A complete system for publishing music-related ETDs

Abstract

Purpose – There is no proposed solution to address the unresolved issues of publishing music-related electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) pertaining to technology availability, copyright, and preservation. The purpose of this paper is to propose a complete system, including technology development and publishing model, which addresses the existing issues of publishing music-related ETDs. The paper shares the practice of utilizing the system developed by Texas Tech University Libraries known as Streaming Audio and Video Experience (SAVE), and proposes it as a solution for other multimedia collections. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed system includes a technology solution and a publishing model. The technology solution, SAVE, contains an authenticated streaming multimedia player, a responsive-design user interface, and a web-based submission and management system. The publishing model combines a DSpace-based institutional repository (IR) with SAVE and preservation strategies. Findings – The integrated system of SAVE and DSpace-based IR expands the access of music-related ETDs and other multimedia collections to patrons, benefits the distance education students as well as the local students, facilitates professors’ classroom teaching, and helps to preserve physical multimedia items by avoiding check-outs. Originality/value – The SAVE solution resolves issues of publishing music-related ETDs, fulfills the local needs of publishing hundreds of music-related ETDs from the College of Visual and Performing Arts, and supports the publishing of other multimedia collections. The software will be released open source to the public for other universities’ use. The publishing model is also useful for those universities that intend to integrate an IR with the streaming player platform.