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Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

oodihelsinki.fi

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Re: Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

#41

Post by polemic »

deanclatworthy wrote: post #31
tow21 wrote: post #4

Weird. I think it’s rubbish as a public library. I mean, it’s an interesting building, and a nice place for a cup of coffee, but it’s absolutely useless if you want to go and browse some shelves and borrow some books; it’s like it’s been actively designed to make that hard to do.

Agree. I’ve spent a fair amount of time there the last couple of weeks. It’s full of tourists (both from outside Helsinki and outside of Finland) gawking around and taking photos and selfies. It’s noisy as there is no protocol for that as it’s a “public space”. So what is it? A nice looking building with hardly any books, a few gimmicks and two cafes. On the surface it fits the bill for all the modern awards it’s bou…

I've spent some time working and using the space there and my impression was very different. Kids (and adults) using the games rooms, lots of interesting projects going on at the 3D printers, sewing machines and graphics computers, heaps of people working in various nooks, there were a few small concerts, family's enjoying the kids area. It is undeniably a beautiful building, but it also felt like a community space that was servicing it's visitors exceptionally well.

Re: Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

#42

Post by peterhil »

snazz wrote: post #32
pembrook wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm involved with my local library, and if you could see the trend line on how many people are checking out books...you'd realize that every library will eventually become a community center. It's important to not let our personal nostalgia for the past hold back the next generation from getting the resources they need from local government. This is clearly a well-thought evolution of what a library of the future sho…

And even though I’m a pretty heavy user of my local library system for reading paper books, I rarely walk in there; usually I find a book online and place a hold on it and then pick it up when they email me that it’s ready.

My local library and Oodi has equally small space reserved for scifi books, and it seems the shelf-space is shrinking each year also.

Luckily Finnish public libraries have relatively good sites for reserving books online — maybe I should get into the habit of using the online reservations.

Re: Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

#43

Post by ghaff »

distances wrote: post #34
snazz wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And even though I’m a pretty heavy user of my local library system for reading paper books, I rarely walk in there; usually I find a book online and place a hold on it and then pick it up when they email me that it’s ready.

Exactly! There's rarely need for actually wandering between bookshelves any more. It's as nice as ever, but the books can be reserved online where you probably are anyway doing the research about what to read next.

I remember back in school, for some purposes, there was definitely a serendipitous aspect to finding related books in open stacks that were near the one you went to find. However, this was back when you were mostly limited to a physical card catalog as a search tool.

I don't do a lot of research (that a library is useful for) these days and what there is is mostly in journals and the like. But, in general, I find that with electronic searches of library catalogs it's probably less important to discover things accidentally by physical proximity. (And a lot of big libraries aren't/weren't open stacks anyway.)

Re: Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

#44

Post by skizziepop »

fhbdukfrh wrote: post #19
knolax wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair I don't think I've found the exact book I was looking for in any library before. As book dispenseries libraries are inherently inferior to just downloading off of Libgen. However they do function very well as a place for you to physically sit in while you're on Libgen.

The Calgary public library has a pretty decent online holds system that will transfer physical goods to your local branch within a day or so. I've never been to out fancy new downtown branch that cost a fortune but hear the focus is definitely not on books or even media, but social activities. I find this disappointing because IMO we still need physical repositories of knowledge; they are the unifying hub around a br…

I'd recommend taking a jaunt over — multiple floors of stacks, and plenty of nooks for reading.

Re: Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

#45

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

zaroth wrote: post #22

This is absolutely the new definition of “library”, and honestly though I came here to criticize an egotistical architectural exercise, after reading more about Oodi I am suitably impressed. $100 million is an extremely good deal for what they got, and they say that includes the equipment? I don’t quite believe they built it for that little. My town (population ~15,000) wanted to build a new library last year — it wa…

Wow, where does it say $100 million? Austin opened a new central library recently, and while I was originally skeptical I think they did an amazing job - really cozy, human-centered architecture that's beautiful. I love going there to work and read, and it's become my favorite building in Austin.

But it was considerably more than $100 million (I think around $125), so kudos to the Finns for such a great job.

