Unrelated to the article, but I'm impressed at how many people from Helsinki turned up in the comments.
Small world ..
Oodi, Helsinki’s new flagship library
41–50 of 67 posts
Re: Oodi, Helsinki’s new flagship library
#42Legitimately thought this was going to be a code lib but it's a literal library.
Those libraries are here: https://github.com/city-of-helsinki
Including how you make reservations for the rooms in this library building: https://github.com/City-of-Helsinki/varaamo
Re: Oodi, Helsinki’s new flagship library
#43I continue to be curious although happy that libraries are such a topic of interest on HN. (Also sometimes wonder if the interest is based on a romantic fantasy not too related to contemporary reality of libraries). What do people think make libraries so interesting or pleasing to the HN audience? --a librarian software engineer
I go to my local library once a week every Saturday morning.
They encouraged a chess club which was what got me in the door (shamefully for someone who reads as much as I do I rarely went) and now I use their other services, it's got a nice little cafe attached and upstairs they have a maker space.
It's surprisingly progressive for my local council.
As to why I like the library, it provides useful services beyond lending books (which in the world of Amazon and e-readers isn't enough - however I'm happy to pay taxes towards the people on low incomes been able to check out books), mostly it's the people who run the place, they are almost universally lovely to interact with.
Re: Oodi, Helsinki’s new flagship library
#44I don’t think it’s accurate to call Oodi a library. It’s more of a communal space for citizens and a sort of a playground/hangout for kids. With some books. Maybe I’m a cranky old man but I don’t really enjoy these kind of open spaces. It’s noisy, too relaxed and not geared towards actual studying and working. Libraries in Finland no longer have any expectations for peace and quiet.
I agree, having visited a couple bigger libraries in a big city many times and there's such uncontested unruliness going on there every time - people talking loud on their phones, people shouting, listening to music on their phone speaker, large groups in communal spaces playing games or hanging out making constant noise.
Granted, these libraries had dedicated study or reading spaces but I guess I prefer the more traditional outlook of a library and it'd be nice if quiet was strictly enforced in libraries and they were not made into some hybrid public communal spaces with books, research and studying as an afterthought but that's just me.
Re: Oodi, Helsinki’s new flagship library
#45Does it have wifi good enough to play PUBG?
You joke but I would be thrilled if it had a LAN room you could pop into to game with strangers.
Yes, there are a couple of classrooms with gaming PCs on the second floor: https://www.oodihelsinki.fi/en/what-is-oodi/the-facilities-a...
Re: Oodi, Helsinki’s new flagship library
#46I don’t think it’s accurate to call Oodi a library. It’s more of a communal space for citizens and a sort of a playground/hangout for kids. With some books. Maybe I’m a cranky old man but I don’t really enjoy these kind of open spaces. It’s noisy, too relaxed and not geared towards actual studying and working. Libraries in Finland no longer have any expectations for peace and quiet.
Also it appears to me the same space could be utilized to stock much more books, which in my eye what a library should be continually striving to do. In general what makes libraries great are the size of their stock, the comprehensiveness and accebility of the catalogues and indexes, and presence of help-full librarians.
Re: Oodi, Helsinki’s new flagship library
#47My first experience with Oodi was unfortunate: The only publicly available Wi-Fi network (Stadinetti) blocks all outgoing non-HTTP/HTTPS traffic (SSH, IMAP, etc).
So much for trying to do any remote working or studying for things like AWS at the library without your own 4G connection, unless you're content just reading the docs.
Re: Oodi, Helsinki’s new flagship library
#48I can't read the article, but this is a nice piece which shows the insides pretty well: https://www.oodihelsinki.fi/en/what-is-oodi/architecture/ It is a really beautiful space, I was there with my child last weekend and shot lots of videos of the various areas. There are trees inside, play-areas for children, and many nooks for reading/resting/chatting. This link (Finnish) has a brief video showing people cleaning t…
Thanks for the main library link. The architecture is beautiful but does anyone agree that from the outside the building looks pretty similar to the building of California Academy Of Sciences?
Re: Oodi, Helsinki’s new flagship library
#49I find the lack of subtlity in the architecture kind of off-putting, it is as if it wants to be in your face and grab you by your eyeballs. There is a quite grandeur in many building designs that subscribe to an austere concern for functionality.
Re: Oodi, Helsinki’s new flagship library
#50My first experience with Oodi was unfortunate: The only publicly available Wi-Fi network (Stadinetti) blocks all outgoing non-HTTP/HTTPS traffic (SSH, IMAP, etc). So much for trying to do any remote working or studying for things like AWS at the library without your own 4G connection, unless you're content just reading the docs.
When was this? I haven't had any issues using SSH and IMAP via Stadinetti there (latest 3 days ago).