Tampere University Library History

The Civic College was established in Helsinki in 1925. At the same time, a library was started, and it became the predecessor of the present Tampere University Library. The College was renamed School of Social Sciences in 1930, and was moved to Tampere in 1961. In 1966, it became University of Tampere.

The image of a library in general has changed significantly during past decades. The Civic College Library meant only a few bookcases with some books in them. At the present time, Tampere University Library is known as a multidisciplinary library serving thousands of patrons. Besides operating as a traditional circulation and reading facility, Library is now also accessible over the internet directly from home or the office.

The personnel are a central resource in the Library. At the beginning in Helsinki, the library was run on a part-time basis along with other duties. It is a long way to some seventy professionals in the present multidisciplinary Library. Over the years, the Library services have changed enormously, and at the same time, the staff's professional skills and know-how have grown.

During the last decades, there has been a true revolution in information technology, and the effects on libraries in general have been immense. In 1988, the Library installed the VTLS system, and that enabled operations to be performed in a new way: acquisitions, cataloging, circulation, serials check-in and monitoring of allocations were performed centrally within one and the same system. In 1992, the computerized circulation system became dominant. The Library database Tamcat has been online since 2001. The use of electronic information resources increased noticably, when the Nelli-portal was introduced in 2005.

A more detailed Library history can be read in Kirjakaapista asiakkaan pöydälle, Tampereen yliopiston kirjasto 80 vuotta , which was published in 2005. (in Finnish)

Main Library History

The School of Social Sciences was moved from Helsinki to Tampere in 1960. The new School building was located in Kalevantie 4. The Library operated in the same building. Soon it became evident, however, that the premises were all too limited to allow efficient operations.

The Main Library was moved to the Attila-building in the spring and summer of 1979, and that is where the Main Library was until 2006. However, the facilities in Attila did not stay the same all the time, but underwent many significant changes and developments during the years.

In the summer of 2006, the Main Library was moved to the Linna-building on Kalevantie, and so it was back on the University's main campus. During the move, the Library was closed only for seven days, and resumed all operations in the Linna-building on August 21.