National Collection
Collection materials in format
The National Collection is a statutorily accrued and preserved archive repository of the national imprint.
Collection description
The National Collection is a statutorily accrued and preserved archive repository of the national imprint. Printed matters, video and audio recordings intended for distribution in Finland received as legal deposit copies as well as Finnish online and e-materials are deposited in the collection.
The National Collection contains printed materials from the early-1800s to today. For the period preceding the legal deposit act of 1919, it must be the most complete archive collection of printed matters. In the late-1900s and 2000s, new kinds of materials have been taken into the sphere of legal deposit copy rights: video and audio recordings have been deposited in the National Collection since 1981 and online materials since the beginning of 2008 pursuant to a law that entered into force at that time.
In addition, the National Collection contains materials published abroad in Finnish, materials published by expatriate Finns abroad or materials related to Finland.
The National Collection provides researchers and other individuals interested in Finnish history, culture and society with source materials and information sources.
The significance of the National Collection to research and information retrieval is emphasised especially with regard to materials that are not preserved or acquired elsewhere . Hard to come by "grey literature" includes various non-commercial publications (such as reports, memoranda, seminar and meeting publications, technical specifications and recommendations, official publications, business publications and ephemera) as well as publications with limited circulation (such as author's editions and some scientific literature).
Collection languages
Material type
Accrual status
Main collection
National CollectionSubcollections
The National Collection's Picture Collection Expatriate Finn materials in the National Collection Electronic legal deposit copies and online materials in the National Collection Books in the National Collection Other materials in the National Collection Audiovisual materials and multimedia in the National Collection Periodicals in the National Collection Newspapers in the National Collection Ephemera collection of the National Collection Poster Collection of the National Collection Map Collection of the National Collection The sheet music publication collection of the National CollectionRestrictions of use
Only for Special Collections Reading Room Only for Listening room Only for reading rooms Digitised on legal deposit terminals as e-material for remote access As a microfilm on reading stations Kept in closed stack collection, use requires ordering the publicationCollection themes
Catalogue information
More information about cataloguing
With the exception of the Ephemera, Poster and Picture Collections and some smaller sub-collections, the National Collection has been catalogued in Fennica and Viola databases. Information about books, magazines, maps and audio-visual and electronic materials is available in Fennica. This also applies to some ephemera groups. Information on Finnish sheet music publications (starting from 1977) and Finnish audio recordings (starting from 1901) is available in Viola. More detailed collection-specific catalogue information is available on the presentation pages of the sub-collections in question.
Provenance
Legal deposit copy collection
Acquisition policy
Accrues statutorily as legal deposit copies, see Act on Collecting and Preserving Cultural Materials (Laki kulttuuriaineistojen tallettamisesta ja säilyttämisestä 1433/2007)http://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/alkup/2007/20071433 More information on collected and deposited materials is available on the website of the Legal Deposit Office.