LECTURE - Guadalajara, June 19, 1993

LECTURE

Guadalajara, June 19, 1993 / Tom Eckerman

Estimadas señoras y señores

I am very happy to be here to tell you all something about Finland and its libraries. Finland must to most of you be as strange as for example Rumania and Bulgaria is to me, strange countreis with strange languages. But still they are European as well as Spain.

Finland to me is also a kind of mystery and especially the Finnish language and the culture. I was born in the islands between Sweden and Finland and my mother tongue was Swedish and the culture on the islands closer to Scandinavia than the east. But now I know quite a lot about Finland after living in its capital for almost 20 years so I hope that the information I'm going to give is both correct and of interest to you.

To begin with I just want to give a few basic facts about Finland and its library system. Finland is a big but sparsely populated country. Of the 5 million inhabitants most live in the southern part, in cities like the capital Helsinki which is surrounded by two other cities, Espoo and Vantaa. Altogether these cities have a population of about 800.000. Other cities are the old capital Turku and Tampere which grew and expanded around factories in the beginning of the century. I work in Vantaa but live in Helsinki.

The northern part of Finland is called Lapland and is famous for being the home of Santa Claus and for the colourful Sami people which also can be found in the neighbouring countries of Norway, Sweden and Russia. This exotic part of Finland is mostly wilderness. The Sami people has a language of their own but also speak Finnish which is the mother-tongue of 94 percent of the population. 6 % speak Swedish as their mother-tongue and historically Finland was a part of Sweden until Russia took power in 1809. In 1917 Finland became an independent republic.

Next year we will celebrate the foundation of the first public library founded in the town of Vaasa as a reading library in 1794. Today Finland has about 3700 libraries of which about 2600 are public libraries, 500 university library units, 250 special libraries and libraries within government offices. In 1989 there were also 228 book-mobiles connected to public libraries.

Finns are the world's most eager library users. There are about 19 loans annually per inhabitant. Even though almost every home has a TV and video, the library statistics continue to climb. Children and the young people are the library regulars. They account for 2/5 of all loans. Co-operation between kindergartens and libraries is good. School-children come to the library with their teacher and every public library has material for children and young people.

I will of course concentrate on services for children in my talk but first I would like to continue to give a broader scope on Finnish library affairs. The goals of the public library system are reflected in the library legislation. The library act of 1929 guaranteed library services free of charge and underlined the libraries' role in adult education. In 1962 there was a new law which included the spirit of the previous law, but added reading as recreation and widened the scope of appropriate library activities. On the threshold of the infotech society, the law which came into force in 1986 states that the library is to satisfy the public's need for information, relaxation and study. The books are complemented by "other recorded material suitable for library use" and furthermore the library is expected to support interest in the fine arts.

I hope to finish off this talk with a presentation of Finnish children's books, a presentatation that is illustrated by slides which I hope will support your interest in the Finnish living arts.

Most people within the library and information profession in Finland are employed by the municipality or the state. The library and information sector is dominated by women; wheras 48 % of the Finnish work force in 1985 consisted of women, 89 % of library professionals were women. In recent years the work force within the library and information sector has become more mobile. Overall staff numbers have increased, new positions have been created for instance in government offices and the business world. Salary differences between the various library sectors have encouraged this mobility: public libraries offer the lowest salaries, the private sector offers the highest and research libraries come somewhere in between. The difference between salary scales is about 25 %. As a result of this there is a shortage of staff in public libraries and this shortage is spreading also to research libraries.

In agrarian times library people didn't have any professional identity. Promoting the library cause was an amateur activity - for men. Women, who now are in the majority, could not work in libraries until the arrival of the industrial society. Helsinki University Library didn't accept women even as apprentices before independence in 1917.

During the industrial society librarianship began to become a real profession: at the beginning it was women who thanks to their enthusiasm, practical experience and self-education, achieved an "honourable" profession, later it became a female-dominated profession based on systematic education. In a statute of 1928 it is stated as a prerequisite for obtaining the state grant that staff should have a certain level of competence.

In the 1960s there was a growth in the white-collar professions, including librarianship. The number of municipal employees doubled between 1960 and 1980. The developement was similar within the library field. The infotech society of today is served by about 5000 library and information professionals, of which about 3/4 are in the public libraries and 1/4 in research libraries.

