Extracts from Country Studies: Finland
Back to the Public libray and the information society page Document updated: 08 May 2000
State-of-the-Art of Information Technology in the Nordic Libraries: Finland
A report on public and research libraries compiled by systems analyst Juhu Hakala from the Automation Unit of Finnish Research Libraries, Helsinki University Library, prepared for the European Commission DG XIII/E-4.
The report can be downloaded in Word from http://linnea.helsinki.fi/report .
The study on Libraries in the information society has so far resulted inter alia in 5 case studies and 9 country and regional studies. The following extract reflects the highlights only - the full text will be available upon publication of the final report.
Table of contents
List of Finnish Public Libraries with WWW pages
The national information management strategy Towards a Finnish Information Society places libraries in a central position and ensures that by the year 2000 all Finnish public libraries will be connected to information networks, enabling them to be information access points for everyone and to promote network literacy and life-long learning by stating
" public libraries will be supported as open information network nodes, and information networks services will be introduced throughout the library system as soon as possible. "
The Ministry of Education defined a development programme for public libraries Education, Training and Research in the Information Society and appointed a Task Force on National Culture and Digital Media which drew up an Action Plan for a Culturally Oriented Information Society . This includes enhancing and promoting network use and services in libraries and CD-ROM and multi-media production in Finland and the related consideration of legal deposit and copyright. The role of public libraries is also taken into account in a report by the Ministry of Transport and Communications on network development.
A three year governmental project Towards the Finnish Information Society includes a budget of FIM 10 million in 1996 for public libraries.
There are over 1,000 public libraries and over 200 mobile libraries, financed mostly by local municipalities with some state support. They are considered to be one of the basic public services. Some 50% of the population are registered users, but it is estimated that some 60-80% of Finnish people use public libraries one way or the other. At the same time, most libraries had to absorb severe budget cuts, resulting in declining acquisitions which in turn resulted in a decline of issues - while at the same time visits to the library increased steadily. A drop in running costs, linked to the decrease in budgets, has improved the cost-effectiveness of operations.
19 regional central libraries coordinate regional reference collections, inter-library loans and regional training. Helsinki City Library acts has national responsibilities in inter alia encouraging inter-library cooperation, also between public and research libraries.
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Notable changes to traditional public library services:
Automation of house keeping functions had been carried out by 84% of public libraries in 1995, expected to reach 90% by the end of 1996.
Self service has been introduced in a few libraries, including issue and return, reservations and payment of fines via public access terminals. In total 377 PCs and 756 terminals were available in 1995 for access mainly to the OPAC but also to the Internet, databases and CD-ROMs. Several libraries are in the process of implementing CD-ROM networks.
The House of Knowledge Project, financed by the Ministry of Education and run by the Finnish Library Association , to introduce and promote the use of networks by public libraries and the production of cultural contents, which should be useful for libraries and their users. It is also evaluating and developing search tools for librarians, coordinating Internet collaboration and observing international developments. Project funding applications came from journal publishers, associations, project groups as well as libraries.
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Internet services are now available in 60% of public libraries (from 15% in 1995). Access and www browsing, ftp, telnet facilities are free of charge, but there are fees for printing and scanning of documents. Mostly there is one Internet station per library but some offer 2 or more. This situation imposes restrictions on use, e.g. a time limit of one or two hours per user. 73 libraries or regional networks have by now published their own www pages with information about the library, its services and collections, and directories of interesting sites on the Internet.
OPACs and library databases via the Internet: So far two library catalogues are available via the www, but some 20 libraries have plans to make their catalogue accessible in 1996/97. One regional bibliographic database produced in cooperation by several libraries is already available and others (including bibliographic data but also full text) are on their way, such as on local authors including text excerpts and interviews or on a collection of rare old books.
Developing related awareness and training activities for the adult population is seen as an important task for public libraries, i.e. how to use the networks, particularly for specific groups like the elderly, women, children, the unemployed. The Cable Book Library has been a pioneer in this field.
CD-ROMs for public - rather than just for staff - use will be available in 35% of public libraries and 20% will lend CD-ROMs by the end of 1996. Barriers to growth are the restrictions regarding lending rights and the scarcity of CD-ROMs in Finnish.
