Collections

The National Library is the oldest and largest scientific library in Finland, with its roots in the Turku Academy Library, founded in 1640.

Its collections are a central part of our cultural heritage and are accumulated in legal deposit copies, as well as in purchases, exchanges and donations. The collections contain irreplaceable domestic and foreign materials in print and electronic form, including books, magazines, small print, recordings, maps, images and manuscripts, as well as archive materials.

Availability and use of materials

We offer our materials both as home loans and for reading room use. The materials from the National Collection and the manuscript collections as well as the materials published prior to 1900 can only be used in our library's reading rooms.

Material acquisition principles

We are developing our collections in a wide-ranging manner anticipating research needs. The acquisition focus is on history, philosophy, Russian and East European studies, literary studies and music studies

Development of collections

The National Library of Finland collection is a unique research infrastructure, the foundation of which is the archive collection of Finnish publications. The international collections of the National Library of Finland link Finnish science and culture to its European and international collections.