People would like libraries’ electronic services to be extensive and easy to use, a survey carried out by Kantar TNS shows. If the recommendations of the digital media project regarding a one-stop e-library controlled by a single body and new digital library user profiles are realised, libraries have good chances of maintaining their status in the future.
Tampere City Library’s new mobile library, Kosmos, started touring its routes in January 2021. The mobile library has special structural features as it is not built on a bus frame, like most libraries on wheels, but on a truck frame.
One of the reasons for this unusual solution was the technical specifications of the loading dock of Tampere’s main library Metso. New material gets loaded from the back to the vehicle and the loading dock is relatively high, so the truck frame provided an easier solution for the logistics.
The Finnish public library statistics from 2020 are published. The Covid-19 restrictions are clearly visible in the 2020 statistics as, due to the springtime’s complete closure of library premises and later restrictions to services, the visitor numbers declined from 2019 roughly by a third. The drop in visitor numbers fluctuated regionally and the decline was greater in areas heavily impacted by the Corona virus pandemic.
The Regional State Administrative Agencies have granted 1 961 900 euros to library development projects this year. The grants fund altogether 97 projects.
The aim is to further public libraries’ projects that promote reading, literacy, and lifelong learning, and projects developing libraries as supporters and promoters of active citizenship, democracy and freedom of speech.
The Helsingin Sanomat Foundation has granted the National Library of Finland a 280 000 € grant for digitizing the biggest daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and tabloid Ilta-Sanomat up to 31 December 1979. The project will start on September 1 2021 and the material consists of over half a million pages.
Finna.fi published tips on how to make life easier during the pandemic by using Finna.fi services. The tips include ways to explore arts and culture, as well as ways to make better use of the service for research, remote teaching, and studying.
Finna.fi is an online service developed and maintained by the National Library of Finland. It brings together search services and resources from more than 400 Finnish libraries, archives, and museums.
A study conducted on behalf of the Environmental sustainability in Finnish public libraries in the 2020s project measured the Finnish public libraries’ carbon footprint. The pioneering research was done in cooperation with libraries and sustainability experts from Positive Impact Finland. The study took place in the autumn of 2020, gathering carbon footprint data from 13 public libraries across the country from small municipal libraries to big city libraries.
In 2020, the use of libraries’ e-materials has reached unprecedented heights. The exceptional situation during the corona virus pandemic has contributed to this, but the rising trend has been visible since 2014. At the moment, however, not all Finns are in an equal position, because the availability of e-materials in libraries differs from one municipality to another. This is one of the problems that the libraries’ digital media project aiming at a one-stop-shop e-library wants to change.
The Satakielikuukausi / Multilingual Month is an annual celebration of multilingualism that falls between the International Day of the Native Language (21.2) and the World Poetry Day (21.3). Satakielikuukausi has been celebrated in Finland since 2015 and in the Nordic countries since 2017 as Multilingual Month. During the month, we celebrate linguistic diversity and challenge everyone to look at the importance of native language and languages through art, encounters, and doing things together.
This week, 8-14 February 2021, is a Media Literacy Week in Finland. Media Literacy Week is a theme week that builds around the Safer Internet Day and aims to further media literacy skills of children, young people, and adults. Media Literacy Week seeks also to support education professionals, parents, and other adults’ work in the field media education by capacity building.
