Caldwell College is the first educational institution in New Jersey to create a digital archive of its own research. Caldwell has shipped copies of 157 master's theses dating from 1993 (the year Caldwell's graduate programs debuted) to Ann Arbor for filming and digitizing. When complete, its archive will be a comprehensive record of its graduate programs to the present day.

The UMI Dissertation Digital Archiving and Access program is a comprehensive service providing an institution's library with a permanent, accessible, and complete record of its doctoral dissertations and master's theses on microfilm or fiche. Microform has many archival advantages over paper. Paper copies may be vulnerable to theft, fire and decay. Limited paper copies are not easily accessible, and they may be checked out of the library and not returned. They also consume valuable shelf space in the library. Once filmed, the material is digitized, creating both an archival record and a web-accessible version of the resources.

"We chose to digitize the material because we want to expand use. People weren't accessing it in a traditional way, in print. We wanted to provide Web access internally for our faculty and staff, and for people outside the college as well, in a different format," said Lynn Randall, executive director of the Jennings Library at Caldwell College. "Caldwell's primary focus is on the teaching/learning process. We teach research and evaluation skills, the backbone of what a student needs to know to do research."

Preserving and providing wide access to an institution's dissertations and theses is an important way to showcase its research and academic history. It also provides valuable study tools for students and researchers. ProQuest has more than 60 years of experience in scholarship preservation around the world. ProQuest's dissertation database includes abstracts and citations for 2 million dissertations from more than 1,000 institutions with North American coverage dating to 1861.

ProQuest maintains and preserves its collection of nearly 1.7 million full-text dissertations on microfilm and microfiche stored in separate temperature and humidity controlled vaults. More than 700 institutions regularly submit dissertations to ProQuest, including 99% of all schools in North America with doctoral programs requiring dissertations. ProQuest is the only designated digital archive for the Library of Congress for dissertations. It's the first time the Library of Congress has recognized an external site as an official national repository for a key collection.

Other libraries and educational institutions may receive more information on a similar program by contacting their account representative at 1-800-521-0600, ext. 2793 (outside the U.S., call 734-761-4700, ext. 2793) or umisalesinfo@il.proquest.com . Editors may call 1-800-521-0600, ext. 6489 or email pr@il.proquest.com.

Caldwell College is a Catholic, co-educational, four-year liberal arts institution committed to intellectual rigor, individual attention, and the ethical values of the Judeo-Christian academic tradition. Founded in 1939 by the Sisters of Saint Dominic, the college boasts a 70-acre wooded campus in Caldwell, New Jersey. Caldwell's expanding graduate division now offers the Master of Arts and the Master of Science in six distinct disciplines, three Post Master of Arts programs, two Post Baccalaureate Teacher Certificate programs and a new MBA program. The College's graduate division has seen a significant increase in enrollment since 1993 when it offered its first graduate program, the Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction. That program began with thirteen students. Today, more than 2,200 undergraduate and 380 graduate students attend Caldwell College.

ProQuest Information and Learning is a world leader in collecting, organizing, and distributing information worldwide to researchers, faculty, and students in libraries and schools. Known widely for its strength in business and economics, general-reference, humanities, social sciences, and STM content, the company develops premium databases comprising periodicals, newspapers, dissertations, out-of-print books, and other scholarly information from more than 8,500 publishers worldwide.  Users access the information through the ProQuest® Web-based online information system, Chadwyck-Healey^TM electronic and microform resources, UMI® microform and print reference products, eLibrary^TM  and SIRS educational resources, and XanEdu^TM online faculty and student resources.  For more information about ProQuest Information and Learning, visit www.il.proquest.com.