Our project to digitize UM-Flint’s graduate theses and dissertations, in order to preserve and make them more accessible, is nearing its end.

Since our last update, we have digitized the last 270 legacy theses (mostly dating from 1980 – mid 1900s). We are currently reviewing the scans and collecting their metadata before adding them to Deep Blue. We also continue to add new graduates’ theses and dissertations, including the dissertation of Shewta Gore, the first PhD ever awarded at UM-Flint: Subjective Assessments of Physical Activity in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

We have continued to track how many times the theses have been downloaded from Deep Blue, the University of Michigan’s institutional repository. The following information is a break down of some of the statistics.

Deep Blue by the Numbers

• 452 theses have been added to Deep Blue from July 2015 to December 2017.
• 285 of the 452 theses (63%) have been downloaded at least once.
• 26,494 downloads have occurred since July 2015.
• 204 of the 452 theses (45%) are designated as open access.
• 203 of the 204 openly accessible theses (99%) have been downloaded at least once.
• 248 of the 452 theses (55%) are only accessible on UM campuses.
• 82 of the 248 on campus theses (26%) have been downloaded at least once.
• 26,322 of the 26,494 total downloads (99%) were for the openly accessible theses.
• 172 of the 26,494 total downloads (1%) were for the theses only accessible on UM campuses.

Deep Blue in 2017

 

Comparing 2016 to 2017

	2016	2017
Theses Digitized	388	452
On Campus Only Theses	265	248
Open Access Theses	123	204
Downloads	3,227	23,267
On Campus Downloads	91	88
Open Access Downloads	3,136	23,179

 

Top 10 Downloaded Theses (as of December 2017)

Title	Author	Year	Program	Downloads
Comparing Public and Private Prison Systems	Joseph Shannon Gregson	2000	Public Administration	8496
Faces of Feminism: The Gibson Girl and the Held Flapper in Early Twentieth Century Mass Culture	Raina-Joy Jenifer Palso	2001	Liberal Studies	2380
The Cult of True Womanhood: Women of the Mid-nineteenth Century and Their Assigned Roles as Reflected in Contemporary Writing	Laurie Bonventre	2005	Liberal Studies	1010
Hemingway in Turkey:  The Influence of His Turkish Experiences on His Writing	Neriman Kuyucu	2013	Liberal Studies	866
Fast Food Frenzy: An Examination of the Industry’s Success and Its Toll on America	Michelle Ramirez Buado	2009	Liberal Studies	849
Shadow Warriors: Navy SEALS and the Rise in American Society	Cory Butzin	2009	Liberal Studies	707
Acceptability and Appeal of a Web-based Smoking Prevention Intervention for Adolescents	Amy E. Parlove	2003	Health Education	651
Classification: Absolutism vs Relativism	Darren Weist	2016	Computer Science	548
An American Indian Revolution:  The American Indian Movement and the Occupation of Wounded Knee, SD, 1973	Nicholas A. Timmerman	2012	Liberal Studies	451
Barriers Faced by Nurse Anesthetist Entrepreneurs Wishing to Implement an Office Based Anesthesia Practice	David Mwaura	2017	Anesthesia	411

Going Forward

In the coming months we are adding the last batch of legacy theses  to Deep Blue.

If you have any questions about this project, please contact Liz Svoboda at esvoboda@umflint.edu.

Related Posts

Graduate Theses Digitization Update #3 – 17 July 2017

Graduate Theses Digitization Update #2 – 22 March 2017

Graduate Theses Digitization Update #1 – 2 June 2016