Science - June 19, 2012
All 5,200 theses have been digitized
The oldest dates from 1920, the thickest, by Theo Spek, has 1,100 pages and the thinnest, by J.P. Roozen, a mere 11 pages. The university's five thousand PhD theses have now been scanned and are available in digital format. Executive Board member Tijs Breukink scanned the last of the 930,000 theses pages on 18 June.

Incidentally, the library still keeps the print versions of the theses in storage in the Forum basement. They currently have a row of theses 125 metres long. That row will only grow over the next few years as they get more than two hundred new PhD theses every year. However they no longer need to scan the new theses as the doctoral students provide the university library with a digital version of their work.
The most remarkable thesis is that by J.P. Roozen in 1972, about Inactivation of peroxidase, pectinesterase and alkaline phosphatase in polymers as a model for irradiation of dried foodstuffs. The title might be long but the thesis itself only numbers 11 pages - summarizing a handful of papers in German about this food science research. The vast majority of the theses are in English but there are also 569 in Dutch, 27 in French, 12 in German and 13 in Spanish. And not to be forgotten, one Frisian thesis and three in Afrikaans.