I would like to ask you about legal deposit in Finland. The law determines that National library and some university libraries (Oulu, Jyväskylä, Åbo, Joensuu…

Posted
13.7.2009

I would like to ask you about legal deposit in Finland. The law determines that National library and some university libraries (Oulu, Jyväskylä, Åbo, Joensuu and Turku) get a legal deposit. But does it mean that the university libraries get also cook-book, bottom-stories and other low type of literature? Where do they archive those books?

How is the automated lending system technically solved? Are there EAN codes inside the books? Do you have any statistics of how many books are stolen? (If they are being stolen)

I am try to find the finnish equivalents of these term from Finnish library history but I am not succesful. Can you help please?:
State Library Bureau, State Library Comission, Soldiers’ Homes Associations, Finnish Library Community, Library Act 1998.

Thank you very much!

Answer

Answered
15.7.2009
Last updated
15.7.2009

According to the Legal deposit copy law (2007) the producer of any printed material, sound recording or visual recording is liable for delivering legal deposit copies of the products free of charge. Printed material is here considered to be any product with technically duplicated text or visual content. ”The law takes no position on the material´s contents, nor does it set any political, aesthetic or moral priorities or restrictions.” (Agricolasta Aku Ankkaan, p. 39.) Thus, university libraries do get copies of materials belonging to their fields of authority, regardless of content or quality of the material in question.

Since 1984 the Finnish Film Archive (National Audiovisual Archive) assumed the responsibility for the supervision and archiving of legal deposit copies of ”moving images”. (Agricolasta Aku Ankkaan, p. 39.)

Legal deposit copies are also delivered of some web materials. These materials can be utilized in the legal deposit libraries on workstations intended for this purpose.

The legal deposit copies are stored and archived in the same way as any other library materials. Since 1956, the National Libarary has the stacks in Urajärvi. As for the stores and stacks of the other legal deposit libraries, I recommend for you to turn directly to the libraries in question.

In the Finnish public libraries there are many different library systems in use, the most common being Web-Origo, PallasPro, Libra and Millennium (also Book-it, Kirjasto 3000, Oorninki, Abilita). The systems used in university and scientific libraries are Voyager and Aleph.
(For further information on library systems, please see http://www.kirjastot.fi/fi-FI/kirjastoala/kirjastojarjestelmat/)

Thus, there are also slightly differing EAN codes used in different libraries. In most libraries, however, lending and returning machines are in use, and therefore the EAN codes are not situated inside the books but on the outside, either on front or back cover.

No statistics exist of stolen materials and, in fact, it would hardly be possible to compile such statistics. Statistics are made of materials written off the collections, and among these are also the missing and possibly stolen materials. But yes, according to our experiences, materials do unfortunately get stolen too, although this can partly be prevented by using protective alarm systems, as is done in most libraries.

Here are the translations that could be found for the terms you mentioned:
State Library Bureau – Valtion kirjastotoimisto
State Library Commission – Valtion kirjastotoimikunta
Soldiers´ Homes Associations – Sotilaskotiyhdistys
Finnish Library Community (?) – this does not seem to be a set term but rather an ad hoc expression used somewhere to refer to the ensemble of Finnish libraries in general
(http://www.google.fi/search?hl=fi&q=%22finnish+library+community%22&met… )
Library Act of 1998 – Kirjastolaki 1998

References:
Agricolasta Aku Ankkaan. – Kaikki tallella kansalliskokoelmassa! (2007). Ed. by Inkeri Pitkäranta, Esko Rahikainen & Harri Ahonen. Kansalliskirjasto. (Freely translated: From Agricola to Donald Duck – everything is safe in the National Library!)
Finnish Public Libraries in the 20th Century (2001). Ed. by Ilkka Mäkinen. Tampere University Press.
http://www.kirjastot.fi/fi-FI/kirjastoala/kirjastojarjestelmat/
Laki kulttuuriaineistojen tallentamisesta ja säilyttämisestä 1433/2007: http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2007/20071433?search%5Btype%5D=pi…
http://www.kansalliskirjasto.fi/julkaisuala/vapaakappaleet/verkkoaineis…

Best regards,
Anne Nádasi, Vuokko Potinkara, Pauli Hatsala / Helsinki City Library

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