Seinäjoki Library ( Finnish: ''Seinäjoen kaupunginkirjasto'') is the municipal public library of the city of

Seinäjoki Seinäjoki (; "Wall River"; la, Wegelia, formerly sv, Östermyra) is a city located in South Ostrobothnia, Finland; east of Vaasa, north of Tampere, west of Jyväskylä and southwest of Oulu. Seinäjoki originated around the Östermyra b ...

, 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 ...

Overview

Library provision in Seinäjoki first began in 1865, initially as an adjunct to the local church. By the start of the 20th century it had been taken over by the municipality, and was being run as part of the local school. The first dedicated

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time ...

wasn't appointed until 1960, when Seinäjoki was granted its city status. From 1968 until 2017 the library also served as the South Ostrobothnia regional library, until the regional library network was replaced by a new regional development library (''Alueellista kehittämistehtävää hoitavat kirjasto'') structure. In addition to the central library, the operation comprises six smaller units in the vicinity, in previously separate towns and villages such as

Nurmo Nurmo is a former municipality of Finland. It was consolidated, together with Ylistaro to Seinäjoki on 1 January 2009. It is located in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality had a p ...

and Ylistaro which have since been merged with Seinäjoki. It also operates two

mobile libraries A bookmobile or mobile library is a vehicle designed for use as a library. They have been known by many names throughout history, including traveling library, library wagon, book wagon, book truck, library-on-wheels, and book auto service. Bookm ...

. The total collection size is over 440,000, of which 370,000 are books.

Architecture

''Aalto'' building

The original central library building, ''Aalto'', is notable for having been designed by the renowned Finnish

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, s ...

. It was completed in 1965 for the 100th anniversary of the city's library operations. The building's overall design is fan-shaped, which is a common feature in many of Aalto's later works. Along with other prominent Aalto-designed buildings such as the

City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

and

City Theatre City Theatre may refer to: * City Theatre (Detroit), Detroit, Michigan, United States * City Theatre (Pittsburgh), Pittsburgh, Michigan, United States * City Theatre, Sydney (1843–1845), Australia * Altona City Theatre, Altona, Victoria, Australi ...

, the ''Aalto'' library forms part of the city's Aalto Centre ( Finnish: ''Aalto-keskus''), which has been recognised by the

Finnish Heritage Agency The Finnish Heritage Agency ( fi, Museovirasto, sv, Museiverket), previously known in English as the National Board of Antiquities, preserves Finland's material cultural heritage: collects, studies and distributes knowledge of it. The agency is ...

as a nationally important built cultural environment (''Valtakunnallisesti merkittävä rakennettu kulttuuriympäristö'').

''Apila'' building

JKMM Architects JKMM Architects ( fi, JKMM Arkkitehdit Oy) is a Finnish architectural firm. Asmo Jaaksi, Teemu Kurkela, Samuli Miettinen and Juha Mäki-Jyllilä established JKMM Architects in 1998. They started their studies in the middle of eighties. From the b ...

and opened in 2012, the new central library building ''Apila'' ( 'Clover') expanded the library's limited capacity and facilities considerably. Intended to complement, not imitate, the ''Aalto'' building, the ''Apila'' has a number of design features referencing the older building, including the use of white surfaces and wooden (pine) structures in the interior, as well as the copper-tiled exterior (the ''Aalto'' has a copper-clad roof). The two buildings are connected by an underground passage. ''Apila'' was chosen as the 2012 'Concrete Building of the Year' in Finland.

References

External links