Times of Riihimäki library

The owner of Hausjärvi's Erkylä manor, general, free lord JR Munck, donated 171 works to the first Finnish-language school he founded. Even the villagers could borrow from Esko's school library free of charge, with the cantor acting as the first librarian.

The library was taken over by the municipality in 1883 in the church village. It was 12 kilometers from the station village of Riihimäki to Hausjärvi church, so the residents of the station village could not really use the library. A school had been established in Asemakylä in 1879, and a lending library was hoped for in connection with it. The residents decided to turn to the railway company in the matter of the library, as had been done with regard to the school.

The Rautatieläinen school got a lending library, which can be considered the first public library in Riihimäki. Mostly, however, only the students borrowed about 100 books from the library. The teachers take care of the library. Felix Qwanten and JuhoTuura were the first teacher-librarians. The municipality did not support the Rautatie school library, because it was considered that the support of the railway institution was sufficient.

Other libraries began to emerge gradually. August Isola founded Arolamm village library in 1890 with the help of a lottery. A popular reading were the biographies of the People's Education Society. Censorship hit the library of the Railway National School in 1903 - Governor-General Bobrikov ordered the removal of banned books.

 

At the beginning of the 1900th century, lively club activity began. Temperance clubs, Youth clubs and WPK founded their own libraries thanks to donations and lotteries. Riihimäki Glasitehta had a library donated by agricultural advisor HG Paloheimo. Riihimäki Työväenyhdistys also founded a library, which gradually expanded to become the largest in the locality, in 1929 there were 360 ​​books.

Riihimäki Sanomat already wrote in 1915 about the importance of the library:

"If we could get a so-called enlightened group of supporters on the side of the issue in our municipalities, then a big step in the library matter would have been taken."

1919 The editor-in-chief of Riihimäki Sanomi, Eemeli Salminen, was still worried about the missing public library in the community:

"Our village has more residents than many cities, but we don't even have the beginnings of a general lending library available to everyone."

The growing railway settlement separated into an independent town in 1922. The town initially supported the libraries of the associations, but the support was stopped when the town got its own civic college in 1926 and a library attached to it. The Kansalaisoopisto's library operated in a house owned by the tailor Hemmi Arffman (Arjavirta) at Lasitehtantie 7 (now Arjavirrankatu) until the college got its own office in 1929. The people of Riihimäk could use the Kansalaisoopisto's library, whose services were believed to be sufficient even in the future.

After the shortage years of the 1930s subsided, the projects for the actual municipal library began to be realized. At a meeting of the Riihimäki Society (founded in 1935), co-educational school teacher Saimi Partanen took the initiative to establish a municipal library. Civic college principal Aarne Eskola, town hall manager Kalle Lauri Salminen and teacher Aate Manninen actively influenced the town hall council's decision to establish a town hall library on Snellman's day, May 12.5.1936, XNUMX.

It was decided to rent the Sotilaskotiyhdis' apartment at Pohjoinen Rautatienkatu 18 as the library premises. Annikki Lahtinen (Pohjonen, Aartelo) from Jyväskylä was chosen as the first librarian, and the dedication of the new library could be held on Independence Day 1936. In addition to donations, books were acquired from local bookstores and antiquarians in Helsinki. The first books were Iso encyclopedia IX, Maapallo IX and Kivirikko: Suomen linnut I-II. The collection of more than 700 books was classified using the general ten classification system and the so-called citation system was used. single card system. In the first year of operation, 641 loans were made. The children's and youth department began its operations in 1938, when space had been found in the storage room for the first children's books. The children could use their own section for an hour every day.

During the war years 1939–1944, a large number of borrowers were military personnel. The bombings of the Winter War also affected the operation of the library - books were destroyed and lost. After the end of the war, the State Library Office ordered the removal of 70 works at the request of the Soviet Union. The library's premises started to get cramped, and when the Military Home Association had sold its house to the goldsmith Lauri Almi in 1938, the library's board decided to propose to the Town Board the acquisition of new premises. An office building on top of a wartime bomb shelter at Kalevankatu 1 was planned for the store. The Board of Trade made a decision in 1946 according to which the library was placed in the same building.

The office building was completed in 1948. According to the plans of architect Veli Valorinna, the library got its own apartment at the east end of the building. Lending in the new library started on May 10.5.1948, 1950. The library facilities were so successful that even nationally there was talk of Riihimäki's "model library". Thus, in 1949, "Library apartment days" were organized in Riihimäki. Library adviser Helle Kannila thought the new library was the best place to visit the Tampere Social Library course. When the first librarian left Riihimäki in XNUMX, technical assistant Thyra Hakkarainen took over. Kerttu Koskenheimo (Manninen), who later became a well-known literary critic, was chosen as the permanent librarian.

During Kerttu Manninen's tenure, the library received, among other things, the first typewriter, the Olympia, which, according to him, required the use of donation funds as well as diplomacy. The lending system was changed in 1951 to the Detroit system, where each customer and book had a running number. When the book was borrowed, the customer's number was written on the card containing the book's information. The cards were stored in the library in chronological order. Monitoring of loans was therefore a completely manual job. A card catalog was maintained from the library's collection. At first, the cataloging cards were written by hand and later by typewriter.

