From: Rick Anderson <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 2015 00:28:01 +0000


>We should note that this makes dissertations in
>the digital age less accessible than they were in the past

Really? I would say that dissertations in the digital are actually
radically more accessible, even if embargoed, than they were in the past.
During the print era, a dissertation would be made available immediately ‹
but only in a single printed copy, housed in a single library. No other
copies would ever be made available to the general public, meaning that
the only people who could use that dissertation were those who had access
to the library in which it was held (or were in a position to request that
copy via ILL).

In the digital age, dissertations are generally made available freely and
immediately online (and thus in a functionally infinite number of copies,
instantaneously, to anyone around the world who has an internet
connection). Even if all dissertations were embargoed, it seems to me that
the accessibility represented by their ultimate global availability
counterbalances (to an enormous degree) the temporary access restriction
represented by an embargo.

None of this is necessarily to defend the practice of embargoing; I think
there are situations where it may make sense, and situations where it
doesn¹t. But to assert that embargoes make dissertations less accessible
now, on balance, than they were in the print era is ridiculous.


---
Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dean for Collections & Scholarly Communication
Marriott Library, University of Utah
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