, and staff of the University only

3. No access for a period of one year. (This can be extended in one year increments by contacting the Graduate School) This option addresses situations such as when a patent application is planned, or when proprietary interests are at stake.

4. Release the entire work for UM access only, and selected portions worldwide.

5. No Access

R2) The basic format for an electronic dissertation will be Adobe PDF. Supporting files for audio/video materials will also be allowed. The file formats listed below are supported.

Text - pdf

Images- pdf, jpeg, gif, tiff, png

Video- mpeg, quicktime, avi

Audio- wav, aiff, mp3,

R3) Students will be required to submit the committee approved draft electronically to the Graduate School at least one week before the defense.

R4) Students will be required to submit 1 paper copy of the final committee approved dissertations along with the original signed title page and signed Mansfield Library permission form, and 1 electronic copy of the final dissertation to the Graduate School for certification. The Graduate School will submit both certified copies to the library.

R5) The Graduate School will continue to copyright and archive the certified dissertations with UMI

R6) The certified paper copy submitted by the graduate school will be bound and kept in the University Archives. Supporting files may be archived in electronic format. The library will charge students on a cost-recovery basis for the binding. Departments are free to print a paper copy for departmental collections from the electronic copy or require the student to provide a paper copy.

R7) The library will be responsible for protecting, preserving and maintaining access to the certified electronic copy of the dissertation by following Best Management Practices.

R8) The library and graduate school will work together to develop an online tutorial to ensure the successful production of electronic dissertations.

R9) The library will install Adobe Acrobat on the main floor computers to allow for conversion of the completed dissertation to PDF format. Additionally several workstations are available for full multimedia creation.

R10) Masters thesis and professional papers will be considered for inclusion in the same process, with the same recommendations, potentially excluding ProQuest/UMI, after the successful implementation of electronic doctoral dissertations.