Theses and Dissertations

Honors theses, masters theses, and doctoral dissertations represent the culmination of scholarly and creative work undertaken by students at their college or university. They can serve multiple purposes:

• as models for other students considering approaches to layout, methodology, and theoretical underpinnings of an issue/topic/problem
• as insights into recent research that may not yet be published as books, book chapters, or journal articles
• as rich bibliographical sources given their lengthy list of references 

To access a thesis or dissertation that is not available electronically, see your options here. 

Contributing your Thesis or Dissertation to DigitalCommons@UMaine

For graduate students working on a thesis or dissertation, when your work has reached a certain point in the approval process, the University of Maine Graduate School will provide instructions for submitting your work to the Electronic Theses & Dissertations (ETD) in DigitalCommons@UMaine.  Once you have been given approval to do so by the Graduate School, visit Fogler Library's Theses Instruction page for steps to create a DigitalCommons account and enter metadata for your thesis or dissertation.

If you are a graduate author from a previous semester and have questions about your work in the ETD, contact Fogler Library Special Collections at um.library.spc @ maine.edu or 207.581.1686.

Undergraduate students in the Honors College should contact the Honors College directly at honors@maine.edu or 207.581.3263 for more information about the Honors College in DigitalCommons.

Printing Services

The following service provides the option to have a thesis or dissertation printed and bound.

ThesisOnDemand,  a service of HF Group Binding Services

Additional Resources

Viewing
Print copies of most University of Maine honors theses, masters theses, and doctoral dissertations are located in the Special Collections Department of Fogler Library. Theses and dissertations can be viewed in the department. Many theses and dissertations may be viewed online in full-text PDF format in the DigitalCommons@UMaine ETD database. Current University of Maine cardholders may view UM doctoral dissertations in PDF from 1997 to present in the ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global database. 

Interlibrary Loan
A PDF is typically available through Interlibrary Loan for works completed since the year 2001.  We highly recommend this option if you have discovered a masters thesis in the ETD database where the Level of Access is Campus-Only.  Print copies of older University of Maine masters theses may also be borrowed through Interlibrary Loan.  Check with the largest library where you have borrowing privileges to learn about their ILL procedures.

Print copies of University of Maine doctoral dissertations held at Fogler Library are not loaned through Interlibrary Loan. They must be purchased from ProQuest, unless they are available full-text in the DigitalCommons@UMaine ETD database. See information about how to order by phone or online at ProQuest's Online Dissertation Services. 

Purchase
Doctoral dissertations may be purchased from ProQuest in print and digital formats, unless they are available full-text in the ETD database. See information about how to order by phone or online at ProQuest's Online Dissertation Services. 

Digitization

Special Collections can evaluate older titles to scan, within the parameters of copyright, to be added to DigitalCommons@UMaine upon request.  For more information, contact:

Special Collections
5729 Fogler Library
University of Maine
Orono, Maine 04469-5729
207.581.1686
um.library.spc @ maine.edu