11'000 new Swiss books in 2008
Bern, 05.02.2009 - Last year, Swiss publishers released more than 11'000 new books on the market, according to the annual statistics provided by the Swiss National Library on the publication of Swiss books.
In 2008, the Swiss National Library registered 11'126 new titles published by Swiss editors, representing a very slight decrease of 2.5% compared to 2007, when 11'410 titles were registered in the national bibliography, “The Swiss Book”. The breakdown according to languages is characterised by a 5% reduction in new titles in German (6'331 new publications), a 4% reduction in French (2'416) and an 11% reduction in Italian (319). The increases were of 6% in the number of new titles in English (1'302), of 48% for those in Romansh (31) and of 10% for those in several languages (727).
Irrespective of language, 1'898 new titles were in the field of literature (-4%), followed by the arts with 1'157 titles (+13%), religious publications remaining unchanged with 943 titles, and in law with 914 titles (-3%). Then follow publications on music with 881 titles (-19%), languages with 569 titres (+22%), technology with 446 titres (unchanged), history with 416 new titles (+2%) and geography with 388 titles (-6%).
The number of translated books has increased by 3% (968) in 2008. 416 titles were translated from English (+1%), 160 from German (- 20%) and 199 from French (+27%). Books originally published in 28 different languages were translated in one of the four national languages by Swiss editors (previous year: 34).
For a number of years the annual production of Swiss books has fluctuated between 10'000 and 12'000 new titles. In 2003, the National Library registered 10'376 new titles, 11'061 in 2004, 10'128 in 2005 and 11'875 in 2006.
Address for enquiries
Philippe Girard, Head of Acquisitions
Tel. 031 322 89 70
philippe.girard@nb.admin.ch
Publisher
Swiss National Library
http://www.nb.admin.ch
