The ETH Library, serving as the central university library at

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

, has a notable collection of scientific and technical information. It is considered one of the largest public scientific and technical libraries in Switzerland. Furthermore, it also offers resources for the public and companies in research and development. Particular emphasis is placed on electronic information for university members and the development of innovative services.

Collection focuses

ETH Library collects media from the following fields: *

Architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

* Building sciences *

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

Natural science Natural science or empirical science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer ...

s and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

*System-oriented natural sciences *Management and

social sciences Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...

Special Libraries

ETH Library's four

special libraries A special library is a library that provides specialized information resources on a particular subject, serves a specialized and limited clientele, and delivers specialized services to that clientele. Special libraries include corporate librar ...

are responsible for supplying subject-specific literature to the corresponding departments and institutes at ETH Zurich. Their holdings are also generally available to the interested public. The special libraries include: *Architecture and Civil Engineering Library: architecture,

urban Urban means "related to a city". In that sense, the term may refer to: * Urban area, geographical area distinct from rural areas * Urban culture, the culture of towns and cities Urban may also refer to: General * Urban (name), a list of people ...

and

spatial planning Spatial planning mediates between the respective claims on space of the state, market, and community. In so doing, three different mechanisms of involving stakeholders, integrating sectoral policies and promoting development projects mark the th ...

; Material Collection: *Earth Sciences Library:

geosciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

*GESS Library: humanities, social sciences, economics, law and politics *Green Library: agricultural and

food science Food science (or bromatology) is the basic science and applied science of food; its scope starts at overlap with agricultural science and nutritional science and leads through the scientific aspects of food safety and food processing, informing ...

, environmental science

Collections and Archives

ETH Library's Collections and Archives contain valuable original holdings of scientific and cultural-historical relevance. The Collections and Archives include: *Rare Books: works from the 15th to the 20th century * #Image Archive: historical photographs, aerial photographs, press photographs, portraits, postcards and much more. *Earth Science Collections: fossils, minerals, rocks and reliefs *ETH Zurich's Collection of Prints and Drawings: Switzerland's largest collection of printed works *University Archives: Administrative Archives of ETH Zurich and the

ETH Board The Board of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETH Board, German: ''Rat der Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschulen'', French: ''Conseil des écoles polytechniques fédérales'') is the strategic unit elected by the Swiss Federal Coun ...

, personal papers of scientists *Maps: historical and modern, topographical and topical maps *Material Collection: building and historical materials *Max Frisch Archive: personal papers

Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch (; 15 May 1911 – 4 April 1991) was a Swiss playwright and novelist. Frisch's works focused on problems of identity (social science), identity, individuality, Moral responsibility, responsibility, morality, and political commi ...

, primary and secondary literature *Cultural Assets Collection: art objects, art in architecture, the Sternwarte Collection *Thomas Mann Archive: personal papers

Thomas Mann Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...

, primary and secondary literature

Image Archive

The Image Archive of ETH Library indexes the library's image holdings. Its nationally and internationally significant image holdings document the development of ETH Zurich, research expeditions, settlement development and changes in society, politics and technology in Switzerland. Launched in 2000 as an organizational unit of ETH Library, the Image Archive curates a large number of image holdings acquired by the library in recent decades, such as within the scope of academic legacies. Searches and online access to the Image Archive's digitized holdings are available via ''E-Pics Bildarchiv Online''. A growing number of sub-holdings are also available on

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons, or simply Commons, is a wiki-based Digital library, media repository of Open content, free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used ...

. In the series Image Worlds (photographs from ETH Library's Image Archive), the archive's core holdings are presented thematically in texts and pictures.

Content-related focuses

ETH Library's Image Archive includes image holdings with a direct relation to the history of ETH Zurich and its architectural and staff development. In particular, this includes: *scenes (from around 1860 onwards): historical photographs of buildings, institutes, lecture theaters and laboratories at ETH Zurich *portraits: portraits of former members and students of ETH Zurich and notable scientists *photograph collections from institutes at ETH Zurich: e.g. Geobotanical Institute/Rübel Foundation, Geological Institute, Institute of

Aerodynamics Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...

, Institute of Building Conservation (Georg Mörsch) or the Photographic Institute *photographs and drawings from the personal papers of former professors at ETH Zurich: e.g.

Albert Frey-Wyssling :''See also Albert Frey (disambiguation)'' Dr Albert Friedrich Frey-Wyssling (8 November 1900 – 30 August 1988) was a Swiss botanist who pioneered submicroscopic morphology and helped initiate the study of molecular biology. Life Frey ...

, Immanuel Friedlaender,

Albert Heim Albert Heim (12 April 184931 August 1937) was a Swiss geologist, noted for his three-volume ''Geologie der Schweiz''. Born in Zürich, he was educated at Zürich and Berlin universities. Very early in life he became interested in the physical fe ...

, Arnold Heim,

Robert Maillart Robert Maillart (16 February 1872 – 5 April 1940) was a Swiss civil engineer who revolutionized the use of structural reinforced concrete with such designs as the three-hinged arch and the deck-stiffened arch for bridges, and the beamless f ...

Leopold Ruzicka Leopold may refer to: People * Leopold (given name), including a list of people named Leopold or Léopold * Leopold (surname) Fictional characters * Leopold (''The Simpsons''), Superintendent Chalmers' assistant on ''The Simpsons'' * Leopold B ...

