Vol. 19, No. 11

Nov. 11, 1999

Recent UD dissertations
now available electronically

The University of Delaware Library has developed a new service that allows UD dissertations from 1997 forward to be accessed electronically and printed free of charge. This service is available to any member of the UD community with a University computing account. Director of Libraries Susan Brynteson said, "Gaining online access to dissertations which are usually at the cutting edge of research is an example of use of technology at its best." "One may always check out a hard copy of a UD dissertation from the library," Sandra K. Millard, assistant director of library public services, explained, "but the advantage of the new system is that University of Delaware students, faculty and staff may obtain a complete copy of any recent UD dissertation in a matter of minutes from wherever one can access the web via the University network. This is especially useful to UD graduate students conducting research off-site, in their homes and offices." The service is provided through a library subscription with ProQuest Digital Dissertations, an online research network owned and operated by Bell & Howell Information and Learning, long the caretaker of the scholarly record under its former name, UMI. Through ProQuest Digital Dissertations, one can search among 1.4 million entries reaching back to 1861, when the first American dissertation was accepted. Citations for doctoral dissertations from 1980 forward include a 350-word abstract, the full text of which can be searched, and citations for master's theses from 1988 forward include 150-word abstracts, likewise searchable. And, in most cases, users can read the first 24 pages of dissertations added to the database since 1996. When university libraries subscribe to ProQuest Digital Dissertations as the UD Library has done, copies of the dissertations deposited at the home institution since 1997 are available at no charge to members of the University community. One simply orders the desired dissertation and enters an e-mail address. About five minutes later, an e-mail message arrives saying, "It's ready"; the user then downloads the dissertation as instructed. Adobe Acrobat Reader (available via the Unversity at no charge) is required to see and print out the dissertations. Of course, ProQuest also lets users order dissertations online from other institutions. Now, through ProQuest, a researcher can place an order online through a link on the page where he or she reads the abstract/title, pay the $29.50 charge with a credit card and expect to receive an unbound, shrink-wrapped copy of a U.S. or Canadian dissertation within five days. Copies of a dissertation from elsewhere arrive within seven days. "We're very pleased to offer the UD community the opportunity to quickly obtain, free of charge, copies of recent UD dissertations," Gregg Silvis, library computing services, said. To reach ProQuest, either go through the library's home page or go to <http://www. umi.com/proquest/>. -Christina Bielaszka-DuVernay