Dear
All,


 

I have, over
the years, received many requests from researchers and students who wanted to lay
hands on or read a particular PhD thesis on The Gambia – relevant to their area
of research or programme of study.

 

This
email is for the benefit of those students/scholars/researchers (who are) not
based in the UK.
Just to inform some of you who may not be aware that standard document supply
arrangements for UK
doctoral theses have now changed. 

 

From now
on, most universities in the UK
are required to supply doctoral theses to EThOS which stands for Electronic
Theses Online Service. It is a new service giving access to UK doctoral
theses. EThOS is the UK
e-theses web service at http://ethos.bl.uk

 

EThOS
has replaced (or will be replacing) the old British Library (microfilm) thesis
service and is now the standard system for access to Doctoral theses from UK
universities. Microfilms will no longer be available from the British Library.
But request for non-doctoral UK
theses will still have to be made through the Inter library Loan.  

 

Doctoral
theses in EthOS are available to read and download by requesters, but one has
to register with the system before access can/will be given. EThOS is a
non-commercial service, and readers do not have to pay to read theses via its
webpage. 

 

The
British Library Catalogue, I am told, holds 250,000 UK doctoral theses, but so far only
12,000 of these doctoral theses are held in EthOS. EthOS is live, but is still
in its infancy stages. It is still a beta service. More and more theses will
become available via EthOS in due course. I have learned that the British
Library is holding a Thesis submitted in 1730. Amazing!

 

All the
12,000 UK
doctoral theses EThOS currently holds can be read or downloaded free of charge
by requesters who have registered with the system. If EthOS does not have the
PhD thesis you have requested, EthOS will contact the university where the
thesis was submitted, and then arrange for a copy to be made available for
download through its Website. 

 

But
students who feel that their doctoral theses contain sensitive information may
opt out of this system. If someone does not want his/her thesis to be made
available via EthOS, that person can choose to opt out of the system. 

 

I urge
you to read Dr Florence Mahoney’s highly recommended PhD thesis, Government and Opinion in The Gambia 1816-1901, University of London,
1963. It remains, to this date, one of best sources of Gambian political
history in the nineteenth-century. 

 

Just
search her name - Florence Mahoney - at http://ethos.bl.uk
and if her Doctoral thesis is not available, it can still be ordered via EThOS;
and EThOS will get it for you - unless of course, the author has put a restriction
on it. I would have also recommended Fatma Denton’s excellent doctoral thesis
on Gambian Foreign Policy under Deposed President Jawara, but access has
restricted by the author.

 

How To Use The Service

 

To read
or download Doctoral theses one must register with EThOS:

 

1) You
register with EThOS yourself 

 

2) You
search the database yourself

 

3) You
must accept the terms and conditions of use before you can download a thesis.

 

 

In
addition to EthOS, most universities in the UK nowadays have their own e-theses
repository. This e-repository will gradually replace the current system of
holding paper copies in the library stores of universities. Theses in
university repositories are available on the internet, details are picked up in
search engines, and the expectation is that the author of the thesis will gain
many more readers for, and citations to, his or her work. 

 

However,
unlike EThOS, readers of e-theses repository are not required to register
before reading a full text, but all theses do include a copyright notice.

 

I hope
this information helps and my apologies to those of you already familiar with
EThOS.

 

Regards,

 

Ebrima Ceesay

 

                                          
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