Metadata for Electronic Theses and Dissertations: A Survey of Institutional Repositories

This study explains the results of an online survey of academic institutional repositories in the United States conducted in an effort to answer the following questions: (a) What metadata do institutional repositories use to describe and provide access to their theses and dissertations? (b) What quality control is being done for this metadata, and are quality control and controlled vocabulary even important in a digital repository? The survey found a general consensus among institutions on using the title, abstract, type, author, and subject fields. While there was disagreement on the importance of controlled vocabulary, respondents agreed quality control was important.