SwissInfoDesk is a link collection that should simplify your search for information about Switzerland. Information and documentation specialists at the Swiss National Library (NL) have selected and commented the links.

Should you fail to find the desired information via the SwissInfoDesk, the employees of the Information Retrieval Service will be at your disposal [i.e. disposition?].

SwissInfoDesk lists links to Internet resources that can be queried at no charge. They were selected by the following standards: Quality and reliability of the content, benefits according to the needs of the public.

SwissInfoDesk:
• documents topics that are often asked for by the users of the NL;
• covers areas of interest among the most important user groups at the NL: Swiss history, Swiss literature, Swiss Art as well as library and information sciences;
• informs inexperienced users on information sources about Switzerland.

The links have been selected and assigned to one of ten main categories. Each of the main categories consists of sub-categories, which, for their part, can be divided in up to three stages. The classification represents an adaption of the universal Dewey Decimal Classification, used as well to classify documents within the public rooms of the NL.

SwissInfoDesk offers a number of ways to consult the listed Internet resources:
• Start page (SwissInfoDesk Links):
You can view the main categories here. A selection of sub-categories is provided for each category to simplify your search.
Four links on the right of the start page link to resources based on the main emphasis of the NL's collections: Swiss history, Swiss literature, Swiss art as well as library and information sciences.

• List all topics:
Select “SwissInfoDesk List all topics” in the menu on the left side to search the SwissInfoDesk by topic. It provides an overview on classification and structure. In this manner you can scan all SwissInfoDesk topic fields and have direct access to the corresponding Internet resources.

• Index:
Select “SwissInfoDesk Index A-Z” in the menu on the left side to go to the alphabetic index. The index corresponds to an alphabetical listing of key words used to describe the content of the links. This includes both topics as well as last names. Caution: Clicking a key term does not navigate directly to the link for the corresponding website, but rather to the start of a category to which the key term belongs to.
Date of birth and death appear only when multiple persons with the same last name are listed.
The language is listed in parenthesis if the website cannot be queried simultaneously in German, French and English.

Each entry includes a description of the website:
• Title
• Author
• Language (to the extent the language is not the same as the language selected on SwissInfoDesk)
• Content
• Any features
• URL

The title of a subordinate website is also provided in the description if the link goes to an Internet page that is part of a larger web presence.

We recommend following the references below the chapter heading if you do not find the desired information within a category.