Lessons learned in storing theses and as…

Lessons learned in storing theses and associated materials as compound objects :
In the eTheses project theses were enhanced by adding documents containing data, images, audio, video or even simulations. These documents were not stored separately but connected to the theses itself as a compound object. Experiments were done in storing these compound objects in a Fedora and DSpace respository system.
The project delivered a generic representation of an Enhanced e-thesis using concepts based on the OAI-ORE abstract model. Trying out this new technology several valuable insights were attained: the repository software Fedora is quite suited to the task, but does require some further work to ingest resource maps. Also clients are required to view the compound object. In the case of DSpace the majority of the features required were not supported in the version in use (1.5). From the legal perspective compound e‐theses need to take account of the rights governing the constituent parts and cannot be treated only as an entity in their own right. Searching tools are required to not only show the found objects separately but also in relation to the compound object as a whole.
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