Up until now I have based my notes on a publication published by The Finnish Library Association in 1990 and written by Ph.D. Tuula H. Laaksovirta and Tuula Haavisto Secretary General of The Finnish Library Association; Knowledge and life-experiences, Finland seen through its Libraries and Information Services and before I move over to my own life-experiences in Finnish libraries I would like to cite an article on The current situation of public libraries in Finland in Scandinavian Public Library Quarterly at the end of 1991 when it was already inevitable that the economical situation was going to change many things in Finland, also in the libraries, where the rules for obtaining state-grant partly had been changed.

The sector of libraries and information services now faces a process of monumental change without parallell in previous experience. The impetus for this change is a cutback in government subsidies: the number of civil service posts is being reduced, budgets are being cut, and responsibility for result is being extended to libraries. In the midst of all these developments, even the holiest and most permanent factor in the sector, qualification for appointment to posts, is undergoing change. Nor will the process of change stop here; there are even plans to revise education in library and information science.

Three years ago everything appeared to have stabilized, the end result of twenty years of development in education. The structure of education in the sector of library and information science was more or less 'ready'. Education served as the gatekeeper to different positions in libraries and information services, because education granted qualification for library professions. A qualified library assistant had completed an educational syllabus, lasting two to three years at a commercial institute. A qualified librarian information officer had completed a master of science or equivalent degree plus an extra one-year course in information retrieval. Upon completion of an educational syllabus, the student recieved a certificate proving that he/she was qualified for post.

I became a qualified librarian in 1976 in Helsinki after having studied literature and music in Sweden at Uppsala University and one and a half year at the Library course of the Helsinki School of Social Sciences.

I started to study librarianship because I wanted to work with music but there was also an option of specializing in Children's libraries which I eventually took.

After finishing that part of my studies I worked for nine months as a children's librarian and that's where my foundations in the field were lain.

But because of the situation with low salaries in libraries it took me 7 years to come back to the libraries again. My "lost" seven years were spent studying English, Arabic, Music, Travelling, working at odd jobs and then becoming a full-time father in 1982. In 1984 I finally went back to the library world, first as a music librarian for two months and then as a children's librarian at The Vantaa City Library which was expanding rapidly during the 1980s.

In 1984 the new main library was opened to the public, and many new libraries were being built. The network with 14 branches and 2 book-mobiles has been serving the populatation of 150.000 during these years very well. New buildings has replaced the old ones, new buses has come instead of the old ones, the loans have rapidly risen all over the city. A couple of years ago The Vantaa City library was awarded a national prize for being the best service-minded public institution in Finland. But at that time things started to change. The economical crisis was starting to be felt, first no increases in salaries, then no-one could apply for the vacant positions that had not been filled during the golden times when there were more jobs than applicants. Tax-money decreased and more savings had to be done. At this moment it seems like things are getting worse all the time. Unemployment is nearly 17% and still rising. Less work means less tax-money. Economical experts expect the crisis to last for at least a couple of more years and the libraries have to save even more although more and more people use the public libraries. In 1984 the total sum of loans in Vantaa was 1.5 million, last year it was 3 million. Of this more than 40% is made up of children's loans.

When I started in Vantaa my job was to organize the library services for the Swedish speaking children in the city. All in all there are about 6000 Swedish speaking persons living spread all over the city but especially in some centres were Swedish schools are situated. The main library is in the centre of the city and that was also where I was situated to work from at the children's department together with two librarians and three library assistants. As the library was very new then it was a big challenge to all of us to try to build up a functioning and well working library unit. As our main public we considered children up to 15 years of age. We expected the department for adults or as we call it the general department to serve youngsters over 15 years but of course there can never be a sharp line between the departments. Everybody is free to use any part of the library regardless of age. When I was a child you had to be 12 to be able to even visit the adult department by yourself. But in a way it was a great day when you were allowed to borrow books for the first time from the adult apartment by yourself. One of the strongest memories connected to libraries in my own childhood was the fairy-tale hours. I remember especially once when we, a group of children about 6 or seven years old, were brought to the reading room of the adult department where everything was painted black, the shelves, the table, the small chairs. And an old man with gray hair and rounded glasses told us the story of Hansel and Gretschen. I still remember the name of that man, Karl Gustafsson, and much later I found out that he had been the teacher of my father in his first grade in 1926. Maybe it was because of that strong experience that I became a children's librarian and I have always regarded fairy-tale hours as a very important activity in the library. But sometimes they can also be very frustrating to the keeper and that happened often when I started to give these fairy-tale hours for Swedish speaking children in Vantaa in 1984.

