NDLTD ETD Awards - 2009 Winners
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) consortium is pleased to announce this year's award winners. The awards recognize students who have written exemplary electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs). These ETDs demonstrate new dimensions of scholarship being explored by individuals who have made significant contributions to the worldwide ETD movement.
The Awards Program includes several categories of appreciation. The Innovative ETD Award recognizes student efforts to transform the genre of the print dissertation through the use of innovative software to create cutting edge ETDs. Use of renderings, photos, video and other multimedia objects that are included in the electronic document were considered as part of the innovation of the work. The Innovative Learning through ETDs Award recognizes a student whose professional life has been enhanced by the ETD process. Finally, the ETD Leadership Award recognizes members of the university community whose leadership and vision has helped raise awareness of the benefits of ETDs, and whose efforts have improved graduate education through the use of ETDs. The awards will be presented at the ETD 2009 Symposium, to be held this year at the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 10 – 13 June 2009. http://www.library.pitt.edu/etd2009/
ETD Award Winners
Innovative ETD
Raquel Gutierrez / “Life-Affirming Leadership: An Inquiry into the Culture of Social Justice.” Ph.D., Leadership and Change, Antioch University, 2008
URL: http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?acc_num=antioch1226609058
Lara Fackrell / “Equestrian communities: design features and development process.” Master of Landscape Architecture; Kansas State University, 2008
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/2097/792
Kelly C. Barkhurst / “Design Taking Action: A holistic approach to design problem solving applied to disease education.” Master of Fine Arts, College of Creative Arts, West Virginia University, 2008
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10450/6003
Innovative Learning Through ETDs
Shirley Stewart Burns / Ph.D. History, West Virginia University
Shirley’s ETD, "Bringing Down the Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal on Southern West Virginia Communities”, has allowed her to accomplish her goal of raising the public consciousness and discourse about mountain top removal. She was able to reach a world-wide audience almost instantaneously, resulting in publication of a book that is now in use in the K-12 and higher education curriculum. A press release about her success is available at http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/news/page/6644/. Her dissertation is available at http://hdl.handle.net/10450/4047
Jeffrey Cougler / Master of Fine Arts, Computer Graphics Design, Rochester Institute of Technology
Jeffrey’s thesis project, titled “ASL Finger Challenge, is an online interactive, instructional application for improving finger spelling reception when using American Sign Language. The significance of his work and its applicability to finger spelling in other languages was recognized and rewarded with a Fulbright Scholarship to Italy. From January through July 2007, Jeffrey conducted research in Rome, Italy, where he created an additional fingerspelling reception module using the Language of Italian Signs.
ETD Leadership
Thomas Dowling,Assistant Director, Library Systems, Client/Server, OhioLink, Columbus, OH, U.S.A.
Thomas has led the way in the adoption of electronic theses and dissertations in Ohio by creating and managing OhioLINK’s Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, a consortium of 88 universities and colleges. OhioLink serves as a model for digital library consortia networks, and is the first ETD consortium established in the world. The OhioLink Web site is available at http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/.
John H. Hagen, Manager, Institutional Repository Programs and Coordinator, Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Program at the West Virginia University (WVU) Libraries, Morgantown, WV, U.S.A.
Over the past decade, John’s commitment to ETDs at WVU has resulted in a program that serves as a model for many other universities. John has led regional and international workshops for the NDLTD, and he has hosted many visitors who come to WVU to learn about the ETD program. John has become recognized internationally for his ETD implementation and open access advocacy. More information about John is available at http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/theses/index_JH.htm.
April 13, 2009: Christine Jewell, NDLTD Board Member and Awards Committee Chair
NDLTD Innovation & Leadership Awards
The Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) consortium is pleased to announce the 2009 ETD Awards program. We invite all NDLTD members to nominate individuals they feel deserve the recognition!
The awards include several categories of appreciation.
The Innovative ETD Award recognizes student efforts to transform the genre of the print dissertation through the use of innovative software to create multimedia ETDs.
The Innovative Learning through ETDs Award a student whose professional life has been enhanced by the ETD process.
