All Three Floors of the Feeniks Library in the Use of the Students

​Under the management of Library Director Ulla Nygrén, the Turku University Library has undergone great changes. Students of humanities and medicine got their own library in Teutori last autumn, the  Quantum library was opened in the lobby of the building at the end of the year and got new 24/7 facilities, and the library on the University Hill was renovated according to the new operation model and is opened on Friday, 27 February.

– It will no longer be the main library, which is part of our new service concept We have created discipline-specific libraries and the Feeniks Library will house the language books and course books as well as the national deposit and special collections. Newspapers and periodicals can be found on the first floor.

The new name for the library was discovered in a name competition. It resembles that of Phoenix, which was the first building of the University of Turku and where the University Library also began its operations. The historic continuum can also be perceived in the study hall where the chairs around the new tables were already used at Phoenix.

Group Work Rooms Can Be Booked in Outlook

The Feeniks Library follows the new service concept which is already in use at the Teutori Library. The books can be borrowed and returned with self-check machines, storage requests can be picked up from a self-service shelf, and the library staff concentrates on  guiding and helping the customers. The long checkout desks are history and have been replaced by customer service points built by the University's own wood workshop.

– We have received positive feedback about the Teutori Library. 89 percent of the borrowed and returned books are already handled automatically. The new group work rooms and learning environments have been received well and they are booked nearly 70 percent of the time. We have also noticed that students have commended the library in their blogs, says Nygrén.

Group work rooms can be found in the Feeniks Library as well. With the renovation, the third floor was restored back to the students' use. Architect Aarne Ervi designed seminar to the floor, in the 1980s the rooms were filled with the law books library, after which it has been used as staff facilities.

– There are group work rooms on the third floor which can be booked through Outlook by the students and staff, discloses Head of Administration Merja Himanka.

There is also a balcony on the third floor of the library and it is already anticipated that it will become one of the most used spaces during spring and summer. The view from the balcony opens up over the city.

Colour Indicates Volume

The facilities in the new library have been divided according to volume of voice.

– All started from the idea of a noisy library. In the green zones, the customers can talk, use mobile phones and laptops. In the yellow zones, the use of mobile phones is forbidden but laptops are allowed. However, in the red zones, even the laptops are off limits, instructs Head of Library Services Heli Kokkinen.

Libraries at the new part of Teutori, Turku School of Economics, Quantum, Calonia and Educarium have spaces that are open to the University community every day and even around the clock. At the Feeniks Library, it was not possible to create these kinds of facilities for architectonic reasons. At the Rauma campus, Turku University Library is trying something completely new.

– We will try out opening hours during mornings without staffed service. In the mornings, the University staff and students can enter the library before it is officially opened. The same concept has been tried out in Europe and it has proven to be functional. By next summer, self-check machines will be installed in all the libraries, says Nygrén.

The Feeniks Library is open from Monday to Thursday 9am–8pm, Fridays 9am–6pm, Saturdays 10am–4pm and Sundays 12–4pm.

Text: Erja Hyytiäinen
Photos: Hanna Oksanen
Translation: Mari Ratia