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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: 

Audiovisual documents (PDF, 477 kB, 02.04.2020)

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Resources for biographical information

• Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (HDS)
  Covers the various periods of human history and presents them to a wide audience in easily accessible form.
• Base de données des élites suisses au XXème siècle
  Political, economic, administrative and academic elite in the 20th and early 21st century.
• Members of the Federal Council since 1848
• SIKART
  Contains information on artists, their works and exhibitions
• Autorinnen und Autoren der Schweiz AdS
  Directory of contemporary Swiss writers
• SME-Musinfo
  Web platform for contemporary Swiss music
• fotoCH
  Online resource with a biographical dictionary of photographers and a directory of institutions that hold photographic archives and fonds.
• ARH-Portal People and Institutions
  The online-portal People and Institutions operated by the Archives of Rural History (ARH) contains information on around 11’000 people and 700 organizations in the agricultural and food sector.

Catalogues and biographical databases of the NL:

• Biographical catalogue of newspaper articles (1930-2012)
• World Biographical Information System (WBIS Online)
  The most comprehensive global biographical database from the 8th century to the present. Consultation on site.

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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:  

• Geological Atlas of Switzerland
  Geological Atlas of Switzerland 1:25 000
• Aeronautical charts ICAO
• PLANCATO
  Swiss cadastral survey, by sheet and commune. Only available for reading-room loan.

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

• Helveticat
  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:

• ortsnamen.ch
  Names of places and localities
• Glossarium Helvetiae historicum [online edition]
  Contains a total of 1,400 Swiss place names in German, French, Italian and Romansh.
• Geographisches Lexikon der Schweiz [Digitalisierte Ausgabe]
• Namenbuch und Flurnamenforschung
  GIS Wiki der HSR Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil

Reference works at the NL:

• Dictionary of Swiss commune names
  Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses, DTS = Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen, LSG = Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri, DTS, 2005
• New geographical dictionary of Switzerland
  Neues schweizerisches Ortslexikon = Nouveau dictionnaire géographique de la Suisse = Nuovo dizionario geografico della Svizzera, 1983

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

• 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)

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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 Access
  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.

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Resources for information about a company or association

• Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SOGC)
  Publishes legally prescribed notices and official information

The full gazette can be consulted online via two platforms:

e-Helvetica Access

Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SOGC), e-periodica

Online Swiss periodicals platform

Search for information on a company in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce SOGC (PDF, 120 kB, 12.10.2020)

Other tools for the research on a company

 

• Zefix
  Central Business Name Index
• Cantonal registries of commerce
• Moneyhouse
  Commercial register data and business information, updated daily.

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.

List of corporate publications (in German and French) (XLSX, 2 MB, 10.01.2024)

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Resources for genealogical information

• Register of Swiss Surnames
• Addresses of archives
• Swiss genealogy. Directory
  Swiss Society of Genealogical Studies
• Helveticat
  Online catalogue (OPAC) of the Swiss National Library (NL). Includes all monographs as well as periodicals and newspapers that are still published. The process of cataloguing old newspapers and periodicals is currently still in progress.
• Familienforschung Schweiz : Jahrbuch = Généalogie suisse : annuaire = Genealogie svizzera : annuario (1996-)
• Swiss genealogy on the internet
  The main online genealogy resources

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.

Familiengeschichtliche Bibliographie der Schweiz von Mario von Moos

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Resources for newspapers or periodicals

The latest issues of periodicals and newspapers are on display in the public rooms of the NL:

List of Journals: Reading room (PDF, 113 kB, 19.09.2014)

List of Journals: Library and Information Science (PDF, 51 kB, 19.09.2014)

List of Journals: Swiss History (PDF, 53 kB, 19.09.2014)

List of Journals: Swiss press (PDF, 50 kB, 11.01.2016)

List of Journals: Swiss Literature (PDF, 55 kB, 19.09.2014)

List of Journals: Swiss art and architecture (PDF, 54 kB, 19.09.2014)

Older issues of newspapers are mostly accessible on microfilm.

List of microfilmed newspapers (in German and French) (PDF, 705 kB, 24.03.2022)

Some are available directly online:

• e-newspaperarchives.ch
  e-newspaperarchives.ch gives access to Swiss newspapers digitized by the Swiss National Library and its cantonal partners
• 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.

Newspapers available on microfilm or in digital format

Newspaper titles that are available on paper or another medium, such as microfilm or digital files that can be accessed freely on certain platforms but also from press databases such as Swissdox.

For newspapers that are not available on microfilm or in digital form, the paper version must be ordered from our Helveticat catalogue.

Helveticat

Most older issues of periodicals are listed in our catalogue Helveticat.

Helveticat

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

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

Some older periodicals are accessible directly online:

• e-periodica
  Swiss journals online platform

Older issues of newspapers and periodicals.

• Bibliographie der Schweizer Presse (Blaser)
• Bibliographie der Gesellschaftschriften, Zeitungen und Kalender in der Schweiz (Brandstetter)

• Bibliography on Swiss History
  Reference articles from newspapers and periodicals that are not catalogued in Helveticat, the NL catalogue.

Newspaper and periodical databases

Can be accessed from the NL’s information room and contain complete texts.

Swiss Periodicals and Newspapers: catalogues, bibliographies, indexes (PDF, 77 kB, 28.10.2021)

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Resources for specific legal texts, Federal Supreme Court decisions or official texts

• Federal law
  Federal laws of the federal administration. English is not an official language of the Swiss Confederation. This translation is provided for information purposes only and has no legal force.
• Official publications of the Confederation
  The Federal Archives list a large number of legislative texts that are accessible online.

An overview can be found in the table below.

Searching for a legislative text and preliminary activities (in German) (PDF, 125 kB, 29.07.2021)

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

Catalogue of official serial publications

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

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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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Resources for help with school-leaving exam essays

If you want to study a topic related to Switzerland for your school-leaving exam essay, here are some ideas for subjects that might interest you.

Themen für Maturarbeiten

Thèmes pour des travaux de maturité

Argomenti per i lavori di maturità

Already chosen your topic? We’ll be happy to assist you with your research in the catalogues and databases of our collections and other institutions. We also offer a free library tour for school classes and groups, including a research workshop (in German or French).

More on this topic

Research information on registered marks (PDF, 203 kB, 06.08.2018)

Amtliche Publikationen des Bundes (PDF, 330 kB, 06.08.2018)

Last modification 09.11.2023