Oodi – the crown jewel of Finnish librariesLotta Muurinen

Project ManagerHelsinki City LibraryNational Development UnitInternational Tasks

We are very proud of all our libraries here in Helsinki…

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Helsinki City Library

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• 600 000 inhabitants• 36 libraries• 16 loans/inhabitant • 11,3 visits/inhabitant

• From small branch libraries to big culture househubs.

• Variety from quiet traditional style libraries to activeplaces full of events.

• Two mobile libraries & hospital and service libraryunit.

• Part of Helsinki Metropolitan area library coalition.

Keskustakirjasto Oodi (57)

Alueellisten kirjastopalvelujen

yksikkö

Etelän palvelualueen

johtotiimi

Rikhardinkadun ja Jätkäsaaren kirjastot (23,6)

Töölön ja Pikku-Huopalahden kirjastot (22,6)

Lauttasaaren kirjasto (7,8)

Suomenlinnan kirjasto (1,0)

Lännen palvelualueen

johtotiimi

Pasilan kirjasto (21,3)

Etelä- ja Pohjois-Haagan kirjastot (11,1)

Pitäjämäen ja Malminkartanon

kirjastot (9,2)

Kannelmäen kirjasto (7,9)

Munkkiniemen kirjasto (5,7)

Keskisen palvelualueen

johtotiimi

Kallion kirjasto (24,8)

Arabianrannan ja Käpylän

kirjastot (10,8)

Oulunkylän kirjasto (10,3)

Maunulan ja Paloheinän

kirjastot (9,9)

Vallilan kirjasto (6,4)

Pohjoisen palvelualueen

johtotiimi

Pukinmäen, Tapanilan ja Suutarilan

kirjastot (13,1)

Malmin kirjasto (12,3)

Puistolan ja Tapulikaupungin

kirjastot (9,0)

Viikin kirjasto (8,7)

Jakomäen kirjasto (5,0)

Idän palvelualueen

johtotiimi

Itäkeskuksen ja Myllypuron

kirjastot (29,5)

Vuosaaren ja Sakarinmäenkirjastot (21,1)

Laajasalon, Herttoniemen ja

Roihuvuoren kirjastot (14,7)

Kontulan kirjasto (9,6)

Hakeutuvien kirjastopalvelujen

johtotiimi

Koti- ja palvelukirjasto

(11,0)

Kirjastoauto-palvelut (9,0)

Aineisto- ja metatietoyksikkö

Metatieto- ja sisältötiimi

Osto- ja käsittelytiimi

Valtakunnallinen kehittämisyksikkö

Verkkopalvelut ja viestintätiimi

Kansallinen yhteistyötiimi

Kansainvälinen tiimi

• Divided in six service areas. The outreaching services form one area.

It’s all about teamwork• Work is done in teams. Each staff member

is member of one team. • The teams are self-guided but each have

a member of staff who is in charge for oneyear at a time.

• Teams are:• Customer experience• Spaces and participation• Children and youth• Digital guidance• Contents and collections

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… but the country is not only it’s capital!

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The Law

According to the Public Library Act (29.12.2016/1492) ”To help public libraries develop their activities in a balanced and equitable way, the public library assigned with the national development responsibility shall provide shared services to all public libraries and promote cooperation between the public libraries. To provide shared services, the development responsibility shall be executed in cooperation with public libraries and other libraries.”(7 §).

According to the Decree on Public Libraries (660/2017), issued by the Ministry of Education and Culture, the responsibility of organising the National development task is assigned to Helsinki City Library from 1.1.2018 onward. The National development task in Helsinki City Library is appointed to the National development unit.

The tasksThe National development tasks are

A. To Produce shared online and communication servicesLibraries.fi portal + library field’s internal, external, and international communications and marketing.

