
Helsinki Central Library chosen as the best new public library - late
https://www.oodihelsinki.fi/en/helsinki-central-library-oodi-chosen-as-the-best-new-public-library-in-the-world/
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enra
I'm a Finn but been living in SF for the last few years. Went to Oodi couple
of weeks ago was impressed by the facilities and the building. In addition to
books, there were workstations, 3D printers, large format printers, sewing
machines, video games, board games, kids play area, restaurant, and a cafe.
Our startup also worked there for one day. There is free Wifi, a lot of chairs
and places to sit and even meeting rooms you can book. Noise levels are also
quite low that you can read or work, much better than in a regular cafe even
in the large open spaces. They have seemed to have worked a lot on the
acoustics.

There are also books you can read, borrow and return. The book selection
seemed more recent/popular, not a lot of old books (still it has 100k books).
To those that comment on the how little books there are: There are several
other libraries in Helsinki that house old and vast amounts of books. Helsinki
has nearly 40 public libraries and numerous scholarly libraries:
[https://www.myhelsinki.fi/en/see-and-
do/sights/helsinki%E2%8...](https://www.myhelsinki.fi/en/see-and-
do/sights/helsinki%E2%80%99s-most-beautiful-libraries)

Overall it feels like a great place for people to go outside of their home or
office to read, meet with people, take their kids to, and for free.

I uploaded a few mobile photos and videos if anyone is interested:
[https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z7ez8rhisktpaac/AAD7xd6xsCESP6LhJ...](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/z7ez8rhisktpaac/AAD7xd6xsCESP6LhJkC1Wmi9a?dl=0)

~~~
kiliantics
The Omni in Oakland has all of this and more but is entirely owned and run by
the member community:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zccga90hcY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zccga90hcY)

Shame that government in the US does not invest in such resources for the
community.

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dluan
What if we gave the community of upstarts and creatives that run the Omni the
same $100m budget of the Oodi library?

I've been to the Omni space where Counter Culture Labs is - and while it's
cool that it is completely organic and has a great supportive and local feel,
it also really feels cobbled together and limited.

At least with lots of tool libraries popping up around the US, there's
volunteers who just hang out and get involved with projects that people bring
in.

Imagine if that was the new kind of 'librarian' job - coder, fabricator,
artist, designer, community oral historian, and archivist.

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zaroth
This is absolutely the new definition of “library”, and honestly though I came
here to criticize an egotistical architectural exercise, after reading more
about Oodi I am suitably impressed.

$100 million is an extremely good deal for what they got, and they say that
_includes_ the equipment? I don’t quite believe they built it for that little.

My town (population ~15,000) wanted to build a new library last year — it was
voted down as unnecessary — at a cost of almost _~$30 million_ for a two story
30,000 sq. ft building.

Oodi’s 185,000 square feet is an exquisite leisure center, and with up to
20,000 visitors a day sounds like a fantastic investment for Helsinki.

~~~
zepearl
I guess that one of the real problem are the recurring yearly fixed & variable
costs of the facility after it has been built (which is often "forgotten" by
the politician/s that try to push a project to get votes), which might be a
bit challenging for such a small town (~15'000) if it has to maintain as well
other existing structures (e.g. swimming pool, museum, etc...).

My town (~10'000) has a library, 3 schools, a big outdoor public swimming pool
that can be used as well during wintertimes (gets covered by a roof) + another
small swimming pool in one of the schools, a modern art museum, an ice rink,
an athletics & football stadium, 3 indoor gyms (a big public one for national
competitions + 2 small ones usually used by the schools), a parkour track in
the woods, a theatre, a cinema, (maybe I've forgotten something) => it was
absolutely no problem building them, but the $ needed for the
maintenance&depreciation of the structures and the salaries of the employees
was underestimated => now that the town is not anymore in the "big boom"-phase
we have a huge budget problem (I'd like to get rid first of the modern art
museum but apparently the opposition is very strong and well-connected).

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late
This is interesting due to the concept of Oodi being totally different from
most libraries and only to some extent fitting the definition of a library
[1].

Oodi is more of a living meeting place for people where you can play board
games, video games, make art, 3D prints, music and such. It might be dubbed as
a library to ensure that its visitors have a vague understanding of the place
i.e. it's free to use all the services and open to anyone.

