July 2008
Q: I am a librarian at XYZ library in Australia. I would like to borrow or obtain a copy of a thesis from 1959 available within your collection. I am able to pay via visa credit card. Could you please tell me if this is possible.

A: Newer theses from the past few years often have digital copies of some kind available (for theses from Cornell, check ProQuest for digital copies here). But older theses are generally ‘medium rare’ objects, in the sense that there are only a few copies to go around. As such, we’re usually loathe to send them out through interlibrary loan, especially over very long distances. As book-length documents, it also usually isn’t practical for us to transmit a copy to you via document delivery, as we might be able to do with a journal article or other short work. What you should do is to order a copy made via ProQuest Digital Dissertations.