B. To further cooperation between libraries at national and international level- Support for libraries managing the regional development tasks- Cooperation with the Council for Public Libraries (CPL) and Public Libraries Consortium- Cooperation with the National Library- Cooperation with the Regional State Administrative Agencies, NGOs and other actors of the relevant fields- Representation of public libraries

C. To organise the national interlibrary loan service

D. To follow the development of library field and its operational environment, especially digitalization

So, in short:

• Collaboration and connectionsbetween libraries throughout thecountry.

• Helping and learning from each othersin a structured way.

• Sharing good practices and promotinglibraries when- and wherever we can.

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Oodi – the process

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Built in Töölö bay in the center of Helsinki.

The customer space is maximised. The library governing will stay in themain library.

• First ideas from year 1998, the political go-ahead in January 2012.

• Building of the central library started in fall 2015 and it will be opened in 5th of December 2018 to celebrate the centennial of Finnish independence. The library is the Finnish Government’s official centennial project.

• Oodi means an ode: it is an ode for libraries in Finland, for reading, for democracy and for freedom of speech.

• 10 000 visitors a day, 2,5 million a year• 10 000 m² of the library of the future• Collection 100 000 items

• Construction cost 100 million euros• Design: ALA Architects Ltd.

Key ideas from theplan, 2012• Open, non-commercial, public space.

• Information and skills for a more functional society.

• Rich city experience created by the residents themselves.

• The book’s new life –a house of reading in Töölönlahti.

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Open International ArchitecturalCompetition (544 entries recieved)

Goals:• Supports the library’s new functioning concepts.

• A mark of excellence in the urbanlandscape and architecturally enduring.

• Reinforces Helsinki’s positive cultural image.

• City of innovation.

The citizens’ participation during the competition process

• The top six entries were on display in March 2013

• The public could view and comment on the entries online

• The designed images were displayed on interactive street signs

Dreams of Oodi• In 2012 campaign to collected “Central

library dreams” from library users. The dreams were used as guidelines and ideas for some services and spaces.

“Space for relaxing, slow life”“Space for happenings, workshops, city culture, DIY”“Space for working”“Concepts for peer-to-peer learning and for sharing” “Place for families and dialogue between generations”“Open for all, a non-commercial meeting place”

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Results based on dreams• Participatory budgeting campaign in

2012 invited the residents to decide what to do with 100 000€ of Central Library development money.

• Result: Urban Workshop, the first librarymakerspace service in Finland (continuesin Oodi) and few other smaller projects.

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Preparing

• Different services piloted, especially in Library 10.

• Training staff. The staff and the leaderswere recruited from Helsinki City Library workers – no new vacancies were opened. The staff started working full time with Oodi from the beginning of October.

• Benchmarking: Aarhus, Oslo, Helsinki University Library etc.

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Community building• Friends of the Central Library, an user

developer group to help getting thecustomer viewpoint and input in theplanning process.

• The idea continues as Library Tribe, a user panel to help developing the wholelibrary network: https://kirjastoheimo.fi/.

• And even the name ”Oodi” was a result of a public name competition!

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Partners on everyfloor• Fazer restaurant 1. floor and cafe 3. krs (with vegan

Oodi cake!)

• EU info point in the lobby

• Cinema of National Audivisual Institute

• Info services of Helsinki City for housing, immigration, employment etc.

• Department of early childhood education

• Aalto design university

+ Schools, festivals, event organizations, civic organizations, artmuseums…

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Behind the scenes

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The Oodi crew – all 54 of them!

Service managers:Kari LämsäLaura Norris

The library chief:Anna-Maria Soininvaara

Children and YouthTeam leader Tiina Pyre

Spaces and ParticipationTeam leader Ulla Leinikka

Customer ExperienceTeam leader Auli Aho

Digital GuidanceTeam leader Sanna

Huttunen

Service administrators:Tia JokinenSami Jyläs

Contents and CollectionsTeam leader Samu Eeve

Self-governing teams: thumbs up or down!• The teams make decisions in regular

meetings. They vote about the matters withshowing thumbs up, down or with an open palm. An open palm means the person is worried. The worry is always talkedthrough together.

• Big issues are brought to vote with thewhole staff.

