The Inranet - the Virtual Workspace for the Staff

Periodicals Database

Ask the Cymbrarian

The library has an internal net through which the information and internal services needed by the staff can be spread safely and simultaneously into all branches and offices. The aim of the Intranet is to gather up all possible internal information and communication under one user interface. With the Intranet, all the various instructions, reports and notices can be filed into an easy-to-use whole.

city.library@lib.hel.fi

Helsinki City Library The Virtual Library

Every branch in Helsinki City Library has workstations where all citizens can browse www-pages, read or send e-mail, exploit all the possibilities of the Internet free and democratic.

In addition to offering workstations and virtual library services to its patrons' use, Helsinki City Library is also an information producer on the Internet:

• New Fiction and Facts from Finland . NFFF, introduces twice a year new Finnish books in order to help libraries as well as individuals all over the world in their purchases of Finnish literature.
  
• Reading tips guide children, parents, nursery school teachers and others to the world of children's s literature. The tips come from the enthusiastic children's library professionals, in Finnish and in Swedish.

  Ask the Cybrarian!

  The Cybrarian is the library's knowledge database, where virtual librarian works. A variety of information needed by the library patrons has been gathered there: the branches and their opening hours, their holdings, how to search information and so on as well as users tips. The Cybrarian collects all the virtual services of the library under one easy-to-use interface. It also leads into searching information on the Intemet through the search pages of PULSE (the Finnish Public Libraries' common enterpage).

  Information can be searched on the Cybrarian either by browsing or by using its efficient search engine. pieces of information are presented in FAQ-format, as answers to frequently asked questions.

  Plussa Bibliographic Database ,. The bibliographic databases of Helsinki City Library and three other Metropolitan Area Pulic libraries can be browsed through the Web catalogue, Plussa Bibliographic Oatabase. The database consists of bibliographic records of four millioon items: books, audio books, music, video programmes, CD-ROMs and other, as well as information on where they can be found and real-time information on whether they are on loan or not and when they are due back to the owning library again.

  With the help of Plussa services and the telephone, the patrons can make good use of the library in their homes or at work, efficiently and time-savingly.

  Periodicals Database

  Information on the newspapers and magazines subscn'bed by Helsinki City Library can be obtained in a separate Periodicals Oatabase.

  lnter-library Loans

  Orders for inter-library loans can be made on the www-form. When the book (or video, or other) has arrived to Helsinki City Library from the lending library, the patron is notified by e-mail:

  Specific Services

  Helsinki City Library offers virtual library services also to specific patron groups:
  • The workstations placed in the Mediatheque of Toolo Branch and in the children's departments of several other branches offer the children and the teenagers access to the Intemet. Multimedia equipment is also available.
  • The fairytale database maintained by Kallio Branch - Library leads the children as well as their parents into the enchanting worlds of fantasy.

  • Multicultural Library helps the libraries all over Finland serve their foreign patrons. On the pages of the Multicultural Library there is useful information on the library and other services for the refugees and immigrants in Finland. In Helsinki City Library there are books in 60 different languages and the brochure on the library has been translated into 15 different languages.

  • The multimedia service point in Kallio Branch Library offers the virtual services of Helsinki City Library and the Intemet also to the visually handicapped. In this service point there is a speech synthetizer, an enlarging program and a Braille display that make it possible for these patrons to use the Internet.