Exciting news! UVicSpace has undergone a successful upgrade. With a new look and improved functions, we are excited to start this new chapter with our institutional repository.
In celebration of this upgrade, we are looking back on the history of UVicSpace to see how far we’ve come. As UVicSpace grew out of the need for the digital storage and preservation repository of theses and dissertations (theses), this upgrade serves as an opportunity to reflect on the history of thesis management at UVic.
Special thanks to Danice Szabo, whose research and speaking notes for her presentation Dissemination through Transformation: The Evolution of a Thesis at the 2018 Vancouver Island Library Conference were used to write this post.
UVic’s Thesis and Dissertation Management Timeline
1963: UVic Special Collections managed, checked, and preserved theses at the institutional level since UVic’s founding. Students graduating from Masters and PhD programs during the early years at UVic saw their final paper archived and catalogued in the university’s library collection.
1965: The National Library of Canada (NLC) – known today as Library and Archives Canada – began managing and facilitating access to theses at the national level.
1998: As of December 31st, 1998, Special Collections staff were no longer responsible for checking theses or answering questions about thesis preparation/formatting. With this change, Graduate Studies became the university’s point of contact with the NLC and University Microfilms International (UMI), a thesis publisher and disseminator (owned by Bell and Howell and now a division of ProQuest).
At the same time, UVic Libraries realized that the storage of printed and bound theses is unsustainable. Shelf space was diminishing rapidly, so much so that in 1998 “accommodating even one bound copy in [Special Collections] [were] becoming difficult” (“Dates of Events for Change”, 1998, Separate issues to be addressed section, para. 1). Discussions began about whether it should be mandatory for students to have their theses microfilmed.
2004: In January 2004, three librarians from UVic presented a paper to the Faculty of Graduate Studies. In the paper they proposed using UVic Library’s DSpace platform (a digital open-source repository framework from MIT) to preserve and disseminate UVic theses. The pilot project was approved, and the remaining months of 2004 were spent in preparation for the launch of the year-long pilot that began in January 2005.
2005: Stakeholders in the ETD pilot project included various teams within the library, as well as members of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, the Graduate Admissions and Records Office, and of course the students themselves. Clear communication, input, and feedback was needed from everyone for the pilot’s success. Teams were formed within the library to tackle specific tasks related to the pilot project and included policy, technical, workflow, and user education working groups. Regular meetings and progress reports were shared with all stakeholders during the project.
Recruitment of students for the pilot involved an invitation letter from faculty Deans, posts on the grad student listserv, and library advertisements. By August 2005 the first two ETDs were submitted to the repository. October saw UVicSpace’s first two remote submissions (from Seattle and Toronto). By the end of 2005 – and the end of the pilot – there were a total of 20 ETDs that had been deposited into the repository.
2006: A final pilot project report by the library was submitted to the Graduate Executive Committee. This report confirmed that all objectives of the pilot project were met. It also detailed the challenges that were realized during the pilot, such as server space issues and backup procedures, file sizes, and the need to develop a controlled vocabulary and MARC records. The necessity of further development, and the need for templates for scientific paper templates with diacritics, were also identified.
Feedback from most students who participated in the pilot was positive. They reported that they liked the improved access to their research via the internet as well as the permanent link the institutional repository provided them with, which they could share in emails, resumes or other correspondence.
With the pilot project deemed a success, the Graduate Executive Committee agreed to continue to allow students the option of submitting their theses electronically. This option also opened the door for students to submit multimedia based theses.
For the next few years, time and energy were spent revamping the website, publishing training manuals, and hiring permanent staff to help manage the repository.
2011: The Faculty of Graduate Studies announced the mandatory submission of theses into UVicSpace. Paper copies of theses were no longer accepted. In the span of about five and a half years, then, the 40 year-long practice of students submitting a print thesis had successfully and completely transformed into an entirely digital process.
2014: Ten years after the UVicSpace pilot project began, UVic Libraries upgrades DSpace from version 1.7 to version 4.0. As part of this upgrade, a new website template is applied to the Manakin (XMLUI) interface. Smaller upgrades – but no complete overhauls – continue throughout the next ten years.
2024: DSpace was upgraded from version 6.4 to version 7.6.1. The upgrade was prompted by the fact that DSpace 6 software version had reached its end of life on July 1, 2023, and thus support for that version of the software ended. Scholarly Communications, Digital Preservation, and Programming staff from UVic Libraries began planning and working on the upgrade in the summer and early fall of 2023. UVicSpace content officially migrated to the new version in the week of February 20 – February 23, 2024.
Call to Action
Are you interested in trying out the new repository? Consult our newly updated guide to learn how to deposit your publications today! The Office of Copyright and Scholarly Communications at UVic Libraries also offers a mediated deposit service for those who would like more support.
Thank you to everyone who was involved in this current upgrade, and to the entire UVic community for your patience as we moved to this exciting new software!
References
Frequently Asked Questions: History, Humanities & Social Sciences. (2023, December 14). Library of Congress. Retrieved February 29, 2024, from https://ask.loc.gov/history-humanities-social-sciences/faq/300086
Dates of Events for Change in the Management of M.A. and Ph.D. Theses. (1998). UVic Libraries.
Szabo, D. (2018, August 16). Dissemination through Transformation: The Evolution of a Thesis [PowerPoint slides]. Library Toolshed. https://librarytoolshed.ca/content/dissemination-through-transformation-evolution-thesis
