ETHICS: an online public access catalogue at ETH‐Bibliothek, Zurich

For the past two years the ETH‐Bibliothek in Zurich, Switzerland has provided an online catalogue which possesses considerable user comfort. Access to the approximately 500,000 title entries that have so far been made is by means of title words or by UDC subject terms/UDC notations. The system is multilingual, both in the user interface (including ‘help’ screens) and in the UDC subject terms. Access to the catalogue is completely free. No kind of password or authorisation is required. The system can be searched from the most varied types of terminal. In addition it is possible to order books via the terminal, but there is a charge for this service. The ETHICS online catalogue has been so enthusiastically accepted by users, and with so few problems, that the ETH‐Bibliothek has decided, considering the security of the system, to give up the production of printed catalogues.