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• Architect Alvar Aalto designed the library building. It was completed in 1965. The building is 1600 m² in area and the cubic capacity is 6700 m³.

• Adult lending department, children's department, music department and workrooms are on the ground floor. Reference library, stacks,
  microfilm room, archives, the Seinäjoki collection and staff rooms are downstairs.

•  Seinäjoki Public Library got its first full-time library assistant in 1963. In 1968 it became a provincial library and now it is a central library for 27 municipalities.

ADULT LENDING DEPARTMENT

• The floor plan of the library is like an opened book, which stands on a table and is looked at from above. Everything can be supervised from the back of the book, that is, from the information desk.

•  The structure of the roof is a great idea: the levels of the ceiling follow the levels of the floor.

• The construction work of the building is brilliant, for example the roof. During the casting the boards were watered so they could be bowed into two directions. The surface is grainy because the boards are untreated. The ceiling has not been sandpapered, only painted.

• Although the library was built in 1965, it already has some technical exclusivity. For example the lights can be put out concentratedly from the information desk.

• Alvar Aalto made a little mistake while designing the library. He thought that the facade was towards south, not towards north as it is now. When he found out that it might be hot in the summer because of the big windows towards south he decided to put a latticework outside the windows. Now the light comes in indirectly and because of the broad white surfaces, it’s relatively light in the library also on cloudy days.

• Aalto made another mistake with the roof. It curves down right from the ceiling at the back wall of the adult lending department. You can’t open the windows in the middle and that’s why it’s difficult to wash them.

SIVUKAS

• Sivukas is the room on the right from the information. There used to be the reference library, which is now downstairs.
  

CHILDREN’S DEPARTMENT

• The structure at the children’s department is lower and the furniture is smaller.

LENDING OFFICE

• The room where the lending office is now, used to be a newspaper reading-room.

REFERENCE LIBRARY

• There used to be art exhibitions in the room where the reference library is nowadays.

MUSIC DEPARTMENT

• The music department is in its original place.  Part of the material has been decentralized because of the lack of space.

NEWSPAPER READING-ROOM (Koulukatu 25)

• It’s been in a separate building since 1990.

MOBILE LIBRARY

• The Seinäjoki Public Library got its first mobile library in 1971. Its activities are chiefly centred on the residential suburbs. It operates also as a school library, in other words replaces in some areas the school libraries. The mobile library has 70 stopping-points.

HOSPITAL LIBRARY

• Seinäjoki Public Library has had departments in three city-owned hospitals since 1970.

COLLECTIONS

• Our collection includes 263 983 volumes, 218 446 of which are books. There are 517 volumes of newspapers and periodicals.    

LOAN STATISTICS

• Number of home loans in 2003: 737 503 (23,7 per inhabitant) Number of borrowers: 17 455 (56 % of the inhabitants in Seinäjoki)

STAFF

• 11 librarians, 19 library assistants and other personnel.

Adult lending department
Children's department
Music department
Reference library
Inter-library lending department
Acquisition and cataloguing department
Newspaper reading-room
Mobile library

• you can borrow fiction and non-fiction, magazines, sound recordings, books on cassettes, slides, videos, DVD disks and CD-ROMs.
• you can get help with finding material
• you can make reservations and suggest what material we could acquire
• you can copy material
• you can use the Internet
• You can use Ebsco MasterFile Elite –database on computers in the main library. The database contains articles in English from about 1200 magazines. To the list of the magazines  

• You can borrow children’s books and juvenile books, books on cassettes, music recordings, videos and CD-ROMs.
• You can get help with finding material
• You can listen to music and fairy-tales on cassette
• You can use the Internet or CD-ROMs
• The department works together with schools, day-care centres and other communities who work with children
• On Saturday mornings there are story-times for children

• You can borrow music books, notes and scores
• There is a versatile collection of records to listen
• You can read music magazines and the books of the music reference library
• Information searches can be made of music material
• CDs and cassettes, which can be borrowed, are placed on the adult lending department and children’s department

