What is Happening to EThOS records in Primo?

Links for the EThOS platform in CDI records for this provider were not resolving, as EThOS had to be taken down as a result of a cyber-attack and will not be restored. However, in order to allow access to these records, we have consulted with the British Library EThOS personnel and have re-configured the links to resolve directly to the platforms of the contributing institutions. This should provide working access to about 60% of the UK PhD theses.

May 2025 - The British Library has also informed us that they are in the midst of the process to get EThOS back online, and the timeline for this task is around three months. Once the service is back online, we will resume a discussion about updating the metadata feed from EThOS in our Central Discovery Index, serving our Summon and Primo applications.

September 2025 - The British Library updated us that the relaunch of EThOS is expected towards the end of the year. In terms of planning, the initial phase of User Acceptance Testing is scheduled for late October / early November. After the UAT, the provider will have a better assessment of the expected launch date. The provider also mentioned that they have updated the page dedicated to EThOS on their site with the most recent information; you can check it at: https://www.bl.uk/collection/ethos.

November 2025: According to provider, in 2026, they will begin the next phase of work to restore file downloads and automated requests for digitization. They will be consulting with participating universities and EThOS users (including other discovery services) to ensure that we they are meeting the community’s needs.

January 20, 2026: The provider updated that, regretfully, they don't yet have a new service ready. 

March 20, 2026: The provider updated that they are now in the 1st phase of user testing of their new platform. By mid-April, they should have a clearer idea of the detailed go live timetable. 

We will update this article once we have any additional information from the provider.

Last updated: 20-MAR-2026