News articles

We are delighted to welcome Professor Ludo Waltman on 24 April 2024, who will postulate a democratisation of the use of scientometrics in the fourth lecture of the Swiss Year of Scientometrics (SYoS).

The national negotiations between swissuniversities and Elsevier and also with Taylor & Francis did not lead to an agreement by mid-December 2023. The ETH Library, together with the other universities affected, is preparing for a situation without a contract from January 2024.

In collaboration between the ETH Library and  EPFL, the third lecture of the Swiss Year of Scientometrics (SYoS) will take place in Lausanne on 7 February 2024. Dr Elizabeth Gadd speaks about the challenges of research assessment in the context of open science.

The books making up ETH Professor Louis Rollier’s (1859–1931) personal collection have been added to e-rara as a virtual private library.

A wide range of events awaits you at extract. Immerse yourself in the world of insects and plants from over 200 years of collecting and experience exciting stories.

The event will take place on 11 October 2023 in collaboration with the CHESS. Prof. Emanuel Kulczycki will explore how ontological understanding of science influences what we count and how we interpret it.

Are open data sources reliable enough to perform bibliometric analyses? TOBI aims to answer this question by assessing the quality of open datasets. Among its first deliverables, an app is now available.

The ETH Library offers a new 3D experience. Digitised 3D models of objects allow a new way to access the Collection of Scientific Instruments and Teaching Aids.

Insects and plants collected over the course of more than 200 years highlight the importance of wildlife conservation – the first exhibition at extract, the new exhibition space in the ETH main building.

The E-Pics platform provides comprehensive online collection of digitised book illustrations. Discover a wide range of images in the digitised old books collection of the ETH Library.

Dr Stefanie Haustein began the event series for the Swiss Year of Scientometrics on 7 June 2023 with her stimulating lecture on the opportunities and challenges of scientometrics. The content is available online.

The ETH Zurich Web Archive, an important source for research into the history of science, has been relaunched following a comprehensive upgrade. It now dates back to 1997. All contents have been full-text indexed and are, starting from 2017, intensively curated.

You can now virtually browse through the bookshelf of psychologist and Jungian Carl Alfred Meier. Discover valuable works on the topics of psychology, natural science, medicine and more.

Discover the new full-text additions from a wide variety of specialist fields on E-Periodica, the ETH Library’s online platform for digitised Swiss periodicals. We hope you enjoy browsing, researching, reading and sharing!

The first lecture of the Swiss Year of Scientometrics (SYoS) will take place on 7 June 2023. Dr Stefanie Haustein will be giving an overview of the landscape of scientometrics and its recent developments.

Search standards on a new platform and view now also the IEC standards for electrical engineering, electronics and information technology.

Is it really possible to measure research performance and the influence of scientific work objectively? The “Swiss Year of Scientometrics” (SYoS) shines a light on the limits and possibilities for scientometrics.

The riches of the Collections and Archives of ETH Zurich in one space: beginning this summer, extract will bring together a diverse range of objects and documents to address current research questions

Access to the comprehensive primary sources in the Wiley Digital Archives will provide new insights, especially for those interested in environmental sciences and scientific research.

Just under four years after the launch of AstroRara, users can now discover new content and a revamped design.

You will have again an opportunity to look behind the scenes of the ETH Library and its collections and archives during various public tours in 2023.

Thomas Mann Archives Online allow access to further original documents in digital form.

Full access to Oxford University Press journals.

Visit the new exhibition, featuring a number of astronomical instruments, in the historic Semper Observatory

Take advantage of the comprehensive access to podcasts about the global transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

With the planned reopening of the parking garage beneath the forecourt of the ETH main building, Naegeli’s graffiti art will once again be accessible to the public.

Independent publishing: SciPost gives ETH Zurich researchers an additional way of publishing their research results as open-​access articles without relying on commercial providers.

Analysing text reuse is a task that is of particular relevance to architectural history. The platform Graph automates this process by applying large-scale textual processing for detecting similar text passages to a large corpus of digitised books.

Save the date: join us on 30 August 2022 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Switzerland’s largest map collection with a book launch.

Discover the new full-text additions from various specialist fields on E-Periodica, the ETH Library’s online platform for digitised Swiss periodicals.

Read and publish open access in humanities subjects and thereby contribute to Open Science.

A new addition to e-rara: the digitized private library of Eugen Bircher, a Swiss surgeon and military author who worked at ETH Zurich for several years.

