Turku's new main library is a centre of information,experience and learning and a public place open to all. It is also a functional information centre and a real-life work of art. It is a place where new and old, the future and history, knowledge and imagination, busy activity and quietude come together. Information is shared via the collections, exhibits, leaflets and events in cooperation with other information suppliers, intermediaries and library users.

The new library includes three buildings,
which are joined to one another:
the new building, the old main library
and the former office of the prefect in
between them. The new section and
the prefect were opened to the public
in March. The library is open every day
of the week and receives about 20,000
visitors a week.
The old main library is currently
undergoing renovations and its public
opening is planned for the beginning
of autumn, 2008.

New meets old

The new library was erected in a delicate
cultural area, which has buildings
dating back 400 years. The tower of the
Turku Cathedral, from the 13th century,
gleams behind the library roofs.

Turku suffered a catastrophic fire in
1827 and the city centre was almost
entirely destroyed. The office of the
prefect, constructed in 1818, and part
of the official residence of the prefect,
constructed in 1733, survived the fire.
The buildings have been protected as
especially valuable cultural historic
buildings. After the fire, the architect
Carl Ludwig Engel was appointed to
plan out Turku's city layout and he
named the present city block where the
library stands Sirius.

In 1903, the main library, which the
city received as a donation from tobacco
factory owner Fredric von Rettig,
was completed in the Sirius block. The
Sirius block has three other protected
buildings from the 19th century, which
the city is currently selling for cultural
use. In the 1950s, a telephone company
office building was built in the middle
of this city section, but it has now been
dismantled to make room for the new
library building.

“It is a particularly nice lot, challenging
and difficult," says head architect Asmo
Jaaksi of JKMM Arkkitehdit Oy. Designers
wanted to add harmony to the
block by enclosing the open corner that
was jutting out of the block. "Another
issue was the world inside the block. A
small, tight space, much smaller than
the market square, was created in the
centre of the block. The library courtyard
is in this way an open public yard
for city residents. Events that change
with the seasons dominate the library
yard, from summer concerts and dance
performances to winter art and fitness
events.”

The new main library and the entire
library block will be essential elements
in 2011, when Turku will be the European
capital of culture.

A communal living room

You can stay and enjoy the atmosphere
in the library on weekdays and Sundays.
There is lots of space for library
events and exhibits as well as for
patron events, meetings and exhibits.
There are reading areas everywhere:
armchairs next to the windows and
tables and chairs tucked away in
peaceful corners along the walls. There
is a wireless network throughout the
library and laptop computers can be
borrowed from the library for use
wherever you want to sit.
From the library it is easy to pop in at
the café, located in the former prefect’s
office, which expanded out into the
library yard in the middle of the block.

The realm of knowledge

The basis for the division of the space
and for the new organization is the
interest the library user has in different
things and the desire to use the library
independently. For this reason, the library
has been organized into departments,
sections and subject matter
groups, according to information content.
All material, regardless of how it is
used and stored, is located in departments
according to its content. Each
department has an employee knowledgeable
in the information branch in
question. Organizationally, the library
is divided correspondingly into departments
and teams.

The four library departments are intro,
non-fiction, art, and children and
youth.

Intro is the prologue

Intro introduces the patron to the library’s
actual themes. The teams in this
department are: reception, news area
and custodian.When arriving at the
library, visitors first come to the reception,
where they are guided in how to
use the library and where the bookreturn
is. The news area has newspapers
and general periodicals in different
languages, as well as patron Internet
workstations. The custodians manage
the exhibit areas and equipment
function properly and keep the building
in order.

The main hall of the new section is the
non-fiction department on the second
floor, which is divided into sections.
The Society section includes in-depth
information about societal, economic
and judicial topics. Subject matter
groups for Society include general information
and communications, society
and administrations, law, economy
and business, and pedagogy and
education. The Peoples and Cultures
section provides information about
Finnish culture and the cultures of
other countries.

The subject matter groups in this section
are philosophy and psychology, religions,
geography and ethnology, languages,
history and biographies. The
Nature and Recreation section is the
centre for natural sciences, technology,
medicine and many different kinds of
recreation. The subject matter groups
in this section are health, technology,
natural sciences and recreation.

The Europe Information in Southwestern
Finland, under the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, functions in conjunction
with the non-fiction department.
Temporary displays depicting various
themes are featured in the non-fiction
department’s exhibit area, which is
visited by specialists and hobbyists
from different branches. The attractive
library hall can be used to host large
group events.

