The Archives Portal Europe (www.archivesportaleurope.net) is the gateway to Europe’s archival resources. Since it was launched in 2012, hundreds of archival institutions from all over Europe have supplied the portal with archival materials and general information about themselves. The Swiss Federal Archives are responsible for administering the portal in Switzerland and support Swiss institutions that wish to participate.
The Archives Portal Europe (APE) is a pan-European archive research platform that includes the following:
- Holdings guides and finding aids from participating institutions
- General information on archives from all over Europe (archive landscape, archive directory)
- Preview images / links to digital objects on participating archives’ websites
Organisation
The portal is supported by the Archives Portal Europe Foundation (APE-F), which is responsible for its operation and continued development. It was originally developed by the projects APEnet (2009–2012) and APEx (2012–2015). The Swiss Federal Archives are represented on the APE-F’s Governing Board and in its Assembly of Associates.
Membership
The Archives Portal Europe is open to all interested archives. Participating institutions benefit from the opportunity to reach out to a broad audience via a pan-European platform, increasing the visibility of their content and thus raising their profile. All institutions deliver their own data to the portal themselves and maintain control of them at all times. They can add, update and delete data as necessary and can also forward them via APE to Europeana, the European platform for cultural heritage. Details of how to join can be found under ‘How to join the network’.
Searching
The portal allows you to search directly for content from the participating European archives, providing you with a comprehensive overview of archival materials from across Europe in one place.
