[Air-L] EThOS: Free Downloads Of UK Dissertations/Theses From The British Library

[gerrymck]

Colleagues/

Earlier today (On My Big 60 ooohhhhhh) [:-)] >

I (re)discovered EThOS, the database of UK dissertations and theses provided
by the British Library >

[I saw a demo of a prototype [?] of the service by the developers [?] at a
conference in England in 2008]

Among other services, EThOS allows one to search / select / and in some/many
cases download the full-text of items of interest FREE of charge!

"The aim of EThOS is:

•To offer a 'single point of access' where researchers the world over can
access ALL theses produced by UK Higher Education
•To support Higher Education Institutions through the transition from print
to e-theses
•To help UK Higher Education Institutions expand available content by
digitising paper theses
•To demonstrate the quality of UK research and help attract students and
research investment into UK HE\
To achieve this, EThOS offers a coherent and consistent interface by
implementing a central 'hub' comprising an e-store and a digitisation suite
at The British Library site in Boston Spa, Yorkshire. The hub automatically
harvests e-theses from Institutional Repositories and digitises paper theses
from participating institutions to offer the single point of access.

Many UK institutions support Open Access to their theses, so download of
their digital and digitised theses is free to the researcher. A small number
of participating institutions may not be able to offer Open Access and in
this case the researcher may have to pay for the digitisation.

Where a thesis must be digitised before supply, you can expect a short
delay. However, you will be informed when the thesis is ready for collection
and you can then log on to the system and download it.

EThOS can only offer the theses of participating institutions. While we
expect a large number of institutions to take part, we cannot supply from an
institutions which chooses not to. In this case, you should approach the
institution's library directly to gain access to a thesis."

>>> "Search across 250,000+ theses for free and order full text quickly and
easily" <<<

Links To EThOS And Its About / FAQs / News / Etc >>> Available At

[ http://tinyurl.com/yeedpp2 ]

Enjoy !

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

Follow Me On Twitter > http://twitter.com/GMcKBlogs

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