Results of a survey on internal (non-public) libraries in German-speaking Switzerland and Liechtenstein

Internal libraries are understood as systematic collections of physical and/or electronic books, journals and other text-based media created, maintained and used exclusively for the purposes of a parent organization. The data was analyzed in the context of some theoretical considerations and a survey of available literature on the topic.

This showed that internal libraries, in general, seem to be on a decline but can manage to survive if they find a way to embed their services into the daily work of their parent organization and to prove this integration to stakeholders. Collections no longer in active use may be worth offering to larger public libraries such as cantonal libraries as the degree of specialization characteristic for internal libraries may make them valuable for (historical) research.