Exploring New Horizons
AI, Accessibility, and the Future of ETDs
The NDLTD and the USETDA announce ETD 2027, the 30th international symposium on electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) and USETDA 2027, the 17th national US conference on ETDs, to be held as a joint virtual event via Zoom September 20-24, 2027. This conference is organized by the NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations) and the USETDA (United States Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Association) and hosted by the Internet Archive.
ETD 2027 will provide excellent educational opportunities for graduate school, accessibility and student services, library, information technology, academic and industry professionals and others who work with electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), institutional repositories, graduate students and scholarly communications. Our goal is to offer relevant, practice-oriented content that supports ETD productivity improvement and ETD professionals. This includes the advancement in ETD operations, the encouragement of the formation of regional ETD associations and networking communities, as well as providing useful and innovative resources, standards, and technology for the development and support of ETD programs. Proposals are welcome from graduate school, disability and student services, library, information technology and industry professionals as well as graduate students, and faculty.
The conference theme, “Exploring New Horizons – AI, Accessibility, and the Future of ETDs”, will delve into technology and academic processes as they impact various aspects of the creation and dissemination of scholarly work. We will examine the present use and availability of ETDs and related initiatives. We will also explore new and emerging ETD practices, needs, and influences that impact administrative, graduate school, and library professionals.
The ETD 2027 Symposium will be held as joint virtual conference online via Zoom, courtesy of the Internet Archive. All conference sessions will be recorded and made available during the conference to registered participants. Additionally, to celebrate the NDLTD’s 30th anniversary, we plan to offer online and hybrid Webinars and curated events all year long, leading up to the conference in September.
Through our call for proposals, we will seek plenary panel discussions, extended breakout presentations, flash talks, community and user group meetings, poster presentations and workshops in which participants can engage online in interactive discussions among colleagues. We welcome your experiences as well as your insights on how to provide new capacities to re-envision the future for best practices, policies, systems and applications. All ETD 2027 conference papers, posters and presentations will be published on the NDLTD Document Archive. Selected papers will be included in a Special Issue of the Journal of Electronic Theses and Dissertations “J-ETD“. At least one author of each accepted paper is required to register for and present the work at the conference.
Important Dates
- Call for proposals
- Announcement: December 18, 2026
- Submission deadline: March 12, 2027
- Presenter notifications: April 16, 2027
- Registration: May 17 – September 17, 2027
- Conference Dates: September 20-24, 2027
ETD-USETDA 2027 Conference Organizing Committee
- Lily Compton (Iowa State University Graduate College)*
- Valerie Emerson (George Washington University Libraries)*^
- Sally Evans (George Mason University Library)*
- John Fudrow (University of Pittsburgh Libraries)*
- Ramesh C. Gaur (IGNCA), New Delhi, Ministry of Culture, Government of India)**
- Teri Green (University of Toledo College of Graduate Studies)*^
- John Hagen (Renaissance Scholarly Communications, USETDA Executive Director)*^
- Nabi Hasan (Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Central Library)**
- Erin Kaufman (University of Iowa Graduate College)*^
- Ruth Lu (Ohio University Graduate College)*
- Lighton Phiri (University of Zambia)**
- Kristin Terrill (Iowa State University Graduate College)*
*USETDA Board Member
^Program Committee Member
**NDLTD Board Member (Conference Committee)
Conference Resources (links forthcoming)
- Call for Proposals
- Conference Invitation
- Proceedings
- Program (pdf)
- Program Schedule
- Abstracts
- Registration Information
- Scholarship Program
- Sponsor Exhibits
- Sponsors
- Sponsorship
- Workshops