The underlying purpose of ETD activities is to prepare the next generation of scholars to function effectively as knowledge workers in the Information Age. By institutionalizing this in a worldwide program, progress can be made toward tripartite goals of enhancing graduate education, promoting sharing of research, and supporting university collaboration. Particular objectives include:

• students knowing how to contribute to and use digital libraries;
• universities developing digital library services and infrastructure;
• enhanced sharing of university research results; and
• ETDs having higher quality and becoming more expressive of student findings.

Next Section: Helping students be better prepared as knowledge workers