Dissertations and Theses of 2006

Dissertations and Theses about Texas Academic Year 2006:
Titles from a Score of Schools

Compiled and Edited by Will Howard
(Electronic Monograph Series # 4)

(First distribution was a supplementary file to Will’s Texana Monthly October 2007)
Houston: Will’s Texana, 2007

Its "Introduction" reads:

Introduction
We have selected about 150 from several hundred tagged with the “Texas” word
which brings up DT’s using that word in its various descriptions, including if it happens
to be produced by an institution whose name includes the word “Texas” regardless of
topic. Certainly many more can be found that did not use the keyword “Texas” in their
titles or abstracts. To augment this list, a dozen city names were searched, as well as a
dozen college names, rivers, and other serendipitous selections. Others can search using
whatever words may be interesting.
The selected works are either focused on social elements of modern times or on
historical topics. Some works of fiction or poetry are included. Most technical reports of
the science, business, and the educational realms were excluded.
Traditionally, dissertations and thesis are collected by ProQuest Digital
Dissertations and made available in a variety of formats, paper (loose sheets, under
paperback binding, hardback binding), at one time in microform, and now in electric
format. Their web site at http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/ offers this salutation,
“Welcome to ProQuest Digital Dissertations! As a visitor, you will be able to freely
access the most current two years of citations and abstracts in the Dissertation Abstracts
database. To search the entire database of more than 1.6 million titles, you will need to
connect from a subscription institution.” College or public libraries near you may have a
subscription. Researchers should bear in mind that not all colleges report their academic
papers to ProQuest, and that retrospective holdings are not infrequently not yet reported.
The database of WorldCat also contains many academic works at http://worldcat.org/
with significant overlap with ProQuest. College library catalogs are becoming more
adaptive to isolating on DT’s. See also the separate column on “The DT’s” in Will’s
Texana Monthly.
Schools provide their information to ProQuest at their own schedules. The
present list was collected near the end of 2006. At the end of 2006, UT reported about
600 on all topics. Texas Tech University showed no reported titles, but some were added
from elsewhere. As 2007 advances, certainly new 2006 titles will be added by several
schools.
Some annotations are provided, often quotations from the abstracts.
Go to ProQuest or other options to acquire copies of the works, not WT.
If you wish to receive the full e-publication, let us know.
Will Howard, Will’s Texana
12618 Ashcroft, Houston, 77035, 713-728-1981, willstexana@yahoo.com

Texas Bookshelf, Texas Parlor, Will's Texana Monthly

Texas Bookshelf in Context

After starting Will's Texana Monthly: Reviews, News, and Electric Observation back in January of 2006, upon retiring from the Texas Room at the Houston Public Library, WTM gained some success in that folks wished to receive it as offered by email as a package e-mailed e-journal. In the beginning, I simply composed it as a Word document and then copy/pasted that into the body of a monthly email. Out it went.

Folks said they wanted more, but in blog fashion, which at the time was new to me. Eventually, I relented and added a blog the Texas Parlor. The Parlor was mostly a placed where I jotted Texana information that may be useful to a person with a broad desire to notice various information sources for one reason or another. In the beginning, I often only put a fragment or phrase or at most a sentence or two about some internet net, and posted it as such. Posting was erratic. More recently, I've begun being a bit more narrative and have started using graphics more frequently. Making it a little more inviting.

At the turn of the year I collected a broader statement of Texana bibliography of about 600 pages and issued that as Will's Texas Annual. It had lotsa long lists of publications for the year, general trade, government publications, etc.

After starting the Texas Parlor and into volume 2 of the Texana Monthly, I began pdf'ing the Monthly with Adobe and distributing it as an attachment. That allowed for better graphics stability and also reduced the size of the file by about 1/3 so I could add book jackets and other such imagery that would not have been stable otherwise.

About half way through volume 2 I found myself longing to continue the more in depth work of the Annual, so I began issuing some monothematic issues of the Monthly. One was on the Texas Institute of Letters, another on children's picture books, and one on Texas vampire literature later as an issue within volume 3 of the Monthly.

As volume 3 (2008) began, I was drawn to making a blog just for the book reviews in the Monthly. The Texas Bookshelf is that result.

The Monthly and the Parlor will continue with their varied missions, and the Monthly book reviews will appear on the Bookshelf.

I'm thinking of finding a place to warehouse the Monthly issues and the sections of the Annual online somewhere.