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- The Cable Book Library - an IT branch of Helsinki City Library
- This library was opened in a renovated factory building in Helsinki in February 1994 and was the first public library in the world to offer public access to the Internet. It offers 8 PCs for Internet access, terminals for using IRC and e-mail, a PC for scanning and image processing, CD-I system, videos by Finnish multi-media artists, CD-ROMs, 100 magazine subscriptions and a comics reference collection owned by the Finnish Comics Society. Its staff run many training and awareness events on and off site about the use of networks and is pioneering cooperation with non-library partners, especially also from the commercial sector, acting as a test bed for the product in turn for the use of the equipment of material.
Further information from e-mail kirjakaapeli@funkis.lib.hel.fi
- Helsinki City Library
- co-ordinates other relevant projects which aim at solutions that can be customised for use in any other library in Finland:
- the mobile libraries offer Internet access through GSM data connections
- Kallio Library is producing a www version of their fairy tale index and, together with the Library for the Blind, is developing a multi-media service point for the visually impaired;
- the Virtual Assistant Librarian , a help-desk and tool set for Internet use;
- Laitos Net an interface tool set for outreach services.
Further information from Maija.Berndtson@lib.hel.fi
- Fredrika Libraries
- 12 public libraries in the Swedish speaking region of Finland cooperate in producing and offering on the www the union catalogue of their holdings and share a network coordinator and trainer.
Further information from christina.flemming@kustnet.fi
- Ra-Ju-Pu-Su Libraries
- This collaboration of 4 relatively small libraries, driven by enthusiasm and ideas, is based on cooperation with local newspapers, artists and authors to produce cultural contents for their www pages. This has resulted inter alia in a dramatic increase in the inter-library loan figures and the recognition by the local authority that the public libraries are the nodes in the information networks that offer every inhabitant equal possibilities to access information.
Further information from veikko.valtonen@pp.kolumbus.fi
- Vaasa Regional Library
- This library cooperates with the University of Vaasa and schools in the Vaasa Region Electronic Library Project, developing network connections between schools and libraries by offering training and consultation, a server and cooperation with similar initiatives elsewhere in Europe.
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Economic barriers are somewhat less high now because of the implementation of the Finnish Information Highway Policy, in that funding for the development and provision of electronic services has been easier to find. The problem of small libraries, who would benefit most from the use of networks, but have scarce funds to purchase equipment and cover running costs by the Ministry of Education prioritising those that serve a population of less than 2000.
Professional constraints concentrate on the lack of knowledge and suitable training. Some libraries overcome this barrier by hiring young experts to guide the public and staff alike. The regional libraries will be employing regional network experts for staff training.
Technical factors that had to be solved where e.g. obtaining a leased line through the municipalities (and making use of their technical expertise) while coping with the building firewalls to their administrative data. Close cooperation with schools, while beneficial, can also slow progress down.
The main cultural factor causing concern is the scarcity of Finnish language material available via networks or on CD-ROM. This problem has been addressed by the Ministry of Education supporting the production of information content.
Space is a very concrete problem for most libraries, in that the buildings are not suitable for the increasing use of IT.
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Curricula of library and information studies at university have changed to accommodate the emphasis on IT. The include courses e.g. on electronic publishing and information retrieval in open networks. Studies prepare the students for planning network services and content, user interfaces and marketing.
Continuing education for librarians is offered by the Institute for Extension Studies at the University of Tampere - one of the top 10 university institutes - which has trained numerous librarians in the use of networks, databases, Internet and www.
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Shared library systems: 34% of public libraries belong to a regional network (67% in the Swedish speaking municipalities). There are 36 shared library systems with 2-10 municipalities in each.
The growing use of Internet has increased and intensified cooperation also of already existing networks , although the numerous systems in use (11) make cooperation sometimes difficult. The regional network coordinators and the House of Knowledge Project promote cooperation at regional and national level, mainly in the areas of training, shared cataloguing, technical issues and problem solving, content production, resource sharing.
PULSE , the Finnish PUblic Libraries Enterpage Project, is a cooperation between the PULSE and the Cable Book Library, acting as a shared communication and information retrieval tool with information on new developments, projects etc., in libraries, and links to interesting publications, statistics, reports. It plans to build a searchable directory database of libraries and special collections and to develop a www training package for librarians on Internet user training.
The MANDA database is the union catalogue of the regional central libraries, currently undergoing tests for www use, containing bibliographic data on books, music, audio-visual and cartographic materials.
There are 10 telecottages in operation in public libraries, often in collaboration with the local school authorities. 4 rural library networks have received EU funding for telecottage projects.
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