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Librarian for the West European Collections
Last modified:
August 30, 2005
Foreign Doctoral Dissertations at the Center of Research Libraries – a consortial library in Chicago of which UCLA is a member -- holds about 750,000 foreign doctoral dissertations, but only a small fraction is cataloged. You can order the dissertations and other materials they own through Interlibrary Loan and keep them for a relatively long period of time. If you do not find the title you want, please contact the person dealing with publication requests at CRL: they will order those dissertations that are not already held.
The guides below provide help for identifying the German, French, Italian, Scandinavian title(s) and titles from the Low Countries you may need. It is useful to know that European libraries do not use LC subject headings; they classify their holdings with the Dewey system.
If you need dissertations from countries other than Germany, France, and Italy, please contact the subject specialist of the area.
HOW TO FIND GERMAN DISSERTATIONS?
GERMANY
The German national library (Die Deutsche Bibliothek) receives a depository copy of dissertations written in Germany. They also have an extensive collection of dissertations written elsewhere about German topics.
1. Go to Erweiterte Suche (Advanced Search) on the DDB OPAC .
2. Set one of the boxes up to “Hochschulschrift”, and search for “diss?” (where “?” is the truncation operator), and another search box for Alle Wörter or Schlagwörter, and type in your search term(s).
3. Click on the ‘suchen’ button.
Having identified the dissertation you need, try to find it at the Foreign Doctoral Dissertations database of the Center of Research Libraries. If you do not find the title you want, please contact the person dealing with publication requests at CRL. They will buy those dissertations that are not already held in their collection. You also need to fill out an Interlibrary Loan request form in order to receive the dissertation at the Circulation desk of a UCLA library.
Printed bibliographic sources for German dissertations:
Monthly bibliograpy:
Deutsche Nationalbibliographie und Bibliographie der im Ausland erschienenen deutschsprachigen Veröffentlichungen. Reihe H, Hochschulschriften. Monatliches Verzeichnis. Frankfurt am Main : Buchhändler-Vereinigung,
Five-yearly cumulation:
Deutsche Nationalbibliographie und Bibliographie der im Ausland erschienenen deutschsprachigen Veröffentlichungen. Reihe E, Monographien und Periodika -- Fünfjahresverzeichnis / Bearbeiter und Herausgeber: Die Deutsche Bibliothek. Published/distributed: 1986-1990- Frankfurt am Main : Buchhändler-Vereinigung, 1992-
(Available in YRL Reference Reading Room)
AUSTRIA
Österreichische Dissertationsdatenbank
Printed source: Gesamtverzeichnis österreichischer Dissertationen. 1966-
Organized by university and then alphabetically by author. Includes an author and subject index.
SWITZERLAND
Helveticat The Swiss National Library has a copy of dissertation written in the country. Add the word “diss” to your search terms in order to retrieve dissertations.
Dissertations written before 199Printed source: Jahresverzeichnis der schweizerischenHhochschulschriften = Catalogue des Écrits académiques suisses. 1897/98-
HOW TO FIND FRENCH DISSERTATIONS?
FRANCE
Sudoc (Système universitaire de documentation) is a gateway to academic libraries and other scholarly centers and library collections in France. The database includes records of dissertations (all sorts) produced in French institutions.
1. Go to Sudoc, and click on the line ‘Sudoc – Catalogue.’
2. Go to Recherche avancée (Advanced search).
3. Adjust the search criterium according to the information you know (‘Tous les mots,’
for instance, searches the entire record.) and type in your search terms.
4. Uncheck everything except Thèse under Type of publication.
5. Click on Recherche.
* and ? equally work for truncation.
You may try to find the dissertation at the Foreign Doctoral Dissertations database of the Center of Research Libraries. If you do not find the title you want, please contact the person dealing with publication requests at CRL. They will buy those dissertations that are not already held in their collection. You also need to fill out an Interlibrary Loan request form in order to receive the dissertation at the Circulation desk of a UCLA library.
Printed bibliographic source for French dissertations:
Inventaire des Thèses de Doctorat soutenues devant les Universités Françaises / Ministère de l'éducation nationale, Direction des bibliothèques de France. Paris : Cercle de la librairie, 1960-
CANADA
Thèses Canada is a portal to find dissertations (English and French) written in Canada. The Advanced Search option gives richer possibilities to search by different criteria.
SWITZERLAND
Helveticat. The Swiss National Library has a copy of dissertation written in the country. Add the word “diss” to your search terms in order to retrieve dissertations.
Dissertations written before 1991. Printed source: Jahresverzeichnis der schweizerischen Hochschulschriften = Catalogue des Écrits académiques suisses. 1897/98-
HOW TO FIND ITALIAN DISSERTATIONS?
ITALY
The Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze is the central national library in Italy with more than five million holdings of which one million are searchable. Dissertations produced after the mid-eighties are searchable on the OPAC.
1. Go to the catalog of BNCF.
2. Set the box Tipo materiale to Tesi di dottorato, and type in your search word. It is useful to try to identify search words on the two lists located linked to the two icons on the right side of search boxes before searching: the alphabetic list of terms (most of them complex), and the list of words that occur in terms. Truncation with * (several characters) and ? (just one).
Having identified the dissertation you need, try to find it at the Foreign Doctoral Dissertations database of the Center of Research Libraries. If you do not find the title you want, please contact the person dealing with publication requests at CRL. They will buy those dissertations that are not already held in their collection. You also need to fill out an Interlibrary Loan request form in order to receive the dissertation at the Circulation desk of a UCLA library.
Printed bibliographic sources for Italian dissertations:
Bibliografia nazionale italiana. Tesi di dottorato . 1995, fasc. 1- Firenze : Istituto centrale per il catalogo unico delle biblioteche italiane e per le informazioni bibliografiche, 1995-
DISSERTATIONS WRITTEN IN SCANDINAVIA?
DENMARK
Det Kongelige Bibliotek/The Danish Royal Library. Use one of these words: “thesis,” “dissertation,” or “afhandling” (the latter if you want dissertations in Danish) together with your search terms.
NORWAY
Nasjonalbiblioteket Choose “Post graduate theses” from the Search box when searching for dissertations.
SWEDEN
Libris. Choose “Dissertations” from the “Type of publication” box when searching for dissertations.
ICELAND
Gegnir. Click on “Námsritgerðir” (Icelandic interface) or “Thesis search” (English interface) in the left upper corner when searching for dissertations.
FINLAND
HELKA. Go to Search, and then to Advanced Search. Select Väitöskirja/Dissertation from the Search in box when searching for dissertations.
DISSERTATIONS FROM THE LOW COUNTRIES
BELGIUM
Printed source: Répertoire des thèses de doctorat. Repertorium van doctorale proefschriften . Bruxelles : Ministère des affaires étrangères. 1971/72-
NETHERLANDS
Printed source: Bibliografie van nederlandse proefschriften/Dutch Theses , [ Utrecht] : Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht ,1977-
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August 30, 2005
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