In my opinion kindergarten kids play a very important part in making the library known to the citizen so I really tried to get in touch with these kids, a task that was not very difficult as almost every child between 3 and 6 go to kindergardens. So I looked up kindergardens in the telephone book and invited them to their nearest library, made announcements to the press and the radio that fairytale-hours were being held in Swedish every Monday morning in different parts of the city. And they came, but after a while I found out that you really had to differentiate the ages so I made two groups, three and four years olds in one and five and six-year-olds in another. And they where wild. Monday morning in Kindergartens is the toughest morning of all. The children have been experiencing things with their families, stayed up late, etc. I know that Monday morning is tough because my wife told me so too and she's a kindergarden teacher. So these wild kids with different social backgrounds and sometimes a very poorly developed language as many of them come from bilingual families and surroundings that are totally Finnish speaking, they come to the library and I have to cool them down try get a grip on them which isn't very easy. But I found out what to do. My wife told me to activate them in one direction by having them do something together, something simple like a verse, a rhyme.So I did that. I found a rhyme, a rhyme that tells about a cat which has a beard and lay eggs, a bit mystical but quite easy to clap to.

Ro ro katten har skägg
väntar vi länge så värper hon ägg
värper hon ett så värper hon två
dom skall alla flickorna/pojkarna/stora få

And then after the girls have had their mystical cat eggs its time for the boys to get some
and then finally the big ones, me and the kindergarden teachers
And then when we are ready, full and satisfied it's time for the story, a book with pictures, sometimes two. But before that we light a candle, a living light as we say in Swedish.
After the stories I always round off the fairytale-session with another rhyme about another cat, a cat sitting at the floor of the king counting to twelve.

Ekka pekka nio noll
katten satt på kungens golv
räkna rätt så blir det tolv
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

So why is it so important to work with pre-school children in the library? First of all I think that in that way we can can also reach other people. I tell the children to visit the library with their parents or grandparents or older sisters and brothers. So if the fairy-tale hour is a success and the children like what they have experienced they will come back some other time and bring another person to the library. The fairy-tale hour situation in the library also has social functions. The small children learn to cope with a new situation outside of their daily routines at home and in the kindergarten. As an extra plus I see that being a man give an extra dimension, because small very seldom meet other men than their father and everybody working at the kindergarten are female even if every now and then nowadays also some very young men can work with small children in the kindergarten or at leisure centers and children's playgrounds.

In Finland we consider books and reading very important and from international research going on at this very moment some results were published this spring where Finnish schoolchildren were considered to be the best readers in the world, a fact that we are very proud of, of course. When a baby is born all families get a maternity box with necessary clothes for small babies, a brush, some baby oil and powder. This box also contains a Book, the baby's first book with many pictures and advice on how to use this special book and later books in general. In the edition that my son got 11 years ago the pictures were made by a very famous Finnish illustrator Maija Karma. ( I will pass the book around for you to look at but please return it because it is a very dear treasure to me)

Some advices in the book are that by showing the book to the child and reading together unity and tenderness is created. It is pointed out how important it is for a child to have a rich language and that a child that is talked to also learns to talk easier and better. "Reading" together is at first only playing, looking at the pictures, repeating things over and over. It is pointed out that reading daily to the child is important, that every day includes some time when the parent and the child get together over a book. At bed-time rhymes or songs are more suitable than a book. Reading picture books can be started when the child is more than a year old. And books can be borrowed for free from the library of course. The book finishes with a page titled "Give a child a mothertongue".

It is important that we can talk about things so that we don't have to talk with our fists. A small child understands much more than he or she can say. But it also important not to overdo reading and book-practice. There comes a time when the child is ready if there are books around then and this book that is now going around is hopefully only a beginning to a long life together with friends in the world of books. When you talk and read to the child you give it a real gift for the future. You give the child a mother-tongue. Thats the words in that book. Propaganda but not evil propaganda.

Unfortunately later editions of this first book for the new-born baby in the maternity box have not been of such a high quality as the one that is going around here.

A project similar in contents with the baby's first book is something called "A quarter a day" that was introduced in Finland in 1987. The idea was born in England and also used in Sweden before it came to the Swedish speaking schools in Helsinki. The idea is that the parents should read to their children at least 15 minutes every day when they are in the first grade and are learning to read themselves. Later parents and children alternate in reading, the child reads to the parents every other day for example. This project has been very successful where it has been used even if it also includes some extra work for the teachers because they have to comment on how the reading is progressing in what is called a contact booklet, or reading diary. Short comments from both parents and teacher are written down, what has been read and how the reading has been reacted to. Especially in a situation where children belong to a lingual minority and have few opportunities to use their language in the surrounding society it is important to strenghten their ability to read.

