Thanks to a donation from the Department of Art and Design, we were able to digitize 315 theses and make them available in the University of Alberta Thesis collection that had never been online before.
This collection was unique as it varied in format, including video tapes, slides, and print. For us, it represented the first time that we incorporated multiple formats into the same item. Slides and AV were digitized by off-site vendor, JEET Video; while print was digitized by Internet Archive at their facility at RCRF. Each formats had to uploaded as separate digital objects So a search for “Koichi Yamamoto printmaking thesis” will give you both the text and the slides. Different formats are also linked by the “Associated_material” metadata field in a record.
Based on conversations with the Department of Art and Design, we learned theses are frequently consulted by students at the recommendation of their teachers. Now that they are online, it’s even easier for them to look up inspiration from the faculties past. Additionally, we acquired over 400 items as donations that would otherwise have been discarded, after their reading room closed, including titles that are completely unique.
For now, you can search for theses within the larger University of Alberta Thesis collection (e.g. search for “Master of Visual Arts”, “Master of Fine Arts”, or “Department of Art and Design” ). In future, we hope to enrich the metadata and add Department-level sorting. Additionally, to use the catalogue to combine items with multiple formats.
Do you know of any professors or administrators who might have questions about thesis digitization for their department? Do you know of any students or alums seeking theses from the past? Please direct them to email digitization@ualberta.ca!