National Library of Finland is also present at the world science fiction convention, which is organized in Finland this year.  The reason is that the National Library aims to present itself as a place where also science fiction fans can find books, articles, texts or other fannish material from our versatile collections. So we aim to increase awareness of the library, and especially its collections, where there are many hidden treasures. Our collected list of materials from Kansalliskirjasto.finna.fi contains books from “Finland of Books”  and from Slavica collection (e.g. in Polish and Russian) as an example. Some of the items are available for loan, but do note that some rarer items need to stay within library, to enable researchers to come and view materials on-location.

Rare collections by request

As a research library there is material available on site for special request within the reading rooms, you can see the information about these online.

National Library’s open collection available to you in the library, without a separate material request.  Our open collections are the Humanities Collection, the Slavonic Library and the Finnish National Sound Archive (the Music Library). You will need a valid Helka library card to use the materials of the open collection. (More information about open collection).

Material requests , image links to National library page about material reservations and requests.

Science fiction, future, fannish material in collections

National Library’s collection contain some of the originals of the early authors, who wrote books, which nowadays can be seen as science fiction, which are available by pre-request in the reading room.  Some of these  books has also been digitized, which  include for example Volter Kilpi’s (1874-1939) (info) “Gulliverin matka Fantomimian mantereelle”.  In digital format also K. A. Tavastjärna’s “Finska vikens hemlighet” was published on 1895 and “Det gråa slotten” by A. I. Ingelius  on 1851 preceded even that.

Gradually more and more science fiction, fantasy has got more and more ground. You can find our selections from science fiction era from custom list from Finna. The list contains books from different eras, like few books from the “Finland of Books” project as part of the Finland’s centennial celebrations.

Collaborations

Finnish Institute of London created a site to celebrate digital cultural heritage and Finnish-British relations, together with several memory organizations, where National Library was one. In the science fiction list, there is therefore also author Emmi Itäranta tells about her writing process and connection to London in the project interview. Read more about “Tales of Two Countries” at  http://taleoftwocountries.fi/

Future, expectations in the digitized newspapers

In digitized newspapers, future or speculative fiction occurs in shorter articles or even as translated novels, which has appeared either in newspapers or journals. Our digitized collection contains roughly 11,5 million page, where around 3 million is available online for everyone. Future or science fiction has also acquired some following in the clippings, which the users can do, and there are around 100 clippings in both material types, ranging from speculations of climate change to the articles about the technological advances. You can find bit more about the “future” article clippings from this previous post.

Digitized in-copyright material is available in the legal deposit libraries in Finland, like in the National Library, Unioninkatu 36, next to Senate Square where with the same web system you can read newspapers as the digitization progresses. We hope that WorldCon 2017 participants would have time to visit National Library’s main building, where students and researchers from Finland and abroad work and find material for their research.

Feel free to follow us at the https://www.facebook.com/Kansalliskirjasto/   or in Twitter @natlibfi

P.S. After WorldCon75 , Digitalia summer school starts on 16.8.  https://www.xamk.fi/kesakoulu/ where the target is to go deeper in to the management of digital materials.