Use of legal deposit materials
Index
Printed materials
Printed materials and recordings preserved according to the Act on Collecting and Preserving Cultural Materials (1433/2007) (available in Finnish and Swedish) are added to legal deposit collections at legal deposit libraries located around Finland.
There are six legal deposit libraries in Finland:
- The National Library of Finland
- Turku University Library
- Jyväskylä University Open Science Centre
- Åbo Akademi University Library
- Oulu University Library
- University of Eastern Finland Library
The materials can be accessed at a specific legal deposit library or at all of them. Publications deposited in six copies are available at all legal deposit libraries, whereas publications deposited in two copies are available at the National Library and the Turku University Library. Publications with only a single legal deposit copy are only available at the National Library.
There are exceptions to this; for example the legal deposit copies of publications in Sami languages are sent to the Rovaniemi City Library (available in Finnish) instead of the University of Eastern Finland Library. Further, legal deposit copies of sound recordings published before 2008 can be studied at the Jyväskylä University Library in addition to the National Library.
Online materials
Online materials preserved by the National Library may be accessed at libraries with legal deposit workstations. In addition to legal deposit libraries, such libraries include the Library of Parliament and the library of the National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI).
More information on using legal deposit materials at the National Library is available on the customer service webpage Availability and use of materials.
Services available at legal deposit workstations
Legal deposit workstations are customer terminals for copyrighted material preserved and digitised by the National Library of Finland. Such materials may be viewed and listened to, and, if need be, printed and photographed, but digital copies of them cannot be made. The use of the materials on the legal deposit workstations is based on the Copyright Act (404/1961, section 16b) (available in Finnish and Swedish).
The following services are available on the workstations:
Varia – A collection of electronic legal deposit copies, including electronic publications (e.g., books, periodicals and recordings). Publications in Varia can be found through the National Library Search Service.
Finnish Web Archive – Websites and social media content preserved by the National Library. Includes web material from 2006 onwards. This material is available on the legal deposit workstations, but a limited selection of the content can be browsed in the index of the Finnish Web Archive.
Digi – The collection of newspapers, magazines, ephemera, books, maps, card indices and sheet music digitised by the National Library. The oldest digitised materials which are no longer under copyright can also be freely accessed online. Digi also provides access to digitised materials in other National Library services (such as Doria, more details below).
Radio and tv archive – The Ritva database of television and radio programmes preserved by the Finnish Audiovisual Institute. The database features metadata and recordings of the programming of the main radio and tv channels preserved in their entirety, as well as samples from approximately 100 other channels. The database includes material from the beginning of 2009 onwards, in addition to which Ritva features tv programmes digitised and produced by the Finnish Broadcasting Company Yle from 1957 onwards. Programme information on Ritva is openly available online, but the programmes may only be accessed on the legal deposit workstations.
Doria – An open publication archive maintained by the National Library and featuring copyright-free content and digitised materials produced by several different organisations. The National Library’s collection includes copyright-free material digitised by the National Library (such as books, periodicals, music recordings, maps, images, manuscripts, ephemera and games) as well as the National Library’s own publications.