The NDLTD is an international consortium aimed at improving graduate education, enhancing universities’ information infrastructure, and increasing scholarship by sharing through digital libraries. The NDLTD's success can be measured in different ways. For example, overall we can look at the number of universities that are members, and by the completion of milestones at each individual university. For the ETDs themselves, we can look at the number of ETDs received, and at the quality of those ETDs. The NDLTD is emerging at a time when there are widespread efforts at establishing digital libraries. As digital libraries become central to the scholarly enterprise, it is necessary that all new works be prepared in electronic form. The success of the NDLTD depends on adopting sensible strategies for the future. Standards must be developed, interoperability must be assured by overcoming both technical and social issues, and the NDLTD must demonstrate the necessary scalability to continue to grow. During its first year, the NDLTD has grown rapidly, opening its second year with over twenty members. There already has been encouraging interest in the ETD collection, and it appears that, on average, ETDs are accessed more than ten times as often as their paper counterparts. With continued corporate and academic support, the NDLTD and its influence will continue to grow. We encourage everyone who reads this article to participate.