The information on this page is pending review and may be out of date. Please visit our new ScholarWorks information page.
Project Overview:
As part of an ongoing series of Campus Quality Fee grant projects, the University Library, with essential support from CSUN Campus Quality Fee (CQF) funding, is digitizing the print CSUN Master's thesis collection. The first phase of the project, which ran from August 2013 through June 2014, focused on the first 30 years of the university from 1957 to 1988. The second phase, running from July 2014 through June 2015, covered multi-media and other at risk formats (cassette tapes, VHS, DVD, etc.). The current phase (Phase III) covered the years between 2000-2011; the final phase (Phase IV), in progress for AY 2016-17, covers 1989-1999.
The impact of digitization:
Digitization has been proven to provide added value to print texts. The project will help CSUN and its students in multiple ways. First, digitized theses will receive a new life and renewed interest online. Thousand-fold increases in access are associated with digital versions of print texts. One thesis from 2001, for example, was checked out of the library three times in the 12 years it was on the library's shelf. However, since being added to ScholarWorks in October 2012, the thesis has been downloaded over 5000 times. Second, students with disabilities will be able to better access the collection. Digital texts with Optical Character Recognition applied to them will allow students with the ability to access these texts. As was shown in the HathiTrust lawsuit, creating digital indexes of such content for the sake of adhering to the American Disabilities Act (ADA) is considered a Fair Use under copyright law. Finally, increased exposure of the thesis manuscripts will help to return some subjects to the fore. Many subjects have been buried in recent years--in particular from 1960-1990--due to copyright restrictions. One article in particular finds an egregious lack of materials available to even purchase, let alone access, because of overly restrictive copyright policies. (citation here) This project can help to alleviate a small part of this unfortunate gap in the print book record.
Current and future projects:
Phase I: (completed) AY 2013-2014; included 4,500 theses from 1957-1988. Access open collection here: http://scholarworks.csun.edu/handle/10211.2/3661
Phase II: (completed) AY 2014-2015. Digitization of 500+ thesis manuscripts with at-risk multimedia formats
Phase III: (completed) AY 2015-2016. Digitization of 2000-2011 (5000 theses)
Phase IV: (completed) AY 2016-2017. Digitization of 1989-1999 (4000 theses) -
ETD project completion date: Summer 2017.