Integrating institutional and national repositories: the Welsh e-theses harvesting service

Abstract

The Welsh e-thesis harvesting service has been developed as part of the JISC funded Welsh Repository Network Enhancement Project (WRN-EP) in conjunction with the National Library of Wales (NLW). The purpose of this service is to create an online Welsh e-theses collection to be hosted and preserved by the NLW. Utilising software developed within the previous JISC funded Repository Bridge Project; the NLW will harvest electronic thesis and dissertation (ETD) records from the institutional repositories of each Higher Education Institution (HEI) within the Welsh Repository Network (WRN). The Bridge software exploits OAI-PMH, which although only a de facto standard, is widely supported by repositories including the platforms under consideration within this service. ETD records will be combined with the NLW's current records of hard- copt theses and dissertations and presented in a single, searchable catalogue skin or 'portal.' The centralised ETD collection will also form a single point for the further harvesting of ETD records by the British Library’s EThOS service.