Electronic Theses Online System (EThOS)

UK PhD theses are now provided directly to the end-user by a new British Library service, rather than being requested through the library Inter Library Loan service.

The website, which is freely available to all, is http://ethos.bl.uk. Several thousand theses are already immediately available through the site, and more are continually being added.

You can search the resources on the site without having to register - when you find a thesis you want, register with your email address, create a password, and you are then able to download your chosen thesis free of charge to your PC as a .pdf file. You can also choose to pay to receive a CD or printed version.

If a specific thesis is listed, but not immediately available for download, you can register and place an order for it, and BL will arrange with the holding institution where possible to have the thesis digitised: they will then email you when it becomes available on the website. They envisage a turnaround time of up to six weeks for this, but you are notified when the thesis becomes available. There is generally no charge to you for this, but on rare occasions, depending on the home institution, payment will be requested for the digitisation. If this should be the case with your chosen thesis, please fill in an interlibrary loan book request form, fill in the details and hand it in to any Library Helpdesk, and we may be able to organise payment for this on your behalf.

The same applies if the thesis you require is not listed. You can place a speculative request through the EThOS website, and again BL will digitise and make it available online if possible but there may be a charge for this.