Who Benefits?
UNC
- Makes our research more visible and more accessible to UNC, NC, world
- Keeps us current (i.e. most major universities have already instigated this, or are in the development process). At this time the conversion is greatly simplified by recent technological advances. Not proceeding means putting us at a "face" disadvantage compared to sister (and many smaller) institutions
Students
- Easier preparation (electronic only)
- Easier to get feeback (by email instead of trip to grad school)
- Published material more widely available -training in current important skills in electronic document preparation and publishing
- Preservation of multimedia with dissertation
Graduate School
- Converts time consuming manual paper process to more automated fully electronic process (potentially paperless).
- Improves efficiency and accuracy (i.e. eliminates redundant information re-entry, automates listings of commencement graduates, etc).
Library
- Cost savings (saves on binding, maintenance, etc) -space savings (saves significant shelf space which is precious commodity)
- Makes holding more accessible -more holdings more easily searched