Follow the yellow stickers in the shape of eyes and go in search of ETH traces! Many aha experiences and fun facts about the history of the ETH Zurich are included.

For this year’s International Archives Week (7 to 11 June 2022), the archives of ETH Zurich are opening their doors to the public. It is an opportunity to learn about their work and their offers and get involved.

Maps as part of the digital transformation: discover the ETH Library’s ever-expanding range of electronic and georeferenced maps available for your use.

The ETH Library recommends freely available background information about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Learn about the beginnings of glacier research in Switzerland. A selection of works from the Rare Books and Maps collection will be on display at a visiting exhibition at the Max Frisch Archive from 4 April to 6 May 2022.

Are you familiar with the extraordinary treasures in the ETH Library? The videos in our #TreasureTroves campaign feature fascinating instruments, graphics and designs from our different collections and archives.

For all ETH Library locations regular opening hours apply from 17 February on and all services are available without restriction.

AstroRara offers digital and interactive access to three new works. Historical publications on eclipses, retrograde motion and comet tails are now available for use as multimedia.

On E-Pics, the ETH Zurich platform for image catalogues, new additions from the ETH Library Thomas Mann Archives have been recorded and digitised. They are now available for researchers and interested parties.

Discover the new full-text additions from various specialist fields on E-Periodica, the online platform for digitised Swiss periodicals.

Discover the new digitised full-text periodicals from St. Gallen on E-Periodica, the online platform for digitised Swiss periodicals.

Receive information relating to the new open-access agreements with the American Institute of Physics (AIP), Company of Biologists, IEEE and Institute of Physics (IOP).

Thomas Mann Archives Online allow access to further original documents.

The annual programme for the 2022 public tours is now online. Guided public tours through the collections and archives of ETH Zurich offer insights into the widest range of current research topics.

Due to the closure of the ETH Zurich buildings, access to individual ETH Library locations is only possible for ETH members.

The latest and, for now, last Explora story is online. We’re in Zurich, in the Wehrenbach ravine, looking for a species of caddisfly thought to be extinct.

With the newly published collection “Private Library of Johannes Orelli”, we take you back to the early years of the Federal Polytechnic Institute – what is now ETH Zurich.

The new Explora story is online: this year marks the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize in Physics. But how much ETH was there really in Einstein? And how much Einstein is there in ETH?

Not just ETH Zurich but also the collections and archives of the ETH Library will be joining the open-house event on 2 and 3 October 2021: interested visitors can catch a rare glimpse of the Semper Observatory and the astronomical holdings.

150 years of agricultural sciences at ETH Zurich! A new mini-series on Explora is being created from nostalgic images and diverse materials, but also from the future perspectives of researchers.

Members of ETH Zurich can now find out everything about the plant Arabidopsis thaliana on The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) database.

More than just books! This year, baccalaureate students will be learning more about the ETH Library in virtual form.

Take a guided tour of the ETH Materials Hub and find out more about the development of wood as a building material from the Renaissance to the present day.

Now, learn as part of self-study why research question, outline and proposal are crucial.

Research and knowledge brought to life: ETH Zurich presents selected holdings from its collections and archives at the new external location Octavo.

Members of ETH Zurich now have free access to the online version of the leading American daily newspaper The New York Times.

The new Explora story is online. It is dedicated to the bridges of Switzerland, the engineers who designed them and lots more. Take a closer look!

Read about the work accomplished in the Thomas Mann Archives over the past year despite the pandemic, with a review of the main areas of focus.

There is a new highlight in the Collection of Scientific Instruments and Teaching Aids: the custom-made Gömböc G 1854. The gift is a tangible piece of 20 years of scientific history.

The Kaleidoscope 2020 gives you an insight into the topics that we have been particularly dealing with at the ETH Library during the past year.

Discover the new full-text additions from various specialist fields on E-Periodica, the online platform for digitised Swiss periodicals.

The ETH Library returns to its normal opening hours at all locations, since all ETH buildings are open again.

The new Wiley Read and Publish agreement allows researchers at ETH Zurich to enjoy unlimited access to scientific insights worldwide and to publish their own results free of charge.

The tenth anniversary of e-rara was marked with presentations, visualisations and discussions – online, in public and live. Find out what researchers have been saying about retrospective digitisation and learn more about the platform online.

The ETH Library in the main building is now also open again on weekends. Additionally, the Architecture and Civil Engineering Library on the Hönggerberg is open during the week. All other library locations will open on 17 May 2021. Our digital offers and services are available to you as usual.