The project "A quarter a day" was introduced and distributed by an association called Home and School, an association that wants to develop good relations between the families and the school. In order to make the project known they have published material on how to work with "A quarter a day" and also explained why it is so important to make children good readers. But there are also other sides to the reading. It makes for close contact between parent and child. It is easier to discuss a problem that is appearing in a book for example. Reading together is a way to relax in a society where everybody seems to become busier every day. The information material also contains advice on how to read: sit next to each other, discuss pictures, discuss what you have read if it feels natural, etc.

Before the project is started all parents are invited to a meeting where the teacher explains how the project works, discuss ways of working and introducing suitable books to read. Librarians are often invited to these meetings in order to present books to the parents, books that can be borrowed from the school library and the municipal library.

I have been invited to come and talk about books to the parents a couple of times and have used a technique that I learned at some conference in Sweden in order to get people talking and discussing and aquinted to each other. That is to tell them to discuss book-memories from their own childhood with the person sitting next to them, something that everybody has some comment on. And once you start talking, the ice is broken and ideas may even start to bubble up.

The basic role of the library is of course to provide books to the children, somebody has to choose these books, buy them, make them ready for library use, and put them on loan. This basic work is of course also the basics in Finnish libraries and take up most of our working time. But we have also been lucky to have time to do other kind of work especially co-operating with schools. I work 2 days a week in a municipal library that is only serving one school with 160 pupils, a situation that is rather unique in Finland where school-libraries only are open 1 or 2 hours a week and administered by a teacher having very little library schooling.

In a large library network such as the one in Vantaa different branch libraries work differently according to resources in staff. In the mid-80s there was a plan to have every schoolchild visiting the public library at least three times during their nine years of school. The first time in the second grade, then in the fourth and then in the seventh when they would be introduced to the department for adults. This system of having classes visiting the library functioned quite well to a degree when the school was situated near to a library. We had plans on what we wanted to inform the pupils on, information about how to use the library, how to find books and facts, recommending books etc. Today this system works only when the initiative comes from the school. The teacher reserves an hour at the library when the class is informed on these things according to what age level they are.

Co-operation with schools are done a lot through the use of bookmobiles. In the mornings the buses are visiting the schools for about half an hour, that is schools that are situated far from a public library. The philosophy of Finnish children's librarianship at the moment seems to be; bring the library to the children, make it as easy for them as possible to borrow books at the place where they are, and that's school. Areas where young families are more abundant than elsewhere are also places where the mobile library goes. In Helsinki there is a bus especially for children where 2/3 of the books are for kids.

I work in a bookmobile every Wednesday when the bus visits 3 small Swedish speaking schools that are situated far from public libraries.

In the middle of the bus there is a cart filled with books in Swedish but schoolchildren, 12-13 years old or older, are rather reading magazines or borrow records.

Youth Books are not at all the most popular material in the library.

This picture is from 1985 and show what kind of material was offered to children then. Since then video has been introduced in the libraries and they are very very popular. There are not enough videos so in order to make them rotate faster and be used by so many borrowers as possible they are only on loan for a week and there is a recommended limit of two videos per person. The most popular material among 10-15 year olds are cartoons; Tintin, Lucky Luke, Disney etc...

When I was young there were no music in the libraries so I spent a lot of time down at the record store listening to rock but by the beginning of the seventies many libraries had records that you could listen to at the library and soon you were also allowed to bring them home the same ways as books. Music has always been my mistress and was the reason for me to study to become a librarian even if I mostly have worked with children. When kids grow up to become teenagers they are not so keen to read books, textbooks in school are quite enough for them. But music interests youth at large and it was my job to get music to the children's departeent. From 1984 to about 1988 listening to rock in the library was very popular. Now the situation is a bit different witt commercial radio stations being introduced in 1989. We had 16 listening posts that usually were very well used after school and at night. I also arranged programs were the youngsters could choose, vote for their favorite music and these top list evenings could attract up to 100 youngsters at a time. At the main library where I worked we had very little problems with the youngsters but at some branch libraries the situation was different.

