Library’s Thursday Insights: Posters in the library's Legal Deposit Collection
The Turku University Library has received Finnish posters through the legal deposit rights since 1919 to the present day. There are no statistics on the number of posters, but it is estimated that there are about 100,000 of them. The posters in the legal deposit collection are stored in the Newspaper and Ephemera Services at the library's Raisio unit. Digitized posters can be found in Finna.fi-database by searching for a picture or poster with the material type.
Content and scope of the material
The Turku University Library has received Finnish posters with the legal deposit rights since 1919 to the present day. The posters are available as cultural materials in two libraries: National Library of Finland and the Turku University Library. There are no exact statistics on the number of the posters, but it is estimated that there are about 100,000 of them.
What is a poster
Poster (old afiššši, French affiche or plaque, German Plakat, now known as poster) is usually a means of communication intended for a public place and used to promote or advertise something. The message on the poster may be purely pictorial or merely written, but in most cases, it is a combination of both.
Posters at the Turku University Library
The posters in the legal deposit collection are stored in Newspaper and Ephemera Services at the library's Raisio unit. The posters are not given as home loans, but they can be studied at the premises in Raisio.
Digitized posters
The National Library of Finland has digitized only a few of the posters from the collection and the material type is usually an image. These digitized posters can be found in Finna by searching for a picture or poster with the material type. There are also movie posters in connection with Kavi's films, and the Lahti museums have their own poster collection.
For more information
If you are interested in posters, please contact: library@utu.fi