Research Data Access and Preservation Summit, 2015 Minneapolis, MN April 22-23, 2015 Part of "Current Issues and Approaches to Curating Student Research Data" Dianne Dietrich, Physics and Astronomy Librarian, Cornell University Wendy Kozlowski, Scientific Data Curation Specialist, Cornell University

1. Data Curation Issues for Electronic
Theses and Dissertations
at Cornell University Library
Dianne Dietrich
Wendy Kozlowski
23 April 2015 – RDAP2015

2. Original ETD Workflow
• Separate systems
• No connection between print and electronic
versions
• Students needed accounts in our IR
Self-deposit to
Institutional
Repository
Library
Catalogs
Print Copy

3. ETD Document Workflow
Cornell Graduate School workflow system
Handles electronic submission of theses and dissertations
Custom scripts to pull subset of data
to generate submission packets for
DSpace and MARC records
Graduation
Manager
Library
Server
Institutional
Repository
and Catalog
“Once you have
defended …
the entire document
may be submitted.”
By that point…
where is the data?
ETD Document
and related
metadata
+ Data
+ ETD Data and
metadata

4. ETD Document Workflow+ Data
Graduation
Manager
Library
Server
Institutional
Repository
and Catalog
Interact
with the
student!
Interact
AGAIN!

5. Interaction Timing
• First-year students?
• After the majority of classes are completed or
after qualifying / A-exams?
• Fellowship applicants (eg. NSF DDIG, EPA Star,
NEH)?
• Beginning to write their dissertation?
• Graduation orientation / those likely to
graduate within one-two semesters?
• ALL OF THESE?

6. IR Infrastructure
• Link data to ETD document and other
publications
• Suggested citation
• DataCite DOIs
• Creative Commons licensing
• Versioning
• Enhanced metadata elements
<GeoLocation> <Time > <Replaces/IsReplacedBy>
<RightsURI> <IsRelatedTo>(?)

7. Planning and Policy
• Support of faculty
• Ownership of data
eg. collaboratively written code
• Storage vs. preservation
• Embargo
• Implementation might vary by department
• Importance of communication throughout
entire process

8. Where are we going from here?
• Work with library liaisons, current students
and department contacts to test and optimize
IR workflow for data
• Settle on IR workflow?
• Once IR workflow in place, go back to
Graduate School Office to incorporate ETD
data options into the Graduate Manager
system

9. Thank you
Dianne Dietrich dd338@cornell.edu
Wendy Kozlowski wak57@cornell.edu
http://data.research.cornell.edu
Reuse and distribution of this content is freely allowed.
Please do give the authors credit by citing the content as:
Dietrich, Dianne and Wendy Kozlowski. (2015) Data Curation
Issues for Electronic Theses and Dissertations at Cornell
University Library. Presented at Research Data Access and
Preservation Summit. 23 April 2015. Minneapolis, MN.