Organisation

Directorate

The directorate is responsible for the strategic and operational management of the Swiss Federal Archives.

The Management Support Unit (MSU) is largely concerned with legal matters, controlling and finance, planning, communications, information management, secretarial services and collaboration with other administrative bodies.
The MSU assists the directorate and other units in their work, facilitates a smooth operation of the Swiss Federal Archives and is the liaison office for national and international partners.
The HRU is responsible for all matters relating to human resources. Areas of focus include providing counselling and support for individual employees and managers as well as dealing with all issues relating to the 6 elements of personnel organisation: planning, recruitment, deployment, development, retention and redundancies.
The ITU works with external IT providers to ensure that the Swiss Federal Archives' IT infrastructure operates efficiently and effectively. It is also responsible for the upkeep and development of the IT architecture and for IT security. It supports the other divisions in finding suitable IT solutions.

The division ensures that information is preserved securely and completely. It acts as the contact for clients in the Federal Administration and the public at large on matters relating to information management and archiving, and provides them with advice and support throughout the information lifecycle. The division also runs training courses in electronic records and process management (GEVER) and digital archiving.
The Information Preservation Division (IPD) is organised into three services.

- Providing information management support and advice to clients
- Appraising the archival value of documents
- Auditing information management at offices that are obliged to offer records
- Transferring, cataloguing and preserving documents of archival value (digital and analogue archive records)
- Advising and supporting transferring offices with regard to transfers
- Operating the data archiving infrastructures
- Preserving digital archive records
- Developing new archiving solutions

The Information Access Division provides access to archive records. It enables users to view archive records and helps the general public, politicians and the administration make use of information. The division is also responsible for ensuring that the documents in the Swiss Federal Archives (SFA) are properly stored and digitised.
The Information Access Division (IAD) is organised into three services.

- Operating and further developing online access
- Ensuring that documents are accessed in accordance with the law
- Compiling data analyses and historical appraisals
- Participating in projects in the digital humanities and social sciences
- Processing orders and ensuring the smooth running of the reading room
- Ensuring the proper storage of analogue archive records
- Managing storage capacity and operation of the stacks
- Digitising archive records for mediation and preservation purposes
- Further developing the digitisation infrastructure
- Expanding digitisation capacity

The opening hours apply to the reading rooms only
Archivstrasse 24
CH - 3003 Bern