Keeping print collections alive: long tail management of print library materials in

Finland

Pariisi 23.6.2014Pentti Vattulainen

Director, NRL

Finnish library network NRL - background: why established,

governance Development in 25 years Impact for libraries Success or not: digital era

Contents

university (15) polytechnic libraries (25) public libraries special libraries______________

University, polytechnic and public libraries are open for all citizens.

Universities get main part of their funding from the government and they decide independently about the funding of libraries.

Polytechnic universities get funding from both the government and local authorities.

Finnish library network

provision of electronic resources. Main actor in this is the National Electronic Library (FinELib),

digital library development. The National Digital Library – a project of the Ministry of Education and Culture

print material availability and preservation. This is the duty of the National Repository Library.

Centralised collection services for Finnish academic libraries

The National Digital Library started in 2008 as a project of the Ministry of Education and Culture. It has intensified co-operation between libraries, archives and museums. The National Digital Library aims at better provision of digital resources and developing long-term preservation of these resources.

National Digital Library

Preservation of printed cultural heritage is guaranteed by legal deposit system.

The Act on Deposit and Preservation of Cultural Material (2007) covers Finnish cultural heritage in all formats.

The National Library has full legal deposit rights. There are five other university libraries with limited

rights. The use of this material is possible only within these institutions.

The National Repository Library in an institution that guarantees access to all materials in its collections to all Finnish libraries.

National Imprint

NRL - background: why established, governance

founded on March the 1st, 1989. Collection space problems in university

libraries Zero growth collections

National Repository Library

The basic function of the NRL is to receive, store and offer material for the use of other libraries. The NRL serves university and special libraries as well as public libraries, and acts as a connecting link in the library network.

The National Repository Library (NRL) is a resource shared by all Finnish libraries and information service centres. The NRL is the most economic way of storing library material. Because of the NRL, the need for extra shelf space in libraries throughout the country is decreased and can be controlled.

Aims and functions

The NRL’s activities are directed by a Board whose members are appointed by the Ministry of Education and Culture for three years at a time. The members represent different library sectors. The Board was established in order to develop interaction between the NRL and other libraries in Finland. This is important, since the library has no framework organization of its own.

Governance

Development in 25 years

Originally locally less-used material; recently also locally needed

Valuable research material Valuable library material which is not held

anywhere else

Materials – collection policy

Total: 134 shelf kilometres University and research libraries: 90 % Monographs: 55 shelf kilometres Serials: 75 kilometres

Materials transfered from libraries

Hall 1: 2715 m2, 27450 metres Hall 2: 1843 m2, 26826 metres Hall 3: 1843 m2, 29451 metres Hall 4: 870 m2, 28700 metrestotal: 7271 m2, 111427 metres

____________Halls 1 – 3: 13 shelf metres/m2Hall 4: 33 shelf metres / m2Total: 15 shelf metres / m2

Shelving

Monographs: 1,58 million items Periodicals: 100 500 titles; 1,5 million

volumes Other: more than 500 000 dissertations

Collections

Biggest ILL services centre in Finland In 2012 sixty per cent of the materials

borrowed from university libraries were delivered by NRL.

All Finnish university libraries as well as all municipal libraries and almost all other public libraries are NRL’s customers.

loans and electronic copies of articles are free of charge.

Services

Book scanners with colour PDF files via e-mail. PDF files preserve all the

formatting, the graphics as well as the colours of the original document.

Electronic copies of articles will be delivered to the customer within 24 hours of the request.

Contents: STM Use by library types

90 % to research libraries 43 % of all requests

Article service

Cataloguing Union catalogue of Academic Libraries:

Melinda (Aleph) Local catalogue for holdings information and

control of lending: Vaari (Voyager) All databases free of charge

Discovery

Impact for libraries

NRL helps them to control collection space and make savings locally,

NRL preserves and keeps available important research material (long tail) and acts as a national interlending and document delivery centre,

NRL can be used as a tool for collection management in an individual library.

NRL has three impacts for libraries.

