How will people be able to access my ETD?
If you allow your ETD to be freely available worldwide, which we recommend (see below for reasons, and for discussion of other options), we will work to make your ETD as easily available as possible. First, we will allow access over the Internet, so people can link to the MU Library collection for browsing, and even link directly to your ETD (with a special type of URL that is not subject to change). Second, in the record for your ETD that will be in the Marshall Library catalog, we will have link information, so those searching that catalog can link directly to the ETD. Third, we will provide one or more search "engines" so that people can search the Marshall ETD collection using "full-text" searching. Fourth, we will have a mechanism so that your ETD can be found by any seeking to search the NDLTD (i.e., the full distributed collection of ETDs made available by institutions that are part of the initiative). Fifth, we will work with 3rd party organizations, such as UMI and OCLC (a not-for-profit in Dublin, Ohio that provides library cataloging and other services to libraries), to encourage them to provide access as well as archiving services.

Why should I make my ETD freely available?
The world of scholarship depends on people making their research available to others. When that is done electronically, more people can get access at lower cost, and more knowledge transfer occurs. This can stimulate education and research. It also can ensure that many people give credit to you for your work, and that your research is cited in others' publications, which adds to your prestige and can help your future advancement. We can log all accesses and provide a report to you of the count, to pass on to your supervisors, if you request this. Before theses and dissertations were available electronically, not many were read. Electronic access multiplies the number of times works are read by a factor of ten or more. Since you spent a great deal of time on your research, it should encourage you to know that others are reading that work. Your literature review may guide others, and your results may save others the time of redoing your study. With electronic theses and dissertations, students and universities can more easily share knowledge, with much lower costs. We believe that about 200,000 theses or dissertations are completed each year. It would greatly aid graduate education if as many as possible of these were made freely available. Since we aim to maximize access, we will not charge and so will not have any royalties to share.