Save a Book!

Age and heavy use pose a constant threat to books and other printed matter. Industrially produced, acidic paper gets brittle and may even self-destruct over time. The recent condition survey carried out at the National Library revealed that as many as 100,000 priceless works must be withdrawn from circulation and other use because of their poor condition. To save the collections the options available are conservation, microfilming and digitisation. However, these measures cost a lot of money, and the speed at which we are currently able to do the job is too slow.

Helsinki University Library, the National Library of Finland, has just launched a new "Save a Book" programme (Pelasta kirja -ohjelma) to ease the problem. Through the "Save a Book" website friends of the book can learn what they can do to help preserve our cultural heritage.

This year marks the 365th anniversary of the University of Helsinki. The "Save a Book" programme is one of the ways in which the Library is celebrating the event. A donation fund, the National Library Cultural Heritage Fund, has been established for the purpose. It is one of the donation funds administered by the University of Helsinki.

The "Save a Book" programme comprises items that can be given a new lease of life through expert paper conservation and the digitisation of which will give everyone a chance to study them free of charge on the Internet. Included are Finnish and foreign books, maps, manuscripts and magazines that are free of copyright restrictions.

Among the items waiting to be saved are, for example, the first Finnish-language ABC-book and New Testament by Mikael Agricola, the creator of Finnish as a written language, as well as the first magazine in Finnish, Mehiläinen ("the Bee"), edited by Elias Lönnrot. There are also many priceless works on the Finnish landscape and propaganda leaflets from the Second World War. The donor can also designate his or her donation to a specific item of personal importance.

You will find the items included in the programme on the Library's "Save a Book" website. The donated funds will be used in full to the designated items and the donors' names will be placed on the National Library website and in connection with the digitised items.

For further information please contact:

Project Manager Inkeri Salonharju
Telephone +358 (0)9 191 24512, email inkeri.salonharju(at)helsinki.fi
or
Project Manager Kristiina Hildén
Telephone +358 (0)9 191 22723, email kristiina.hilden(at)helsinki.fi

The Pelasta kirja - Save a Book website (only in Finnish):
http://www.pelastakirja.kansalliskirjasto.fi/

The National Library Cultural Heritage Fund (only in Finnish):
http://www.rahasto.kansalliskirjasto.fi/index.html