How to Do Library Research

Dissertations, the major research project for every PhD student, and theses written by Masters students, may be a valuable resource. Morgan Library has print copies of older Colorado State University's (CSU) theses and dissertations; search the library catalog to locate copies either by the author's name or the title of the resource. More recent ones (2010/2011- ) are electronic only and found in the CSU Thesis & Dissertation digital repository. If you want to find older dissertations on a subject, do a Any Field search in the library catalog BOOKS AND MORE and add the word "dissertation" to it. For example,

• Any Field: Small business dissertation

To find theses, do the search with "thesis" added:

• Any Field: Small business thesis

If either will work, do both searches or combine the two:

• Any Field: Small business and (dissertation or thesis)

If you are interested in dissertations and theses that were written by a students who graduated from a specific department at CSU, do an author search by the name of the department, using this configuration (abbreviation of "department" is important):

Author:
Colorado State University Dept of _______

Colorado State University Dept of English
Colorado State University Dept of Civil Engineering
Colorado State University Dept of Electrical Engineering
Coloraod State University Dept of Biology

To pull up recent graduates only, after doing the author search, refine on the left-hand side of the page.    to

You can search a growing number of recent CSU dissertations and theses within the Library's Digital Repository.

If you wish to identify dissertations from other schools from around the world (or find recent CSU dissertations online), search Digital Dissertations and Theses, an index available to Colorado State University affiliates (students, faculty, staff) via the "A-Z Database List." Also available is a database with CSU graduates only: Dissertations & Theses Completed at Colorado State University. Comprehensive full text begins with 1997; occasionally earlier dissertations are available. Request dissertations that are not full text online from schools other than Colorado State University at Interlibrary Loan. However, keep in mind that some schools do not lend their dissertations, so you may need to purchase the one(s) you need.

Generally speaking, it is only in a very rare instances that undergraduates will want to use dissertations from other universities.