Key projects

In 2008 Finland’s biggest and oldest scholarly library continued to lay the foundations for cooperation between memory organisations and the library sector, the mass digitisation and digital library of the future, the development of research infrastructure, as well as a goal-oriented collection policy.

National Digital Library

In 2008 the National Library actively participated in developing the system architecture of memory organisations.

The project is a part of the National Digital Library scheme, which aims to improve the availability of information and online services, among other things, by separating the user environment from the back-end systems of memory organisations.

The key elements of the system architecture are the customer interface, national central catalogue and long-term storage system. The National Library is responsible for developing the central catalogue and the customer interface.

Structural development of the libraries of higher education institutions

The structural development of the libraries of higher education institutions, a project launched by the Ministry of Education, focused on enhancing the centralised services offered by the National Library.

The project’s objective is to achieve cost savings in higher education institutions and to foster cooperation between the National Library and the Repository Library. The project will be completed in early summer 2009.

Research infrastructure

The National Library participated in drawing up a report on Finland’s nationally and internationally significant research infrastructure and on related targets of future development.

The report, commissioned by the Ministry of Education and prepared by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies, was completed in December 2008 but was not published until 2009.

Europeana

Alongside the eKAM cooperation, efforts were made to initiate strategic cooperation in the Europeana service.

The Internet-based centre for European digital culture and art went online in November. It initially offered two million digitised items from all around Europe, including gems from the National Library of Finland’s collections.

Mass digitisation

The availability of the National Library’s collections was enhanced with the acquisition of a unique device. The digitisation centre in Mikkeli was the first in the Nordic countries to introduce an automatic scanner, which will pave the way for mass digitisation in the coming years.

The scanner, financed by the University of Helsinki, will enable content to be stored nearly ten times faster than manually.

Collection policy

The National Library clarified its basic tasks by drawing up a new collection policy, submitted for the Board’s approval.

Among other things, the new policy lays down the principles for material acquisition, reception of donations and deposits, as well as the evaluation, pruning and removal of collection items. The policy also sets requirements on the accessibility and availability of collections.

The goal is to review the collection policy every five to seven years in the future.

The first automatic scanner in the Nordic countries was inaugurated by Thomas Wilhelmsson (left), Rector of the University of Helsinki. The event was witnessed, among others, by Kai Ekholm, Director of the National Library f Finland, and Majlis Bremer-Laamanen, Director of the National Digitisation Centre (right).

Photo: National Library/Kimmo Pajunen