Retrospective Thesis Digitization

The University of Oregon is a public academic institution conducting research for the public benefit. The Records Retention Schedule for the University stipulates that the final filed copy of master's theses and doctoral dissertations are to be permanently retained per the Division of Graduate Studies' requirements. To support the University’s goal of advancing the public good, theses and dissertations are made available as open access research works.

The Division of Graduate Studies' policy states, in the Thesis and Dissertation Overview for students:

Your electronic thesis or dissertation (ETD) will be made available to the public in Scholars’ Bank, UO’s open access repository for the intellectual work of faculty, students, and staff.

UO Libraries supports the retrospective digitization and archiving of print theses and dissertations in the open access institutional repository, Scholars’ Bank. UO authors or library patrons may request this service through Digital Library Services at no cost. Requests will be processed as capacity allows.

The following rights statements will be added to metadata fields for each record of a retrospectively converted theses or dissertation:

  1. UO theses and dissertations are provided for research and educational purposes and may be under copyright by the author or the author’s heirs. Please contact us with any questions or comments. In your email, be sure to include the URL and title of the specific items that you are inquiring about. 
  2. In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted This Rights Statement can be used only for copyrighted Items for which the organization making the Item available is the rights-holder or has been explicitly authorized by the rights-holder(s) to allow third parties to use the Work for educational purposes without first obtaining permission.

Please note that availability may be delayed or placed under embargo for patent/proprietary or publication reasons, at the author’s request and in accordance with the Division of Graduate Studies policy, although this is unlikely in the case of retrospective digitization.

If you would like to make your pre-2008 UO thesis or dissertation available, please fill out this online permission form or contact the repository manager with your digitization request if you are not the author.

Last updated February 3, 2023