West Virginia University Provost Gerald Lang will join a team of experts at the Third International Symposium on Electronic Theses and Dissertations, to be held March 16-18 at the University of South Florida.

As of August 1998, WVU became the second academic institution in the world to have implemented a mandatory electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) submission policy, following the lead of Virginia Tech, founders of the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD).

To this day, WVU holds its position as a leader in the field, since most institutions have adopted a”wait-and-see attitude,”according to Ruth Nellis, chair of WVU ’s ETD task force.

“Although the NDLTDs international consortium has grown to over 70 members since 1997, most have only implemented preliminary studies or pilot programs. The WVU team intends to emphasize the merits of adopting a mandatory ETD program, in terms of positive exposure for the student and institution, facilitation of research via Web distribution and cost efficiency,”she said.

Dr. Lang will appear as a plenary panelist in a session entitled Straight Talk: The Provosts and Deans’Views on ETDs, along with John Eaton, associate provost, Graduate School, Virginia Tech; and Peter D. Syverson, vice president for Research and Information Services, Council of Graduate Schools. Together, they will present the successes of the Virginia Tech and WVU programs, explore the realities of digital publishing within the academic community and provide encouragement and support to other university administrators who are considering the development of ETD programs of their own.

Other WVU presenters include: Kathy Fletcher, technical consultant, Academic Computing, who will present Advice from the Front Line: Providing Computer Support for ETD Preparation; Daniel F. Ferreras, associate professor, Department of Foreign Languages, who will present New Media Scholarship: The Changing Face of Graduate Research in the Digital Frontier; and John H. Hagen, technical consultant, University Libraries, who will co-present a case study with Gail McMillan of V-Tech entitled ETD Implementation: the Two Virginias&Their Strategies for Successfully Requiring Electronic Submissions of ETDs. Rich Goldman, ETD Task Force graduate student representative, will also accompany the team.

Additionally, the University Libraries will co-sponsor the publication of this years symposium proceedings through a variety of electronic venues; Hagen will serve as co-editor.

For more information, visit the Web sites athttp://etd.eng.usf.edu/Conference/andhttp://www.wvu.edu/~thesis/