More fun with a thesis

I’ve already blogged on how Boston College library demand that I get permission from a religious order before they will supply me with a copy for research purposes of a 1937 thesis written by a nun. 

The nun belonged to the Sisters of Mercy, and the library have sent me a link to their website.  So I duly wrote and asked permission.  I got back an email saying that they had no record of any such nun.  The library have sent me a PDF of the first couple of pages of the thesis, which says that she was a member of that order.  So I have forwarded it to the order.

What a pathetic paper-chase!  All over the supposed copyright status of a long forgotten thesis.  It highlights that our copyright laws are now actively working against the interests of scholarship.

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