The ETD Leadership Award recognizes members of the university community whose leadership and vision has helped raise awareness of the benefits of ETDs and whose efforts have improved graduate education and research through the use of ETDs.
The awards will be presented at the ETD 2009 Symposium, to be held June 10 - 13, 2009 at the University of Pittsburgh, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Eligibility, Nomination Procedures and Evaluation Criteria
Nominations will be reviewed by a panel of ETD experts, including members of the NDLTD Board of Directors Awards Committee. Active members of the NDLTD Awards Committee are not eligible for nomination. Awards will be presented at the annual ETD International Symposium.
Winners are encouraged but not required to attend the ETD Symposium. We request that winners who cannot attend the Symposium record a video acceptance message (approximately 2 - 3 minutes) that can be presented at the Symposium Awards ceremony and distributed online, or provide an acceptance message in writing (500 words or less).
Nomination letters should include:
- A brief description (1,000 words or less) of background information, detail of the merits of the work and justification for nomination.
- Additional letters of support (i.e. from faculty, administration, students, Library or Graduate School Dean, Provost, etc.).
- Complete contact information for both the nominator and nominee, including home and/or University postal and email addresses.
Examples of previous award winners, links to multimedia ETDs and acceptance speech videos are available at http://www.ndltd.org/community/awards/etd-awards.
Nominations must be sent by email to ETD Awards Committee Chair Christine Jewell (University of Waterloo) at cjewell@uwaterloo.ca.
Deadline for Nominations: March 1, 2009
Specific Awards Category Information and Requirements
Innovative ETD Award
ETDs submitted for this award must represent student efforts to transform the genre of the print dissertation through the use of ETDs. This award recognizes innovative use of software to create "cutting edge" ETDs. The application and integration of renderings, photos, data sets, software code and other multimedia objects that are included in the document will be considered as part of the innovation of the work.
- An ETD can be nominated by an administrator, faculty member, librarian or student (self-nomination). The nominator and the nominee's University should be affiliated with the NDLTD.
- Each NDLTD member may submit up to 2 nominees; self-nominations are not included in the institutional count.
- The nomination for these awards should include links to the archived work, along with a brief statement about how the work uses technology to enhance the presentation of research.
- ETD nominations may be in PDF and/or open (non-PDF) formats. Submissions of PDF formats should include hyper-linking and/or the source URL to any included supplementary multimedia material.
- The ETD must be distributed online as open access.
- The ETD should have been approved for graduation during the 2007 calendar year (January through December 2007), although we will consider nominations from previous years as well.
- There may be up to six winners.
- Each winner will receive $800.*
Innovative Learning through ETDs Award
A student whose professional life has been enhanced by the ETD process (not to include the value of the degree earned) will be recognized.
- Self-nomination is appropriate for this award.
- Nominees for this award may also be simultaneously nominated for the Innovative ETD award.
- The nomination for this award should include a short essay (1,000 words or less) describing the student's ETD experience and how it improved/changed their graduate experience and their professional life.
- The ETD may still be in-process or already completed at the time of nomination.
- There is no time limit on when the ETD may have been completed.
- There may be up to two winners.
- Each winner will receive $500.*
ETD Leadership Award
This is open to individuals whose leadership and vision has helped raise awareness of the benefits of ETDs and whose efforts have improved graduate education through the use of ETDs. Letters of nomination should include details about the individual's ETD related activities and how the nominee's leadership has made significant advances in the area of ETDs at the local, regional, national or international levels.
- Nominations should be submitted by the nominee's supervisor or related University administrator.
- The nominee's institution must be affiliated as an NDLTD member university.
- There may be up to two winners.
- Each winner will receive $1,000.*
*I.R.S regulations require the NDLTD to report all award amounts distributed; citizens of the United States must provide a valid Social Security number to receive award distributions. Winners must agree to the conditions set forth in the eligibility requirements listed here and NDLTD policy. Winners must also agree to make acceptance / acknowledgments materials available to the NDLTD for the purpose of international promotions.
