Erhvervsarkivet
- The Danish National Business Archives
Address
Phone
History
The Business Archive was established as an independent institution in 1948. In 1968 it was taken over by the state with a special law and in 1992 it became part of the State Archives. Before the archives moved to the present building in 1962 the archives were kept in the basement under the City Hall between 1948-1950, then under the university building until 1956 and then in the buildings of a former railway station of the defunct Aarhus - Hammel line. Since 2015, the Business Archives moved to Viborg and merged with the Provincial Archives of Northern Jutland.
Opening Times
Tuesday to Thursday: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Document ordering: Tuesday to Thursday: 9 a.m. to 12 noon and 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
Conditions of Access
Bring your health insurance card every time and photo ID the first time you visit one of the Danish National Archives’ reading rooms. All visitors to the Danish National Archives’ reading rooms must be registered electronically. To be registered as a user of the reading rooms, you must bring a form of photo ID and your health insurance card. Following that, you must register your visit with your health insurance card every time you visit one of the reading rooms.
The Reading Room accommodates 98 people. It is divided into two sections: the main Reading Room and the film Reading Room. Additionally there are two separate research rooms which can be used by appointment. Users are allowed to bring papers, laptops and other research aids.
All records at archival storage have been catalogued and numbered, and can be ordered using the inventories found in the Reading Room. Records are taken out by members of the staff – during weekdays, on the same day they are ordered. However, if the records requested are located in remote storage, ordering may take 2 days.
The records have to be ordered via Daisy.
Accessibility
Zimmer frame or wheelchair users can enter the reading room via a disability lift at the main entrance. From the cloakroom on the ground floor, there is a lift to the reading room and the visitors’ lunchroom on the top floor.
The reading room is designed so that wheelchair and Zimmer frame users can get around. Work tables are easily accessible. There is also a wide variety of archival aids, copies of registries and handbooks placed at a height accessible to wheelchair users.
Reproduction Services
You may photograph records with your own camera (without sound and flash) and use the reading room’s scanners if there is no photo and scanning ban. Such a ban will be indicated on the access permit. You may also be notified of a photo and scanning ban upon receipt of the records.
Do not use hand scanners, table scanners, scanning pens and similar equipment that requires heavy-handed physical contact between the scanning equipment and records. Reading room staff may at any time stop or prohibit photography or scanning to maintain a quiet working environment, the condition of the records, security considerations etc.
There are photo stands in all four reading rooms. In the reading rooms in Copenhagen and Viborg, lamps are at the users’ disposal as well. Ask the staff in the reading room for the equipment. Borrow the instructions in the reading room. Use the equipment at your own risk.
A book scanner is available in the reading rooms. It can make digital copies of the records. Bring your own USB stick to store the copies on. Using the book scanner is currently free. You may scan records if there is no photo and scanning ban. Such a ban will be indicated on the access permit. You may also be notified of a photo and scanning ban upon receipt of the records.
There is no photocopier in the reading rooms in Copenhagen and Viborg. Photocopiers with coin slots are available in the reading rooms in Odense and Aabenraa.
You can order copies and scans of records, e.g. the records you are not allowed to scan yourself, provided there are no photo and scanning bans in place. See more info here