ISSN: 2474-3542 Journal homepage: http://journal.calaijol.org
Steppingstones to More Sustainable Public Libraries in
Finland: From Individual Initiatives toward National
Guidelines and Standards
Ulla Pötsönen, Leila Sonkkanen, and Harri Sahavirta
Abstract:
Public libraries in Finland have a strong history of cooperating and networking.
Implementing SDGs and steering the action toward sustainability, however, has been so far
carried out mainly out by individual libraries. A larger consensus or common guidelines
are still missing, be it designing a new building, customer design thinking or rearranging
internal workflows.
This is to be changed, hopefully serving as an example to readers´ communities.
The report presented current cases and current best practices on initiatives and concentrated
on finding a broader common ground on sustainability work. Helsinki City Library will act
as a nationwide accelerator and common voice promoting the step marks toward greener
libraries. A nationwide expert network and community of practice is to be established as
well. As one example of the development, the tight cooperation between public libraries
and basic education in Finnish society will be discussed. For historical reasons public
libraries operate to a large extent as school libraries, so the task of supporting curriculum
on sustainability topics is a major task for public libraries as well. What does the future of
this collaboration and its possibilities look like?
To cite this article:
Pötsönen, U., Sonkkanen, L., & Sahavirta, H. (2020). Steppingstones to more sustainable
public libraries in Finland: From individual initiatives toward national guidelines and
standards. International Journal of Librarianship, 5(2), 78-83.
https://doi.org/10.23974/ijol.2020.vol5.2.179
To submit your article to this journal:
Go to https://ojs.calaijol.org/index.php/ijol/about/submissions
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LIBRARIANSHIP, 5(2), 78-83.
ISSN: 2474-3542
Steppingstones to More Sustainable Public Libraries in Finland:
From Individual Initiatives toward National Guidelines and
Standards
Ulla Pötsönen, Finland
Leila Sonkkanen, Helsinki City Library, Helsinki, Finland
Harri Sahavirta, Helsinki City Library, Helsinki, Finland
ABSTRACT
Public libraries in Finland have a strong history of cooperating and networking. Implementing
SDGs and steering the action toward sustainability, however, has been so far carried out mainly
out by individual libraries. A larger consensus or common guidelines are still missing, be it
designing a new building, customer design thinking or rearranging internal workflows.
This is to be changed, hopefully serving as an example to readers´ communities. The report
presented current cases and current best practices on initiatives and concentrated on finding a
broader common ground on sustainability work. Helsinki City Library will act as a nationwide
accelerator and common voice promoting the step marks toward greener libraries. A nationwide
expert network and community of practice is to be established as well. As one example of the
development, the tight cooperation between public libraries and basic education in Finnish society
will be discussed. For historical reasons public libraries operate to a large extent as school libraries,
so the task of supporting curriculum on sustainability topics is a major task for public libraries as
well. What does the future of this collaboration and its possibilities look like?
Keywords: Finland, Public Libraries, Sustainable Development Goals, Sustainability
CHARACTERISTICS AND OVERVIEW OF FINNISH LIBRARY SYSTEM
Finnish public library system is praised second to none in many international reviews and
comparisons. Strong legislative support and steady state funding as well as long tradition have
made Finnish libraries an essential part of civil society, whether in education, entertainment or
civic activities. Library services are viewed as basic services alongside healthcare and education.
Mostly for historic and geographic reasons, Finnish public libraries have a long tradition
of networking. Finnish Library Act (2016) stated that every municipality should have a library.
However, a big part of the country is sparsely inhabited, so most libraries are relatively small.
Local and regional networks, consortiums and larger national networks support this grid and
provide better services, as in material acquisitions, library systems and OPACs, professional
expertise and collaboration.
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When it comes to the environmental work of libraries, there are a few characteristic features
in Finland. Libraries perceive themselves “automatically” as environmentally friendly because of
their basic functions: recycling materials and loaning out goods, engaging in a sharing economy
by providing facilities and ICT tools for shared use. Additionally, the adverse environmental
impacts of libraries are perceived to be small. As a result, libraries have not been actively
developing their environmental awareness.
The public libraries in Finland do not have their own criteria for environmental impact and
have used general environmental criteria for buildings and office environments. As a rule, these
are met thanks to a relatively well-functioning infrastructure because statutory waste sorting and
recycling is organized at the municipal level. The climate in Finland affects the building industry
and regulations, as the constructions need to tolerate different temperatures, frost, load of snow on
the roof etc. Hence, the construction supervision concerning e.g. window insulation, foundation
materials or air-ventilation is already strict. Nevertheless, library-specific indicators are missing.
These factors could easily lead libraries to conclude that they do not have to engage in any
special environmental work. Also, it is believed that the environmental impact of libraries is not
in the hands of the library itself but depends on other entities such as cleaning companies, property
managers or publishers. Libraries do not have a lot of influence e.g. on what cleaning products or
methods are used on the premises, what kind of paper the books are printed on, where they are
printed or how they are transported before reaching the library.
