Helsinki University Library — The National Library of Finland

Helsinki University Library, the national library of Finland, is often mentioned in writings on national libraries of the world as an exception. Although it is a university library, it is, however more a national library; it is a separate institution, independent from the other libraries of the university. It will in 1990 together with the university celebrate its 350th anniversary. Its status as national library will now for the first time be regulated by law, when the new university law in preparation is passed. The law will not change the library's organizational status.

Helsinki University Library takes care of most of the national library tasks in Finland. The registration of material for the national bibliography has since 1979 been based on a scheme of shared cataloguing. The library will in 1990 adopt a new integrated automation system (VTLS), which will be installed also in all other university libraries. For the Retrospective National Bibliography 1488–1827 the library has received a donation of 5 million Finnish marks (about £750,000) from a Finnish banking company.

As a result of the government's employment policy the library is decentralizing its activities. In December 1989 a unit for conversion of catalogues was set up in the town of Kotka. A centre for conservation and microfilming will start in the middle of 1990 in Mikkeli, and the main part of the present preservation activities in Helsinki will move there.