«swisscollections», the new portal for special collections, is online.

The swisscollections Association has created a new catalogue for special collections under the leadership of the University of Basel and in collaboration with the Zentralbibliothek Zürich and other institutions. At swisscollections.ch manuscripts, rare books,  music records, archive holdings, maps and images can be searched for and ordered easily.  

A specialised catalogue for differentiated searching: swisscollections is designed to complement the swisscovery national library platform. Collections, special holdings and bibliographies are now displayed in a separate layout tailored to specific needs.  swisscollections is therefore aimed specifically at users who are interested in local historical collections and modern special holdings. In order to meet these data display requirements, swisscollections accesses various data pools and functions as a metacatalogue.

The swisscollections catalogue was created on behalf of the association with the same name, and is maintained and developed further by the association. Members are currently the Kantonsbibliothek Appenzell Ausserrhoden, the University Library Bern, the Kantonsbibliothek Vadiana St. Gallen, the University Library Basel, the Zentral- und Hochschulbibliothek Luzern, the Zentralbibliothek Solothurn and the Zentralbibliothek Zürich. swisscollections is hosted at the University Library Basel, while the cataloguing is usually carried out at the individual partner institutions.