UPDATE, June 2, 2014: Class of 2013 Senior Theses are now available for viewing and download at the public computers at the Mudd Manuscript Library. Class of 2014 Senior Theses will be available throughout the Princeton University network by September 2014, with the exception of a small number of theses that are temporarily restricted, or limited to the Mudd Manuscript Library public computers.
UPDATE, October 18, 2013: At the request of the Office of the Dean of the College, access to the PDF files is temporarily suspended. Those seeking copies of 2013 theses should visit the Mudd Manuscript Library to obtain access to the theses. We will need users to provide the author’s name and department.
The Class of 2013 senior theses are now available on DataSpace at Princeton University. Senior theses are accessible in full-text, digital format from any Princeton-networked computer.
Theses can be searched using text (such as the author’s name, advisor’s name, or words in the title), or browsed by author, department, or title. Searching and browsing can happen at the collection level (Senior Thesis collection) or at the department level (e.g. English Department).
Researchers will still need to come to the Mudd Manuscript Library to view theses created before 2013. In the coming weeks, however, the data from the Princeton University Catalog of Senior Theses will be migrated to DataSpace so all of the theses can be searched from a single interface. In due course, senior theses will be searchable in Books+. There are no plans to systematically digitize 2012 and earlier theses at this time.
Access to senior theses for researchers outside of Princeton University remains unchanged regardless of when the thesis was created or its format—a copy may be ordered by submitting a written request to the University Archives.
The creation of the digital archive of senior theses is a joint project between the Office of the Dean of the College, the University Archives at the Mudd Manuscript Library, and the Office of Information Technology. Its intent is to broaden accessibility to senior theses within the Princeton community, as Princeton seniors consult them at a rate of about 1,000 per year to explore topics, gather ideas for possible faculty advisers, find sources, gain familiarity with disciplinary writing styles, develop research methodologies for their own theses, and understand what makes a good thesis. The archive also has the capability to capture and deliver multiple file formats including text, video, audio, and image files.
For more information on senior theses, please contact the Princeton University Archives at 609-258-6345 or mudd@princeton.edu.