A Space for the Future - Library Buildings in the 21st Century
Helsinki, Finland, June 2 - 3, 2002

Building Bridges: Symbol of Finnish Library History and Future Library Services
By Birgitta Aurén

Finland's first lending library opened its doors in Vaasa in 1794 when it was founded by the Vaasa Reading Society. Books were lent not only to members of the Reading Society but also to others. In other words, the library quickly evolved into a public library open to all the townspeople.
For several years the library operated in many different locations, eg in conjunction with book stores, in the private homes of people managing the library and in the Town Hall. In 1932 Carl Schoulz, the Town Architect, started to plan a new building for the main library. After his death, the planning was continued by Einar Flickenberg and finally, in 1933, the plans were completed by Ingvald Serenius, the new town architect. In 1936 the library moved into its present location in Kirjastonkatu 13, the first premises in its history that were purpose-built for the library.
The main aim of libraries is to guarantee equal access to the sources of knowledge, recreation and culture for everyone. Access to knowledge, recreation and local culture is one of our basic rights. The history of the city of Vaasa as a centre for regional education and administration with a strong emphasis on culture and library services – recently also the university – obliges us preserve our cultural heritage and develop modern library and information services for the inhabitants. The more than 200-year old traditions of the Finnish public library institution also give powerful backing to the development of new strategies for library and information services.

The building is a successful combination of old and new, traditions and new technology.
Three themes guided the planning process:
- Architecture shall support the operations of the library
- Organization shall support the operations of the library
- Art shall refine the building

OPERATIONAL ANALYSIS AS A STARTING POINT FOR PLANNING
The library will have to choose its own focal areas and to define its aims on a very concrete level, as well as to invest in reaching these goals at all levels. The library not only has to change with the world but it also has the chance to try to change the world and to actively show where the development should and could go.
There are several models for strategic planning of a library. It is, however, essential that every planning process will develop its own model. This is what we have aimed at in Vaasa, but we have also actively attempted to network and communicate with other libraries in a similar situation. The library, its operation and buildings, can in itself be an excellent device for marketing the service. Also the location of the library in the city and the solutions made in town planning showcase the role of the library in the local community and its infrastructure.

THE COLLECTIONS
Future library users expect increasingly user-friendly services that are related to all forms of evaluation and analysis of information and even to a great extent tailor-made. On the other hand, clients will have to be able to frequently carry out routines such as self-service check-out of materials, renewal of loans, reservation of materials etc. In the future the remote use of many of these services will be possible, but in the library building there will also have to be a sufficient number of easily available public access computers for self-service and both self check-out and check-in units.
Good and easy access to network materials and guidance in the use of them is a self-evident part of the work of today's and tomorrow's librarians. The number of public access computers has to be sufficient and it seems that the standards which have been set for the number of public access computers per the number of inhabitants in a town are quickly out-dated, when both the ways in which people use the libraries as well as their expectations change.
The user interface of the library building will also have to be consistent and logically built. In this way the customers' independent use of services is best supported. This is not, however, in any way in conflict with the fact that each division has its own signal and meaning for the user.
A Norwegian colleague of mine often says that in today’s society cultural, visual and computer literacy are equally important. In the Vaasa City Library we add network literacy to this list, since libraries have a central role in training of it.

THE DEPARTMENTS
Why are we shifting from the traditional shelf classification to subject areas and a team organization? The team organization augments further specialisation. Through specialization the customer will derive other important benefits:
• interaction and decision-making are facilitated,
• response to changes in the operational environment is accelerated,
• the personnel also feel better, according to studies,
• quality of the user service is improved.Multi-purpose hall

The multi-purpose hall of the library will be a new building in the park. The character of the space can be altered with movable chairs and stage elements. The multi-purpose hall is meant for different meetings, celebrations and educational events as well as film, music and small-scale theatre performances. The hall will have modern facilities of high quality.and it will function as a venue for various events and happenings.

First floor services :

RECEPTION AREA
Return of loans and all such activities connected with lending where the customers cannot resort to self-service or which cannot be done in the subject areas will be concentrated in this area. The automated check-in unit (a robot) has been planned together with Vaasa Polytechnic and local enterprises.

SOCIETY AND ECONOMICS
The operational idea in this subject area is to offer precise and topical information, advice and help with searching information in he Net. In this subject area the use of the material in the library and the guidance of the clients is emphasised: users are offered plenty of reference library material in various forms: legislation, statistics, official information, standards, enterprise catalogues.