We will celebrate ten years of e-rara with a virtual panel discussion – an exchange between experts, researchers and people interested in science on “Retrospective digitisation in Switzerland”.

Electronic and geo-referenced maps such as the “Baumkataster Basel-Stadt” (2020), the “Plan der Stadt Zürich nach Breitinger” (1867) and other maps are now available for use.

Explore the world of volcanoes and the history of volcanic research at the first guest exhibition from the Rare Books, which runs from 6 to 23 April 2021 in the Max Frisch Archive.

The Global Health database provides rapid access to both standard works and current specialist articles on public health around the world – and it’s free for members of ETH Zurich.

Members of ETH Zurich now have access to Cambridge University Press (CUP) textbooks, a rich source of knowledge and information across a broad range of disciplines.

Our oldest image catalogue on E-Pics celebrates its 15th anniversary! It took a lot of preparatory work, numerous attempts and the courage to try something new before the catalogue could be launched on 6 March 2006.

The ETH Library in the main building remains open. In addition, the Architecture and Civil Engineering Library opens as well. All other locations are closed. Our digital offers and services are available to you as usual.

The E-Pics platform provides comprehensive online holdings of digitised images. Discover a wide range of images in the digitised old books collection of the ETH Library.

The long wait is over. The Image Archive of the ETH Library has now made its oldest films available online for research buffs. Exciting historical expeditions, experiments and much more are waiting to be explored.

Discover the new additions from various subject areas in full text on E-Periodica, the online platform for digitised Swiss journals.

2020 saw the highest ever number of journal articles downloaded! You can also find out which topic occupied users the most.

AstroRara offers interactive digital access to historic astronomical illustrations. Three fascinating new works are now ready to be explored.

The ETH Library in the main building remains open, all other locations are closed. Our digital offers and services are available to you as usual.

A virtual tour of an early 20th-century chemistry laboratory at ETH Zurich brings the history of science to life. Faithfully recreated rooms and their historical apparatus can be viewed virtually – remotely or on-site.

HSTalks is a platform that provides access to animated, audiovisual lectures. The Biomedical & Life Sciences Collection offers a wide range of talks covering various scientific topics.

In 2021, ETH Zurich will continue to provide the interested public with insights into the fascinating past and present of a university steeped in tradition.

Get information on the new Read and Publish agreements with Cambridge University Press, Karger, Sage, Taylor & Francis and Trans Tech Publications.

The new Explora Story is all about geodata and its added value - discover it now!

At the beginning of December, the AstroRara web app won bronze in the “Mobile Web” category at the Best of Swiss Apps Award 2020.

swissuniversities continues negotiations with Wiley in 2021; access to all Wiley journals and the Cochrane Library is ensured in the meantime.

Analysing text reuse is a task that is of particular relevance to architectural history. The new platform Graph automates this process by applying large-scale textual processing for detecting similar text passages to a large corpus of digitised architecture books.

Journey to the stars with AstroRara, a platform that allows anyone to interactively explore historic astronomical illustrations and learn fascinating facts about the authors and their works.

Adjusted opening hours and services

The most comprehensive online source for medical professionals is now available to members of ETH Zurich. Continually updated, AccessMedicine offers access to all essential clinical knowledge and relevant medical research. An invaluable resource for private study.

The CYBATHLON 2020 offers a special kind of competition experience. In its three-part video campaign, the ETH Library shows a person affected who defies fate with courage and high-tech.

The Research Collection statistics reveal current trends: researchers continue to intensively study topics relating to COVID-19, open access is being used more frequently, and the number of downloads is also rising.

Art walkabout on the ETH Campus: as communicative companions, mobile devices provide background information in audio or text form to those interested in art, and use the campus map to take users directly to the objects they want to see.

The concluded Read-and-Publish agreements cover both the costs of access and publishing in the relevant scientific journals. The costs are covered by the ETH Library.

The Alloy Phase Diagram Database is an extensive pool of data available to researchers. Research, highlight and compare its contents to produce contemporary, progressive research.

Extended opening hours and services

Members of ETH Zurich can now access and use statistical data efficiently and across disciplines: Statista makes facts and figures available in a systematic, uncomplicated format.

Explora launched the new miniseries format in July. Check out the second episode now.

Those with an interest in architecture will enjoy our new series in the Crowdsourcing blog.