The Kaveri website

The name of Kokkola City Library’s
website for adolescents is Kaveri. The
content was planned and implemented
by librarian Hanna Saarimaa and library
clerk Ulrika Dahlbäck.

Juha Peräneva designed the appearance
of the website as part of his master’s
thesis. The website was published in
2004, in both Finnish and Swedish.
Kaveri was primarily designed for boys
and girls in secondary school. The site’s
address is http://lib.kokkola.fi/kaveri
/index.html

The idea behind the website’s design
was for it to be clearly distinguishable
from the children’s pages and attractive
to teens by dealing with topics interesting
to them. The teens themselves
were also involved in designing the
website.

“The library’s section for children and
adolescents organised a contest and a
drawing to gather suggestions for a
name for the website and for topics
that would be dealt with on the site.
These suggestions were used on the site
and a name was also found among the
suggestions.”

The Kaveri website is clear-cut and
contains many different types of materials
pertaining to the lives of teens.
The site contains information and links
to information regarding studies, hobbies
and, of course, teens can make
information searches. There is a list of
the library’s material, as well as presentations
of movies, books and music
available at the library. There is also a
trivia contest and many regional links
included.

The ‘information search guide’ presents
the three phases of information search
and looking for information in the
library: looking for information, looking
for information on the Internet
and, in particular, searches concerning
authors. The teens themselves are also
actively involved in making the website.
Under a title dedicated to their own
articles and critiques, they have their
own book, movie and music critiques,
as well as prose and poetry.

“The articles and critiques written for
the website come via email to the
maintainers of the website, so the content
of the articles can easily be monitored.
Censorship has not really been
necessary; we have been able to post
everything we have received.”

Maintaining and updating the website
is not difficult, there are many people
who are involved in updating it. Ulrika
and Hanna tell us, “The website is updated
when it looks like the pages need
something new and when the links
begin to get old.”

Other websites for young people

Hämeenlinna City Library’s Nuorten
Pakki website is a clear guide to
students preparing a presentation or a
more in-depth research project. In fact,
the website also includes other material,
for example writings and critiques
by teens. The website address is http://
www.htk.fi/kirjasto/pakki/pakki.htm.

Pirkkala’s municipal library has book
presentations for teens on their
website. There are many book presentations
on the website and they are
divided into the headings ‘young adult
book presentations’, ‘teen book presentations’
and ‘non-fiction and foreign
language book presentations’. Pirkkala’s
municipal library’s website address is
http://www.pirkkala.fi/sivistys_ja_vapa
a-aika/kirjasto/nuorten_kirjaesittelyt/

Helsinki City Library’s Vimma website
is graphically stylish and clearly directed
towards teens. Readers can send in
book critiques and their own fictional
writings and they eagerly take advantage
of these opportunities. The website
also has, for example, the quiz
Triviaa, a serial story and instructions
for writers. The website address is
http://pandora.lib.hel.fi/vimma/

Mervi Heikkilä
Library Director
Nurmo municipal library
mervi.heikkila@nurmo.fi

Translated by Turun Täyskäännös