NATIONAL PROGRESS REPORT OF SWITZERLAND 1992-1994

The Map Curators' group held three meetings in 1992: on 27 January in Zürich, on the 15 July in Neuchâtel, and on 16 November in Basle. In 1993 there were two meetings, the first on 15 June in St.Gall and the second on 16 November in Zürich. In 1994 there was until now just one meeting on 14 March in Berne. The main reason for these meetings was the exchange of information and experiences. Further map libraries and exhibitions were visited. A principal theme was the organization of the 9th LIBER conference, which was mainly the task of the Map Department of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule). The Swiss Organizing Committee (SOC) visited several institutions, including various Federal Offices in Berne as well as the Geographical Institute of Zürich, in order to inform itself about the developments in digital maps.

On 4 and 11 May 1993 the ETH-Bibliothek held a training course for map librarians with the theme "maps in libraries", which was a great success. Other courses are planned for the future, the next being in the French part of Switzerland. The meeting of the Map Curators' group on 16 November 1993 was a workshop with the theme "Digital maps", in which the participants showed great interest.

In the Swiss libraries, there are now new developments in the field of computer software. The Zentralbibliothek Zürich decided to implement the System ETHICS of the ETH-Bibliothek. From 1 November 1994 onwards the Zentralbibliothek will catalogue both its books and its maps in this system. Because the two libraries have very different subject catalogues, some problems have to be resolved. These two subject catalogues will remain separate inside the ETHICS system. Only for maps there is a joint subject catalogue planned. The Swiss National Library (Schweizerische Landesbibliothek) in Berne decided to adapt VTLS (Virginia Tech Library System) and started cataloguing with it on 11 November 1993. At the Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek Bern, an instruction was written for the cataloguing of maps in the local automated system (SIBIL Basle-Berne). At the same library, the cataloguing of the Ryhiner collection of old maps was continued .

The Zentralbibliothek Zürich has been closed to the public since 1 July 1994, and will not reopen until 1 November 1994. In the meantime, all books will be brought back from the outside depots to the new stack rooms in the library itself. The map department acquired 30 new steel drawer cabinets, and now possesses 64 cabinets in total, which all stand in one floor of the new stack room. The reading room of the map department will provisionally be transferred to the Choir of the old Dominican Monastery (Predigerchor) and will be transferred again in the summer of 1995, this time to its final place in the newly-renovated part of the old library building.

Hans-Peter Höhener, Zentralbibliothek, Zürich