E-library opens in Finland

Finland will launch national E-library on Monday eliciting international interest, according to the National Library of Finland.

Operating under the auspices of the National Library, the E library was developed in cooperation with public libraries to meet their needs.

Offering e books and audiobooks as well as digital journals, the service will be released in the first stage as an app for phones and tablets.

“Similar solutions are rare globally,” said Annastiina Louhisalmi, Head of Services for E library.

“The nearest one is found in Denmark. Discussions on the development of similar services are taking place in other Nordic countries. The Finnish model is based on the separation of platform and material. In other words, the materials can be chosen more freely, as they are not tied to the limitations of a specific platform. And we also control the app development,” Louhisalmi added.

E-library will be released first for use by residents of the participating municipalities. On the opening day, the service will encompass approximately 85% of the population living in Finland.

Some municipalities will join in at the beginning of next year.

Developed in a two-year project, E-library will fulfil a dream long shared by many operators.

At the beginning of 2024, E-library was transferred to the National Library of Finland.

For authors and readers of audiobooks, it is important that lending compensation is now paid for e-resources in Finland.

E-library is a shared service for municipalities, from which people can borrow e-books, audiobooks and digital journals.

E-library is used through the E-library application, which can be installed on phones and tablets from the App Store and Google Play.

Instead of a library card, strong authentication is used when first registering in the service.

E-library can be used by anyone whose municipality of residence has joined the service. The service costs €0.7 per resident to municipalities.

E-library will contain material in Finnish, Swedish and English, as well as some material in other languages.

E-books and audiobooks can be borrowed for two weeks, after which they will be automatically returned.

Books can also be returned before the end of the loan period. Journals can be read for two hours at a time.

As the number of reading rights is limited, people may have to wait for the most popular content.

Holds can be placed on e-books and audiobooks. Every week, the continual acquisition of materials increases the content available for reading and listening.