The people of Hämeenlinna, who sought to learn from Denmark, were the first to get excited about self-service libraries in Finland. Now the main library in Hämeenlinna is already open on its own.
The Jukola neighborhood library of the Hämeenlinna city library was the first library in Finland that also offered its customers self-service time. The Jukola library no longer exists, but self-employment is strongly present in Hämeenlinna. Next year, the last offices of the city library will have moved to self-service hours.
In ten years, the number of libraries using self-employment time has increased rapidly throughout Finland.
The library’s self-service time means the time early in the morning or later in the evening, when the staff is not serving customers, but the customer can independently use the library’s services.
The idea of self-service time is not unique to Hämeenlinna, although the city library was the first to grasp it in Finland.
The visitors to Denmark got excited and self-employment reached Finland.
\”The independent library is not a cold storage\”
In 2019, the Regional Administrative Agency conducted a survey on the number of independent libraries. Not all library activities responded to the survey. However, the result shows the popularity of independent libraries.
Based on the answers, three years ago there were at least 233 self-service points in Finland and several dozen more were planned. The number had quadrupled since the previous survey.
Over 40 percent of library opening hours in the entire country are already covered by self-service time.
Mustikkamäki praises the fact that libraries have been able to improve the availability and accessibility of library services with independent libraries. However, he reminds that increasing self-employment time does not mean that municipalities have the opportunity to reduce staff.
– Practice has shown that doing business in the library on your own only increases the need and number of professional staff. After all, a self-help library is not a cold storage that, once opened, runs until the end of the world without the input of the staff. Working hands are still needed there.
Self-employed time went without any major problems
Hämeenlinna City Library has also been a pioneer in that it opened its renovated main library for extensive self-service use in 2020. Thanks to self-service hours, the main library is open every day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Without self-service time, the library would only open at ten in the morning.
If you stop by the main library at eight in the morning, you can enjoy the serene atmosphere, but the library is not empty. The remote meeting is already underway in the work premises and the reading task of the autumn graduation essays is about to begin.
In the magazine, the first browsers will receive fresh paper magazines. Some borrower is also on the move. A few members of the staff are busy with their own chores and the cleaner is mopping the floors.
Leading IT specialist Jaana Käki says that self-employment time in Hämeenlinna has gone surprisingly well.
– It seems that the customers treat the space as if it were their own and also treat it well. And they also watched a little.