| ETH Library | |
| Country: | Switzerland |
| Type: | Scientific library, University library |
| Established: | 1855 |
| Location: | Zurich |
| Mapframe-Zoom: | 14 |
| Collection Size: | Over 8,450,000 items |
| Director: | Rafael Ball |
| Website: | www.library.ethz.ch |
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. 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.
ETH Library collects media from the following fields:[1]
ETH Library's four special libraries 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:
ETH Library's Collections and Archives contain valuable original holdings of scientific and cultural-historical relevance. The Collections and Archives[3] include:
historical photographs, aerial photographs, press photographs, portraits, postcards and much more.
| Image Archive of ETH Library | |
| Type: | Image Archive |
| Location: | Rämistrasse 101, Zurich |
| Country: | Switzerland |
| Mapframe-Zoom: | 14 |
| Established: | 2000 |
| Collection Size: | 3.2 million images |
| Website: | ETH Library’s 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. In the series Image Worlds[4] (photographs from ETH Library's Image Archive), the archive's core holdings are presented thematically in texts and pictures.
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:
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:
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.
ETH Library's holdings comprise around 8 million analog and around 550.000 digital resources. As of September 2022, these include:
Analog resources
| Monographs and journal volumes | 3'003'361 |
| Image documents | 3'791'324 |
| Maps | 343'096 |
| Archival material in linear meters | 5'025 |
| Digital image documents | 876'620 |
| E-books | 957'993 |
| Dissertations, articles and reports in the ETH E-Collection | 82'716 |
| 45'196 | |
| Databases | 150 |
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.
The Research Collection [5] 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.
digitized prints from Swiss libraries from the 15th to the 19th century
digitized Swiss journals in the fields of science and culture from the 18th century to the present day[7]
manuscripts and press articles on Thomas Mann
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.[8]
ETH Zurich's DOI Desk[9] 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.
The specialist Research Data Management and Digital Curation[10] office advises researchers at ETH Zurich on aspects of handling research data and digital data in general. The ETH Data Archive provides the technical infrastructure for the electronic long-term archiving and publication of this data.
As a central contact point for open access 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.[11]
The Digitization Centre at the ETH Library is the service provider and competence center in the fields of digitization and the handling of metadata. In cooperation with various institutions of ETH Zurich and Swiss libraries, it carries out large-scale and high-quality digitization projects.[12]
ETH Library conducts some future-oriented projects, which ensure that the service and product portfolio is geared towards the needs of the target groups.[13]