Source: http://seeingcomplexity.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/a3.gif

Long tail, Chris Anderson

Avoidance of unnecessary duplication Extending the range of material available Cheap land / location Cheap storage mathods

Savings

University libraries have transferred more than 81 000 shelf metres. Space savings in university libraries is minimum 19 000 square metres. Because libraries can also discard locally material that already is in the repository, the space savings are much bigger

Total amount of transfers from libraries is 134 shelf kilometres of books and periodicals

(Research libraries have books in open collections usually 4,33 shelf meters/square metres)

Impact: space

For unversity libraries: 19 000 square metres Average annual rental costs: 205

euro/square metre Theoretical savings: 3,9 million euros / year

Impact: savings in space

  Library premises, m2 Closed stacks, m2

  1990 2012 1990 2012University libraries, total

 

134 796

 

149 314

 

39 557

 

41 136Legal deposit libraries

 

52 231

 

87 774

 

28 649

 

35 402other university libraries

 

82 565

 

61 540

 

10 908

 

5 734

premises in university libraries

Success or not: digital era

elements to ensure mutual interoperability between libraries, better cooperation joint library automation systems the National Repository as the hub for the

resource sharing of printed materials digitization projects (being especially

implemented by the National Library) policy work in order to define the roles and

responsibilities of each of the libraries.

To the future

Two Finnish universities that have recently merged from previous universities have invested in digital collections. Both of them - Aalto University in Helsinki area and University of Eastern Finland – are multi-campus universities that are building their collections mainly on digital basis. Both of them have almost completely outsourced their printed collections to the NRL.

Efficient outsourcing requires good database facilities so that the libraries can easily find whatever they need.

It also requires efficient logistics that provides libraries with easy access and fast delivery of requested material. This means digital delivery whenever possible and fast postal services combined with services free of charge.

An example

Due to economic pressures the University of Eastern Finland library had to get budget cuttings and reduce the costs of premises at least 5 per cent.

As more and more of the needed publications are published digitally the need to hold print collection locally was discussed. The library decided to radically resize the Kuopio Campus Library and its premises were reduced almost to the half of the size.

As a result there were new options to offer better premises for the students. And in spite of leaving only a small printed collection locally available, the number of loans remained almost the same as before. At the same time the use of the digital collection expanded constantly.

An example

Structural development of universities The teaching and research environment in

Finland i 2020: university and polytechnic libraries in a digital service network

the Repository should prepare for increasing transfers and develop its services to be fast and reliable

Need to transfer materials to the NRL by academic libraries

The NRL has been actively involved with international repository library co-operation and in keeping up the discussion of the role of print repositories in a digital era. A special institution is Kuopio conference series, which has already four times collected librarians from all over the world to discuss problems and views around preservation and availability of print collections.

The Finnish model of keeping print material available in digital time is a solution that has gradually developed from a storage facility whose main aim was to make savings for academic libraries in collection facilities. It is now an important part of resource provision and as such a guarantee for the sustainability of the digital copy

International options

http://www.varastokirjasto.fi/en/ www.nrl.fi pentti.vattulainen@nrl.fi

More information

The National Repository Library of Finland, by Kari Paakkinen and Pentti Vattulainen. Alexandria, vol 22, 2/3, 2012

The teaching and research environment in Finland i 2020:university and polytechnic libraries in a digital service network, by Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen et al. Library Management, vol 32, 8/9, 2011

Managing the life cycles of the document and collections in Finnish Academic Libraries, by Ari Muhonen et al. Library Management, vol 31, 8/9, 2010

From the centralized national collection policy towards a decentalized collection management and resource sharing co-operation – Finnish experiences by Ari Muhonen et al. Library Management, vol 35. 1/2, 2014

Kuopio conferences: http://www.varastokirjasto.fi/calendar-of-events/

Even more information

19-20.3.2015 Theme: Collection scenarios The role of print in library service provision

in the future What can we do? What should we do?

Kuopio 5

Football in Kuopio

NRL participates also in athletic events