I may be telling people what they already know but to continue on James point, the largest repository of US and Canadian dissertations is a commercial database operated by ProQuest (accessible through a library subscription, but not open access). ProQuest also holds contracts for supplying much of the microfilm dissertation service in this region and so even if an electronic copy is not available you can often order a copy from them. When they print a copy from microfilm they also create an electronic copy in at least some cases. For example, I ordered a thesis from Columbia 1965 and after I ordered it an electronic copy was available). There are many dissertations on history of computing and allied fields in Proquest, I'm not going to try and list any here, sorry. A list of on-line sources of theses and dissertations is given by Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations: http://www.ndltd.org/find Several of these are open access including Theses Canada (unfortunately a very limited set of actual electronic theses available). I just noticed, ProQuest is running a service for open access dissertations (a very small set compared to their subscription service) here: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/ I could find two dissertations of probable interest, freely available for download on my own quick search of this service: Communities of innovation: Cyborganic and the birth of networked social media by Cool, Jennifer Catharine, Ph.D. University of Southern California. 2008: 420 pages; AAT 3341717. White House computer adoption and information policy from 1969 -- 1979 by Laprise, John Paul, Ph.D. Northwestern University. 2009: 262 pages; AAT 3386523. -- Yours Truly, Allan Olley http://individual.utoronto.ca/fofound/ On Wed, 30 Jun 2010, James Sumner wrote:
A belated follow-up to Jim's message about access to Masters and PhD dissertations:
The British Library's Electronic Theses Online Service (EThOS) is shaping up to be very effective both as a clearing-house for information about dissertations available digitally, and as a direct-access repository. I'm surprised it's not better publicised. See:
The database attempts to list every research thesis/dissertation completed at a higher education institution in the UK. If a copy has been deposited with the British Library (which is usually the case) and has no access restrictions, it can be scanned and prepared for electronic download.
The beauty of this provision is that, once any user has ordered a thesis to be digitised, it becomes available to later users at *no charge*. (Users requesting theses have to register, but there are no restrictions on registration. Users outside the UK are welcome.)
A quick search on obvious keywords showed the following as currently available for direct free download:
--- The growth of the Indian software industry : a social history Author: Warrier, Meera. Awarding Institution: University of East Anglia Awarded: 2003
The roots and early history of the British home computer market : origins of the masculine micro. Author: Haddon, Leslie G. Awarding Institution: Imperial College London (University of London) Awarded: 1988
Technology, consumption and the future : the experience of home computing. Author: Skinner, David Ian. Awarding Institution: Brunel University Awarded: 1992
A history of the theory of recursive functions and computability with special reference to the developments initiated by Godels incompleteness theorems. Author: Adams, R.G. Awarding Institution: Hatfield Polytechnic Awarded: 1983
Learning languages with computers : a history of computer assisted language learning from 1960 to 1990 in relation to education, linguistics and applied linguistics. Author: Fox, Jeremy. Awarding Institution: University of East Anglia Awarded: 1991
The impact of e-Government in the UK Author: Organ, Joseph John Awarding Institution: University of Leeds Awarded: 2006 ---
Theses which have not been digitised usually attract a one-off fee of £40 for digitisation. Depending on the awarding institution's access policy, however, digitisation is sometimes free (though there may be a wait of up to 30 days before access is available).
The system will also try to link to full-text versions held in local repositories such as <etheses.whiterose.ac.uk> where it can.
Hope you find this useful! Best James
On 12/06/2010 17:01, James Cortada wrote:
Thanks to those of you who were able to respond to this request for information. Some of my favorite sigcis e-mail is of this sort as I then go and look at many of the citations mentioned.
I particularly like it when colleagues mention their Masters and Ph.D. dissertations and provide a link to where we can obtain a copy. This is of extraordinary importance because it is incredibly easy not to be aware of important research. Therefore, I would like to suggest that if you have not shared with everyone your dissertations, that you do so electronically, if you can. I for one have kept a copy of each dissertation that has been made available through this sigcis so that there is at least one copy that gets preserved outside of the normal places, and for European and Asian dissertations, a copy in the USA. I hope others do the same, particularly at such institutions as CBI and universities.
Regards,
Dr. Jim (James) W. Cortada IBM Institute for Business Value 2917 Irvington Way Madison, WI 53713 USA jwcorta@us.ibm.com 608-270-4462
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