The role of library professionals in obtaining reliable and up-to-date environmental
information cannot be emphasized enough. The role of library professionals is to connect the users
with the most reliable and current environmental information available. This is especially
important today because of various misleading resources on the Internet and in social media.
Libraries can help examine the information and offer high quality resources.
It is also essential to consider the real environmental impact of goods lending, shared
facilities, and tools. These impacts should also be measurable and verifiable so that the real
environmental impact of public libraries can be presented to the public and policy makers. So far
there hasn’t been such an impact measurement framework ready for Finnish libraries.
Levels of library sustainability could be evaluated based upon tiers from passive to active:
1. Awareness, staying up-to-date
2. Act internally, communicate and promote the actions and activities
3. Organize and facilitate external actions, involving citizens
4. Be a proactive agent of change
So far, ecological/environmental sustainability has been the driving factor behind actions.
The other pillars of quadruple bottom line of sustainability (social, cultural and economic) should
be addressed and processed as well.
Providing measurable wellbeing and a vast palette of services reaching almost all age
groups with less than 1% of municipalities total budget can be considered economically
sustainable.
Social sustainability in libraries is about providing equal opportunities and access to
information. Libraries provide life-long learning possibilities such as support, materials, and
Pötsönen, Sonkkanen and Sahavirta / International Journal of Librarianship 5(2) 80
facilities (space, ICT, WIFI, etc.). Libraries can contribute cohesiveness and integration/inclusion,
introducing new residents to official information, language training and meeting possibilities with
local residents.
During challenging times such as COVID-19 pandemic, libraries can also contribute to
communities’ resilience and preparedness providing up-to-date information, self-help and services
especially for vulnerable groups like children, elderly or immigrants. Libraries distribute
governmental health information in different languages, offer communication channels of staying
in touch with families and relatives in other parts of the world or promote literature regarding the
relevant topics like stress management.
If needed, also a brief welcomed cultural escape from reality. Finally, a library is a cost-
free place to spend time.
When it comes to cultural sustainability, libraries have already traditionally been playing
an important role in maintaining language, cultural habits and heritage, local information etc. In a
more culturally and linguistically diverse society libraries also embrace new residents and strive
to serve them with their native language materials and cultural resources.
Finnish public libraries already possess all the elements required it takes to achieve
excellence in environmental, social, cultural and economic sustainability:
● Solid funding
● Municipal and stately support
● Wide array of further training possibilities
● Extensive library facility network
● Professional and support networks, communities of practice
● Tight cooperation between schools and educational institutions
CURRENT SUSTAINABILITY OF FINNISH PUBLIC LIBRARIES
Within the last 10-15 years, several environmental sustainability projects and initiatives have been
taking place in Finnish libraries. Helsinki Municipal Library as the Central Library of public
libraries has been carrying out projects that also have significant national importance, such as
Green@Library 2010-2011. The project examined how libraries have taken into account other
components of ecological sustainability in addition to their core operations and lending of
materials. Other questions examined were for example, whether libraries already had extended
their scope to include ecological sustainability in financial observations to give a true picture of
the environmental impact of libraries or if the environmental effects had been measured?
In order to determine the state of ecological sustainability in public libraries, a survey was
sent out in February 2012 to over 750 recipients during the Green@Library project. The response
percentage was 18%, which can be considered an average result of response activity. Some of the
largest cities were well represented with 14–17 responses per municipality; however, responses
were only received from about 20 municipalities.
Pötsönen, Sonkkanen and Sahavirta / International Journal of Librarianship 5(2) 81
The survey was divided into five sections: environmental management, environmental
economy, reduction of environmental burden, increase of environmental awareness and
environmental communication (both internally between agencies and offices and externally toward
the audience).
Based on the findings of the survey, the recommendations for the future were:
● Information must be distributed
○ Bringing out the best practices and introducing them to wider use requires an
environmental guide and work methods that motivate people to participate
● Individual employees must be supported
○ Commitment and mandate of the management of the organisation for activities
○ Commitment at the city level: environmental programme and targets
○ Peer support network, for example through eco-support activities
○ Environmental training, tips for best practices and instructions on how to measure
success
○ Encouragement
● Indicators and monitoring methods as well as cooperation between different operators
should be developed
● Customer communication should receive more attention
○ Between agencies, for example with the engineering department of the
municipality
○ The library can also encourage sustainability internally
The world and library landscape have been changing fundamentally during the past 10
years, so a new initiative Environmental awareness of public libraries for the 2020s was launched
in spring 2020 by Helsinki City Library. It was clear from the initial planning stage that there was
a lot of interest in this topic among public libraries. All 9 libraries with regional development
responsibility joined the project, which represented the whole country quite well. Even before the
start of the project, there were other parties also expressing their interest in cooperation.