• You can get help with information searches or one can be made for you using different kinds of databases and the Internet
• Instruction in using the library and retrieving information is given
• There are desks for those who want to study
• You can use the Internet
• You can use CD-ROMs, word processing or do information searches on a computer reserved for that purpose  
• You can use Ebsco MasterFile Elite –database on computers in the main library. The database contains articles in English from about 1200 magazines. The catalog of the magazines 
• Material of the reference library can only be borrowed exceptionally
• Books for entrance examinations and other exams can be borrowed for nights and weekends
• In the reference library there is e.g. following material

• Encyclopaedias and reference books
• Dictionaries of different languages
• Guides on how to make different kinds of documents
• Registers
• The Statute Books of Finland, collections of regulations and parliamentary documents
• Different kinds of statistics
• Maps
• Books for entrance examinations and other exams
• Magazines

• The department delivers inter-library loans to libraries
• Material for the local collection is acquired
• The department informs other libraries of the region of current library issues and organises meetings for the library staff of the region
• Microfilms (old newspapers and parish registers) can also be borrowed from other libraries

• The material, which has been selected by different departments, is acquired, catalogued and passed on to be loaned
• Catalogs of novelties are being made, catalogs are on the Internet in Finnish at http://www.seinajoki.fi/kirjasto/uutuusluettelot.html

• You can read newspapers and magazines of the current year
• You can copy articles from the magazines and newspapers
• There are magazines also in the reference library, music department, children’s department and mobile library
• Volumes older than the current year are stored in the main library
• You can find all the magazines and newspapers, that are subscribed to the library, in the catalog of newspapers and catalog of magazines
• The catalog of newspapers and magazines in other languages than Finnish 

• You can borrow fiction and non-fiction, magazines, sound recordings, books on cassettes, slides, videos and CD-ROMs
• You can get help in finding material
• Mobile library works together with different target groups for example schools and day-care centres
• You can make reservations and suggest what material we could acquire
• All the material of the library is also in use of the customers of the mobile library

Timetables are available at the mobile library and at the main library. Timetables are also available in Finnish on the Internet at http://web.seinajoki.fi/kirjasto/kirauto_aik.html

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Loan period of the material is usually four weeks. If the material is not returned by the due date the borrower must pay a fine confirmed by the Library committee. The borrower must compensate lost or damaged material. The compensation will be defined by a librarian.

The Library committee will set the notification fees and other tariff kind of fees. Neglect of returning loans or paying fees can cause losing the right to borrow.

Library committee, 1988

When you sign the library card you will commit to obeying the rules of the library. The borrower is responsible for the material borrowed with his/her card and that’s why it is forbidden to use somebody else’s card. If the library card gets lost you should notify the library immediately to prevent misuse. You should also notify the library of a new address or name. The first library card is free of charge but if it gets lost or broken the new one costs 3 €.

You lose your right to borrow if you have over 15 € of unpaid charges or if the library has charged overdue material from you. You get the right to borrow back by returning the overdue material, paying the charges or paying or subtituting the damaged/lost material.

All the borrowed material should be returned to the lending office where the overdue charges and notification fees are collected if the material is returned after the due date. Also the reserved material can be picked up at the lending office.

The customer uses the material of the library at his/her own risk. The library is not liable if a borrowed recording causes damage to the equipment of the customer.

• loans for a night are given at 18.30, and they have to be returned by 10.30 next morning
• loans for a weekend are given on Friday night at 18.30 (during the summer at 16.30),  and they have to be returned by 10.30 on Monday morning

There are limits on how many items of audio-visual material you can have on loan at a time.
-        10 videos/customer at most
-        15 CDs/customer at most
-         5 CD-ROMs/customer at most
-       5 DVD disks/customer at most

There is no overdue charges on material borrowed from the children’s department except for the videos

Library patrons can use computers with Internet access free of charge in the Seinäjoki Public Library. It is advisable to make a reservation to use a computer in advance. Reservations can be made at the information desk in the library or by telephone (06) 416 2318. You can make one reservation per day. Please cancel your reservation if you can’t come. You should bring your library card to the information before using the computer. There is one computer in the newspaper reading-room also. Reservations to that computer can be made by going there or by telephone (06) 416 2636.