EThOS: an update
Electronic Theses Online Service
Opening access to UK theses

Main Aims
• The aim of EThOS is: To offer a 'single point of access'
where researchers the world over can access ALL
theses produced by UK Higher Education
• To support Higher Education Institutions through the
transition from print to e-theses
• To help UK Higher Education Institutions expand
available content by digitising paper theses
• To demonstrate the quality of UK research and help
attract students and research investment into UK HE

How
• 114 HE institutions currently participate in the scheme
with a smaller number participating in full harvesting of
data
• Many support open access (including KU) so digitising of
their theses is free to the researcher
• Items can be supplied in digital form or digitised in
response to an order – there is a £40 cost each time a
thesis is digitised
• Items can then be searched at http://ethos.bl.uk/

How … continued
• Copyright holder approached to grant permission (since
2008 all new authors have been asked to give
permission on submission of thesis)
• If copyright holder can’t be found after ‘best endeavours’
go ahead anyway; can remove item from EThOS if there
is an objection
• Non-commercial, personal use only – not for adding to a
collection or networking

Why are we involved?
• Likely that in the future there will be less print theses and
more supplied in digital format
• Higher visibility of KU research content outside the
institution = increased interest and investment
• Perpetual preservation of e-theses at a central hub at the
British Library in Boston Spa
• Digitised content can be added to KU repository (full-
text, not just metadata); although we are only looking to
add metadata at the moment

Facts and figures
• 44,000 theses listed in the EThOS database
• 482 theses from KU have been made available
• 30 day turnaround time for a thesis to be digitised once it
has been supplied to BL
• Scheme has just passed its 2nd birthday in January 2011
• 65,000 registered users on the system
• New service and business model due from September
2011 (comes out of project phase)

What is UKRR?
The United Kingdom Research Reserve
Collaborative storage of low use printed research
material

Main Aims
• To protect research information and scholarly
publishing
• To maintain access to low use material which
might otherwise have been thrown away
• To release valuable shelf space by sharing
storage across the HE community

How
• British Library retains 1 copy of each title
• 2 copies are held by other libraries within the
project
• All other holdings across the UKRR project can
be disposed of
• Access is maintained through the British Library
24 hour Document Delivery Service

What impact does it have on us?
• Subject teams have to identify low use journals for
inclusion
• The journals included need to be considered
‘scholarly’
• Collections team needs to spend a lot of time
physically checking our holdings and identifying
gaps
• Collections will then also spend a lot of time
disposing of stock and transferring titles to BL
• There will be a lot of updating of holdings in the
catalogue and shunting of material

Impact continued…
• Space was created at Penrhyn Road to assist
with the building project
• Kingston Hill journals collection will all be in the
one place, rather than split according to years
• Penrhyn Road will no longer have journal
holdings split between the store and the ground
floor rolling stack
• Reducing the size of the collection at Knights
Park will allow it to fit in the reduced shelving
available in the new build

Why are we involved?
• Shelf space is being reduced across sites due to
building works
• Pressure to create more and better study
spaces
• HEFCE funding allocated per metre
• £17,073 raised so far
• In total the project is predicted to raise £39,000
• The overall size of our stock is growing, but we
are not in a position to increase our shelving

Why … continued…
• Prestige
• Up until recently we were the only modern university
involved in the project
• We have helped to fill gaps in the British Library
holdings
• Project has led to us being included in SUNCAT
• We are playing a part in preserving access to unique
titles

The story so far… Phase 1 2009
• Mainly covered science titles at Penrhyn Road,
but did also cover some FASS titles
• 80 titles covering 203 metres were offered
• Holdings of 10 titles were transferred to the
British Library
• We were asked to retain 2 titles
• The rest was disposed of, creating space on the
ground floor

The Story so far…. Phase 2 2010/11
• All subject teams involved at all sites
• 570 titles offered, covering 450 linear metres
• We were asked to retain 28 full runs and 39 part
runs
• Part or full holdings of 140 titles were requested
by British Library
• Around 400 metres of stock can now be
disposed of, which we are in the process of
completing

What’s next… Phase 2
• Complete removal of approved stock from
Penrhyn Road and Kingston Hill
• Complete updating of holdings on catalogue
• Transfer requested titles to BL
• Put ground floor rolling stack at Penrhyn Road in
alphabetic order and label

What’s next… Phase 3
• More titles for inclusion need to be identified
• Aim to offer another 500 metres
• Titles offered from Knights Park to be moved to
Penrhyn Road