Organization Executive Board and Central Administration

Executive Board and Central Administration

University Archives

The University Archives of the University of Bern collects documents of archival value from throughout the university and prepares them for permanent archiving in the State Archive of the Canton of Bern. It also advises the offices within the university on the management of their documents and assists researchers seeking archive material on the history of the university.

Tasks

In accordance with the Archives Act of the Canton of Bern and the Regulations on Archiving of the University Bern, the University Archives has the following tasks:

  • Offer all documents that are no longer permanently required to the State Archives of the Canton of Bern for permanent archiving
  • Advising and supporting the records departments in information management and in the (pre-)archiving area
  • Taking over the preparation, evaluation (in collaboration with the State Archives) and cataloguing of documents from the university administration
  • Researching archive material for university units and third parties
  • Maintaining documentation on the history of the University of Bern

The State Archives of the Canton of Bern grant access to the archived documents to the extent permitted by law. The University Archives do not offer on-site access to documents, but is happy to help with research and locating the records in the state archive.

Services

The university archives are the memory of the University of Bern. They evaluate, acquire, secure and make accessible documents of the faculties, institutes and administrative offices of the university in order to make them accessible to the interested public. The university archives can answer questions about deliveries, usage of archive materials, inventory, data protection and research aids.

In the internal section of the archives, faculties, institutes and other organizational entities will be informed of their legal archiving obligations.

Holdings

The University Archive acts as an interim archive and does not archive any fonds on its own premises. The State Archives of the Canton of Bern act as the final archive.

The University's holdings can be researched via the online portal of the State Archives of the Canton of Bern. The fonds can be found at the following locations in the archive plan of the State Archives:

The archive holdings of the University of Bern primarily comprise administrative files.

Content

The University Archives endeavour to make free content available as freely as possible. Enclosed you will therefore find some working scans of serial documents on the history of the University of Bern.

!! These are explicitly non-citable working scans. Only the originals in the State Archives or in the library collections with the corresponding shelfmarks are citable. !!

Prosopography of lecturers at the University of Bern 1528-1984

Source: Universität Bern (Hrsg.): Die Dozenten der bernischen Hochschule : Ergänzungsband zu: Hochschulgeschichte Berns 1528-1984 : zur 150-Jahr-Feier der Universität Bern 1984

The directory of Bernese university lecturers contains the names of lecturers who taught at the University of Bern (founded in 1834) and its predecessor institutions in alphabetical order. The predecessor institutions include the Hohe Schule (founded in 1528) and the Academy as its successor (from 1805). The directory was published in 1984 as a supplementary volume to Bern's university history and covers the period from 1528-1984. Important biographical information such as dates of life and academic career can be found for each person.

 

Annual reports of the University of Bern since 1938

 

Lecture catalogues of the University Bern

Legal Foundations

The Bernese Archiving Act of 31 March 2009 is the primary legal basis for the University Archives. The law requires the University of Bern to offer its documents that it no longer permanently requires to the State Archives of the Canton of Bern for transfer and permanent archiving via the University Archives.

Documents judged to be worthy of archiving must be handed over to the State Archives via the University Archives. The submitting offices can continue to consult their documents at the State Archives within the framework of the legal provisions. Third parties may consult the documents in the State Archives within the framework of the legal provisions.

Based on the Archiving Act, the Senate of the University of Bern issued the Archiving Regulations of 17 April 2012 .

As part of the implementation of this legal basis, the University Archives, together with the University Archives Commission and the State Archives of the Canton of Bern, are developing various aids for archiving the records of university departments.