The NL keeps its collections in underground stacks. After almost three years of construction, the second underground stack area started operating at the end of 2008. There will be an “open doors” weekend on 29 and 30 August 2009, with a unique opportunity for members of the public to visit the NL stacks.

Over five million documents

At the end of 2008 the collection comprised 3.91 million publications, 1.2 million documents in the Federal Archive of Historic Monuments (FAHM) and 354 archives and estates (Swiss Literary Archives, Prints and Drawings Department, musical estates). In accordance with their statutory mandate the NL archives these documents for the future while making them available at no cost to all interested parties. Use of the NL, both at its premises and through online requests, increased last year, which confirms the NL in its decision to digitise selected collections.

New online platforms

The "HelveticArchives" database has been online since May 2008, which means that the collections of the Prints and Drawings Department and of the Swiss Literary Archives can at a later date be searched online. The first step was to include Annemarie Schwarzenbach’s travel photographs. Portrait photographs and historic photographs of places have since been added. New documents are put online every three months.

In addition, since last year there has for the first time been a professional information platform for Swiss libraries’ and archives’ digitisation projects in the form of "Digicoord", a joint project between the NL and the "Library Network of Western Switzerland" (RERO). As the first Swiss French-language newspaper, the "Journal de Genève" has been accessible online free of charge since the end of 2008 thanks to the NL’s cooperation with Le Temps and the Bibliothèque de Genève. As a result of these three applications, valuable documents from Switzerland’s cultural heritage are now available online round the clock.

Electronic collection grows

In addition to the digitisation of printed documents, another priority is the development of a collection of electronic publications that exist in no other form. This, too, is done in collaboration with partners: cantonal and university libraries, publishing houses, and individual federal offices. At the end of 2008, the electronic collection comprised 1,406 publications, the equivalent of 15,300 single files or 7.91 gigabytes. If the electronic publications were printed, they would take up around 395,000 double-sided A4 pages. The documents are automatically fed in to the electronic long-term archiving system.

The Swiss National Library is funded by the Confederation. In 2008 its operations totalled CHF 32 million. Some 61% of these funds were used for collection maintenance, and 39% for services for users.

http://www.nb.admin.ch/annual_report

Swiss National Library: new stack area and new online platforms