Automated Thesis and Dissertation Processing

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Automated Thesis and Dissertation Processing

• Xiaochang (Shaw) Yu
• Systems Librarian, VCU Libraries
• John K. Duke
• Senior Associate University Librarian, VCU
  Libraries

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Outline

• Introduction
• System Overview
• System Highlights
• Conclusion

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I. Introduction
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• Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) has
  developed an online system to automate the
  submission and processing procedures for theses
  and dissertations that have been created in
  either paper or digital formats.

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VCU a comprehensive research university in
Richmond, Virginia

• 29,000 students
• 91 graduate degree programs (26 doctoral and 65
  masters)
• Over 200M research program
• 1,500 graduate degrees awarded annually

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An emerging university

• Twenty of VCUs programs are cited by U.S. News
  World Report as among the best in the United
  States, with two being ranked number one.

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The problem

• Students forced to visit three different
  locations on campus
• A complicated set of paper forms
• Explosive growth of student population strained
  the library

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Our solution

• Automate processing to make the procedure
  smoother for the students at VCU and more
  beneficial to the library.

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Guest access

• https//www.library.vcu.edu/cfapps/tdp/login.cfm
• User ID etd2005
• Password etd2005

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II. System Overview
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Two major components

• A public subsystem

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The public subsystem

• Web forms receive student inputs
• Student information
• Bibliographic information
• Additional information
• Payment methods

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The staff subsystem

• Divided into two parts
• Receive documents and payments
• Track the internal workflow

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Technical overview

• ColdFusion processing language
• Connects to a Netscape LDAP
• Microsoft SQL back-end database

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A Diagram
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III. System Highlights
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Important guideposts

• Populate student information from LDAP to
  minimize user inputs
• Utilize online credit card transaction to
  facilitate payment
• Extend the system to track the internal workflow
• Employ session variables to handle multiple Web
  forms

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LDAP minimizes user inputs
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LDAP minimizes user input (2)
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Online credit card transactions
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Track internal workflow
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Session variables handle multiple forms

• The Web is a stateless environment. To build an
  application sharing data across multiple forms,
  requires
• Cookie variables
• URL variables
• ColdFusion persistent session variables

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IV. Conclusion
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• The development of the automated thesis and
  dissertation processing system has been an
  unqualified success at VCU.

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Benefits to the students

• Less keying of data, faster processing, and more
  understandable presentation of payment options
• Students no longer place-bound to finish out
  their university education
• Rough edges smoothed out to help the students
  exit the university gracefully

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Benefits to the staff

• Increased accuracy of the data we collect
• Reduced calculation errors in the payment option
• Improved workflow after theses and dissertations
  have been submitted
• Developed ways to reuse data for cataloging

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Future developments

• Tighter integration with our ETD application, so
  payment and processing options are captured at
  time document is submitted
• Write out a MARC-like record for catalogers to
  work on from the data captured by the system,
  rather than having to copy and paste

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Thank you for your attention!

• Xiaochang (Shaw) Yu xyu_at_vcu.edu
• John K. Duke jkduke_at_vcu.edu
• Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries

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Questions?