Background
ETH Zurich operates the Archive for Contemporary History, which holds a significant collection of historical sources. The goal was to provide AfZ Online Archives, a virtual reading room, that offers both academic research and the interested public structured and modern access to these collections.
The challenge lay in unifying diverse requirements within a single platform while ensuring seamless integration with existing interfaces. Historical source dossiers needed to be efficiently searchable and relevant content needed to be made available online. At the same time, access to metadata and primary data had to meet legal requirements, necessitating a finely granular access control for protected documents. Finally, the ordering and approval process had to be clear and structured and could be combined with the scheduling of an archive visit. The existing solution was too inflexible, difficult to extend, and labor-intensive in its workflows.
Solution
OPTEN developed AfZ Online Archives, a custom virtual reading room based on Umbraco CMS. The platform allows users to conduct targeted searches for relevant historical source dossiers and provides direct, individually manageable, online access to metadata and digitally prepared archival materials.
Additionally, a structured order and approval process was implemented. Users can request documents for on-site access to the reading room or for approval at a documents-viewer. They can also order high-quality digital reproductions. The request goes through defined steps, and an appointment for an archive visit can be scheduled in connection with the order. This solution thus combines research, access management, and archive usage into a consistent digital process.
A clear information architecture, structured metadata models, and a user-friendly interface ensure high efficiency in daily operations. At the same time, the platform is technically designed to be extensible in the long term and adaptable to future requirements.
Technically, AfZ Online Archives is based on a well-separated, future-proof architecture. The frontend was developed using Angular and provides a high-performance, modular user interface for research, access, and interaction. Umbraco CMS is used in the backend as the central system for managing content. Customer and archival data are sourced from the connected third-party systems CMI AIS and GEVER and integrated via defined interfaces. Within a structured ETL process, the data is consolidated, normalized, and indexed to ensure high-performance processing as well as an optimized, scalable presentation in the frontend. In addition, Umbraco provides several specialized dashboards: a user and synchronization dashboard manages data synchronization and Elasticsearch indexing, while a dedicated order dashboard handles the entire approval and request process. This order dashboard was implemented as an Angular web component and uses the same UI components as the public frontend, ensuring a consistent user experience and low-maintenance future development.
Impact
With AfZ Online Archives, the Archive for Contemporary History now has a powerful virtual reading room. Researchers and interested users benefit from significantly improved discoverability of historical sources, transparent order processes, and clear user guidance.
Internally, despite finely-granular administration, manual effort is reduced thanks to structured workflows and clearly defined approval processes. At the same time, the platform provides a sustainable foundation for the responsible management of sensitive historical materials.
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datasets quickly searchable
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users with granular access control
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orders/year handled efficiently
"AfZ Online Archives combines digital research, legally compliant access, and visit planning in a single, reliable platform."
