Archives Portal Europe

The Archives Portal Europe 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.

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.

The Swiss Federal Archivesand the Archives Portal Europe

The Swiss Federal Archives (SFA) play an active role in the organisation and development of the Archives Portal Europe. They fulfil the following three functions within it:

1. Representation within the European Archives Portal Foundation (Board of Directors/General Assembly)

The SFA are active members of the Foundation for the European Archives Portal (APE-F). They are represented on the board of directors and the general assembly, the foundation’s two decision-making bodies.

2. National Mediator for Switzerland (country management)

Acting as the interface between APE-F and the Swiss Archives, the SFA are responsible for managing the portal in Switzerland and supports institutions wishing to participate. As part of its country management role, it is responsible, in particular, for administrative tasks (initial contact with interested institutions, updating general information on participating Swiss institutions and setting up a dashboard account) as well as certain support and marketing activities.

3. Data Provider

The SFA publish their finding aids on the Archives Portal Europe.