These guides highlight major collections at CRL, including information about content, how to navigate collections, and links to more information. Many guides contain links to supporting projects and partnerships, including related digital depositories and platforms outside of CRL. 

This dynamic reference source is not meant to be comprehensive and does not replace the work of the area specialists who help build, describe, and navigate our member collection. For specific questions about using CRL guides or our collections, please contact us through our research request form: Research Appointment | Center for Research Libraries.

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Dissertations

Description

Dissertations are extensive studies based on original research, written to partially fulfill the requirements for a doctoral degree. While they are typically considered secondary sources, dissertations can also serve as primary sources or be invaluable in identifying and locating primary sources.
Dissertations and theses reflect the quality and breadth of original graduate research at universities, and are often the first form in which scholarly insights and the results of focused experiments appear.  They reveal trends of interest, the rigor of particular departments and institutions, and the creativity of researchers whose influence is still unknown. Since dissertations are grounded in original research, their bibliographies often reference primary sources used by the author, which can lead to discovering manuscripts, diaries, newspapers, and other primary materials of interest.

CRL holds more than 800,000 doctoral dissertations and Habilitationsschriften from universities outside of the U.S. and Canada. The collection was built by deposits from member libraries and exchange or depository arrangements with almost 100 universities.