I visited some great places as part of my participation in the Gates Foundation’s 2010 Global Libraries Peer Learning Meeting.
The libraries I saw have overcome their addiction to circulating content. Now they’re all about doing, making, publishing, working, and experiences revolving around content. People are still getting print books and CDs for the library, sure, but other stuff seems more important. Here’s a little report.
Finland has two official languages. Finnish and Swedish.
Library 10
The first place I visited was the Helsinki CIty Library’s central location: Library 10. Even though it is the central library it is considered a music library and there aren’t many books. Right now about 70% of the space is devoted to people and 30% to materials. Their next design will expand the space for people to 80%.
Instead of books people check out guitars.
Or record music and edit music videos.
There’s a radio station and the library broadcasts a small segment locally every day, and nationally once per week.
The library is certainly nice looking but it isn’t flashy. That’s a pretty accurate description of Helsinki in general so it fits.
The chairs of this area are often moved out and a stage is set up. They host cultural events and record many of them. They’re interested in the library as publisher of content. One great fact about the events held at the library. Over 80% of them are organized by library users. Librarians just facilitate hosting the events.
Modularity is a big part of the library. All of the big furniture is on wheels and can be easily moved. They’re not limited by outlet placement because there are outlets everywhere in the ceiling. While most of the staff furniture stays put, people rearrange the public’s furniture daily. It is straightened up every morning and staff look for patterns to help plan future layouts.
It is impossible for library patrons and staff to sit on opposite side of a desk. They work together answering questions. Staff were resistent at first but quickly came to fully embrace the arrangement and wondered why they didn’t make the switch 10 years earlier.
Speaking of work, chief librarian Kari Lämsä says he prefers the concept of Library as Working Room rather than the more common Library as Living Room because living rooms are too passive.
There are all sorts of other interesting things about the library. They have a group of people working on cool web stuff. I wrote about their country-wide library searching iPhone app in January.
They have a mobile events van that takes gaming equipment to other libraries. It also travels to music events in the Summer, changing out the content to be event specific. Library 10 tries put the same kind of people on both sides of the desk. Staff aren’t your typical library workers. A bunch of them are 20-something guys.
Meetingpoint
This Helsinki CIty Library location is across the street from Library 10 in a building full of stores and cafes. There are no materials to browse or check out. People bring in their computers to the Laptop Doctor for repair and for lessons. Most of the interactions are one-on-one but there’s a Laptop Club during which many people gather for instruction.
Other services include Citizen Media Computers with multimedia and publishing tools, a new and popular VHS to DVD setup and a few computers dedicated to finding a job.
Their next project is the Urban Office Workspace for people in the city that need a temporary place to conduct business. Two successful business have already been started at Meetingpoint.
A place like Meetingpoint couldn’t work without an enthusiastic staff. Everything I observed indicated that they’re super stoked on doing what they do.
Nokia World Headquarters
A group of us heard a bit about how Nokia learns from their R&D prototypes and incorporates ideas into their final products. We also got a tour of the Nokia Lounge which is a showcase of their products. They seem most excited about their phones for the developing world and they billed all of their smartphones as being extremely affordable. It almost seemed like they’ve given up on doing anything to combat iPhone-mania.
This was the neatest thing I saw. Wireless charging.
And, just for fun, here’s the first library sign using the Cyrillic alphabet I’ve ever photgraphed!
More Stuff
Kari Lämsä’s presentation about Library 10
A presentation with some info on Meetingpoint
Great report Aaron, I most say that I’ll take some information for my PPT to share the PLM in Mexico… yes I’m just in front of you jaja
my librarians will refuse to call the place “library”. Actually – a library without books – this is a real nightmare for them. Thx for your comment
what a great report, thanks aaron! this is the stuff of dreams, at least in seattle. obviously helsinki’s got it going on.
Thanks Aaron, a great report, which I will share with my colleagues back home in Australia – with all credit to you, of course!
Wow, Aaron. So inspiring. I want to work there!
Great stuff, Aaron.
I’m curious: is the library doing anything to document and/or share the content its users are creating? The notion of creating a community repository for user-created works has been an angle I’ve always been interested in exploring.
I’m envisioning gadget check outs at academic libraries of the future. Thanks!
[...] climber, and extreme sports kind of guy” – recently made an interesting post on the future of libraries in Finland from the Gates Foundation’s 2010 Global Libraries Peer Learning Meeting: The libraries I saw have [...]
[...] libraries and content creation (check out a fine example of this idea in fruition in Finland at Walking Paper). That said, I don’t yet fully grok the copyright and philosophical ramifications of the [...]
I was a Fulbright scholar in Helsinki with the Helsinki City Library for 5 months and it is really wonderful. I spent a part of each day at Library 10 interviewing staff and customers….they have the right answers. Take a look at the Garage (Garaget)Library in Malmo Sweden it is fantastic too also Aarhus Denmark and the “boundless” library….talk to these people too
Linda, that’s really neat! I was actually just reading about the Garage Library in Scandinavian Public Library Quarterly. That place is high on my places to visit list now.
Love the library and the concept. Unfortunately at this time a lot of us are way too addicted to circ stats (and stats in generally) to embrace the library in innovative ways.
[...] post on some of the REALLY COOL and innovative ways that libraries are being used in Helsinki makes me want to move there. RIGHT [...]
Great Blog. I add this Blog to my bookmarks.
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[...] Biblioteca pública de Helsinki Dedican a almacenaxe o 30% do espazo, por un 70% que reservan para os usuarios; proximamente mudara? de novo a proporción, reducindo o espazo dos libros até un 20%. Hai emisora de radio, estudio de gravación, sala de instrumentos que calquera pode coller sen que lle pregunten se saber tocar ou non. Conciben a biblioteca como centro de produción de cultura onde o 80% das actividades están organizadas polos usuarios e normalmente son gravadas e/ou retransmitidas. Como se pode ver nesta foto, a maioría das pezas do mobiliario teñen rodas, para poder organizar espazos segundo necesidades en todo momento. Dispoñen de dúas zonas que chaman especialmente a miña atención: unha área onde os usuarios poden acudir cos seus portátiles para pedir axuda até para pequenas reparacións, e unha zona de traballo para empresas e profesionais sen local, de onde se orgullan en dicir que xa saíron dúas importantes startups. Non é o único concepto válido de blblioteca, desde logo, pero recoñezo que este dipo de proxecto me marabilla. Despois de ter visitado varios centros educativos de Islandia, hai poucos anos, e comprobar o ambiente relaxado e concentrado onde conseguían levar a multitarefa, este tipo de espazos onde as paredes non separan necesariamente actividades diferentes, recoñezo que me encanta. Moitas máis fotos na anotación orixinal. [...]
[...] Aaron Schmidt írása a könyvtárról, fotókkal a Walking Paper-en: itt [...]
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[...] photos and explanations over at Aaron Schmidts’s Walking Paper [...]
[...] Libraries have unofficially done this for years (how many of you have heard of a patron who runs his/her business from the library? I’ll bet some of you have). But some libraries are going a step or two further by embedding librarians in these spaces, or even offering coworking spaces as part of their services. Meg Knodl, a librarian at Hennepin County Library, is doing this – here’s an article on what Meg is doing. Helsinki City Library has created some coworking spaces – read more about it here. [...]