NEWS AREA
In the news area, different media meet: newspapers, magazines, net papers, document agencies, satellite channels, INFO-TV. In this department
there are plenty of public access computers as in all departments.

EUROPEAN INFORMATION
European information is part of an EU information aspect of central government. It is an independent unit that comes under the press and cultural policy division of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and has 19 regional service centres in the provinces. The Regional Information Officer is a disseminator and source of EU information in their province; aid and expert on local media, educational institutions, citizens' organisations and local people.

CITIZEN-INFO
Citizen-Info is a joint service venture of the city of Vaasa and the provincial state office. The National Pensions Institute, Kela, the Employment Office, the Tax Office and the city administrative court also offer their services there. At Citizen-Info all information on the services of public administration and almost all official forms can be obtained.

DATERO
The National Datero project aims at using information technology in special education and makes the information society available to citizens with special needs, thus preventing the marginalisation of these groups. The bilingual (Finnish/Swedish) information technology service point of Datero's regional centre in Vaasa is situated on the first service floor of the new main library building.

Second floor services

FICTION, LINGUISTICS AND HISTORY OF LITERATURE
Here the focal areas are collection work, the search for suitable co-operation partners and application of the general guidelines of the library. One of the new ideas that have been discussed is if Vaasa City Library could select a genre of fiction where we could specialize? (Nationally there is already a library specializing in detective stories, the Kallio branch library in Helsinki).

COUNTRIES AND CULTURES
This subject area wants to serve its customers in a flexible and individual way. Collections will be organised by trying to mirror the train of thought of the user. Maps will be attractively and distinctly displayed, and lots of exhibitions of the material will be organized both in a traditional way and on a Website.
The character of this subject area is above all global. The historical materials will cover the whole perspective of time, geography and tourism in the whole world. Philosophy, psychology and religion will represent the spiritual side of the world's cultures. The collection of regional history and culture, the Wasaensis, will be conveniently placed on the third floor with its work stations and glass cases. The aim is to create a functional department that learns from history but also looks forward.

NATURAL SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
The basic idea in the subject area is a continuous dialogue with society and the promotion of sustained development. Co-operation partners will be found via the Net, not only locally, regionally and nationally but also globally. The department emphasizes in particular the versatility of the material and the active use of new media and information networks by users.

MUSIC AND ARTS
The subject area includes music, the visual arts, architecture, sculpture, photography, film, industrial arts, theatre and dance. Traditional listening to the music is organized as a self-service activity, which means that it is not necessarily limited to a certain space. A new operation will be art lending. The department will also have an art gallery corridor which promotes the art collection. Customers will be offered a hands-on approach.

CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE
The central idea of the subject area is based on the age of its clientele. What is learned early on is a habit carried on into adulthood and will lead to independent use of other subject area of the library in the years to come. The clientele also includes other age groups: parents, teachers and those who happen to be interested in the material of this subject area. The materials in the department try to satisfy demand now, at the present level of know-how, but also to look into the future and be able to offer something that expands knowledge into the future.

HYDE PARK IN THE LIBRARY
The library provides an open discussion forum for writers, artists, scholars and academics in Vaasa. Publicity campaigns, conferences and discussions and debates related to literature and culture can be arranged in this forum as well as events for the great public.
Third floor services

WASAENSIS
The Wasaensis collection contains regional material both in print and in electronic form. The significance of regional literature and culture will be emphasizeened particularly when the city of Vaasa in 2006 will celebrate its 400th anniversary.

ADMINISTRATION
Because administration is a big part of both library planning and its operational process, it is also centrally situated on the library premises. The vision of the administration is sensitivity to the needs and the changing environment of the library staff and clients plus answering the challenges of the future.

LIBRARY MUSEUM
In 1994 Finnish public libraries celebrated their 200th anniversary in Vaasa. In this connection the idea of establishing a national library museum organisation was generated. In the new main library of Vaasa, space has been reserved for the library museum because the roots of Finland's democratic library institution are in Vaasa, and the history of Vaasa as a library town with a long tradition obliges us to do this.
The planning task has been challenging, because it is based on the old traditional library building. Now we have an opportunity to combine Vaasa' s unique library tradition with visions of the future - the new building will be a dynamic bridge between old and new. The new media and new forms of material, electronic applications, will find their place in the library and will complement its conventional services. Nevertheless, the core and principle idea of the activities will remain the same.