uva library thesis

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Libra: Search and submit

Libra is the University of Virginia’s open access institutional repository, the online archive of scholarship created by the University community. It provides a central, stable location for the scholarly output of the University community (journal articles, datasets, theses/dissertations, etc.). Anyone can search, view and download content. For questions or feedback, contact us: [email protected]

Search open access content

Items in Libra are indexed in Virgo, the Library’s online catalog.

Submit your work

Libraopen: open content.

Submit your scholarly articles, books, presentations, and other creative works. Please review our LibraOpen Checklist or contact [email protected] for deposit help.

For any UVA-affilliated individual

LibraETD: Theses and dissertations

Deposit your approved UVA electronic thesis or dissertation. Before uploading your work, please review our ETD Submission Checklist .

For students submitting approved theses or dissertations

LibraData: Datasets

Deposit your datasets, software, protocols, and other research products. Before uploading your work, please review our LibraData Checklist page or contact [email protected] for deposit help.

Learn about Libra

Libra provides stable, central, open access to publicly available content such as journal articles, monographs, conference proceedings, presentations, posters, reports, pre-prints. It also contains data and other products of research, as well as UVA theses and dissertations. 

Libra is made up of three repositories: LibraOpen, LibraETD, and LibraData (or UVA Dataverse).

About LibraOpen

LibraOpen is a scholarly repository that puts your UVA research center stage. LibraOpen accepts an ever-growing range of scholarly output and creates an immediate, persistent, worldwide-discoverable URL (a DOI - Digital Object Identifier) for your work.

LibraOpen is a repository where researchers can make journal articles immediately available in order to comply with federal funder mandates in the OSTP Nelson Memo .

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About LibraETD

Electronic dissertations and masters’ theses have been deposited in the Libra scholarly repository at the University of Virginia since 2012. Libra makes UVA scholarship available to the world and provides safe and secure storage for the scholarly output of the UVA community. Submitting your work to Libra is a graduation requirement for all graduate students whose programs have required theses, and is recommended for all students, undergraduate or graduate, whose programs have optional theses or capstones.

About LibraData

LibraData is a place for UVA researchers to share data, software, and other products of research publicly. The LibraData repository is UVA’s local instance of Dataverse, which was developed at and is used by Harvard University.

LibraData is a repository where researchers can make research outputs publicly available in order to comply with federal funder and journal publisher sharing requirements. LibraData aligns with the " Desirable Characteristics of Repositories for Managing and Sharing Data Resulting from Federally Funded or Supported Research" (PDF) and as such is an acceptable repository choice to include in Data Management and Sharing plans .

UVA OA guidelines

The University of Virginia Faculty Senate voted in May 2021 to endorse a set of Open Access Guidelines describing best practices for making research openly available. The Guidelines encourage each faculty member to take advantage of the University's copyright ownership policy in order to make scholarly works freely available via Libra, UVA’s Institutional Repository. Faculty are also encouraged to make preprint versions, research data, and software freely available in appropriate repositories, with open licenses and in reusable formats, to the extent possible and consistent with other obligations (including University policies). For more information, see  University of Virginia Faculty Senate Open Access Guidelines and Recommendations .

Copyright essentials

Copyright law governs many uses of scholarly and other creative works. Getting to know a few key copyright concepts will serve you well as you prepare and pursue publication of your scholarly work, whether it’s a website, a journal article, a book chapter, a thesis or dissertation.

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You may see service interruptions on Library servers during this period, including Virgo. 

Libra Deposit License for Student Theses and Dissertations

Non-exclusive distribution license.

To properly administer this Libra repository and preserve the contents for future use, the University of Virginia (University) requires certain permissions from you, the author/copyright owner of your thesis or dissertation. This permission is necessary to ensure that your thesis or dissertation can be preserved and shared as part of the scholarly record of degrees awarded by the University.

By accepting this license and depositing your thesis or dissertation in Libra, you do not give up the copyright to your work and you do not give up the right to submit the work to publishers or share it with other repositories or individuals.  By clicking through this license, you grant to UVA only the non-exclusive right to preserve, reproduce and/or distribute your thesis or dissertation (including the metadata and abstract) worldwide, in any format or medium for non-commercial, research, educational, or related academic purposes, subject to any temporary embargo or access restrictions you have selected through the deposit process.  You also authorize UVA to allow users of the repository to distribute and reuse your submission (including the metadata and abstract) in accordance with the terms of the license you chose when you deposited the work (for example, the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license). UVA will clearly identify your name as the author of the submission, and will not make any alteration, other than as allowed by this license, to your submission. You also grant UVA permission to edit relevant profile pages (such as your  ORCID Record ) on your behalf, for the sole purpose of recording your authorship of this submission.

You agree that UVA may modify or adjust your thesis or dissertation to any medium or technological format and keep more than one copy for the purposes of security, back up and long-term preservation. You represent that the thesis or dissertation is your original work and that you have the right to grant the rights contained in this license. You also represent that your submission does not, to the best of your knowledge, infringe upon any copyright. You also represent and warrant that the submission contains no libelous or other unlawful matter and makes no improper invasion of the privacy of any other person.

You confirm that you have discussed your choice of access and licensing options (i.e., whether to make the deposit open access, limited access, or to impose a temporary embargo) with your thesis or dissertation committee prior to making this submission.

