Library Director's overview

The main achievements of the Library in 2024: 

• We introduced extensive self-service hours, which had been requested by customers and prepared over a long period of time, at all Library locations on Turku campus. We converted facilities for a new type of customer use in a cost-effective manner and by recycling furniture. With these measures, the Library created the conditions for students to progress smoothly through their studies and graduate. 

• We assessed the future of the Library's educational services up to 2030, outlining our key objectives of providing user-driven, consistent and resource-efficient expert services. The information literacy training offered by the Library is at the core of the academic and professional life skills needed in both study and research.  

• We improved the collection of research publication data by updating the submission form with a DOI import feature, streamlining the collection of parallel publications, and creating guides to assist grant-funded researchers. With these measures, the Library ensured the visibility of the University's publications worldwide and in reports to funders.  

• We surveyed and defined guidelines for the University's printed material collections and, based on these guidelines, got started with evaluating the collections in preparation for consolidating the facilities. The Library-administered collection of information resources is both a stable and continually developing part of the University's core infrastructure.  

In April 2024, the Library conducted a customer satisfaction survey for all its services. Respondents gave the services provided by the Library a pleasantly high overall rating of 8.67 in a scale of 1–10. The large number of respondents to the customer satisfaction survey (1,197), the well-reasoned views expressed, and the new suggestions provided offer a wealth of information on the needs of Library users and numerous ideas on how the Library should develop its services.  

The results of the survey will support the Library's facility project, which aims to contain facility costs in accordance with the University Board policies while simultaneously developing Library services. As part of the Library’s facility project, we will continue to hold community-engaged vision dialogues, conduct collection evaluations, and carry out numerous calculations in the coming years. They will lay the foundation for reforms that will shape a library service that connects the University’s campuses.