Helsinki University Library Progress Report 2001

Institution

Helsinki University Library
Teollisuuskatu 23 , POB 26
Helsingin yliopisto,  FIN-00014  Finland

ELAG Contact Person:
Ms. Annu Jauhiainen (Project Manager), annu.jauhiainen@helsinki.fi, phone:+358 9 1914 4296 , fax:+358 9 753 9514

Institution Type: National Library

Mission Statement
According to the University Act and the attached University decree, Helsinki University Library is the National Library of Finland, its taskbeing to serve as the national service and development unit for research libraries and to be responsible for promoting library co-operation within the country and internationally. In its own field the library has responsibility for the maintenance of the collections of the cultural heritage of Finland and of other collections of national relevance as well as the dissemination of information and the provision of information services based on these collections.

Computer networks and Internet connectivity

In general HW, SW

Database server: HP 3000 979/400, with 256 GB of disk space (RAID). Average number of users: 1000. Several UNIX workstations Web servers: UNIX workstations

New HW, SW; connectivity upgrades

A new Database Server, Sun E10000 Starfire was bought last year. It has 28 processors (upgradable to a configuration of 64 processors) 24 GB central memory (upgradable to 64 GB) and 1.6 TB disk (connected via optical fiber). The system is divided into 5 independent domains. Operating system is Sun Solaris 8. The new server will be used with the new library system, Voyager. At present the Linnea databases (26 databases of Finnish University Libraries and some special libraries) reside on 17 separate servers but this year they will all be consolidated onto this new server. The maintenance of the server is outsourced to the Center for Scientific Computing, CSC, a non-profit company owned by the Ministry of Education. CSC hosts Finnish supercomputers and maintains the FUNET network. In addition to the E10000 database server, there will be a web front end system. It consists of Alteon ACEdirector 3 switch, plus seven Sun Netra T1 AC200 servers, which form a cluster.



Library automation

In general HW/SW

HUL, along with other Linnea libraries, is presently using the Classic VTLS-software.

New HW, SW, other

Linnea2, a project to select and to implement a new next-generation library system for the National Library Network Linnea, is coordinated by HUL. The project started in 1997. The contract with Endeavor Information Systems Inc. was signed in February 2000. The implementation phase is going on at present. Building the first Linnea network, Linnea1, and implementing VTLS took several years, but this time all 26 databases will migrate from VTLS to Voyager during a fairly short period of time, April-September 2001.

Endeavor is doing some software development for the Linnea libraries. In general the system was bought off the shelf, without many customisations, but it was necessary to build some localizations, such as the component parts. The Linnea libraries will be moving to USMARC-like format, MARC21-Fin, but they need to import and export FINMARC and other MARC formats. This is will accomplished by UseMARCON software, which will be integrated to Voyager.

Union Catalogue

Software used

At present the Classic VTLS-software is used for the Union Catalogue Linda.

New features

The Union Catalogue Linda will be converted to Voyager this summer. The present VTLS-Linda has been used efficiently for copy cataloguing and ILL localisation, but the future Linda, in Voyager, has some additional features. The Union Catalog will be automatically updated from the local databases, without having to copy records from one database to another. It will display the real-time status information of items held by the local databases, and it also gives users a possibility to request books from the local libraries through the Universal Borrowing function.

Digital Library

Based on your own production of digital documents

Helsinki University Library has chosen digitization of newspapers as one of the main targets of its reformatting programme. Newspapers are the most used individual group among the national publications. Practically all newspapers have been microfilmed, which makes it possible to use microfilm as an intermediary. The digitization will for now focus on pre-1880 material because of copyright restrictions.

If so, what is new in your digitization programmes?

Helsinki university library is testing the AURORA database, which is digitizing 19th century newspapers. The fulltext database will be opened to public in autumn 2001. AURORA is based on Oracle and Excalibur applications.

Based on external sources

The National Electronic Library programme, FinELib, was launched by the Ministry of Education in 1997 aimed at supporting higher education, learning and research in Finland. The programme was started in accordance with the Government´s Information Society Programme. The basic goals in FinELib are to increase the amount of electronic information available to users, to improve information retrieval from the Internet and to develop a graphical user interface to give access to heterogeneous information resources available from different sources.

For the period 1997-1999 operations were project based, but from 2000 onwards operations have become a standard part of the activities of Helsinki University Library - the National Library of Finland.

The programme receives substantial central funding, yearly about 3 million euros from the Ministry of Education. The greater part of the funding is spent on licences for electronic resources. The National Library negotiates and signs the contracts. Considerable expertise has been built up at the national service agency. Close cooperation with similar foreign activities has been established.

The electronic library has become a key element in the digital library services used by universities, polytechnics, public libraries and many publicly funded research institutes.

Important commercial web services accessible to your users

Proquest ABI Inform, Academic Press, ACS, Annual Reviews, EBSCO Host, ELEKTRA, IEL-online, HighWire, IIMP, JSTOR, MCB: Emerald, OVID, Science online, Springer, Historical Abstracts, America: History & Life, Art Bibliographies Modern, SciFinderScholar (CA), Compendex& Ei Village, CSA-databases, FINP & SCIMA, PCI, Biosis, CAB, Inspec, MLA, Ulrichs More information: www.lib.helsinki.fi/finelib

Special web services

The Finnish general subject headings list and its Swedish translation have been opened as a www-service. Helsinki university library is responsible for the maintenace and development of the thesaurus which is widely used to describe publications and documents at Finnish libraries. The database is freely available on web <http://vesa.lib.helsinki.fi/>.

Research and technology development projects

The Library is developing procedures for the identification, description and long-term preservation of electronic resources. It is also developing identification methods for electronic publications and setting up an identification service for publishers. The Library assumes the task of preparing and maintaining guidelines for the production of metadata for the needs of all sectors of the country, particularly for public administration. The Library works closely with the National Archives and other authorities. In assuming responsibility for archiving the legal deposit of electronic publications, the Library is also expanding its services to publishers by taking care of long-term storage of publications and offering a permanent authentication service for these publications.

Reported by Kristiina Hormia-Poutanen and Annu Jauhiainen <kristiina.hormia@helsinki.fi> <annu.jauhiainen@helsinki.fi>

Helsinki, 22 May 2001