Helsinki Metropolitan Area Libraries (Helmet) is a

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

network in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bo ...

. It consists of the city libraries of

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Espoo Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...

Kauniainen Kauniainen (; sv, Grankulla) is a small town and a municipality of inhabitants () in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland. It is surrounded and enclaved by the City of Espoo, in the Capital Region of Greater Helsinki. Kauniainen was founded ...

, and

Vantaa Vantaa (; sv, Vanda, ) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is part of the inner core of the Finnish Capital Region along with Helsinki, Espoo, and Kauniainen. With a population of (), Vantaa is the fourth most populated city in Finland ...

Network and operation

All libraries in Helmet have common operating rules, procedures, and services. The same library card can be used at any library in the network. Patrons can request material from any library in the network. They can also return and renew materials at any library in the network. The Helmet network consists of 66 locations and six bookmobiles. The regional book storage facility is located at the

Helsinki City Library Helsinki City Library ( fi, Helsingin Kaupunginkirjasto, until 1910 ''Helsinki People's Library'') is the largest public library in Finland. Owned by the Helsinki, City of Helsinki, the library has 37 branches and a collection of about 1.56 million ...

Pasila Pasila (; sv, Böle, ) is a part of Helsinki, Finland, that is both a central-northern neighbourhood and district, bordering the areas of Alppila to the south, the Central Park (Keskuspuisto) to the west, and Vallila to the east. Pasila is a ...

, Helsinki. The storage facility's collection includes more than 200,000 books and over 900 magazine annual volumes. Music related materials are stored at the Tikkurila Library in

Tikkurila Tikkurila (; sv, Dickursby) is a district and major region of the municipality of Vantaa, Finland. Located in the eastern half of the Helsinki conurbation, some north of the capital's downtown district, it is the administrative and commercial ...

, Vantaa.

History

The libraries of the

Helsinki Metropolitan Area Greater Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin seutu, Suur-Helsinki, Swedish: ''Helsingforsregionen'', ''Storhelsingfors'') is the metropolitan area surrounding Helsinki, the capital city of Finland. It includes the smaller Capital Region (''Pääkaupunkiseutu' ...

have been working together since 1976. At the time, they purchased their first common computer-based circulation system. In the 1980s, customers were given regionally common library cards. In 2002, the third joint library data management system was taken into use, with the most recent version being implemented in 2013. Experiences from using the system and its capabilities inspired closer cooperation within the library network. This led to the creation of a common collection, which is now in constant use by the whole population of the

Capital Region A capital region, also called a capital district or capital territory, is a region or district surrounding a capital city. It is not always the official term for the region, but may sometimes be used as an informal synonym. Capital regions can exis ...

. According to a study conducted by Taloustutkimus, Helmet was Finland's second most valued online brand in 2012, bested only by

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

References

External links

Helmet website
1976 establishments in Finland Organizations established in 1976 Public libraries Libraries in Finland Organisations based in Helsinki Culture in Helsinki Espoo Vantaa Kauniainen {{library-stub