Writing a dissertation or a thesis? Need to find out who has published what in your area of interest? Got a brilliant idea and wondering whether someone has already stolen your thunder? Want to know a faculty member’s history as a dissertation advisor? You need Digital Dissertations! The Temple University Libraries has switched from Dissertation Abstracts to Digital Dissertations, a change in databases that will make your searching of the dissertation literature much faster and more efficient. Most importantly, in Digital Dissertations Temple dissertations from 1997 to present are available in full-text!! Here are some other important features:

• 24-page previews of thousands of recent non-Temple dissertations
• indexing back to 1861
• you can search for the faculty advisor to each dissertation
• lengthy, detailed abstracts that are searchable
• Temple full-text dissertations are a great source for current bibliographies.

Check it out. You might be one step closer to that vaunted PhD. Digital Dissertations is accessible from any of the database lists on the library homepage. By the way, you can borrow non-Temple dissertations using the Thesis Request Form. Also be aware that Digital Dissertations is soon changing its name to Digital Dissertations and Theses. –Fred Rowland