CENL Event

2nd July 2021

The National Library’s Digitisation Programme 2021–2024 and Collections Policy published

The National Library’s Collections Policy defines the key principles for developing the collections and making them available. The Digitisation Programme presents the materials that will be digitised during the four-year period as well as those materials for which we are seeking complementary funding for digitisation purposes. The Collections Policy and Digitisation Programme 2021–2024 complement the National Library Strategy 2021–2030. The documents are published in Finnish, Swedish and English. All versions are available in Doria.

The new Collections Policy emphasises the close interaction between the National Library’s collections and research as well as the transparency of science. The National Collection stores published Finnish cultural heritage for permanent preservation and public use. The collection of multilingual research literature is based on the needs of researchers and serves humanities and social sciences in particular. The Collections Policy is a commitment to promote open science and research by reducing the amount of licensed electronic material and choosing to support new funding models of science publishing based on open access publishing instead. The library’s own digitised materials will also be made available for customers as widely as possible under the Finnish Copyright Act and agreements. We are constantly looking for ways to make collections available in order to give researchers data in the format they need, for example, as machine-readable data.

The aim of the Digitisation Programme is to produce comprehensive materials for research and ensure that society’s cultural diversity and multilingualism are acknowledged in the contents. In 2021–2024, the National Library of Finland will digitise newspaper collections and audio recordings with basic funding. We will also begin digitising the National Collection from the Russian era. Complementary funding plays an important role in digitisation production. The digitisation of the National Collection from the Swedish era that was carried out with the help of grants will be finalised. We are seeking funding for magazine digitisation and the digitisation of various historical entities. These include Ptolemy’s Atlases, broadsheet ballads, the library’s sheet music collection, manuscripts by Ostrobothnian mystics, clandestine manuscripts and a collection of lecture notes from the University of Helsinki. Linguistic diversity is represented by a digitisation project of Inari Sami and Skolt Sami literature. Donations for the digitisation of these materials can be made through the National Library of Finland’s Cultural Heritage Fund.

National Library of Finland Collections Policy, http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-7104-7

National Library of Finland Digitisation Programme 2021–2024, http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-51-7103-0

For more information, please contact:

Collections Policy: Harri Ahonen, Senior Information Specialist, tel. +358 (0)2941 22710, harri.ahonen@helsinki.fi

Digitisation Programme: Jussi-Pekka Hakkarainen, Information Specialist, tel. +358 (0)2941 22732, jussi-pekka.hakkarainen@helsinki.fi and Johanna Lilja, Director of Services, tel. +358 (0)50 311 9610, johanna.e.lilja@helsinki.fi

The National Library of Finland’s Cultural Heritage Fund (in Finnish): https://www.kansalliskirjasto.fi/fi/lahjoita

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