Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Dissertations (fwd)
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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Hello All, I'm thankful for this thread, as I neglected to let the list know about my dissertation (completed last year) on computerization and labor change in the British government. In it, I look at how the early, feminized labor force of computer operators changed into a largely male-dominated one (from the 1950s to roughly the late sixties). I argue that not only does this process give us insight into the technological problems encountered by the British State, but that it functions as a useful case study on institutional change and gendered labor forces in technology fields--making the story relevant to current concerns. You can download a 4MB PDF of the whole dissertation at: http://duke.edu/~meh20/ (username: dissertation and password: mintech928). There is also a shorter article based on the dissertation linked under the "writing" page. Best, Marie _________________ Marie Hicks, Ph.D. Visiting Assistant Professor and Managing Editor for the Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences Duke University Durham, NC 27708 meh20@duke.edu www.duke.edu/~meh20
Hello all, It was good to meet so many of you in Tacoma. Some of you may remember that I promised to share my recently-completed PhD thesis with the list on my return. I'm a little late with this, but a 4.4mb pdf of the final submitted version is here: http://bit.ly/gUg8pi. It's a case-study exploration of the relationship between large-scale computers, space and work in the British retail banking sector during the long sixties. Title and abstract follow. Centring the computer in the business of banking: Barclays Bank and technological change, 1954-1974. The introduction of large-scale computing technology into British high street banking in the 1960s was a solution to shortages of space and staff. Computers required a first-time dislocation of customer accounting from its confines in the branch, where it had been dealt with by paper-based and mechanised systems, to a new space: the bank computer centre. The implications of this shift have, up until now, not been explored. While historians of business and technology have stressed the continuities between computerisation, punched-card machines, and centralised work, the demands of the computer on decentralised business activities have received little attention. This thesis addresses that shortcoming. The main vehicle for my analysis is a case study of Barclays Bank. I begin in 1954, when the bank took its initial steps towards branch computerisation, and end twenty years later, when the last of its branches was connected to the system. Blending oral testimonies with visual and written sources, I follow activities inside and outside the computer centre to consider the relationship between computers, business, space and work as the material and discursive aspects of computing technology are connected to existing banking practice. I contend that while computers did not appear to achieve the quantitative changes in staffing and space that the banks initially desired, there were qualitative effects that reveal different dimensions to technological change. I demonstrate how the computer centre was constructed as an iconic symbol of modernity to project a new organisational identity for the banks; how technology’s materiality changed the look of banking and signalled the approach of “Americanisation”; how the computer could provide opportunities both for learning and for expensive failure; and how the computer centre was a place that reconfigured temporal, occupational and organisational structures to become a nexus of new careers for bank workers turned computer specialists. The result is an analysis of computing use that moves beyond simple causal connections between computers, space and work to highlight the reciprocal and changing nature of their relationships. Best regards, Ian -- Ian Martin Lecturer Society and Information Research Group Department of Communication & Systems The Open University Milton Keynes, UK MK7 6AA http://www.open.ac.uk/blogs/sirg/membership/ian-martin -- The Open University is incorporated by Royal Charter (RC 000391), an exempt charity in England & Wales and a charity registered in Scotland (SC 038302).
participants (3)
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Allan Olley -
Ian Martin -
marie.hicks＠duke.edu