Tips for research

Resources for audiovisual documents and photographs

  • Prints and Drawings Department
    Since the early 20th century, the Prints and Drawings Department collects photographs, in particular views of places and landscapes as well as portraits.
  • Memobase
    Memobase is the national research portal of Memoriav, the competence centre for Switzerland's audiovisual cultural heritage.

List of Swiss platforms and databases providing access to images, sounds, films and videos: 

Resources for biographical information

Catalogues and biographical databases of the NL:

Resources for maps or information about a place, region or locality

  • Map viewer of Swisstopo
    Interactive presentation of maps and additional information from all the federal offices on a range of subjects.
  • The Dufour Map
    The first official map covering the whole of Switzerland
  • The Siegfried Map
    The original surveys for the Dufour Map were used for the publication of the 1:25 000/1:50 000 Topographic Atlas of Switzerland (Siegfried Map).
  • Hiking in Switzerland
    SwitzerlandMobility selects routes and hikes and presents them on maps from the Federal Office of Topography.

In the online catalogue Helveticat:

Search by keyword in the NL’s Helveticat catalogue to find the maps you are looking for.

Search term ‘Kartenmaterial’, ‘Document cartographique’, ‘Documento cartografico’; to search for electronic records add ‘elektronische’, ‘électronique’ or ‘elettronica’.
It may help to truncate the name of the region.

Online place name portals and sites:

Reference works at the NL:

The geographical name directories of the various cantons and regions are listed in the online catalogue Helveticat:

A keyword search using the following terms (sometimes truncated with an asterisk) will find the corresponding documents: “Ortsname*”, “Flurname*”, “lieu-dit”, “lieux-dits”, “toponym*”, “toponim*”, “toponom*” (from Toponomastik, Toponymie or Toponymik, Ortsnamenskunde or -forschung)

Resources for Swiss e-books

The NL does not lend out e-books but many public libraries offer this service. Digital Helvetica can only be consulted on site.

  • e-Helvetica
    e-Helvetica provides access to the NL’s digital and digitised collections. Consultation is subject to specific rules to protect copyright.
  • Bibliothèque numérique romande BNR
    The BNR provides digital books of texts in the public domain by authors from the French-speaking part of Switzerland and neighbouring French-speaking regions, translations by Swiss-German and Ticino authors as well as books by foreign authors set in Switzerland.
  • Nos livres.net
    French-language books in the public domain, available free of charge.

Resources for information about a company or association

The full gazette can be consulted online via two platforms:

Other tools for the research on a company

List of publications of corporations and associations

Documents and publications from Swiss corporations or associations, companies, industries, schools and cultural institutions, both cantonal and local. The institutions from which we hold documents are contained in this list. The documents of these bodies are listed either in Helveticat or in the Corporate publications catalogue on site.

Resources for genealogical information

NL genealogical information

A number of resources can be consulted on site:

Catalogue of family names

Index of genealogical articles that have appeared in serial publications and monographs, in alphabetical order of family names.

Catalogue of genealogical tables

Tables of ancestors, dynasties and family lines of descent; genealogical trees and tables from the Prints and Drawings Department. Consists of three parts: an alphabetical catalogue of authors, a systematic catalogue of family names, and a location catalogue (call numbers).

Heraldic catalogue

Index of family coats of arms published in some reference works. This catalogue was updated until 1980.

Resources for newspapers or periodicals

Most newspapers and consumer magazines from German- and French-speaking Switzerland from the mid-1990s onwards are available in digital form in the Schweizer Mediendatenbank (SMD), the Swiss Media Database. The full texts and images can be accessed in the National Library's information room via Swissdox essentials. This licensed access allows full-text searches and the downloading of content, in some cases in the original layout as a PDF file.

The latest issues of the most widely read Swiss journals and newspapers are on display in the public rooms of the NL:

A growing number of Swiss newspapers and magazines are available online in digital form:

  • E-Periodica
    E-Periodica is the platform operated by the ETH Library for digitised Swiss journals covering numerous subject areas.
  • e-newspaperarchives.ch
    e-newspaperarchives.ch (e-npa.ch) is the platform operated by the Swiss National Library (NB) for digitised Swiss newspapers.
  • Impresso App
    The "Impresso-App" enables critical text mining of newspaper archives and offers technical tools to extract, process, link, and explore data from print media archives. To use the app, registration is required once.

Many newspapers are also available on microfilm at the NL.

Journals and newspapers in Helveticat

The Swiss National Library's (NB) online catalogue Helveticat lists all books and electronic documents as well as current newspapers and journals. The cataloguing of ceased newspapers and journals is currently in progress.

Catalogue of serial publications of the NL (“P-Katalog”)

Card index for on-site consultation listing all serials that were catalogued before 2005: newspapers, journals, series, annual publications (except carnival programmes and corporate publications).

Further catalogues, bibliographies and indexes

List of catalogues, bibliographies and indexes

  • Federal law
    Federal laws of the federal authorities. English is not an official language of the Swiss Confederation. This translation is provided for information purposes only and has no legal force
  • Curia Vista
    Curia Vista is the database of parliamentary proceedings. It contains details of items of business since the winter session 1995 (Federal Council dispatches, procedural requests, elections, petitions, etc.).
  • Lexicon of Parliamentary Terms
    The alphabetically organised parliamentary dictionary explains around 500 terms used in everyday parliamentary life. It is continuously updated and expanded.
  • Official publications of the Confederation (in French)
    The Swiss Federal Archives have digitised numerous official documents and made them available online.

An overview can be found in the table below.

  • HDS: Laws
    The history of legislative developments in Switzerland in the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (in German, French and Italian).
  • Federal Supreme Court Case law
    Portal containing the case law of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. (In German).

Catalogue of official serial publications (on site)

Directory of periodical publications by public sector bodies (Confederation, cantons, communes, churches, etc.). Starting from June 2005, new titles are only listed in Helveticat.

Resources for political, economic and cultural information about Switzerland

  • Discover Switzerland
    Maintained by the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, this website contains general information, charts and dossiers on topics related to Swiss society, history, politics, economics, science, education and the environment.
  • ch.ch, the portal of the Swiss authorities
    The portal of the Swiss authorities covers topics such as work and foreign residents in Switzerland, education and research, health and social affairs, mobility, people, security, the state and law.
  • SWI swissinfo.ch
    The site of Swiss radio and television’s (SRG SSR) international service, with information in 10 languages on politics, the economy, culture, society, science and technology

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