The aim of this project will be to bring together library professionals interested in the
environmental impact of libraries and create a discussion forum for them to share experiences and
problems, much like the ALA Sustainability Round Table. Hopefully, this network will expand
beyond libraries and the general public will learn about the results of the environmental impact of
libraries. The main goal of the project is to study the environmental awareness of Finnish library
professionals by repeating the previous survey from 2012.
Other interesting projects and initiatives are being implemented around Finland. Among
others is Oulu City Library, who has published a Sustainable Library 2030 road map during their
project A Responsible library as promoter of environmental awareness, that aligns with the city
development program. The road map reflects on Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and
highlights the connection between them and library actions. Examples from the road map included:
Promoting environmental awareness → SDG 3, 13
Pötsönen, Sonkkanen and Sahavirta / International Journal of Librarianship 5(2) 82
- Both internally and externally
- To increase the visibility of the library as an ecological actor
Sustainable library of the future → SDG 1, 3, 4, 10, 11, 16, 17
- To take all pillars of quadruple bottom line into consideration
- Involve citizen of different age and background into planning
- Guarantee a continuum on the discussions and decisions
In addition to Oulu, browsing the national register of library projects showcases several
libraries that have been implementing environmental and sustainable topics to their development
projects last year (Finnish Public Library Project Register, n.d.).
As discussed earlier, part of sustainable acts carried out in Finnish libraries are not specific
for libraries only, but they apply to all public buildings or organisations. Library-specific measures
can include raising awareness, supporting the sharing economy as well as supporting learning and
education on sustainability.
LoT (Library of Things) -thinking has spread throughout Finnish libraries and it is possible
to loan for example sport equipment, BBQ grills, technical devices such as drills and also season
tickets to several sport and culture events (sport matches, concerts, exhibitions, etc.). Load bicycles
and moving load carts are for loan as well, especially in the densely populated capital area. The
library establishes itself as a supporter and a part of the sharing economy on a broader scale than
just books.
Supporting education and curriculum, libraries have a varied range of possibilities to
promote sustainability:
- Acquiring relevant materials (physical and increasingly e-materials)
- Presenting library materials and services, reading programs and promotions focused on
sustainability specifically or among other topics (book talks, trailers etc.)
- Teaching multiliteracy: information literacy and green information literacy, media literacy,
source criticism
- Including sustainability issues into basic introduction of library use for school children:
waste recycling, PC energy saving, teaching a careful way to handle books due to less book
cover plastic, encouraging pupils to bring their own tote bag etc.
- Organizing activities, happenings, campaigns related to topic in collaboration with partners
(municipal and state environmental authorities, nature/sustainability associations etc)
- Library serves also as an arena for debate and a platform for pupils’ own initiatives,
exhibitions and performances
- Other: e.g. library gardens, plant/seed exchange, LoT, supporting youth groups,
associations and councils meetings, collecting feedback and involving young users to
develop and plan library services in a more sustainable way.
Pötsönen, Sonkkanen and Sahavirta / International Journal of Librarianship 5(2) 83
SUMMARY: HEADING TO THE FUTURE
Tackling sustainability issues is a huge and complex task for libraries. Being a part of municipal
structure, libraries have only limited vote on the biggest decisions regarding building,
maintenance, renovations and other infrastructural issues. Also the supply chain of materials and
services is sometimes out of the library's hands completely. On a mindset level, a change of
management and operation needs sufficient information, planning and time. All members of staff
need to be involved and actively participate, so training is needed.
During the last years, a common awareness has been raised on sustainability issues in
Finnish libraries. More and more projects or initiatives are implemented throughout the country.
Individual practitioners, departments and libraries are doing wonderful jobs in order to promote
sustainability and act proactively.
To reach the next level of systematic development, more information on the situation in
the libraries and national collaboration is needed. The project Environmental awareness of public
libraries for the 2020s aims to answer this call. Libraries have a stable position in Finnish civil
society and therefore can take on a pivotal active role as change agents. The planned network
among other measures will help lifting the awareness and widen the local acts of passionate
individuals into structured and strategic progress.
References
Finnish Library Act: FinLex (2016). Retrieved from
https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2016/en20161492
Finnish Public Library Project Register: Ministry for Education and Culture and Council for
Public Libraries. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://visualisointi.kirjastot.fi/hankkeet/vis-
en.html
Green@Library project: Helsinki City Library (2012). Retrieved from
https://sustainability.libraries.fi/
Sustainable Library 2030 -road map. Oulu City Library 2020. Retrieved from
https://www.ouka.fi/documents/78400/596635/Kest%C3%A4v%C3%A4+kirjasto+2030
+-tiekartan-tiivistelm%C3%A4.pdf/542f3a4b-737e-4147-b3ad-3865a96dd074
About the authors
Ulla Pötsönen is an independent library advocate and community educator in Finland.
Leila Sonkkanen works in Helsinki City Library, Helsinki, Finland
Harri Sahavirta is the Chief Librarian, Helsinki City Library, Finland
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