Abstract
The article describes the position of the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (FOC) in ensuring the promotion, diffusion and safeguarding of culture in Switzerland. While playing a supporting role to the country's cantons and municipalities, the FOC is responsible for organizing and implementing Switzerland's global cultural policy. It does this by operating on two main fronts: encouraging culture (for example by promoting films, arranging prizes and organizing exhibitions), and preserving the nation's cultural heritage (for example through the Swiss National Library and the Swiss National Museum). Although the country lacks legislation on national cooperation, the National Library has a tradition of working with other libraries and information centres; a recent example is its involvement in the BibliOpass network and the E-Helvetica project to collect and archive e-publications. FOC is currently developing a coordinated national storage policy to ensure the long-term preservation of the documentary evidence of Switzerland's past.
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