Libraries.fiMatti Sarmela

17.5. 2006

Libraries.fi

• Established 1995.

• A gateway to all library services

• An advanced information retrieval service

• Maps literature net services and offers a different kind of view to music and net services for children

• A ”desktop” for library professionals

• Libraries.fi is produced by Helsinki City Library  - The Central Library for Public Libraries in Finland in company with other libraries and mainly financed by the Ministry of Education.

• Libraries.fi is supported by The Library Act and the national strategies for the information society and libraries (e.g. Library Strategy 2010).

• Libraries.fi  are published in three languages, each with its own domain and profile: Kirjastot.fi/ Biblioteken.fi/Libraries.fi

• 2005: 2 028 000 visits, 3700 answers, 10 000 cataloged links.

Library Register: containing contact and service information about all public libraries and their units. 

Ask a Librarian: a joint online reference enquiry service with a trilingual user interface.  Over 30 public libraries and the Parliament library and the Library of Statistics are available for answering questions.  Replies are given within 3 working days, and most are stored in a public archive. About 3,000 answers are given each year. 

Link Library: a database of selected, described and systematically organized web material. Link Library has now over 9,700 links.

The Meta Searches service enables users to search several catalogue databases and other sources simultaneously.

Professional services: Library Bulletin Board, web forums and mailing-lists, a current awareness service of library journals.

Information retrieval• Semantic web based search > Search Find Locate

• Open source metasearch of library collections > Frank-metasearch

• Professional help > Ask a Librarian + chat

• Collection of selected resoures > Link Library

• A guide for information retrieval

• Links to other library databases and licenced digital resources.

The multi-channel Ask a Librarian

Development• More user oriented way of offering the services

• More integration, an uniformed outlook and interfaces

• Semantic web

• Multi-channel and interactive Ask a Librarian

• Music: Fono.fi – database of the music record collections of The National Broadcasting Company

• Literature: a new joint literature portal of libraries

• For children and teenagers: a joint portal of libraries

Thank You for Your attention,

questions?

matti.sarmela@libraries.fi