Digitisation and e-Delivery of Theses from ePrints Soton | Ariadne: Web Magazine for Information Professionals
peter.suber's bookmarks 2014-06-08
Summary:
"The Hartley Library at the University of Southampton has in excess of 15,000 bound PhD and MPhil theses on 340 linear metres of shelving. Consultation of the hard-copy version is now restricted to readers making a personal visit to the Library, as no further microfiche copies are being produced by the British Library and no master copies of theses are lent from the Library. Retrieval of theses from storage for readers and their subsequent return requires effort from a large number of staff. Second soft-bound copies of theses were once deposited by authors and were available to libraries for consultation through the inter-library loan (ILL) process. Due to ever-tightening constraints on physical storage, these copies are now no longer deposited, and those once held have been sent for disposal, thus removing the facility of loans for external readers.
With the move towards electronic distribution of all University written materials, the University of Southampton amended its Calendar commencing with the period October 2008/09 to require as a condition of award for authors to deposit, in addition to the paper copy, an electronic copy of their thesis that the University can electronically distribute [1]. At the time of deposit consent is obtained that the University may make the thesis electronically available through the University of Southampton Research Repository subject to any approved embargo period.
Authors retain the copyright of their thesis and this remains unaffected by the Calendar amendment...."