GLAM/OpenGLAM Benchmark Survey/Participating countries/Switzerland

Overview of existing lists of heritage institutions in Switzerland

• The 2013 edition of the national PCP inventory contains 465 collections of national significance and 417 collections of regional significance (the data entries comprise the name of the institution or collection and its postal address; some collections belong to the same legal entity).

• The Swiss Museums Association has contact data for 1117 museums in Switzerland (a small number of them don’t have curatorial care over a collection).

• The 23/05/2014 export of the national ISIL inventory contains 1926 libraries, archives, or documentation services (the data entries comprise the name of the institution, its postal address, and in many cases also an e-mail address; some libraries or services belong to the same legal entity; many of them are lending libraries or documentation services and don’t have curatorial care over a collection). The 2011 export of the national ISIL inventory contained 1498 libraries, archives, or documentation services (the same remarks apply as for the 2014 edition; there was a typology of institutions according to their accessibility to external users which is not helpful for the purpose of the survey).

• The 2012 edition of the Swiss library statistics contains a list of 820 libraries organized according to different library types and linked to legal entities. Many of these libraries probably don’t have curatorial care over a collection, while some certainly do. Apart from the mapping of libraries to legal entities and the library typology, this list doesn’t have any additional value over the PCP inventory or the ISIL inventory.

• The website of the Association of Swiss Archivists contains a list of 290 archives (the data entries comprise the name of the archive, its postal address, most often its website, and in many cases its e-mail address). Not all entries refer to individual institutions.

• The website of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture contains a list of 65 mostly cantonal or municipal services responsible for the protection of historical monuments and/or archeological sites.

• The Infoclio database contains 347 entries for "Archive", 162 entries for "Library", and 253 entries for "Museum" (note that the number of entries varies according to the language version). Some entries refer to institutions, others to particular services or collections. This database may be used to complement the lists of institutions obtained from other sources.

• The Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries lists its members along with e-mail contacts of their representatives (often directors) on their website.

• The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Libraries also lists its members along with e-mail contacts of their representatives (often directors) on their website.

• Similarly, the Swiss Conference of Archive Directors lists contact persons and the directors of their member institutions.

• arCHeco has a database of archives related to the documentation of economic activities (e.g. historical archives of corporations). Many institutions are part of the PCP inventory or part of the inventory of the Association of Swiss Archivists. The database can however be used to complement missing institutions and to retrieve e-mail contacts.

Selection Rules

The following institutions are included in the list of institutions to be contacted for the survey:

• All cantonal and municipal services responsible for the protection of historical monuments and/or archeological sites are included (based on the list of the Federal Office of Culture).
• Libraries are included if they have a collection of national or regional significance (according to the PCP inventory), if they fall into the category of cantonal or university libraries (according to the official library statistics), or if they are a member of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Libraries or of the Consortium of Swiss Academic Libraries.
• Archives are included if they have a collection of national or regional significance (according to the PCP inventory), if they are a member of the Swiss Association of Archivists, or if they are listed either on the website of the Swiss Association of Archivists or on the ArCHeco website.
• Museums are included if they have a collection of their own.
• Other institutions (and individuals) with collections of national or regional significance are included if they offer visits or make their collections available in museums (purely private collections and church treasures for which no visiting information could be found are excluded).

There are organisations with several "heritage institutions" (e.g. an archeological service and a monuments protection service within the same administrative unit); also, the term "archive" or "library" may refer to a specific collection or a part of a heritage institution (e.g. a monastery library which is part of the monastery's archival section). - This may lead to double entries for some of the institutions. For the purpose of the survey these double entries are removed as much as possible based on available information about the internal organizational structure of institutions (postal addresses; e-mail addresses; information found on institutions' websites).

Number of heritage institutions

• a total of 1644 heritage institutions:
  • 304 archives / records offices
  • 83 libraries
  • 1138 museums
  • 7 institutions with a combination of archive, library, or museum
  • 112 other institutions

For 1585 institutions an e-mail address is available; the remaining 59 institutions can be contacted by ordinary mail.

Several institutions share the same e-mail contact address; 43 such double entries have been removed from the survey contacts list.

Other estimates of the size of the heritage domain

Based on a communication from the ENUMERATE project.

• ENUMERATE 2013: A total of 2852 memory institutions (289 Archives/records offices; 6 A/V, Broadcasting or Film Institutions; 868 Libraries; 1099 Museums; 590 Institutions for Monument Care)
• ENUMERATE 2012: A total of 2262 memory institutions (289 Archives/records offices; 6 A/V, Broadcasting or Film Institutes; 868 Libraries; 1099 Museums)

Note: The number of libraries exceeds the total number of libraries included in the Swiss Library Statistics, which includes public libraries and school libraries as well as several libraries per organization (e.g. in the case of university libraries). Regarding the number of institutions for monument care it is noted in the comments that there are around 60 cantonal and communal offices, about 30 private institutions and up to 500 private associations at regional, cantonal or local level some only working on one monument.