Hakunila a suburb of about 20.000 residents has a branch library with seven employees and 250.000 loans per year. In the 70s problems with the youth started to arise and in the beginning of the eighties the situation became intolerable. At best about hundred young persons occupied the library and the noise was terrible. Vandalism occurded. A radical solution was not to get youth out from the library, but to let them more inside the library system. At a meeting young patrons elected a committee of eight persons. The committee made rules for library behaviour. The president of the committee was employed in the library on a salary basis. The committee chose music and magazines, arranged happenings and excursions. About twenty members of the library gang were employed in the library at different times. The committee developed to a nucleus of young masses pouring into the library. They shared the responsibility with the staff. Associal behaviour gave way to a social one.

Jorma Kauppinen, the man who mostly was in charge of directing the youngsters' energy into positive power was later to become the head of the children's department at a time when I was more and more concentrating on services to the minority of Swedish speaking children. But I am proud to say that I have been taking part of his ideas and helping them to become real. This man has a concept that he calls the radical library, a library which is focused on the user, the patron, instead on the bureaucracy that the library has become now that it is such an evident force in present Finnish society. He sees our professionalism as a brake to development. We have built up a library for librarians and not for the user, a big inhuman machine. We have beautiful dogmas which we polish at our meetings and in our educational programs but in practice they are dead ones. Life is hidden behind our dogmas. we don't see what we are doing. He quotes a child who wrote: "I like the library. There are many books. But before you go to the books you must ask permission from the guard". This is the experience of our patrons. We librarians have to take our sides - and we do, even if we don't know it. We are gate keepers according to this very active but also controversial man, Jorma Kauppinen.

All the time we are building a library for the future, but is it going to be a preservative one or one that is able to change with time, react to what is happening now, be openminded and progressive, or locked in and conservative.

There are two projects that this man has launched in Vantaa that I have taken part of. Projects that has been widely discussed at the library, we are 150 persons working in the whole system, and also in the press where the reactions have been very positive, even if a bit confused at times.

The first was the night library project at the Koivukylä library. Koivukylä is about the same size as Hakunila. A heavily criminal gang of about forty persons took the library as their base. The gang drank, used drugs, stole, destroyed, attacked the staff. We tried the same thing as in Hakunila, tried to have a democratic committee and in that way solve the problems, but it didn't work. We were too weak and the situation was too bad. The radical solution was to keep the library open longer on Friday nights, at the most difficult time. Doors were open until 2 or 3 in the night. Warm soup was served to the patrons at ten p.m. After many difficult situations and one big fight we were lucky to get our message through: the library is able to stand your attacks. You are allowed to come in, but you are not allowed to destroy and disturb.

In co-operation with municipal youth workers and adult volonteers - also the police were co-operative - the situation became better little by little. Some members of the gang were employed in the library, a football team was formed. One big part of the radical solution was to break down the wall between the library and the youth club next to it. Now after three years from the beginning of the night library it is still open on Fridays until ten in the night and also on Sundays. The combined library-youth club is a forum for the residents of Koivukylä with all kinds of happenings. There is an theatre group kalled Kipinä, which means Spark. The most difficult elements of the old library gang have disappeared, for instance to prison and to mental institutions.

The children's department of the main library became another working point for the idea of a radical library. Instead of having the librarians and the library assistants wasting their time on keeping up bureacratic work which is done as old professionalism has taught us, in a heavy and tiring style. Under economic crisis manpower is cut - and at the same time figures for loans go up. The employees are exhausted and pressure to cut down opening hours is heavy.

The radical solution found at the children's department was to keep the library more open. For four years now the children's department has been open 10 hours a day, every day of the week from ten in the morning to 8 in the evening (no siesta). On Christmas Eve we are open until midnight. I have never worked on Christmas Eve but there are enough people who are ready to do this because there seems to be a need for this kind of activity. Nobody has to work Saturdays and Sundays but many wants to because it also means that you are free for two days if you work on Saturday night, Sundays or Public Holidays. The working hours are controlled and regulated by the employees themselves and the time-card has been abolished. Manpower fluctuates where it is needed. Some of the employees of the other departments of the library has tried to stop the project of working Saturdays and Sundays by applying to the Worker's Unions but as long as the sraff of the children's department stand firm in their wish to open up the library on a wider basis the protests have not been successful. And the public likes it of course. Families can visit the libraries when they are free on Sundays but they would also like to visit the other departments and these have opened up a bit so that they are open on Sundays between 10 and 4 but not in the summer.

During four years about 150 young patrons from the age 13 upwards have been working in the children's library. This has been a great educational process for the staff and for the public. A more relaxed library has developed, a freer atmosphere. There is also a small cafe on Sundays run by a local society working for peace.

