All UCL print theses output is now catalogued on Alma and searchable on UCL Explore for the first time.

This means bibliographic records for all UCL Ph.D. and other research-level degree print theses (including M.Phil., D.Phil., and Eng.D.) from 1921 are now openly available on Explore.

Shelved theses at Wickford Store.

Natalie Telles and Lesley Newman, Wickford Deputy Site Managers, with Andrew Watson, Head of Retrospective Cataloguing, and other staff, were involved in liaising with Current Cataloguing, selecting and sending a steady supply of batches of uncatalogued theses from Library Store at Wickford in Essex. They must be credited for the detective work involved in identifying the uncatalogued theses that remained on the shelves.

Some of the items were in fragile conditions and in need of attention. I came across unbound theses from which pages may be missing and later found, so they could be rejoined together, crumbling spines, volumes that were missing or had become separated. The most delicate items had to be wrapped up in acid-free paper. Quite a few theses had to be painstakingly spine-labelled by Lewis Rushton, Library Assistant, Acquisitions, who did a great job, before I sent them back to Stores, so they could be more easily retrieved in future.

During the cataloguing process, I encountered items without a title or author, title pages on which the typed title had been altered by hand, and pages bound in reverse order, which was curious.

I would like to thank all involved in the cooperative effort which goes back years and involves multiple teams in creating the records and processing thousands of theses and in particular Thomas Meehan, Head of Cataloguing and Metadata, for his guidance and support.

We now only receive theses for cataloguing when the student wishes to deposit a physical copy, which we will continue to add to Alma. Work on data improvement for this collection is ongoing.

Paola Stillone

(Photos by Natalie Telles)