Over the spring week of 8.-11.5., I had the pleasure of being accepted into FUN Finnish University Libraries’ Network’s staff visit program, with the University of Eastern Finland’s Joensuu campus as my destination. I had been mulling over the idea of getting to know another university library’s practices and facilities for a while now, especially from the perspective of library collections. My superior approved the request, and the head of services Marja Maijala welcomed me to UEF right away, the very next day after I had contacted her. The management at UEF Library had processed my request swiftly.
Susanna Parikka and Toni Raja-Hanhela, the library director and the head of services at Lapland University Consortium Library respectively, instructed me to memorise any good practices to be adapted into our own library. While the libraries have much in common, the UEF Library serves a greater quantity of customers that the LUC library, which also translates to resource differences.
Regarding collection services, it was interesting to familiarise with the organisation of acquisition. Learning how acquisitions made through different intermediaries (Gobi and Delbanco) and how open access materials were taken into Alma was also intriguing. UEF Library has acquired many such collections/services that have also been requested from us. In addition to learning about the electronic legal deposit copies in the main library, I was also taken to see the separate legal deposit collection in Joensuu.
I was also introduced with the library’s customer service, communications, and the organisation. The new customer and staff facilities had their share of neat solutions, for example, the service point for digital services (Oppari and Servicedesk) that is integrated into the library facilities. The signs in the library are modern and clear, e.g., there is facility map that displays areas by their sound level, a monitor that shows available computer desks, and tapes on the floor that guide customers to the service desks of the library, Oppari, and Servicedesk respectively.
My warm thanks to the Joensuu staff for their kind welcome. Special thanks got to the head of services Riitta Porkka, who was kind enough to grant me her own and her subordinates’ work time for the introduction of collection services, as well as to all those who managed to spare a moment to tell me about their jobs and the library activities. This was all made possible thank to the library director Ari Muhonen and the FUN network. Finally, enormous thanks to Marja Maijala (my friend all the way from when we were studying), who planned a program for the visit, introduced me to the staff, invited me in and took me to the movies, in addition to looking out for me in general.
Outi Vaattovaara
Information Specialist
Lapland University Consortium Library
