Fritz Digital Library Unveiled

On the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of Lehigh University’s Fritz Lab , a new collaboration between Library and Technology Services, the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, and Printing and Mailing Services has resulted in the digitization of approximately 150 technical publications.

The newly established Lehigh Civil and Environmental Engineering Digital Library encompasses selected publications of the department, including Fritz Laboratory Reports, IHL (Imbt Hydraulics Lab) Reports and ATLSS (Advanced Technology for Large Structural Systems) Reports. The complete bibliography covers over 3,000 reports in the database.

Fritz Engineering Laboratory Research reports are comprised of research findings from departmental projects funded by various governmental agencies, industry and professional societies between roughly 1921 and 1989.

The research reports include the civil engineering fields of structural (both concrete and steel) engineering, hydraulics, geotechnical, environmental/sanitary and fatigue/fracture engineering. A number of the Fritz Lab research project reports represent theses, dissertations and publications.

In order to prioritize digitization of the 3,300 publications included in the collection, a number of faculty in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department were surveyed. Those reports determined to be the most significant were selected. Highlights include groundbreaking findings regarding bridges, highways, concrete, and steel, among other areas.

This new digital library is accessible through either the Fritz Engineering Laboratory 100th Anniversary website or the LTS Digital Library Projects website (http://digital.lib.lehigh.edu/fritz/). Researchers may access all of the full-text digitized reports by limiting search results to “PDF only” in the second search box on the website.

--Lois Fischer Black

Article posted November 18, 2009

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