[1] "A library is a curated collection of sources of information and similar
resources.." as per Wikipedea
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Library)

~~~
blakesterz
"Oodi is more of a living meeting place for people where you can play board
games, video games, make art, 3D prints, music and such."

Ask any librarian today and they'll say that's what a library is now. Or at
least that's probably what they want their library to be now. This probably
only goes for public librarians.

~~~
fhbdukfrh
My love of wandering through the stacks of a library is definitely nostalgia-
driven but there's something about being around mountains of books that is
exciting. Probably the same reason people like old record stores, flea markets
and bargain stores like winners...

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AriaMinaei
In the library, next to a row of regular PCs for internet surfing, they have a
couple of beefed up workstations for CG artists and video editors and even
data scientists. The workstations had super juicy internals, connected to
large displays, and came with a very nice Wacom tablet!

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jpalomaki
There have been some complaints about the building, because there’s not that
many books.

But the law that governs public libraries actually gives libraries quite wide
mission.

Quick automatic translation from the finnish version. Not perfect, but you get
the point.

”The purpose of this Act is to promote:

1) equal opportunities for education and culture for the population;

2) access to and use of information;

3) reading culture and diverse literacy;

4) opportunities for lifelong learning and skills development;

5) active citizenship, democracy and freedom of expression.”

[https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2016/20161492](https://www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2016/20161492)

~~~
trm42
It's kind of funny that the amount of physical media is criticized. It still
has 100k books, movies, magazines and other loanable stuff in total. And it's
only one of the libraries in Helsinki region, and into which you can order
loanable stuff from the other libraries as well.

~~~
Gravityloss
I personally have found good books and loaned from Oodi. Mostly about music.

Regular libraries with more books in general tend to have a similar "hit rate"
for me. If you are in Helsinki and want to visit a nice more classical
library, Kallion kirjasto and Töölön kirjasto are easily accessible by tram or
electric scooter. Kallio is old and nice and Töölö is by Alvar Aalto.

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Mediterraneo10
I no longer live in Helsinki, but I am curious how quick the local homeless
and the Balkan Roma migrants have been to settle into Oodi as a free, warm
place to hang out at during the day. Starting from around 2010 there started
to be examples of “defensive architecture” in the Helsinki city center to
discourage those two demographics from hanging around, e.g. removing the once
ample seating at the entrance to the Kirjasto 10 library that Oodi supersedes.
Such architectural changes had a small but nevertheless rather unsavory impact
on the center.

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minikites
Libraries are one of the few indoor spaces left where you can spend time there
without a requirement to purchase something.

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pm90
When I was in Austin, Texas I checked out the new library. It’s fucking
awesome, reminded me of hogwarts with its staircases and shit.

~~~
hsnewman
I live in Austin and the new library has everything (except alot of books...).

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tow21
Weird. I think it’s rubbish as a public library.

I mean, it’s an interesting building, and a nice place for a cup of coffee,
but it’s absolutely useless if you want to go and browse some shelves and
borrow some books; it’s like it’s been actively designed to make that hard to
do.

~~~
tenaciousDaniel
This is how I felt about the New York Public Library. It's famous; everyone
goes there. There's even a Gutenberg Bible there.

But I've been 2-3 times and I never found a book. It's like the books are all
deliberately hidden, it's infuriating.

~~~
SolaceQuantum
The NYPL In Bryant Park? Basement floor hallway past the bathrooms. There’s a
separate entrance for it also on 42nd st? I go there all the time for books
and free public restrooms. The big NYPL space is for all the other things
libraries do, like workspaces, meeting spaces, etc. I think there’s also a
very rare book section but that requires special permission.

~~~
ghaff
The renovated Rose Reading Room is really beautiful. Great place to work for a
couple hours. (So is Bryant Park on a nice day of course.)

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xornox
Oodi is not very good as a library. I do not understand what are criterias for
this choice. There is only one quite small, noisy and restless floor for
books. If I should visit in a library, Oodi would be the last option.

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simplecomplex
It’s cold and uninviting, not a warm and relaxing environment for reading and
pondering. You’d think it was a museum not a library.

What’s with the recent trend of libraries and coffee shops that look like
modern art museums (cold, bright, lack of wood, metal, sharp acoustics..)? I
can’t be the only one who notices this.

~~~
jhbadger
At least in the US, the minimalistic design style where things are "cold and
bright" is called "Scandinavian Design", which makes it rather appropriate for
Helsinki. Personally, I like the style and find it more cheerful than the dark
wood and stone "Victorian" style that is traditional to libraries.

