ETD Guide/Introduction/Searching

Since in most cases it is in the interest of students and universities to maximize the visibility of their research results, the general approach of NDLTD is to encourage all parties interested to facilitate access to ETDs.

As part of the education component of NDLTD, it is hoped that graduate students will become facile with searching through electronic collections, especially those in digital libraries. If we regard managing information as a basic human need, ensuring that the next generation of scholars has such skill seems an appropriate minimal objective. Most specifically, since graduate research often builds upon prior results from other graduate researchers, it seems sensible for all ETD authors to be able to search through available ETD holdings. NDLTD encourages online resources, self-study materials, individual assistance, as well as group training activities be provided so that graduate students become knowledgeable about resource discovery, searching, query construction, query refinement, citation services, and other processes – both for ETDs and for content in their discipline.

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