Texas Digital Library Projects

Statewide ETD Repository | Thesis and Dissertation Submittal System | Shibboleth Federation | Manakin / DSpace 1.5 | Faculty Services | Preservation Network

The Texas Digital Library (TDL) staff focuses efforts upon a few projects at a time. Current TDL development projects are listed below and are updated quarterly. For a list of existing TDL services, please visit the TDL Services page.

For additional information on current and past TDL projects, see the TDL Publications and Presentations page.

Statewide ETD Repository

With the backing of a grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Studies (IMLS), the Texas Digital Library’s largest current project is the creation of a digital repository housing electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) from colleges and universities across Texas. At present, the ETD repository includes submissions from four TDL member institutions, while future plans include soliciting ETDs from universities all over the state of Texas. The implementation of this project builds upon other TDL initiatives, including the Shibboleth Federation and the Preservation Network.

back to top

Thesis and Dissertation Submittal System

While the creation of electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) is increasingly common at colleges and universities worldwide, the automation of their submission, review, and deposition in a repository is mostly uncharted territory. The TDL’s Thesis and Dissertation Submittal System addresses all three concerns, providing a web-based student submission interface and administrative management interface, as well as automated deposit in the TDL ETD repository. The system is being developed as an open source project, using Manakin and DSpace, and will be available for adoption by any university. During the spring of 2008, the system is undergoing extensive testing and a limited trial by students and administrators at Texas A&M University and the University of Texas at Austin.

back to top

Shibboleth Federation

Much of what the TDL does relies upon or is enhanced by access to basic information about the user -- is he or she affiliated with a Texas institution of higher education? Which one? In what role? The answers to these questions are held by TDL member institutions, and the TDL makes use of this distributed information through a federated authentication system, Shibboleth. If your university is a member of the federation, you can log on to any TDL service using the same ID and password that you use to access your university services. For more information on the Shibboleth federation, please visit the Shibboleth section of the TDL publications and presentations page.

back to top

Manakin / DSpace 1.5

Manakin is a customizable interface developed for the open source digital repository DSpace. Manakin provides a more flexible and user-friendly interface to the repository software, allowing organizational branding, metadata visualization, and look-and-feel changes both at the macro level and also at the level of individual communities, collections, and items. Already released with DSpace version 1.4, Manakin will become the default interface for DSpace 1.5, due to be released in March of 2008. For more information on Manakin, please visit the Manakin / DSpace section of the TDL publications and presentations page.

back to top

Faculty Services

A variety of collaborative services targeting faculty members is scheduled for release in the summer of 2008. These services include blogs, wikis, and web pages as means for communicating with colleagues and posting information less formally than through conventional publication venues. In addition, the TDL online journals service is being upgraded and released more widely, to provide a full submission and review workflow and publication interface for member faculty. Further, faculty will be able to use an online application to request individual services. For updates on which services are available to faculty, please visit the TDL Services Request System.

back to top

Preservation Network

The preservation of the digital assets stored in the TDL is a fundamental concern to be addressed as part of all the TDL's services. A robust preservation network is being designed to provide long-term storage of digital information, geographically distributed storage nodes, and migration of supported formats to preserve the ability to access materials into the future.

back to top