The library's operations expanded when lending points were opened in hospitals and nursing homes. In 1954, the number of books was approximately 15 and citations were almost 000 per year. The library received two new amanuensis positions in the early 74s. Airi Myllymäki, who worked as trainees and in many substitute positions, and Thyra Hakkarainen's daughter Sarri Sairanen, who thus continued her mother's library tradition, were elected to the positions.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Riihimäki library customers read, among others, Agapetus, Hilja Haahte, Lempi Jääskelää, Mika Waltar, Mazo De la Roche and Jack London. In 1948, a customer survey was conducted about book selection, and they especially wanted novelties, war, travelogues and "good detective books". In 1955, Olavi Päiviö became the library director after Kerttu Mannen. The development of the library continued steadily and many new forms of operation, such as interlibrary lending and teaching library use, were introduced. By 1960, the number of quotes exceeded 100. A small 000th anniversary celebration was organized in the library on December 20, 6.12.1956.

Riihimäki received city rights in 1960, and the municipal library became the city library. The premises of the office building became cramped during the 1950s. An additional wing to the Office building was planned as an extension, and other options were presented. It was not until 1965, when the library's 30th anniversary was approaching, that the library expansion project was decided. Riihimäki Kansallis-Osake-Pankki offered its building at the corner of Valtakatu and Kauppakatu for library use. The banking rooms could be converted into library spaces, but the storage spaces had to be placed in a low basement space and the newspaper storage in the bank vault. Music library operations could still be started. The children's department also got its first own space in the apartments on the second floor. However, the steep stairs made it difficult for small children to access the children's books. The lending stations of the local hospital and the Kirjaus nursing home were merged into the Laitoskirjasto, founded in 1970. In addition to the garrison hospital, the central prison also began to receive transfer book collections. However, the library car, which was featured many times in the plans, was not acquired.

On Riihimäki Day, September 11.9.1965, 1975, the dedication of the library was celebrated. It took five years to operate in the former bank building, until the then governor of Häme County, Jorma Tuominen, brought up the fact that the library was far too small for a city the size of Riihimäki. The new library building was included in the city's implementation plans. The project progressed painfully slowly, although both the number of books and citations increased. In 250, there were already almost 000 quotes. Technology came to help with borrowing in 1974, when camera lending was introduced. Each loan was photographed and rolls of film sent to be developed. Due date tickets were sent to the computer service center, where a list of non-returnable tickets was obtained. With the help of the list, the unrecoverable material from the film was watched. The method was quite laborious as the number of loans continued to grow.

However, the increasingly cramped premises of the bank building operated for more than 20 years. The director of the library, Olavi Päiviö, retired in 1984, before the construction plans for the new library building began to be realized. The first tasks of the new library director, Annikki Saarinen, were checking the functionality of the new building and drawing up interior design plans.

A new library building was completed in 1986 along Kauppakatu in Lounaspuisto, the name of which was changed to Kirjastopuisto. The spacious library building designed by the architect firm Osmo Lapo was opened on the day after Midsummer 1986. Right on the opening day, 23.6. more than 4000 quotes were made. The new building brought new functions, the music department got its own space, a local collection was placed in the Riihimäki room, the children got a story room, and Samuli Paronen's hall developed into a popular exhibition space. The number of staff increased to 23.

By the beginning of the 1980s, the number of loans was almost 400, so with the new library building, the plans for a computer-based lending system were also realized. Riihimäki library was the first library to start using the real-time KILAVA system developed by Kunnallistieto Oy, which works with VAX hardware. The library's transition to the computer age meant the introduction of many new technologies for both staff and customers. Acquisition, collection and cataloging work also became completely computer-based. Card boxes were completely abandoned in the 000s, when even the last keywords could be stored in the library's database.

The regional cooperation started in 1993 with Hausjärvi library, when we moved to the joint KIRI library system of Kunnalistieto Oy. Customers could now borrow from both libraries with a common borrower's card. Hausjärvi's and Lope's library cars also started stopping at Riihimäki. In 1997, the limit of half a million citations was exceeded and the material had also accumulated to about 200. The KIRI system was updated to the PRIMAS system in 000.

The arrival of the Internet in the library world expanded the possibilities for cooperation even further. In 1999, a joint Web Library with the libraries of Hausjärvi, Hyvinkää and Nurmijärvi was put into use, through which customers could browse, renew and reserve library materials. The library building had become a common living room popular with the townspeople, where an average of over 1 customers moved every day.

Mainframe-based library systems began to give way in the late 1990s, when microcomputers became more common. The planning of a new library system became relevant in 2000. Customers used library services across municipal borders and cooperation with local libraries increased considerably. At the beginning of 2003, it was decided to acquire a joint library system TietoEnator's PallasPro with the libraries of Hausjärvi, Hyvinkää and Nurmijärvi. As a result of the name competition, the libraries chose RATAMO libraries as the name of the collection of libraries.

Director of Library Operations Riitta Maajärvi started her work on October 1.10.2003, 800, which was also the day the new library system was implemented. RATAMO libraries have a common material and customer database and use a collection of about 000 volumes. With the same library card, you can borrow from any RATAMO library. The material transport service operates between libraries. The RATAMO online library has been a very popular form of service where customers can book and renew their loans themselves. As an additional service, it is possible to receive text message and e-mail notifications about reserved material.

Information technology has brought many new functions to the library. Riihimäki Library's first loan machine was acquired in the summer of 2005. In the near future, RFID technology will replace barcode technology. Customers have access to laptops with the help of a wireless network. Although information technology plays a significant role in the library and new forms of material are acquired, the book has maintained its position as the most borrowed and requested material.

Literature evenings, many literary events, book exhibitions, book tips and story lessons bring literature closer to the reader. They open up content, just as the literature presentations organized during the time of the municipal library did. Information and experiences have always been sought from the library, and we will continue to do so in the future!