Saga for children, Story for young people

The children and youth department
opens out towards the library yard on
the first floor and is divided into two
sections: Saga for children and Story
for young people. Saga has interesting
information, and exciting narrations
are held in colourful book houses. It is
full of adventure and surprises: zeppelins
planets and snowballs on the
ceiling, the book theatre’s colourful
fairytale forest curtain, and glass cabinets
for patrons’ own displays, tractor
tyre seats and surprise vitrines on the
floor.

The mouse assistant at the children’s
automatic book-borrowing machine
laughs joyfully when a book is successfully
borrowed. The department hosts
many events and school children come
to the library to Kulttuuripolku (culture
path), which is a part of the school
curriculum, and day-care children
come likewise to library courses.

Young people create the appearance of
the Story section. The small collection
is always up-to-date; books, comics,
newspapers, DVD movies and cyber
space offer inspiring worlds in many
different languages. The comfort of the
sofa is enticing and there is space on
the display wall and in different cabinets
for young people to set up their
own displays. Short films or music
videos made by young people can be
shown on the movie screen. The
Nuorten Turku information centre for
youth can also be found at Story. The
library and Nuorten Turku’s service
can answer all kinds of questions,
which are interesting to young people.

A house of art

In 2008, the art department will be
moved into the old main library. Literature
and art will be located on the
first floor and the second floor will
house music. The building’s magnificent
entrance will be opened up again
and library visitors will be able to get
to the entrance from the new library
building through the news area. From
the news area, the visitor will enter into
the reading room where he or she can
become engrossed in new novels or
treasures brought up from the cellar.
From there, the visitor can continue to
the fiction shelves, poetry room, and
art hall or to the foreign language
collection. The second floor is divided
into a music hall and sheet music hall,
and there is a small room for playing
music.

The art department has also been divided
into a busy centre area, a collections
area and more peaceful reading
places located off to the side. On the
second floor there is also a quiet room
for those looking for extra peace for
concentration. The first floor rotunda
can easily be made into an all-purpose
area for events and the music room can
be used for mini concerts.

Support from technology

The Turku main library was the first
large library in Finland to take the
RFID (radio frequency identification)
system into use to manage its collection.
The collection was labelled for the
move, and borrowing and returning
books worked perfectly with the new
system. The goal is to extend RFID
technology in the coming years to all of
the city’s libraries.

Great changes were also made to the
library’s information system; the entire
collection of the main library had to be
moved to a new department. At the
same time, the information retrieval
system was renewed, so that it supports
joint information searches by the library
user and the library clerk better. A
virtual map, which aids in finding material
locations, was built into the library
system.

Once the old main library is finished,
borrowed books can be returned to the
book-return machines at both of the
entrances. The book-return machines
each have a book sorter. There is a 125-
meter conveyor that runs between the
book sorters under the floor. Books
returned to one building which belong
in the other are conveyed to the right
department in the other building.

A living work of art

The new library opens out into the city
environment and is seen from the outside
as a living organ. At the same time,
the city reaches into the library
through the massive windows. The
building material used on the library is
plaster, granite, and large glass surfaces
and aluminium lining. The cement,
which was poured in place, is visible
through the white paint. The architect’s
own ‘helicopter lighting’ lights up the
area primarily from the ceiling. The
equipment needed for the building’s
technology lies beneath the raised
floor, and the space is softened by the
abundant use of oak on the walls and
in the furnishings. The floor is covered
by a fully synthetic, anti-static textile
carpet with square-shaped sections that
are easy to remove to access the floor.

The area for the public is located on
the yard side of the library, while the
staff ’s working area is on the same side
as the street. The library hall on the
second floor is an open, vast space. The
balcony on the third floor enables library
guests to view the library hall
from above. At the same time, the city’s
many strata of construction open out
to visitors.

All of Southwest Finland’s phone lines
run beneath the building. This posed
special requirements for the designers
and builders. Because of the cables, the
new section of the library does not
have a cellar and an auditorium could
not be added to the building.

Interior decorations and furnishings
were planned according to the building
and as a part of it. Different activities
are divided in the open space by furnishings.
Beside the windows, there is a
sitting and reading area. In the middle
of the area there are service counters
framed by the collections. The fixtures
endure time and will age beautifully;
the massive bookshelves and tables are
designed to ‘take root’ as part of the
building. The furnishings are, on the
whole, long-lasting, of high quality and
minimalist.

The prefect’s office, the renovations of
which were supervised by the National
Board of Antiquities and Historical
Monuments and which survived the
Turku fire, posed an additional challenge
for the project. The library’s café,
Café Sirius, is on the first floor of the
prefect’s office, and the second floor
features meeting and group work
rooms.

