FAQ

You can get a National Library card, which is valid at the National Library of Finland, from the library’s information service desk by providing a proof of identity. Anyone that is over the age of 15 with a Finnish social security number and street address may get one. The National Library card is free of charge and immediately usable.

Further information on the Conditions of Use.

As you arrive in the library, you will be asked to leave your outer clothes, umbrellas and large bags at the cloakroom free of charge. You are not allowed to take drinks or other snacks into the library either.

The cloakroom and the information service desk can provide you with a basket to hold books and your personal items.

These limits are in place due to security reasons – we want to protect our valuable collections from unintentional damage.

Absolutely, and it’s worth doing. Only a part of the books and magazines are on the open collection shelves. Everything else must be ordered in from our repository for you to make use of them at the library. You can use the National Library of Finland’s search portal at kansalliskirjasto.finna.fi to search for material. For each piece of material, you will be able to see its availability data:

• If the work is in the open collection, you may pick it up from the shelves
• If the work has been taken out by another customer, you may make a reservation
• If the work is in the repository, you may make a reservation

Material requests will be picked up by 11 a.m. on the next business day, apart from select exceptions.

Some of our material is available directly online! Visit digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi for digitised versions of Finnish newspapers and magazines up until 1939. Various collections can also be found at the doria.fi institutional repository as well as the Finnish archives’, libraries’ and museums’ single search service, Finna.

If you can’t find what you're looking for, you can

• ask the customer service to search for the information
• material can also be requested from other libraries for an interlibrary loan
• make a justified acquisition proposal
• search finna.fi

An underground passage connects the main building and the Fabiania wing. The route is marked with blue dots on the floor. Follow the blue dots going down the stairs from Rotunda all the way to Fabiania. The route leads up and down stairs, through the café and past the Aquarium.  

In Fabiania you will find e.g. the Slavonic Library, the Music Library and the Special Collections Reading Room.

All of our library’s four reading rooms are available for you. The only exception is the Special Collections Reading Room, which requires separate permission.

Our library has a Wi-Fi connection. You can also use the library’s customer terminals for information searches.

Our library’s main building, Rotunda, has a pick-up shelf, where you can pick up the material you have requested or reserved.

Material requested for reading room use will be delivered to Special Collections Reading Room at Fabiania if they are National Collection material; everything else is delivered to Rotunda.

It is possible to read microfilms at the library as well as to use legal deposit copy workstations to read digitised material that is copyrighted.

The library's reprographic service  will help you with getting reproductions, or copies, of the material you need.

There is a book return machine in the entrance lobby.

The library buildings are also host to exhibitions and various cultural events. These exhibitions and events are free of charge and open according to the library’s opening hours.

Groups may also reserve a guided tour of our culturally and historically significant library building – welcome!