Re: Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

#46

Post by kiliantics »

enra wrote: post #30

I'm a Finn but been living in SF for the last few years. Went to Oodi couple of weeks ago was impressed by the facilities and the building. In addition to books, there were workstations, 3D printers, large format printers, sewing machines, video games, board games, kids play area, restaurant, and a cafe. Our startup also worked there for one day. There is free Wifi, a lot of chairs and places to sit and even meeting…

The Omni in Oakland has all of this and more but is entirely owned and run by the member community:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zccga90hcY

Shame that government in the US does not invest in such resources for the community.

Re: Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

#47

Post by zepearl »

zaroth wrote: post #22

This is absolutely the new definition of “library”, and honestly though I came here to criticize an egotistical architectural exercise, after reading more about Oodi I am suitably impressed. $100 million is an extremely good deal for what they got, and they say that includes the equipment? I don’t quite believe they built it for that little. My town (population ~15,000) wanted to build a new library last year — it wa…

I guess that one of the real problem are the recurring yearly fixed & variable costs of the facility after it has been built (which is often "forgotten" by the politician/s that try to push a project to get votes), which might be a bit challenging for such a small town (~15'000) if it has to maintain as well other existing structures (e.g. swimming pool, museum, etc...).

My town (~10'000) has a library, 3 schools, a big outdoor public swimming pool that can be used as well during wintertimes (gets covered by a roof) + another small swimming pool in one of the schools, a modern art museum, an ice rink, an athletics & football stadium, 3 indoor gyms (a big public one for national competitions + 2 small ones usually used by the schools), a parkour track in the woods, a theatre, a cinema, (maybe I've forgotten something) => it was absolutely no problem building them, but the $ needed for the maintenance&depreciation of the structures and the salaries of the employees was underestimated => now that the town is not anymore in the "big boom"-phase we have a huge budget problem (I'd like to get rid first of the modern art museum but apparently the opposition is very strong and well-connected).

Re: Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

#48

Post by dluan »

kiliantics wrote: post #46
enra wrote: post #30

I'm a Finn but been living in SF for the last few years. Went to Oodi couple of weeks ago was impressed by the facilities and the building. In addition to books, there were workstations, 3D printers, large format printers, sewing machines, video games, board games, kids play area, restaurant, and a cafe. Our startup also worked there for one day. There is free Wifi, a lot of chairs and places to sit and even meeting…

The Omni in Oakland has all of this and more but is entirely owned and run by the member community: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zccga90hcY Shame that government in the US does not invest in such resources for the community.

What if we gave the community of upstarts and creatives that run the Omni the same $100m budget of the Oodi library?

I've been to the Omni space where Counter Culture Labs is - and while it's cool that it is completely organic and has a great supportive and local feel, it also really feels cobbled together and limited.

At least with lots of tool libraries popping up around the US, there's volunteers who just hang out and get involved with projects that people bring in.

Imagine if that was the new kind of 'librarian' job - coder, fabricator, artist, designer, community oral historian, and archivist.

Re: Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

#49

Post by jdietrich »

tow21 wrote: post #4

Weird. I think it’s rubbish as a public library. I mean, it’s an interesting building, and a nice place for a cup of coffee, but it’s absolutely useless if you want to go and browse some shelves and borrow some books; it’s like it’s been actively designed to make that hard to do.

>it’s absolutely useless if you want to go and browse some shelves and borrow some books

Libraries cannot survive by catering to a smaller and smaller subset of people who are habituated to using a mostly obsolete technology. On a cost-per-loan basis, most libraries would save money by closing their doors forever and simply buying books from Amazon whenever someone asks for one. Local governments look at the lending data and quite rightly wonder whether the money could be better spent on a thousand other things.

To secure their future, libraries are becoming a sort of egalitarian third space. They provide internet access for people who don't have it and training for people who have been left behind by technology. They provide a place to relax and socialise for people who can't afford a $4 coffee. They provide a venue for community events. They provide young people with opportunities to engage in the kind of self-guided learning that actually matters today.

Re: Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library

#50

Post by Mediterraneo10 »

I no longer live in Helsinki, but I am curious how quick the local homeless and the Balkan Roma migrants have been to settle into Oodi as a free, warm place to hang out at during the day. Starting from around 2010 there started to be examples of “defensive architecture” in the Helsinki city center to discourage those two demographics from hanging around, e.g. removing the once ample seating at the entrance to the Kirjasto 10 library that Oodi supersedes. Such architectural changes had a small but nevertheless rather unsavory impact on the center.
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