Opening access to UK theses

Kevin O’Leary, project manager of EThOS, explains what the system will enable: “It will allow UK higher education institutions the opportunity to promote their post-graduate research and increase usage of their theses output.

“This will be achieved by offering a single point of access to all UK doctoral theses – the first time this has ever been done - through harvesting e-theses from institutional repositories and by generating e-content through digitisation of paper-theses on a not for profit basis.”

Currently in the UK, it can take up to six weeks from request to delivery if using a thesis for research. One of the values of this system is it will enable individuals to electronically search the system and access, from their desktop, the full text, in a secure format."EThOS will offer a single point of access to all UK doctoral theses – the first time this has ever been done."

Institutions will also benefit from using EThOS as staff time will be saved in producing, borrowing and handling theses. It will also save space and provide extra shelf room within the library environment.

The digitisation costs provide the best value for money for institutions looking to make their paper-theses available digitally. By digitalising information there is also the additional benefit that statistical data is generated to show frequently requested materials, which can help institutions predict future demands and target efforts.
The British Library is also working with higher education institutions to ensure preservation in perpetuity of all theses on EThOS.

The toolkit includes many exemplars, operational material and other supportive documents for higher education institutions, to prepare for the launch of EThOS later this year. The toolkit can be accessed through the EThOS website or directly. 

The EThOS project is funded by Jisc and  RLUK (Research Libraries UK). 

The project partners