Digital preservation challenges with an ETD collection: A case study at Texas Tech University

Abstract

The dangers that digital files face can seem merely the stuff of theory and risk assessment matrices until an institution experiences its first data loss; especially when those digital files represent the graduate research output of a university, the potential impact of that loss increases exponentially. The authors present a case study of the challenges one academic library has encountered in the stewardship of its electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) over the course of a decade. This article examines the problems that can arise years after the transition from a physical to electronic collection and presents documentation solutions that can make ETD preservation and curation more effective.