In addition, privately owned instruments will be included on a voluntary basis. The only conditions are that the objects are sufficiently important to justify their inclusion and that it may be assumed that they will remain with their present owner for a long time. The goal of the project is to provide and publish a list of musical instruments that is as complete as possible and yet avoids criticism, although the inventory will be assembled with all possible care. Musicologists, art historians, musical instruments makers and other persons interested will have access to this information. At the same time it is a national project that will register cultural objects in Switzerland.
Specialists are responsible for the data in the various instrument families.
This assures the consistency of the data, which will always be established by the same person. The registration was begun in 1996. Time-consuming research, like for instance that involving difficult problems of attribution, is not possible in the process of the inventory. No estimates of worth will be made. Private collectors may remain anonymous, if they wish to do so, and can be mentioned in the form of a digital code.