• The library leaders don’t lead teams butoffer support and encourage in decisionmaking.

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Oodi – a safer spacefor all

• Physical and emotional safety.

• Diverse staff is more creative and innovative – but youhave to be able to be and feel safe about who you are.

• Workshops about safer space for the customers: staff’sattitude and active involvement is most important.

• All the staff members have been involved in making theprinciples of safer space in Oodi. The process is alwaysongoing.

• For example unisex toilets for all, gender neutraldressing rooms for the staff, including private showerspace.

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The first floor

The ground floor is an accessible and lively space where the entrance and service points meet. It includes the lobby, an exhibition area, playground for early education, an event spot, a café and

restaurant and cinema.

Both the library’s and the partners’ info services are in the lobby. Any partner canalso use the lobby for their pop up –info.

Next to the restaurant is an event space with 200 seats for many kinds of events.

The lobby is an excellent space for premieres, gala evenings, receptions etc.

During the day time cinema fuctions as an auditorium for seminars, performances etc.

A sneak peak: theplayground

• The playground Loru (Rhyme) reachesboth in- and outdoors and is created as a partnership with department of earlyeducation. There is place to eat packedlunch, hang around and leave the pramsand wet outdoor clothes. The earlyeducation staff will keep the kids and families happily busy.

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The second floor

The second floor is for hands-on activities. It is a place for working, creating, interacting and learning-by-doing.

Here you will find studios, gaming rooms, a makerspace, a kitchen, and areas for workshops, meetings, and other interactive exchanges.

These areas will be functional, with the option to make divided or enclosed areas as needed. They will be ideal for working, organizing meetings, testing ideas,

editing videos or creating objects with 3D printers.

Living Lab ”The Cube”

The cube can be used as an immersive space. The interactiveglass walls function also as a touch screen.

The cube functions as a multisensory space for learning, events and games etc. Thespace can be modified into a digital art gallery, a jungle full of animals or a meditativebeach – or pretty much anything that is needed.

A sneak peak: thekitchen

• Kitchen can be used by customers for cooking up a favourite recipe from a book, trying out different food culturesand creating tasty workshops.

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The third floor

The third floor is designed for the individual and one’s own thoughts. It is atranquil area for relaxing and concentrating.

Under the cloud-like ceiling one can study, escape from hectic routines, or just admire the view of the city. This area provides the ideal atmosphere for reading and discovering.

The family and children’s area with multifunctional rooms for storytelling and other activities is situated in the north end of the building.

The balcony is also a terrace for the café.

The balcony is on the same level with the parliament, symbolizing democracy.

A sneak peak: the”selfie corner”

• Watch out, bloggers, tourists and hipsters – this is the best selfieplace in town!

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The Oodi Experience

”One morning you might wake up to find you have been transformedinto Gregor Samsa…”

Case: Oodi’sMetamorphosis• VR-adaptation of Kafka’s Metamorphosis

where you actually change into an giantinsect via VR technology.

• First developed as VRwandlung to Goethe Institute in Prague.

• Will change Oodi into a full Metamorphosisexperience for a week in the spring.

• Kafka would have probably loved it!

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• A big exhibition about Kafka’s work.• Reading aloud Metamorphosis in the cozy reading spaces.

The 3rd floor

• The actual VR adaptation in The Cube, with VR technology and interactive glass walls.

• Studying and 3D-printing insect workshops for kids in the makerspace.• Cooking insect food in the kitchen.

The 2nd floor

• A discussion about the metamorphosis of the society in the eventspace.

• Film adaptations of Kafka’s work in the cinema.

The 1st floor

”I am glad I am not an insect. Those annoyingantennae, that complete helplesness.”

”It’s a perfect coincidence of technology and text. You’retransformed by the headset, then you are transformedagain in the story.”

https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2018/03/08/is-literature-next-in-line-for-virtual-reality-treatment

Wouldn’t you like to experience that – and more? Welcome!

And thanks for your company! Anyquestions?lotta.muurinen@hel.fi