Theses and Dissertations

Most Masters' and PhD theses from the University of Washington are divided by subject and can be searched using the UW Libraries Catalog. Cataloged theses are also listed on the Engineering Library New Books List the week they become available. (Note: It generally takes from 6 months to a year from the date of submittal for a dissertation or thesis to be added to the UW Libraries Catalog and be made available for check out. If you are seeking a UW thesis that is not listed in the catalog, please contact us and we can try to rush the item through the cataloging process.)

Theses may be browsed by subject in the UW Libraries Catalog by using the genre/form browse lists. Theses are given genre/form headings similar to the following examples.

• Theses--Civil Engineering
• Theses--Computer Science
• Theses--Electrical Engineering
• Theses--Mechanical Engineering

Theses may also be browsed in the Engineering General Stacks (3rd or 4th floor). Theses are assigned call numbers according to their subject area. Most Engineering theses can be found in the Engineering Library with the following call numbers:

How do I get a thesis that is not held by the UW Libraries?

If the thesis that you are looking for is not in the UW Libraries collection, you can:

• Search for it in : Dissertation Abstracts/Proquest Dissertations Fulltext - (UW Restricited) More than 1 million fulltext dissertations, for those dissertations not available fulltext, submit an interlibrary loan request.
• Search the WorldCat catalog which will find items in the UW Libraries and libraries around the world.
• More about finding theses and dissertations from the UW and other schools.