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Well, I do not think I have ever read a dissertation from cover to cover that I checked out from the library, but I did read several substantial sections of qui

Well, I do not think I have ever read a dissertation from cover to cover that I checked out from the library, but I did read several substantial sections of quite a few when I was in graduate school. These ones were older and not yet digitized (1960s to 1980s). I had to request them from storage and read them in a reading room. I was just looking for certain kinds of experimental data for my own research and had no reason to read them cover to cover. I agree that people rarely check out hard copies of dissertations anymore but certainly many people do from time to time when needed.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago
Were these the original hard copies each graduating PhD student must file after they’ve defended? That would involve physically going to some random university to physically check out some random person’s dissertation where the dissertation wasn’t notable enough to be available online. I just can’t see that happening, unless somehow the university you were studying at had the random dissertations that you wanted to read. If it wasn’t the original hard copy but a copy then I don’t think the $20 bill would be there regardless.
- atrettel 5y ago
  Yes, these were the original hard copies. I was only talking about dissertations filed at the school I went to, so I fortunately did not have to go anywhere. I just had to put in the request and wait a day or two for them to arrive at the reading room from storage. You are correct that getting dissertations from far off universities is often impossible. Many universities do not loan their dissertations via interlibrary loan, so unless it is online or you are willing to travel to their campus, you can't get access to it. ProQuest is another option, but they do not have everything and it costs money. I've heard the 20 dollar bill story many times but I have never found anything like that in an original hard-copy dissertation. If I recall correctly, I have found things used as bookmarks, like receipts or scraps of paper, and the cards in the back cover are often stamped at least once a decade. That seems to suggest that other people have read them over the years, just not as often as other materials.

seanmcdirmid 5y ago

Were these the original hard copies each graduating PhD student must file after they’ve defended? That would involve physically going to some random university to physically check out some random person’s dissertation where the dissertation wasn’t notable enough to be available online. I just can’t see that happening, unless somehow the university you were studying at had the random dissertations that you wanted to read. If it wasn’t the original hard copy but a copy then I don’t think the $20 bill would be there regardless.

atrettel 5y ago
Yes, these were the original hard copies. I was only talking about dissertations filed at the school I went to, so I fortunately did not have to go anywhere. I just had to put in the request and wait a day or two for them to arrive at the reading room from storage. You are correct that getting dissertations from far off universities is often impossible. Many universities do not loan their dissertations via interlibrary loan, so unless it is online or you are willing to travel to their campus, you can't get access to it. ProQuest is another option, but they do not have everything and it costs money. I've heard the 20 dollar bill story many times but I have never found anything like that in an original hard-copy dissertation. If I recall correctly, I have found things used as bookmarks, like receipts or scraps of paper, and the cards in the back cover are often stamped at least once a decade. That seems to suggest that other people have read them over the years, just not as often as other materials.