FUN’s anniversary year culminated in a 25th year seminar held in Jyväskylä on the theme of FUN visibility. The opportunity to meet people face to face was highly anticipated. Due to the COVID-19, the maximum number of people in the seminar room was limited to 90 people, and due to the COVID-19, the number of participants was less than half of that.
The 25th year celebration, which took place in exceptional circumstances, was held with coffee, meetings, and interesting speeches. Keijo Hämäläinen, Chairman of the Rectors’ Council of Finnish Universities UNIFI and Rector of the University of Jyväskylä, stated the importance of collective university networks. These networks have great added value to the university’s operations. Universities have sprung up around libraries to produce new knowledge and pass it on to new generations. Among the challenges for the future, he highlighted, among other things, the government’s goal of raising 50 percent of the age group to a university degree. How does the library respond to a challenge that, in addition to a vastly growing number of students, is made up of an increasingly diverse group of students, from different languages and cultures?
Atte Jääskeläinen, Director General of Ministry of Education and Culture, pointed out that it is worth moving towards responsible researcher evaluation, where the content is evaluated instead of the channel. As well as towards faster publishing, using publishing platforms and the scientific community’s own responsible channels. Finnish research is not competitive without transparency. The plight of domestic scientific publishing should also be resolved and any ideas in this regard are welcome.
The meritorious speech of Library Director emerita Päivi Kytömäki pointed out how in its history SYN/FUN has often been on the crest of a wave in highlighting and promoting issues that are important for higher education and research. Examples are FinELib, teaching information literacy, evaluating publications and open publishing. A summary of FUN’s 25-year history, compiled by Päivi Kytömäki, was displayed on the screen in the seminar hall’s lobby.
Aleksi Sandroos, Vice President of National Union of University Students in Finland, shed light on the student’s perspective on the future of university libraries. He believes that university libraries will always be needed in the future, although they can be much more than mere physical space. The university library of the future enables work regardless of time and place, is fast and free of charge, and considers different people and their way of working by offering a wide range of services. Young people want to relocate to their study locations, where university libraries are comfortable, bright, relaxed, enabling people to work together, and are equipped with cafés. Customizable facilities and efficient use of them promote development.
Mauri Pekkarinen, a busy MEP, shared his views of the future of science in Europe via Teams from Brussels. Science is a driver and enabler of many of the EU’s current efforts. The EU has set several goals in various contexts to increase funding for the science and RDI sector, but these have not yet come true, and Europe is increasingly lagging behind the US, Japan, and China. Science should be independent and self-governing, but exploiting its results is a fierce race between states.
The EU is now opening various bottlenecks for particularly innovative projects and applications, and the old 3 percent target is being re-committed. The internal market for research, the prioritization of RDI investment, access to top-level infrastructure for researchers and their mobility will be improved. Open sciences essential and has a wider impact on the construction of civilization.
The researcher’s perspective concluded the presentations. Petri Karonen, professor of Finnish history, considered the future of historical research. In historical research, everything is related to everything. An interesting aspect emerged from digitalization and digitization: is research really focused on the right things? Databases and bibliometrics are also not just right and good – research is hampered by, for example, double and triple records, emphasis, and unethical use of information. Digitization also increases the manipulation and misuse of information, making source criticism skills even more important. The differentiation of publishing platforms continues, and open access publishing will become the norm. Social impact must not be forgotten either. Publishing in Finnish and Swedish must be drastically be increased! And above and beyond everything are the resources. What resources will be used to reform everything open?
At the end of the seminar, led by FUN’s chairman Ari Muhonen, the glasses were raised, and the food and good company were enjoyed by the landscape windows in the Harju ridge landscape softened by the slowly falling snow.
Susanna Parikka
Library Director
University of Lapland
