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Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 15:26:09 -0400
From: Edward A. Fox <fox>
To: letters@nytimes.com
Subject: resending letter and checking on status

Hi!  On 30 July I sent the letter that is below. I have not had a reply.
Yet, newspapers around the nation have picked up your story without
any of the corrections and additions I provided in the meantime.

I worry that my email may not have been received, or that there may have
been some confusion regarding the title and date of the article.

In your online CyberTimes, the date is July 27 and the title is
	Post or Perish? At Virginia Tech, Theses Must
	Be on Internet
while the paper copy I read had the article on page A11 of the
July 28 paper.

Please advise if you will print my letter, or if there is another process
I should go through to submit this.  Many thanks, Ed Fox

---------- Forwarded message (with slight reformating) ----------
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 02:45:18 +0600
From: "Edward A. Fox" <fox@vt.edu>
To: letters@nytimes.com
Subject: letter about electronic theses and dissertations

Dear Editor,

Regarding the July 28 article "A University Sets a Policy To Post Work on 
the Internet" and other similar treatments, I believe that in the effort to 
find controversy, the media have missed many key points about an important 
worldwide initiative.

Yes, Virginia Tech is requiring electronic submissions by graduate students. 
These students learn about electronic publishing and can include multimedia 
to better convey their results.  As a result, many future educators and 
researchers become better prepared to lead others into the Information Age.

Further, Virginia Tech is helping build the Networked Digital Library of 
Theses and Dissertations (http://www.ndltd.org), with over $300K funding by 
the Southeastern Universities Research Association and the U.S. Department 
of Education, to improve graduate education in the region and the nation.

Also aided by over $1M in donations from IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, and OCLC, as 
well as assistance since 1992 from the Council of Graduate Schools, the 
Coalition for Networked Information, and many others, Virginia Tech is 
working with scores of universities, in the US, Canada, UK, and elsewhere, 
that are considering encouraging their students to submit theses 
electronically.  Some, like the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey 
California, Rhodes University in South Africa, and Darmstadt University
of Technology in Germany, quickly decided to join the initiative.

If all universities participate, hundreds of thousands of theses or 
dissertations each year could become accessible in what could be the world's 
largest digital library of research results, covering all disciplines.  This 
ultimately should save money for students and universities while at the same 
time increasing knowledge and technology transfer.  Where else could one 
find such large numbers of detailed literature reviews, comprehensive
bibliographies, or complete discussions of experiments or studies?

In 1995 we deliberately chose to use digital libraries rather than "posting 
on the Internet".  That way we can control access to student works, as 
required by publishers or patent law, and as specified by students and their 
committees.  We have discussed this carefully and in detail with publishers
like the American Chemical Society, AAAS (publisher of Science), and to the
relevant committee of the Association of American Publishers; all of these
have been willing to work with us to ensure that there are no ill effects
on students, faculty, or publishers.  In other words, the worries and
concerns voiced in your article have a clear solution.

With over 350 people from all over the world in Philadelphia July 23-26 for
Digital Libraries '97; with leaders of the G7 nations encouraging work on 
digital libraries to support K-12, university, distance, and continuing 
education; and with students eager to contribute to the knowledge of others 
through hard work preparing theses that are carefully reviewed by faculty
committees, it seems certain that any technical, political, economic or
social issues relating to this modernization of graduate education will
be resolved.

Sincerely,

Edward A. Fox
Director, Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
Professor, Department of Computer Science
Associate Director for Research, Computing Center
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0106
Phone 540/231-5113
FAX 540/231-6075
Email: fox@vt.edu
WWW: http://fox.cs.vt.edu