According
to Fox (2001:12) there are
essentially two types of electronic theses and dissertations
(ETDs).
He
states the first type are created using software applications
like Microsoft Word or Star Office, these formats are
then converted to PDF or XML documents whose standards
allow for easy preservation, archiving and accessibility.
Metadata
of the title, year, author, abstract, and descriptors
is catalogued, indexed and hosted in digital libraries
for those interested to browse and locate the full electronic
document of text and possibly the multimedia components
such as images, video, music or websites.
The
second type of ETD according to Fox
(2001:12) are scanned electronic images of paper
theses or dissertations. They are less desirable than
the first as full text searches are not possible and
they require more storage space because of the large
image formats.
However
they can still be accessed through networks at low cost
and printed for those interested to read them. Metadata
of the title, year, author, abstract, and descriptors
can also be catalogued, indexed and hosted in digital
libraries for those interested to browse and locate
the scanned thesis or dissertation.
