About MIT Theses in DSpace@MIT

History and Development of Electronic Theses at MIT

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History and Development of Electronic Theses at MIT

The first iteration of the Digital Library of MIT Theses was implemented with the Dienst software in 1999, which was originally developed for the NCSTRL (Networked Computer Science Technical Reports Library) project. This project was sponsored by the MIT Libraries and by Information Services & Technology.

Some theses in the Digital Library of MIT Theses collections were submitted electronically as part of a pilot project which began in 1999. The initial pilot targeted a small group of MIT departments which included Electrical Engineering & Computer Science and Brain & Cognitive Science.

In the earliest phases of the pilot project, authenticated and non-authenticated authors of MIT theses used a web based application to submit a thesis PDF file to the Digital Library of MIT Theses. Thesis authors could also enter metadata about the thesis which included department name, degree awarded, thesis keywords, and a text abstract.

During the pilot phase, approximately 200 theses were submitted by MIT thesis authors. In addition, approximately 10,000 theses were scanned and added to the Digital LIbrary of MIT Theses by Document Services between 1999 and 2004.

In 2005, the theses were converted to PDF format, and moved to DSpace@MIT, MIT's institutional repository for scholarly research content.

Read more about the early history and development of this service.

Publications

Two papers were presented about MIT's experiences with the Digital Library of MIT Theses at the Third International Symposium on Electronic Theses & Dissertations March 16-18, 2000, at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida. These papers are available in PDF format:

• Harvesting the Low-hanging Fruit: World Wide Web Access to a Collection of MIT Theses
  by Larry Stone, Bill Comstock, and Keith Glavash.
• Carrots or Sticks: Getting Students to Submit Electronic Theses at MIT
  by Keith Glavash, Bill Comstock, and Larry Stone.

Last updated 02/2/10