Blog 2015 - Why the Digitization of Dissertations and Theses is Important to Researchers, Universities AND Libraries

"Publication of dissertations is not new; in fact, a dissertation or thesis* has to be published (in the sense of being made available to potential readers) before it earns its title. And while institutional repositories can capture the work of the university’s own researchers, they achieve only limited success in dissemination to other institutions. In pre-digital times, dissertations were submitted in print format, and were normally read by only a few people who knew how to find and access them ... But digital dissertations are not new, either; digitization facilities have been available since 1998.  ProQuest was the first company to offer them, having provided a print-to-microfilm service since 1938. Its digitization program, set up in 1997, was given a major boost in 1998 when the Library of Congress recognized ProQuest as the offsite repository of the USA’s Digital Dissertations Library.  It now works with more than 700 US universities, and this year alone will have digitized more than 100,000 dissertations.  ProQuest also digitizes dissertations from countries across the world, including the UK. Since 1988, the ProQuest database has included citations for theses/dissertations from many British universities (via the British Document Supply Centre at Boston Spa).  Other commercial providers have now entered the market as well. In the UK, the British Library’s EThOS service (partly funded by JISC) was launched in 2009. It digitizes theses from 130 British universities, and contains about three times as many records of dissertations as full-text documents, though the remainder can be scanned and supplied via on-demand services for a fee ... Digitization programs have only attracted significant interest in academia over the past three to five years, a phenomenon that has been driven by two main catalysts: the rise of the Institutional Repository (IR), and the simultaneous momentum of the Open Access movement, both of which have spurred universities to issue publication mandates to their academics and researchers.   As with many new services now being required by universities, the library provides the pivotal link. Librarians may take responsibility for both educating graduate researchers about copyright, and explaining the program options available. Sometimes the library will work with another department in the institution – the research office, if it has one, or individual faculty members – to raise awareness of a program, or locate funding.  Researchers can be baffled and/or suspicious about what might happen to their work with these required services.  Many might ask, when libraries have to cope with cuts both in revenues and staff, why increasing manpower and money is being devoted to this area ..."