Library's legal deposit collection preserves national published heritage also for future generations

Oulu University Library is one of the six legal deposit libraries in Finland and therefore Pegasus Library houses a significant and constantly accumulating source of information: the legal deposit collection. Legal deposit activity is based on law and aims to preserve Finnish published output for academic and public access.
Kirjahyllyjä Tiedekirjasto Pegasuksen varastossa, jossa säilytetään kirjaston vapaakappalekokoelmaa

Legal deposit activity in Finland is based on the Act on Collecting and Preserving Cultural Materials. As a legal deposit library, Oulu University Library receives one copy of all publications made available to the public and printed in Finland. The publishers and manufacturers of printed matter are obliged to hand over a certain number of copies of each product to the National Library of Finland, from which in turn they are delivered for preservation and use in Finnish legal deposit libraries. Oulu University Library's legal deposit collection currently contains over 700,000 printed legal deposit copies. Printed journals in the legal deposit collection include over 30,000 titles and annual publications about 7,000 titles.

Over the years, the legal deposit rights have been extended from print products to online materials and television and radio programs, which can be viewed and listened to on legal deposit workstations in all Finnish legal deposit libraries. Books, magazines, series, sheet music, and maps come in the collections of all the librarian libraries. Ephemera, newspapers, and recordings are not included in the Oulu University Library's legal deposit rights – they are stored in the National Library and ephemera is also stored in Turku University Library.

Legal deposit activity is by no means a new thing in Finland: the obligation to hand over copies of printed literature dates back to the time of Swedish rule. At Oulu University Library, legal deposit operations began in the early 1960s when the Government decided to transfer the partial legal deposit right of the Oulu City Library to Oulu University Library from 1961. The Oulu City Library had been granted legal deposit rights after the wars, when the legal deposit rights of the Vyborg City Library was transferred to Oulu.

Henkilö on noutamassa julkaisua Tiedekirjasto Pegasuksen varastossa säilytettävästi kirjaston vapaakappalekokoelmasta.
The printed legal deposit materials are stored in the Pegasus Library’s closed stacks. Books that have been ordered for reading room or office loan have a red badge in their place.

Use of printed legal deposit materials

Printed legal deposit materials, such as books published in Finland from novels to non-fiction books, are placed in the legal deposit collection in the Pegasus Library, which is stored in the library’s closed stacks. Information on the publications of the legal deposit collection can be found in Oula-Finna collection database, through which customers can also order the material they want for their use. Materials can also be ordered at the library's customer service desk.

Legal deposit materials can be used in the library premises by all library users. The materials cannot be borrowed for home loan, but the staff of the University of Oulu and Oamk can borrow the material as an office loan for research and teaching purposes. Read more about the use of reading room and office loans on the library's website.

The maps, official publications and statistical publications that the library has received as legal deposit copies are available for browsing and use by customers in Topcorner on the third floor of the Pegasus Library.

Electronic legal deposit material

At Oulu University Library, electronic legal deposit materials and digitized materials subject to copyright are available on the legal deposit workstation located in Pegasus Library's Topcorner on the third floor.

The library's legal deposit workstation has access to the following electronic materials:

  • Finnish Web Archive: domestic online material collected by the National Library of Finland since 2006.
  • Radio and Television Archive (RITVA database): the program stream of key Finnish radio and television channels from 2009 and YLE's digitized TV programs from 1957-2008. RTVA is a part of the National Audiovisual Institute (KAVI).
  • Varia: publications received as donations from online publishers, such as electronic books, journals and recordings. Also books, maps, ephemera, games and recordings digitized by the National Library of Finland, whose copyright is still valid.
  • Newspapers and journals digitized by the National Library of Finland from 1940 onwards. Older materials are freely available through the National Library's Digital Collections Service.

Read more about the use of the workstation and the electronic legal deposit material in the library’s Legal deposit material guide.

Henkilö kuuntelee kuulokkeilla Tiedekirjasto Pegasuksen vapaakappaletyöasemalla audiovisuaalisia aineistoja.

The goal is to preserve Finland's published heritage also for future generations

Legal deposit activity supports research and access to information; it aims is to preserve domestic printed and digital publications and make them available to researchers and others in need of information, now and in the future. Legal deposit collections also retain material that otherwise disappears quickly and is not stored by other libraries. In order to ensure the preservation of the material, the library's legal deposit materials are not loaned out as home loans, as are the other library materials.

The library's comprehensive domestic collections support the multi-disciplinary research conducted in northern Finland. Please help us to preserve the valuable legal deposit materials for future generations by carefully handling the legal deposit publications as reading room or office loans.

Welcome to use both electronic and printed legal deposit collections at Pegasus Library!

If you have any questions about the legal deposit collection or its use, please contact kirjasto.kokoelmat@oulu.fi.


Author:
Leena Ilkko, Communications Designer
Oulu University Library

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