Finnish library services for children and young adults are an integral part of Finnish society, education and societal life. After World War II, Finland started a rapid rise towards being a modern nation. Reading as a pastime hobby gained popularity, there were more education possibilities, the level of education was on the rise and young people spent more years in school instead of starting to work early. All this had a positive effect on library services. The changes in education and society had their effect on children’s library services as well, and today children’s and youth libraries are an essential part of Finnish society. Unlike in many other countries, Finland does not have school libraries in every school. At the moment, there are some excellent school libraries and dedicated school librarians but majority of schools are served with public libraries. The line between school library and public library is blurred, as majority of visits may be of pupils but the connection between high quality education and well-functioning library service has enabled libraries and schools to develop common goals, objectives and strategies.
The cult of the book is very developed in Finland. Finns love to read and are one of the most widely read nations in the world. This is also shown by world statistics. According to them, every Finn reads an average of 21 books a year, which is twice as much as the recommended European standard. Libraries in Finland are traditionally intended for whole families, so it is a great curiosity that, since libraries are extremely equipped, visited and developed, they cover school youth to the maximum, so there are almost no libraries in Finnish schools because everything is taken from public the library.
Statistics also say that 80% of Finns have a library membership card that is free for everyone. With these cards, all literature, all electronic editions can be used in the library, you can learn languages through language videos, read magazines and newspapers, use brochures, manuals and much more. Membership cards can be obtained with an ordinary identification document and children must have written permission from their parents. 90% of the content can be taken out of the library. Books can be kept for up to a month, movies and music for up to 7 days. If you lose or damage anything, you will pay damages. There are also books that may not be taken out, but for which there is a rule that you can pick them up 10 minutes before the library closes in the evening, but you must return them the next day immediately at 9 am, when the library opens. If you are only an hour late, you will pay a fine of 30 euros. Due to the fact that the cult of the book is so developed in this country, foreigners very quickly realize that for that very reason libraries are always the most beautiful buildings, usually in the most beautiful parts of the city. Many of them were personally designed by Alvar Aalto.
Using all resources in libraries is free for everyone. No membership fees or anything else is paid. Libraries are financed by municipalities from the budget through the payment of fees, while larger projects such as construction of libraries, restoration, creation of large databases, electronic publications, large procurement of publications are jointly financed by the Ministry of Education and local municipalities. Proof of how important a library is and free access to sources of knowledge is shown by the fact that in the ministry itself there are sometimes up to four experts who deal exclusively with libraries. „Libraries on wheels” are of great importance in this country and are an integral part of every local library system. They say that there are about 200 of them in Finland. Each of them has a driving route of up to 400 km. Regional needs are well studied, so there are several thematic “library busses”, but also standard ones. Of the thematic ones, there are special buses for children, then Nordic ones that go around the border areas, “library busses” that are arranged in the places where most immigrants live, where most literature for learning Finnish is offered, etc.… From this it could be concluded that the state of Finland has developed a sense for cultural and social diversity and to have a high degree of care and responsibility for readers. All these library buses have the most modern information and communication technology that they apply in working with users. These mobile libraries primarily serve to provide the population of remote places with access to books, as well as the population in the north of the country when it is under ice in winter. These libraries have about 17,000 stops. Finland ranks third in the world in the application of these types of services to citizens, just behind the United States and Great Britain. In addition to “libraries on wheels”, they also have several floating ship libraries.
The fact that in the middle of Helsinki, in one of the biggest shopping malls, just above the restaurant, there is a Cable Book library, which is always full of people, and where it is cheerful, noisy and very opposite to what is usual, shows how crazy Finns are with books and acquiring knowledge. In this library there is another great service that is minimally charged (up to 5 euros), and that is that if you have an electronic edition of a book and it is no longer in stores, here you will be printed and bound in an hour as and the original itself… For this project, the Helsinki Library received $ 1,000,000 as a prize from Bill Gates.
Don’t succumb to malicious opinions and superficially draw conclusions about how Finns learn and read a lot because their winters are long so they have nothing to do during the cold winter days. Such people will be disappointed with the fact that libraries are even more visited in the summer. The key to such good results is the fact that the state is willing and eager to offer all its citizens the possibility of continuous personal development, free sources of knowledge, continuity in intellectual development and full knowledge of the latest information technologies.
What the Finns would say: „Anywhere, books everywhere…”
