E-rara.ch is a national collaborative project forming part of the Swiss innovation and cooperation programme E-lib.ch: Swiss Electronic library.

The project is run by the Bibliothèque de Genève, the ETH-Bibliothek Zurich, the University Library of Basel, the University Library of Bern, and Zurich Central Library.

Other Swiss libraries participating in the project are: the BPU Neuchâtel, the Bibliothèque des Pasteurs, the BCU Lausanne, and the BCU Fribourg.

The technical basis for the platform is a product called Visual Library, produced by semantics GmbH and Walter Nagel GmbH & Co. KG. The Internet service is hosted by the ETH-Bibliothek.

The project is due to run from 2008 to the end of 2011. However, the application will continue to be available after that date.

One of the main aims is to make 16th century Swiss prints held by Swiss libraries available online. This is being done as part of the VD 16 digital project. Other material (incunabula, 17th century Swiss books, material on specific themes) is being digitized in parallel or will be added in a later stage of the project.

The project not only involves publishing old and rare books on a shared platform, it also involves coordinated digitization of these works. Necessary capacity and expertise has been built up in the partner libraries.