Digitisation
A modern learning and research destination and a library of the future: With the ongoing digitisation of our holdings, we provide scientists and students with easy and direct access to information and source material, while at the same time helping to safeguard our cultural heritage.
Curated knowledge: DigiCenter
The DigiCenter is a service provider and centre of excellence in the area of digitisation. One of our key tasks is the digitisation of extensive holdings from the ETH Library’s collections. We also implement large and small digitisation projects in cooperation with the ETH community and various Swiss libraries. In addition, we advise internal and external customers on issues relating to digitisation. We work together with external digitisation service providers if required.
DigiCenter: Reference projects
Photographs
Smaller holdings are being digitised on an ongoing basis. The focus of the bulk digitisation work is the extensive holdings of the ETH Library Image Archive. For all sub-collections, it is necessary to clarify in advance whether and how digitisation is to be implemented:
- Complete digitisation (e.g. the photographs of Swiss aviation pioneer Walter Mittelholzer)
- A representative selection (e.g. the Swissair Photo Archive)
The digitised images are accessible via
Journals
The external page E-Periodica platform provides you with free access to Swiss journals in the fields of science and culture. This allows you to browse and search millions of pages in Switzerland’s largest digital journal archive as well as download content in PDF format. Other journals are being digitised on an ongoing basis.
Rare Books
ETH Library has a collection of rare books ranging from the end of the fifteenth to the end of the nineteenth century which are of historical significance in terms of culture, science and technology, including books from the following areas:
- Architecture
- Natural science
- Technology
More than 20,000 books have been digitised to date, and new ones are constantly being added. Using external page e-rara and ETH Library @ swisscovery, you can easily access the digital editions of the old books.
Historical source material
The holdings of the ETH Zurich University Archives include:
- Minutes, matriculation records and other administrative files dating back to the university’s founding era
- Significant personal papers of persons with links to ETH Zurich in terms of science or subject matter
We are continuously digitizing selected holdings, which are available to you online at external page e-mansucripta.
Objects
The “Albert Heim Geological Teaching Collection” of ETH Zurich’s Earth Science Collections includes fossils, minerals and rocks from Switzerland and sites around the world. Albert Heim, author of the monumental work “Geology of Switzerland” (1919 to 1922), was Professor of Geology at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich from 1872 to 1911.
In a pilot project, some 1,100 objects of this extensive teaching collection were digitised and made available in 3D views on E-Pics Earth Science Collections.
