Description

Digitized Official Publications

Overview

This dataset contains digitized official publications hosted by the Swiss Federal Archives, covering publications from 1798-2021. The data was extracted from amtsdruckschriften.bar.admin.ch using web scraping methods.

Dataset Structure

The dataset is organized as follows:

• Each publication is contained in a separate folder within the ZIP file
• Each folder contains:
• PDF file of the original document
• CSV file with metadata
• TXT file containing OCR-extracted text
• Root directory contains:
• metadata_ads.csv: Comprehensive metadata for all documents
• List of missing files from the extraction process

Available Collections

The platform hosts the following collections (🟢 indicates included in this dataset):

Federal Assembly (Bulletin, Minutes, Finding Aids)

• 🟢 Official Bulletin of the Federal Assembly (1891-1999) - 46,916 documents
• 🟢 Federal Assembly Minutes (1921-1970) - 7,126 documents
• 🟢 Directory of Proceedings (1848-1891) - 2 documents
• 🟢 Overview of Proceedings (1891-1995) - 842 documents

Federal Law

• 🟢 Federal Gazette (1849-2008) - 58,988 documents
• 🟢 Consolidated Collection (1848-1947) - 65 documents
• ❌ Official Compilation (1948-1998)
• 🟢 Administrative Practice of Federal Authorities (1987-2017) - 2,502 documents

Federal Council

• 🟢 Federal Council Minutes (1848-1973) - 18,255 documents
• 🟢 Federal Council Management Reports (1848-1995) - 443 documents

Other Collections

• 🟢 Federal Calendar (1849-2021) - 4,254 documents
• ❌ Federal State Account and Budget (1848-2006)
• ❌ Diplomatic Documents of Switzerland (1848-1946)
• ❌ Studies and Sources (1975-2005)
• ❌ Collection of Acts from the Helvetic Republic Period (1798-1803)

Document Identification

Each document is identified by an eight-digit ID (pdfnum/ais_id) that combines:

• Publication type identifier (first digits)
• Running number within the publication type

Technical Details

• Format: ZIP archive containing folders with PDF, CSV, and TXT files
• OCR: All text documents have been processed using OCR technology
• Metadata: Structured in CSV format
• Time span: 1798-2021 (varies by collection)
• Languages: German, French, Italian (original documents in their respective languages)

Usage Notes

• The dataset is intended for research and reference purposes
• Some documents may be missing from the original collection
• OCR quality may vary depending on the original document condition
• Metadata includes additional contextual information about each document