| Saturday 24 May 2014 | |
| Study tour 1 Half day: | Helsinki University Library and Aralis Library and Information Centre |
| Study tour 2 Half Day: | Helsinki Metropolitan Area Public Libraries |
| Study tour 3 Full day: |
Turku University and Turku City Library |
STUDY TOUR 1
8.30 Departure (Scandic Hotel Simonkenttä)
8.45-10.30 Helsinki University Main Library, Kaisa House
11.00-12.00 Aralis Library and Information Centre (Metropolia, Aalto ja Arabianranta City Library)
12.00-12.30 Possibility to visit shops and exhibitions in Arabia
13.00 Helsinki City Library/ Library 10 (refreshments served)
Helsinki University Main Library – The Kaisa House
Helsinki University Library – the largest multidisciplinary university library in Finland – operates on four campuses and online. The Helsinki University Main Library is a diverse information centre in Kaisa House, where the management of the entire library and joint services operate.
The library is open to all and it offers equal access to the sources of scientific information.
The Helsinki University Main Library in Kaisa House was the most ambitious project of the Helsinki World Design Capital year 2012, which shaped both the cityscape and services. The building represents new award-winning Finnish architecture. It has been awarded e.g. the 2012 Critics’ Spurs award.
Library operates closely with the Learning Centre Aleksandria. Library’s services include The American Resource Center, a Statistics Finland information point, and a Book Café.
Aralis Library and Information Centre brings together four libraries, uniting information on art, design and culture with literature. Aralis is one of the largest joint libraries in Finland offering a diverse and inspiring environment for learning, exploring new information and ideas for artistic activities and recreation.
- Aalto University Arabia Campus Library (School of Arts, Design and Architecture)
- Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences Resource Library or Arts and Culture
- Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory Library
- Helsinki City Library – Arabianranta Library
STUDY TOUR 2
Located in the city center’s Main Post Office building, Library 10 is a modern music library yet so much more. As would be expected, it offers the most diverse music collection in Helsinki. There are also movies, travel guides, comic books, and fiction available for loan. In addition to traditional library services, Library 10 tests and offers many new services to its patrons. It provides facilities and equipment for customers to bring their musical creations to fruition. The rehearsal and audio-editing rooms allow users to practice or record music. There is the Stage, which functions as a venue for cultural performances, discussions, and other exhibits. Library 10’s staff is both young and young at heart, and as such reflects many of its users. Library 10 is constantly changing, updating, and rearranging itself in response to the needs of its users. The one constant is that Library 10 is a popular public space in the center of the city where people gather to meet, work, relax, and just hang out. And since it is open seven days and 78 hrs a week, it is easy to find time to pop in for a visit.
Situated right in the heart of Helsinki in the Lasipalatsi complex, the Urban Workshop is a maker space where anyone can come and bring their ideas to life. Are you pondering about a great object that unfortunately doesn’t exist – yet? Or do you have an idea how to make something you use every day even better? Or would you perhaps like to design and print your own stickers? Or customize your favourite T-shirt with your own print? At the Urban Workshop everyone can be a designer! Small scale entrepreneurs, hobby enthusiasts and anyone who’s just curious about trying something new with the aid of our competent staff: everyone is welcome!
The key elements of the Urban Workshop are equality, creativity and multidimensionality. Ecological issues are also important for us, so we are enthusiastic about recycling, upcycling and repairing. The idea is not just to run a factory producing more and more objects and things. We want to enable the making of ideas into prototypes and to make everyone familiar with new technologies.
Helsinki City Library wants to offer a place for active citizens to test and try out their ideas. The Urban Workshop is a place for learning and making new things together. It is also a place for work, play, and hobbies too.
The Urban Workshop is an activity planned by the city residents; a pilot project created as a result of participatory budgeting. So by making the most of the Urban Workshop you are also developing the new central library!
Sello Library is the most frequented HelMet library within the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. It is open seven days a week. The library has two floors: the ground floor designed as a “library of events” and the second floor as a classical library.
The “library of events” is a space where all kinds of interactive cultural events can take place. The entrance hall of the library is a living room with a stage. On the ground floor there is the Children’s section, Pointti section dedicated to young adults, Music Section and Newspapers and Periodicals Section.
The classical library provides literature and small-scale cultural happenings for adults. Clubs and groups of people can get together there. The themes vary from politics to crocheting. The library offers a large variety of cultural activities. Learning activities and serving students are also an essential part of the service.
STUDY TOUR 3
8.30 Departure (Scandic Hotel Simonkenttä)
10.30-12.00 Turku City Library
12.00-13.00 Lunch in Cafe Sirius
13.00 Turku Cathedral
13.30-14.45 Turku University Library
14.45-17.00 Return to Helsinki via airport (16.45 at the airport)
The Turku Main Library is the newest big library building in Finland. The architecture manifests the aim of the library: to be a common living room and the emporium of information and culture. Besides the new building, it comprises the old main library from 1903 and the former governor’s office from 1818. The new section was opened in March 2007, and the whole project was finished in 2008. While the buildings constitute a beautiful and well-functioning library in the old center of the city, they at the same time surround a lively library yard which hosts events throughout the year. Our library has received the ‘Concrete building of the year’ -prize and the ‘Good Surroundings Prize’.
The Turku main library has become a real center of knowledge, experience, and learning. It houses traditional library services with books and other media, both virtual and physical services in various fields of information and culture, and numerous events, exhibitions, and programs. We cooperate systematically with many actors: universities, schools, associations, amateur groups etc. The library is open every day, and it has more than 1,3 million visits a year.
There is an ongoing project of modernizing our branch libraries to be social and cultural center of their communities. In that we cooperate especially with schools, kindergartens, and youth services.
Turku University Library is located on the Southwest coast of Finland and is one of the oldest and biggest Finnish university libraries.
The modern Turku University Library was built in the 1950’s and designed by a well-renowned Finnish architect Aarne Ervi, who was one of the most important architects of Finland’s post-WWII reconstruction period and especially interested in the new possibilities of construction technology.
Our three discipline-specific libraries extend over the whole campus area serving six faculties and the School of Economics whereas the University Main Library in the heart of the Turku University serves a wider audience with its extensive legal deposit collections.
Turku University is a research-led multidisciplinary scientific university with internationally acknowledged expertise, from humanities and economics to medicine and natural sciences, with students numbering more than 20 000 and personnel more than 3 000.
Turku University Library is one of the most significant and interesting scientific libraries in Finland with its extensive traditional collection of printed materials and up-to-date and forward-looking electronic online resources.