Dissertations & Theses: Finding Theses & Dissertations

UToledo dissertations have been made available in multiple places and formats as needs and technology have changed.

Electronic copies may be obtained from multiple sources in which UToledo participates:

• Electronic copies of UToledo doctoral dissertations (but not all theses, though Health Science theses are included) for recent years may be available free of charge from ProQuest Theses & Dissertations. 
• Some UToledo students have chosen to submit their theses or dissertations electronically to the OhioLINK Electronic Thesis & Dissertation Center.

The University Library maintains paper copies of many dissertations, theses, and projects from UToledo graduates:

• On the Main Campus, circulating copies of dissertations dating from 1997 to 2009 are housed on the fourth floor of Carlson Library, and are arranged first by year and then alphabetically by last name of the author. Project requirements are no longer collected in Carlson Library after Summer 2008. 
• The Northwest Ohio Book Depository houses older print theses, dissertations, and project requirements, which may be requested by patrons through the library catalog. 
• On the Health Science Campus, dissertations and theses after 2004 are available as electronic only. Earlier dissertations and theses can be requested from the Northwest Ohio Depository through the library catalog.
• The Ward M. Canaday Center for Special Collections on the fifth floor of Carlson Library maintains archival copies of main campus printed theses, dissertations, and project requirements.  The Canaday Center maintains on site theses and project requirements dating 1913-1962 and 2007-2009.  All others are stored at the Northwest Ohio Book Depository.  The archival copies do not circulate.  However, patrons may use the archival copy in the Canaday Center’s reading room.  Those housed at the depository can be requested for on-site use by contacting the Canaday Center staff at 419-530-4480.

Searching the UToledo Catalog

To search the UToledo Library Catalog for these materials, you can search by title, for the student's name (or advisor's name for recent materials) by author, or you can search by keywords and limit to Material Type: Thesis/Diss.  You can also find all of the theses, dissertations, or projects from a specific department by searching for the title using the type of document and the department: UToledo Dissertation Chemistry, for example.

Scholarly Projects / Capstone Projects

To find scholarly projects or capstone projects, do a keyword search for the phrase 'scholarly project' or 'capstone project' along with the name of the department, such as Physical Therapy, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Physician Assistant, or Biomedical Science.  These projects can also be browsed or searched in the UToledo Digital Repository.

Using the OhioLINK Library Catalog, you can search for dissertations and theses completed at other Ohio universities and colleges if they are included in that library's catalog.  Using Keywords, you can again limit to Material Type: Thesis/Diss.

OhioLINK theses and dissertations may also be available from the Electronic Thesis & Dissertation Center.  

In recent years, more and more students are publishing their work as Electronic Theses or Dissertations and making the publication available for free on the web.  Often these are made available through institutional repositories associated with their college or university, or a network of institutions.  Not every dissertation or thesis is available this way, and the less recent the publication date, the less likely it was made available as an ETD.  Here are some places to search across a large number of dissertation repositories.  You should also check the website of the college or university the student graduated from to see if there is any mention of ETDs.

Using ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, you can search for dissertations done in a wide variety of U.S. and international universities.  This database is the electronic equivalent of the Dissertation Abstracts publication back to 1861, and abstracts are available for entries back to 1980. You can search the database by keyword to find citation information for publications from many colleges and universities.   Most publications since 1998 have a free 24-page preview of the publication, which often includes the full table of contents and a portion of the first chapter... enough to see whether the dissertation or thesis will be useful to you.

The publications that you find in this database can be purchased from Proquest in a variety of formats, or can often be obtained through our Interlibrary Loan Service by UToledo faculty, staff, and students.  When submitting your request using ILLiad, you can use the New Request > Thesis & Dissertation form and fill in as much information as possible.

Dissertations from recent years may be available in electronic format for purchase, and those from UToledo that are available electronically are free of charge.

See https://libguides.utoledo.edu/askalibrarian to find out how to contact us for assistance.