 Leiden dissertations are still not destroyed, 400,000 dissertations go to the @internetarchive "Libraries The Leiden university library wanted to grind 400,000 dissertations into pulp, but waives that because The Internet Archive wants to take them over." https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2024/10/09/leidse-proefschriften-worden-toch-niet-vernietigd-400000-dissertaties-gaan-naar-de-vs-a4868698 11 comments
Libraries have to make tough decisions to be able to keep buying new things, so they are not doing anything wrong-- and I would day they are doing something right by making it public that these are available and then working with the @internetarchive @brewsterkahle @internetarchive dissertations are not published books! The university where an old thesis was defended is often holding the only accessible copy, a fundamental resource for historians of science.  @Lignedescience These are dissertations they got from *other* universities. https://blog.archive.org/2024/10/08/internet-archive-to-receive-400000-dissertations-from-leiden-university/ Many countries also have legal deposit. @nemobis ok, my bad. Still a finer grained approach would have been warranted imo. @Lignedescience A "finer grained approach" would typically have required inventorying or cataloguing, which would have cost millions, defeating the purpose (cost saving measures). The Internet Archive sidesteps the issue with digitisation and minimal (initial) metadata. Almost nobody else is doing the same for collections on an international/global scale, that's the issue. @brewsterkahle @Lignedescience @internetarchive Mm. Most of the videos are shocking quality, though  @brewsterkahle @internetarchive Maybe NOW somebody will read those dissertations! (I jest. Dissertations as a genre are usually dense and hard to fathom. BUT in no way should they be pulped as was proposed. Thank you @internetarchive ) @brewsterkahle @internetarchive Wow, that viscerally hurts me, even as an ex-academic. Glad they're been saved, and digitally accessible I guess? Maybe they'll get more use then. I've found useful information in online PhD theses before. My own has a paper in it that never got published and I think is probably quite interesting even now, about cognition-dependent corticomuscular phase locking. I like the idea that it's at least *possible* it'll get some use some day. @brewsterkahle @internetarchive From The Netherlands, in which Leiden lies, thank you. Once more, the USA comes to our rescue where we cannot save ourselves. 🙏 @brewsterkahle @internetarchive thanks! (will we have a European/EC chapter of the Internet Archive at some point?) |
Gregory's Server
@brewsterkahle From a university, this is dereliction of duty!
Glad to see the IA is picking up the slack, but still...