by Judy Farrar
The University has required graduate students to deposit two physical copies of their Master’s thesis in the library since 1990. The library then had them bound as hardcover copies. One copy went to the Archives and Special Collections as the record copy that did not circulate, and the other went to the shelves of the library for circulation. The College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) and the College of Engineering began depositing them in the library years before the requirement. Currently there are over 2,000 hard copy theses and dissertations in the Archives and Special Collections, 1970-2017. These can be viewed at anytime during Archives and Special Collections open hours. In 2017 the University shifted to accepting theses and dissertations in digital form only. The library makes them available, full text, in the Digital Archives. The record copies are preserved by the Archives. To browse the collection, see the landing page at https://umassd.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/collectionDiscovery?vid=01MA_DM_INST:umassd_library&collectionId=8187867480001301
For a convenient way to browse by College and Department, see the library’s page on UMD Theses and Dissertations at https://lib.umassd.edu/find-borrow-request/theses-and-dissertations/
For a specific title or author search Primo, the library’s online catalog at https://lib.umassd.edu/
If you need help finding a thesis published before 2017, contact the Archives and Special Collections at libarchives@umassd.edu
