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.