Art adds the final touches to the building

A certain percentage of art was purchased
for the building. The head
architect and representatives of the
Wäinö Aalto Museum and the library
formed the work group, who chose five
main works of art, and additionally, a
smaller work of art for each work
room. The artists and architects worked
in close cooperation.

The themes of the artworks were ‘time’
and ‘memory’; after all, the Turku library
and the literary world have roots
dating far back in history, and at the
same time, library activities reach far
into the future. Located at the main
entrance is a work called ‘Visual Vortex
– Passage of Memories’ made out of
fluoridated acrylic boxes by Hans Christian
Berg. On the back wall of the
library’s news area, a place where old
and new literally come together, Hilkka
Könönen’s work ‘Vestigia’ depicts the
transformation of a thought. The
bronze mittens, socks and boots in
Merja Pitkänen’s ‘Esiintymä’ (the occurrence)
in the café, look deceptively
real. In the main hall on the second
floor, Saara Ekström’s ‘Alkukirjain’
(first letter) was inspired by the pages
of medieval books. The artworks also
include a video work called ‘Aakkoset’
(the alphabet). The staff café gleams
with Ann Sundholm’s ‘Hetkinen’ (a
short moment) – the ceiling covered
with gold foil and objects that bring to
mind golden memories.

Implementation and expenses

The head architect for the new library
section was Asmo Jaaksi of JKMM
Arkkitehdit Oy and the interior architect
was Päivi Meuronen from the same
office. The main contractor was NCC
Rakennus Oy. Arkkitehtitoimisto C&H
is responsible for the planning of the
renovations to the old library and the
head architect is Ari Paukio. The main
contractor is Metsämäen Rakennus Oy.
Construction for the entire library project
was purchased from Turun Juva
Oy.

The project in the library was divided
into two phases according to the building
project. A core group worked on
both phases with the support of a
varying group of other staff members.
Planning of the departments and operations
was carried out in many joint
seminars and in small work groups.
Cooperation between the architects
and other planners has been very close.

The total surface area of the library is
approximately 8,500 m2, 5,400 m2 of
which make up the new section, 2,900
m2 the old library and approximately
300 m2 the prefect office. The project
costs 30 million euros with furnishings
and fixtures, 27.1 million of which was
construction. This also includes protection
for the underground phone cables,
archaeological excavations of the lot
and re-piling work for the old library.
The Ministry of Education provided a
state grant of 4 million euros for the
project.

A complicated project

The main library project has been long
and consisted of many phases. As early
as in 1985, the city administration appointed
a work group to decide about
extending the main library to the current
lot. At that time, Turku’s phone
company was operating in the lot and
there were expensive cables running
underground that were fixed in place.
Other buildings on the lot were under
protection and there was no space for
additional buildings.
Many lot alternatives were explored,
until in 1997 a decision was made to
arrange an architectural competition
for an additional building for the main
library on the lot on the other side of
the street. A group of four young architects
won the competition - Asmo
Jaaksi, Teemu Kurkela, Samuli Miettinen
and Juha Mäki-Jyllilä – with their
glassy proposal ‘Chiaroscuro’. The project
ran aground due to the different
views held by the city and the lot
owner concerning the parking lot.
Telephone communications became
wireless and the incorporated phone
company moved to the post office building,
where the space requirement of
the post office had decreased. Thus,
planners were able to return to the
original idea of extending the main
library to the current lot. Project planning
began at the end of 2002 with the
architects who had won the competition.

Library visitors, decision-makers and
library staff are all satisfied with the
end results. The hundred-year-old
library building has become a place to
visit daily for people of all generations
and a symbol of information and education.
The new main library enables a
reorganization of activities and continuation
of cultural heritage in a central
location near the river Aurajoki.

Information about Turku City Library

Turku is a coastal city on Finland’s southwest coast
with a population of 175,000. It is Finland’s former
capital and the capital of its province. The Turku City
Library functions as Southwest Finland’s provincial
library. The main languages spoken in the city are
Finnish and Swedish, but there are many immigrants
living in the city and there are dozens of different
languages spoken there.

Statistics
Visits: 2 million
Website visits: 2,5 million
Loans: 3 million
Net expense: s 9 million euros
Bound books in the library collection: 1
million
New acquisitions annually: 55,000
Local community libraries: 14
Library buses: 2

Inkeri Näätsaari
Library Director
Turku City Library

inkeri.naatsaari@turku.fi