EBSCO Information Services’ OpenDissertations.org Project Creates New Discovery and Business Models Around Theses and Dissertations

~EBSCO to Support Development and Discovery of Electronic Theses and Dissertations Partnering with BiblioLabs and Vireo~

Ipswich, Mass. — Nov 6, 2017 — EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) and BiblioLabs have announced the launch of a collaborative open source and open access project centered on industry innovation within Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETD). OpenDissertations.org is a project committed to open and free access to ETD metadata and content while acknowledging an expanding world of discovery options for ETD authors. BiblioLabs and EBSCO have committed software development support to the Vireo ETD Administrator Open Source Software Community and EBSCO will expose Metadata via EBSCO Discovery Service™ to drive users to Institutional Repositories.

The project is currently live with X participating libraries including British Library’s EThOS project, University of Florida, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Kentucky, and X-X-X.

Opendissertations.org has three main components:

1. Increased discovery and usage of ETDs in academic institutional repositories. Working alongside BiblioLabs, EBSCO will integrate existing Electronic Theses and Dissertations meta-data records into EBSCO Discovery Service and will open the records up to open web discovery. This free service will direct all traffic back to the Institutional Repository where the ETD is hosted with traffic reports provided to the participating universities.
2. Collaboration with the Vireo open source community. BiblioLabs and EBSCO have committed software developers to the Vireo ETD administrator open source software community. Originally built with an IMLS grant in 2010 and managed in cooperation with the Texas Digital Library (TDL), this project is the leading open source toolset for the administration and management of Theses and Dissertations.
3. Optional expanded discovery options for ETD authors. BiblioLabs has built a solution to facilitate an entirely opt-in system for authors allowing the discovery of ETD research via Amazon.com and other high-traffic online content channels.

EBSCO Information Services’ Senior Vice President of Business Development Mark Herrick says open source is an important part of EBSCO’s vision with the FOLIO Project and OpenDissertations.org is a natural extension of that commitment designed to address another critical part of the academic ecosystem. “With our initial investment in FOLIO, we committed ourselves to supporting open source as a vehicle for library innovation. With OpenDissertations.org, we are expanding our relationship with BiblioLabs and the open source software community to create new business and content access models around dissertations. We look forward to contributing to the long term sustainability of the Vireo project.”

BiblioLabs CEO Mitchell Davis says joining the Vireo community space is a great way to support the open dissertations initiatives and this important open source community. “We have a lot to learn and are excited to be contributing to the ongoing success of the open source project that has formed around this platform. We have been a long-time advocate of shared software and we are proud to add ETD’s to the work we do with other Open Access content partners such as Knowledge Unlatched, PLOS, Jisc, the British Library and others. Combining that with our ability to help students reach more people through both academic and mainstream content channels, we could not be more excited about the innovation occurring within this important stream of research.”

Co-chair of the Vireo Users Group and Electronic Resources Librarian at Texas State University Stephanie Larrison says, “The vision of the Vireo project from the onset was transformational and a lot of hard work has been done to deliver on that vision. We always welcome new talent and energy to our group and are excited to see engagement from BiblioLabs and EBSCO to contribute to the future of Vireo.”

For more information or to search the more than 800,000 dissertations available today, visit OpenDissertations.org.

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About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 11,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 1,000,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family owned company since 1944.

For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Vice President of Communications
978-356-6500 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebsco.com