If the submission contains third-party materials (quotations, images, graphs, photographs, audio or video files, other excerpts, etc.) for which you do not hold copyright, you represent that you have obtained the unrestricted permission of the copyright owner to grant the University the rights required by this license, or that you have undertaken a responsible fair use analysis and concluded that inclusion of such third party materials meets fair use standards. You further represent that all third-party material is clearly identified and acknowledged in your thesis or dissertation.

IF THE SUBMISSION IS BASED UPON WORK THAT HAS BEEN SPONSORED OR SUPPORTED BY AN AGENCY OR ORGANIZATION OTHER THAN UVA SUCH AS THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH, THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION, THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, OR OTHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE FUNDER, YOU REPRESENT THAT YOU HAVE FULFILLED ANY RIGHT OF REVIEW, CONFIDENTIALITY, OR OTHER OBLIGATIONS REQUIRED BY THAT CONTRACT OR AGREEMENT.

Last Updated August, 2019

Libra Contents

• Libra: Search and submit
• About Libra
• About LibraETD
• About LibraData
• About LibraOpen
• Copyright essentials

Architecture and Landscape

• Precedent Research
• Zotero for Citations This link opens in a new window
• Find and Use Data
• Find Images
• Research Tool Online Modules
• More Research Guides
• Accessing Electronic Resources

Research Librarian for Architecture

• Refworks (UVA's subscription expires August 31, 2019)
• Questions? Ask Us!

New Architecture Books

From VIRGO...

New Landscape Books

Re-using this guide.

This guide's content, unless otherwise noted, is licensed for reuse under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA .

• Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals This link opens in a new window Find articles and book reviews in architecture, urban design, historic preservation, and urban planning in journals from many countries. Coverage begins in the 1930s, but some journals are indexed back to the the 1860s. Many citations include abstracts.
• EBSCOHost Databases This link opens in a new window Indexes over 100 journals related to architecture, planning, landscape and sustainability - many of which are NOT indexed by Avery. Some articles provided in full-text.
• Detail Inspiration This link opens in a new window In this image and reference database you will find all project documentation from more than 50 years of DETAIL. With every new DETAIL edition, the database is supplemented with the current projects. You can search and filter by main keyword terms, such as building type, material, year of construction or DETAIL issue theme. DETAIL inspiration supports you in the search for building solutions and in your everyday work. All project descriptions are available for download.
• Building Types Online This link opens in a new window Building Types Online is a resource for the study and practice of architectural design. It is based on Birkhäuser's high international standing in professional architecture books, on the knowledge of the authors and editors who are leading experts in their fields, as well as on the technical quality of the illustrations. The database offers highly flexible and detailed search and browse access to the contents of the Birkhäuser program on building types.
• LinkedIn Learning- For Students and Faculty This link opens in a new window LinkedIn Learning is a leading online learning company that helps anyone learn business, software, technology and creative skills to achieve personal and professional goals. Members have access to the lynda.com video library of engaging, top-quality courses taught by recognized industry experts.

More Architecture and Landscape Databases

• Agricola This link opens in a new window Indexes journal articles, monographs, proceedings, theses, patents, translations, audiovisual materials, computer software, and technical reports pertaining to all aspects of agriculture.
• ARTStor This link opens in a new window Images of world art from all periods. Paintings, drawings and prints plus architecture and design are represented. Special collections include Asian and American art, Buddhist paintings and sculpture and historic photographs.
• BHA: Bibliography of the History of Art This link opens in a new window indexes over 2000 journals, books, conference proceedings, exhibition reviews and exhibition catalogs; covers European and American art and architecture from late antiquity (300 A.D.) to the present.
• Building Green This link opens in a new window A subscription-based online resource for environmentally sensitive design and construction.
• Catena Digital Archive of Historic Gardens + Landscapes This link opens in a new window A searchable collection of historic and contemporary images that include plans, engravings, paintings, and photographs for teaching landscape studies.
• Ei Compendex*Plus This link opens in a new window Combines the databases Compendex, Inspec, Inspec Archive, and NTIS with one search interface.
• MADCAD: Building Codes Online This link opens in a new window A collection of fully-searchable building codes and standards. Includes ICC and NFPA codes, ADA and HUD guidelines, and selected codes for Virginia and Maryland.
• Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window A large collection of basic information on many subjects drawn from reference books published by Oxford University Press.
• Garden, Landscape & Horticulture Index This link opens in a new window Garden, Landscape & Horticulture Index provides access to articles about gardens and plants. Topics include horticulture, botany, garden and landscape design & history, ecology, plant and garden conservation, garden management, and horticultural therapy. This index and abstract product is designed for gardening enthusiasts, professionals, and students of horticulture and of garden and landscape design & history. Indexed and abstracted are more than 500 core titles, the majority of which are published in English.
• Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window Full text (PDF) of most US dissertations from 1997 on, many earlier works and some from outside the US plus some master's theses. Also lists all dissertations and theses from 1861 on from US universities and some works from Europe and Asia from 1637 on. Abstracts included after July, 1980. See also Finding Dissertations
• ULI Development Case Studies This link opens in a new window Hundreds of Case Studies from the Urban Land Institute. Full access requires a login and password- UVa users please contact the Fine Arts Library.
• Web of Knowledge/Web of Science This link opens in a new window Includes Science Citation Index (1970-), Social Sciences Citation Index (1981-), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1981-), and Emerging Sources Citation Index (2005-present). Daily updates make it a good source for very recent information. Citations include number of times the article has been cited. API available, more information here: APIs for Scholarly Research more... less... Use the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) to find impact factors for journals in science, social sciences, and technology.
• Next: Precedent Research >>
• Last Updated: May 15, 2024 11:39 AM
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