Library Research Support
EThOS project and electronic theses
PhD and other Doctoral graduates may well remember the feeling of relief when they finally handed in the bound copies of their thesis. However, destined for closed access library stacks, the majority of theses sat gathering dust, rarely used and rarely read. A vast quantity of significant research is held within the thousands of theses stored by university libraries in the UK.
All this is about to change, however, with the launch of EThOS, the Electronic Theses Online System. EThOS is a national initiative covering theses from institutions throughout the UK. The central system will be housed at the British Library and once launched, on 5th November 2008, it will be the first point of call for anyone seeking to access a UK thesis. This major UK Project, funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), is working to make this important strand of the research literature available electronically online. EThOS will digitise paper theses on request by a researcher and will make then make the thesis available on-line for other researchers.
The full text will be free at the point of use for anyone who wants to read it. Goldsmiths has subscribed to the EThOS scheme as an 'Open Access Sponsor'. Goldsmiths theses will be included in the EThOS collection and also be made available in Goldsmiths Research Online, our institutional repository, at http://eprints.goldsmiths.ac.uk. Usage statistics for existing theses repositories in other parts of the world have demonstrated that there is a great deal of interest in this type of material. The major advantage of making your thesis available online is that it will be accessible worldwide to anyone with an interest in your area of research. Wider availability of research material such as theses is supported by UK universities and funding bodies, and EThOS will be an important step towards achieving this goal.
If you already have an electronic copy of your thesis that you wish to be included in EThOS please contact Jacqueline Cooke, the Research Support Librarian, lib-eprints@gold.ac.uk, tel. 020 7919 7166, for more information. If you did not sign a deposit agreement when you submitted your thesis, you will need to complete an EThOS/Goldsmiths Deposit form (MS Word) for Goldsmiths Theses. Do not send theses directly to the British Library.
If for any reason you do not wish your thesis to be digitised, you should contact Christine Jenkinson, Assistant Librarian Bibliographic Services, e-mail c.jenkinson@gold.ac.uk.
If you have any questions about EThOS, please visit the EThOS website or the EThOS toolkit.