Museum of Finnish Architecture Helsinki, Finland

Artic Cities exhibit

Exhibition:
ARCTIC CITIES: KIRUNA, OULU, TROMSØ
http://www.mfa.fi/exhibition?nid=2017591

website: http://www.mfa.fi/frontpage

Description: The museum contains exhibitions (small scale), a bookshop, the archive, and the library. The library and archive are open to the public for research. The collection contains over 37,000 volumes of which most is available for loan. The collection is international in scope. Special collections include drawings, photographs, slides, manuscripts, press cuts, periodicals, and the Architectural Periodicals Index.

Oulu

Here are some photos of the Oulu City library (mostly taken in the winter):
http://picasaweb.google.com/joiao78/OuluCityLibraryKirjasto

Here are some photos of downtown Oulu:
http://picasaweb.google.com/joiao78/DowntownOulu

Arktikum museum (Rovaniemi, Fi)

On Tuesday, we visited the Arkikum Museum in Rovaniemi. It covers peoples of the North, including Sami, Inuit and others. I also briefly looked in their library, but hopefully will be able to return for more in depth discoveries. There will be a new exhibit opening on April 18th, 2007.
This was one of the best museums I've ever experienced:
http://www.arktikum.fi/main.php?l=2
(library link on top of this page)

Log (25 February)

25 February
I found some journals available here at University of Oulu, which may not be in the U.S., such as Scandinavian Public Libraries Quarterly, as well as other common ones, IFLA is a good one. I checked out a few of those. But Library Journal (the most recent issues) aren’t available for check-out unfortunately.
These are ideas I gleaned from a journal my mother subscribes to (she’s a member of the Educause group).
Campbell, Jerry D. “Changing a Cultural Icon: The Academic Library As a Virtual Destination” Educause Review, Jan/Feb 2006.

Academic Libraries in the future will:
provide learning spaces
creating metadata
offer virtual reference services
teach information literacy
maintain digital repositories

Learning spaces ~ Oulu Yliopisto Kirjasto

I began a log of some of my experiences and thoughts. Here are some entries...

12 February

Learning spaces ~ Oulu Yliopisto Kirjasto
Libraries seems to fit perfectly with the Finnish nature, to sit quietly (Finns don’t talk very much) and be pensive. Concentrating while not saying one word.
This is a reflection from observing my surroundings in the university’s main library one day.
Spaces: main library
There seems to be plenty of space for materials in this library, but for some reason some of the rooms are not being used to house items. It looks like they may be “in transition,” for example the journal cubbies are empty as if perhaps they were moved recently.
On the positive side, the study areas are not congested, but are good and spacious. In addition, the bookshelves are well spaced for easy browsing. It is a nice place to study (and very quiet).

Today I went to “Introduction to Saami Studies,” a course designed, I suppose, for non-Finns to learn about this minority population (6,000 in Finland). Sometimes people also call the Saami, the “Lapps,” but this is not the preferred name. They are an amazing people, in fact there are something like nine different Saami languages (not dialects). You may see the word "Saami" spelled several different ways and most people in the world tend to call them "Laplanders" or "Lappish people".