, Carl Schroeter, Leo Wehrli or Hans Leibundgut The Image Archive has some extensive image holdings bearing a broader relation to science and technology and topics such as civil aviation, landscape and settlement development, architecture or

nature photography Nature photography encompasses a wide range of photography taken outdoors and devoted to displaying natural elements such as landscapes, wildlife, plants, and close-ups of natural scenes and textures. Nature photography tends to place a stronger ...

: *Foundation Luftbild Schweiz Archive (1918–2011): aerial photographs by

Walter Mittelholzer Walter Mittelholzer (2 April 1894 – 9 May 1937) was a Swiss aviation pioneer. He was active as a pilot, photographer, travel writer, as well as of the first aviation entrepreneurs. Life Mittelholzer was born on 2 April 1894 in St. Gallen, th ...

from flights over Switzerland and to Persia, South Africa, Chad,

Abyssinia Abyssinia (; also known as Abyssinie, Abissinia, Habessinien, or Al-Habash) was an ancient region in the Horn of Africa situated in the northern highlands of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea.Sven Rubenson, The survival of Ethiopian independence, ...

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

or as the first to fly over Kilimanjaro, portrait and landscape shots of Switzerland, taken by the Swissair Photo AG *Swissair Photo Archives (1931–2001): photographs and films on civil aviation, the aviation business and aircraft and destinations of the former Swiss airline Swissair *Comet Photo AG Archive (1952–1999): media images on topics such as architecture, culture, nature, politics, prominence, sport, technology, and transport about Switzerland *Scenes (from around 1860 onwards): landscapes and views of locations (primarily Switzerland) *Other private image holdings: Photo archive of the foundation Documenta Natura, photo archive of the Industriekultur Foundation of Dr Hans-Peter Bärtschi, aerial image archive of Air Color SA (Meyrin), nature photographs by Albert Krebs and orchid photographs by Hans R. Reinhard The image materials serve as a primary information source and reference material for studies on image production and usage. Last but not least, the copies, negatives, glass slides and individual films also document the technical development of the image as a medium.

Selected key figures for ETH Library's holdings

ETH Library's holdings comprise around 8 million analog and around 550.000 digital resources. As of September 2022, these include: Analog resources Digital resources The holdings of all ETH Zurich libraries, as well as more than 490 libraries across Switzerland, are available on ETH Library @ swisscovery. ETH Library @ swisscovery therefore provides access to more than 30 million books, series, journals and non-book materials.

Digital search platform

Research Collection

The Research Collection is ETH Zurich's publication platform. University members can publish their scientific full texts open access as well as archive their research data and make them accessible to the public. Furthermore, the Research Collection records all publications produced at ETH Zurich and serves as a source for publication lists in academic reporting and on ETH Zurich's websites.

Other nationally relevant platforms operated by ETH Library

e-rara.ch e-rara.ch is a Swiss digital library dedicated to providing free online access to rare antique Swiss books and prints. It opened to the public in March 2010, and aims to make more than 10,000 works available by the end of 2011. Project The ''e- ...

: digitized prints from Swiss libraries from the 15th to the 19th century *e-manuscripta.ch: digitized handwritten sources from Swiss libraries and archives *E-Pics: digitized photographs, image documents and 3D scans from collections, archives, institutes and units of ETH Zurich and external partners *

E-Periodica The ETH Library, serving as the central university library at ETH Zurich, has a notable collection of scientific and technical information. It is considered one of the largest public scientific and technical libraries in Switzerland. Furthermor ...

: digitized Swiss journals in the fields of science and culture from the 18th century to the present day *

: manuscripts and press articles on Thomas Mann

Selected services

Circulation courier

Library customers have the option of having documents from the institutions participating in the Swiss Library Service Platform delivered to the library of their choice.

DOI Desk

ETH Zurich's DOI Desk is located at the ETH Library and acts as a central DOI registration center for universities and research institutions in Switzerland. This service is also provided in collaboration with

DataCite DataCite is an international not-for-profit organization which aims to improve ''data citation'' in order to: *establish easier access to research data on the Internet *increase acceptance of research data as legitimate, citable contributions to ...

Research Data Management and Digital Curation

The specialist Research Data Management and Digital Curation office advises researchers at ETH Zurich on aspects of handling

research data Data ( , ) are a collection of discrete or continuous value (semiotics), values that convey information, describing the quantity, qualitative property, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols t ...

and

digital data Digital data, in information theory and information systems, is information represented as a string of Discrete mathematics, discrete symbols, each of which can take on one of only a finite number of values from some alphabet (formal languages ...

in general. The ETH Data Archive provides the technical infrastructure for the electronic long-term archiving and publication of this data.

E-Publishing office

As a central contact point for

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

within ETH Zurich, ETH Library helps members of ETH Zurich to publish their dissertations, articles, reports and much more in a freely accessible way online.

DigiCenter

The Digitization Centre at the ETH Library is the service provider and competence center in the fields of

digitization Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable) format.Collins Dictionary. (n.d.). Definition of 'digitize'. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/ ...

and the handling of

metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...

. In cooperation with various institutions of ETH Zurich and Swiss libraries, it carries out large-scale and high-quality digitization projects.

Ongoing projects

ETH Library conducts some future-oriented

projects A project is a type of assignment, typically involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a specific objective. An alternative view sees a project managerially as a sequence of events: a "set of interrelated tasks to be ...

, which ensure that the service and product portfolio is geared towards the needs of the target groups.

References

Academic libraries in Switzerland An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

ETH Zurich Swiss digital libraries