Public function

The French Atelier National de Réproduction des Thèses (ANRT), the national reproduction centre for PhD

theses A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

, was a public body under the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (department of scientific and technical information and documentation network) until 2017. The ANRT mandate was to archive French PhD theses and to disseminate them in the academic network of

university libraries A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

, and to contribute to the valorization of the French scientific production of Higher Education and research. It was attached as a service to the University of Lille III and located on the Lille III campus at

Villeneuve-d'Ascq Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; pcd, Neuvile-Ask) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métropole Européenne de Lille and the largest in area (2 ...

, in Northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. In 2018, ANRT became a digitization unit of the academic library of the new

University of Lille The University of Lille (french: Université de Lille, abbreviated as ULille, UDL or univ-lille) is a French public research university based in Lille, Hauts-de-France. It has its origins in the University of Douai (1559), and resulted from the ...

History

ANRT was created in 1971 to take charge of the reproduction of PhD theses of State (at the beginning, only

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of so ...

and

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

). Starting with offset, reproduction on microfilm has been established since 1983, following the model of

University Microfilms International ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, providi ...

. At the beginning, there were two national centres, according to academic disciplines: * One attached to the University of Lille III – social sciences and humanities, political science and law; * the other attached to the

University of Grenoble The Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA, French: meaning "''Grenoble Alps University''") is a public research university in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 resea ...

for the sciences, medicine, pharmacy, economics and management. Both public institutions were part of the French national network for theses. Their role was to transform the print originals into microfiches and thus to contribute to the editing and reproduction of theses In 2011 the two centres merged into one structure, located in a facility on the campus Pont de Bois of the University of Lille III at

Villeneuve d'Ascq Villeneuve-d'Ascq (; pcd, Neuvile-Ask) is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. With more than 60,000 inhabitants and 50,000 students, it is one of the main cities of the Métropole Européenne de Lille and the largest in area ( ...

. ANRT worked closely with the Ministry of Higher Education, with the Bibliographic Agency for Higher Education
ABES
and the university libraries. The ANRT network of users and customers extended beyond French borders and includes academic and scientific libraries and scientific bookstores in different European countries, America and Asia. In 2017, the Ministry of Higher Education decided to discontinue the production and dissemination of PhD theses on microfiches and terminated the national mandate of the service.

Services

As part of its national mandate, the ANRT provided university libraries with PhD theses on

microfilm Microforms are scaled-down reproductions of documents, typically either photographic film, films or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the origin ...

(microfiche). Upon request and under conditions, the ANRT could also provide digital files or a printed version to academic institutions. The ANRT catalog contains 230,000 theses in all disciplines and is a unique heritage for the entire scientific community. Based on a non exclusive license with authors, over 7,600 theses are available through a

print on demand Print on demand (POD) is a printing technology and business process in which book copies (or other documents, packaging or materials) are not printed until the company receives an order, allowing prints of single or small quantities. While oth ...

service (POD) called '
Thèses à la Carte
''. ANRT prints scientific documents (journals, books, conference proceedings) and digitizes scientific collections (ancient books, theses, etc.).

Perspectives

Under the tutelage of the French Ministry, ANRT participated in the national project of a Digital Scientific Library called Bibliothèque Numérique Scientifique (BSN).Colas, A., 2009. Administration centrale et bibliothèques universitaires. vers une refondation des relations. Bulletin des Bibliothèques de France 54 (6), 6-11. UR

/ref> With the evolution of digital dissemination of theses, ANRT is positioned as a provider of digitization and dissemination of scientific production and contributes, on a regional level and with the university of Lille, to education and research projects.

References

External links

Website of the ANRT

Service Print-on-Demand "Thèse à la Carte"

Portal of French PhD theses

French academic union catalog SUDOC

ANRT reference as an editor on the OCLC WorldCat Identities list
{{DEFAULTSORT:Atelier national de reproduction des theses Universities and colleges in France

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...