Library 10: Ten reasons to be fond of it!

1. An ambitious mission

The mission statement of the Helsinki City Library is to provide a fundamental civic service that is available to everyone. On an interactive basis, it develops the library services that Helsinki residents need.

2. A free public city space

All services of the Library (including the Meeting Point) are free, except for printing. A (free) library card gives access to most functions, for example the use of studios, instruments etc.

3. A friendly relationship with the users

Librarians are easily approachable: they roam the library, talking with everybody. The reference desk has a one-on-one approach, where the customer sits alongside a staff member and together they search for information on the same screen. Users can receive a working lesson on systematic search methods, enabling them greater independence for future information needs.

4. Users are producers and organizers

Customers can come to the library to play, record, and edit their own music, spoken word and videos. They can transform VHS to DVD, vinyl albums and cassette tapes into mp3s. Children can sing in a karaoke chair and leave with the recording on a CD—nice for making gifts for parents and grandparents. Users share knowledge in the laptop club. Librarians are always available for assistance for these activities. 80% of all events are organized and produced by users; Library 10 is providing the means (space, material, and help).

5. Librarians are facilitators

Library 10 is a place where librarians are always interacting with their users, looking for what citizens want “just right now”. And they try to give them assistance very quickly. Kari Lämsä, department head of Library 10 and Meeting point, insists on this point: “we have to be the facilitator. We are the secretaries for the citizens.”

6. Diversified Librarians

At Library 10 you can ask for an audio/video engineer, a music trainer, a laptop doctor (to repair your laptop, install a program, or learn how to use it), a studio assistant (recording, audio and video), a secretary—and all are librarians of course!

7. Help to the local economy

The Meeting Point is a part of Library 10 (situated a few meters further). It’s an urban office, especially designed for use by small businesses, where you can reserve a space to make a working meeting, have facilities like computers, scanners, memory card readers, DVD, CD-RW, USB, ZIP drives… office supplies.  Two secretaries are there to help users with the material. It is a good way to meet other small entrepreneurs. The Meeting Point receives 300 users per day, and each one receives personal assistance.

8. Varied collections

Library 10 is has approximately 9000 books, 7000 pieces of sheet music, 42,000 sounds recordings, and 170 newspapers and magazines. Library 10 receives approximately 540,000 visits per year—more than 1600 users each day—generating 493,000 loans. All this in 800 m²!

9. Inexpensive

Library 10’s operations are economically efficient. All materials may be checked-out at automated self-checkout machines and returned at an automated book return machine which helps to keep the end user’s exspense to a minimum.

10. There are a lot of men!!

The average age of the staff is 35, with 19 males (68%).
The average user is 23 years old and 60% of them are male.

First Vehicles and Nostalgia: Fond Feelings for Jalopies?

Why might we be nostalgic for our first vehicle? 

 

Do individuals have nostalgic feelings for their first-ever vehicle? Even if it was a lemon, is there something about one's first automobile that brings about nostalgic feelings? Let me frame this: A few summers ago a group of my (college) students and I embarked upon a research project which involved collecting stories about Volkswagen. We called our project, "The VW Bug: Stories Told." In fact, we ended up collecting stories individuals had about any kind of Volkswagen-not just the VW Bug. A senior colleague of mine has a 1968 VW Bug. He allowed us to park the car in Canal Park-a tourist area in Duluth, MN. My students and I collected stories from passersby. We did this in shifts over the course of four weeks. Because Duluth is heavily populated with tourists in the summer months, many of our respondents were from outside the state and, in some cases, outside the country. In this sense, we had a lot of diversity in our convenience sample. Armed with signs which read, "VW Stories Wanted" (a play on their ad tagline, "Drivers Wanted"), cassette recorders, and consent forms, we set out to collect stories.

The purpose of this research project was to ascertain the cultural significance of the VW Bug, how individuals' recollections provoke nostalgia, and how that nostalgia facilitates continuity of identity. Subjects were simply asked to share a story about a Volkswagen. My students and I conducted a content analysis of the stories, searching for patterns in the data, discovering themes and, in so doing, also ascertaining the degree and type of nostalgia that was present.
A total of 49 interviews were conducted, but many more stories were told, as some individuals told several stories. Themes that emerged in the data include memories of bad experiences with a VW (such as the car breaking down), which are actually recalled with humor and a seeming fondness for the vehicle; recollections of what the VW was like in the winter (stories, for example, about the heater not working, or about getting up the steep hills in Duluth by going backwards, since the motor was in the back of these vehicles); memories of deviant activities associated with Volkswagen (from pranks among high schoolers picking up VW Bugs and moving them, to friends traveling to rock concerts in a VW bus with marijuana in the vehicle), and underlying themes of the association of the VW with camaraderie and with coming of age.

I have written about this particular study elsewhere. Let me bring this back to my question of interest here, though: Do individuals have nostalgia for their first-ever vehicle? In the VW study, a number of participants did note that a VW Bug was their first car. In such cases, it is difficult to separate the nostalgia that may be apparent due to the cultural significance of the type of vehicle from nostalgia that may stem from the "my first car" status. For most of us, our first vehicle probably wasn't one that had wide cultural appeal. It also probably wasn't brand new nor was it our dream car. More likely, most of us got a parent's or older sibling's "old" car or were given a used car that was believed to be "reliable and safe," not "cool and fast." Some of us earned money and bought that first vehicle on our own. It may be the case that our first vehicle had certain "quirks" that were both annoying and endearing. Those first vehicles may have left us stranded and let us down. As time passes though, and we think back on that first vehicle, what emotions prevail? The nostalgia that may be present could primarily be associated with where we were in the life course at the time we began driving - a time of constructing a sense of identity, experiencing newfound freedom, "hanging out" with friends. The automobile is a symbol of this newfound freedom and the automobile is a ticket for a teenager or young adult gaining status.

It is certainly possible to hear a successful middle-aged person who has the means to buy an expensive car speak with fondness about a jalopy he drove during high school or college. Is this really nostalgia for the object itself or is it more apt to be nostalgia for a particular period of time in one's past? For example, I may fondly reminisce about eating SPAM, but it really isn't so much the food item itself that I am nostalgic for; instead, it is nostalgia for a time of life (childhood).

Questions to consider: What was your first vehicle? What are your memories and emotions about the vehicle? How do those memories and emotions connect to a past time? These questions are intended to highlight the complex (and fascinating) relationship among objects, memories, and emotions - a relationship intriguing to explore.