Perhaps the greatest change in our thinking is still only half way done: the library on-call. This means that both the library and the patrons are learning that the whole library machinery need not be operating when the doors are open. Only a minimum of staff are on duty during silent hours. On weekends the huge library building is open only via a small door to the children's library, but we try also to meet the needs concerning other departments.

During my nine years at the Vantaa City Library it seems like we have gone through a lot of stages. We have tried all kinds of work, ideas have come and gone. We have had puppet theatre, concerts, exhibitions, we have been working together with different kinds of organisations; organisations working for peace, for nature, for children, for culture and art. We have had writers visiting the library, we've had workshops in writing and children's literature, we had a computer club, we have had schools and professional artists exhibiting their work, we had a youth committee. We are open to all kind of activities but our basic activity is of course to provide books to children. In the 80s we wanted to have such a broad collection as possible. Now we are more radical. If a book is good and there is a demand for it we buy lots of copies of it, for example Pippi Longstocking we have thirty copies of and most of them are on loan. Videos for children are very popular too and they are too few and it doesn't seem like there would be any possibility to buy a lot in these very critical economical times. But then again maybe we want to put our priority to them. We are quite free to make our own solutions and so are all libraries in Finland which means that no library is exactly the same. We are all under economical pressure at the moment and we have different ways to attack the situation. Some close their doors other open up up a bit more. In 1985 The Finnish Library Association gave an award to the man which now promotes the idea of The radical Library for his work with youngsters in Hakunila where the youth committees were created. This spring the award was given to a librarian who has been promoting the idea of Book talks very successfully the last couple of years. The idea of booktalk is quite old already, and especially in The USA and in England Booktalks have been a important part of the librarians work. Now it seems like it would begin to be more accepted in Finland too. Some librarians actively goes to the schools because they want to promote reading, persuade children to borrow books and tell them about the fantastical world of books. Well a lot of people with different occupation go to school to tell about their profession, police, firemen etc. So why not the librarians. But it is of course quite time-consuming and not such an easy thing to do. But it gives satisfaction. Before I left here I talked to some people about what they thought were the most important thing happening in Finnish Children's libraries at the moment and the leading children's librarian in Helsinki told me that she thought that booktalk and presentation of books were the things that are important now. Much of the theoretical information which at one time took up most of the visits that schoolclasses paid at the library has been skipped in favour of presenting books and talking a bit more about every title. I have also been doing some booktalking in schools and one of my favourites in that situation is a old book by Jack London, The call of the wild, a book that works with most youngsters, if their over 10.

I would like to finish my talk with a presentation of some Finnish books, writers and illustrators, booktalk about the Finnish children's books of the 1990s but also go back a little to give some brief historical hints.

I'm not an expert on Finnish children's literature as I am working mostly with Swedish speaking children but in my role as international secratary of the Finnish Section of IBBY, International Board of Books for Young People, it has been one of my duties to promote Finnish books. We published a booklet called Finnish children's and youth books last year both in English and German for the IBBY congress in Berlin and most of what I say is quoted from that booklet. I have chosen my own favourites or books that I think are representative in some ways to Finland and therefore will tell you something of interest about us here in Spain.

The late 1980s represented a phase of assiduos effort, radical change and innovative experimentation for Finnish children's literature which, despite current economic pressures, continues to enjoy the firm, revitalised position it gained in this period.

Finnish publishing policies naturally reflect the general economic temperance of the 1990s. The process actually began even before the dawn of the new decade. Cuts and changes, as well as their consequences, have been affecting medium-sized publishers of books for the young for some time. This has created a more focused, more competetive environment which, despite its inevitable forfeits, also has its good points. For example, in 1991, the choice and quality of début books written for young people were of a much higher standard than before.

One characteristic of recently published works is the rise of literature directed at maturing young adults, a genre which has long lain at the bottom of the ocean of books for the young. The rise dates from 1989, when alongside a number of highly commendable novels, short prose in form of tales and stories began to appear. The consistently high quality of this type of work indicates that this form is here to stay.

In terms of content, authors are beginning to draw away from their emphasis on problem situations, a concentration for which Finnish literature for young readers has often been publicly upbraided and not without reason. This aspect has been replaced by greater and more diverse description of every-day life. Typical of the newer contexts is the young protagonist's resilience and self-reliance in contrast to the weakness of his or her parents. The most recent works also contain a great deal of pondering about ethical moral or even religious questions. Sharp and informed social criticism has established itself more firmly than before.

The popularity in Finland of the Famous Five and other such series from abroad is well-known. In addition, a wave of similar, purely Finnish series about the adventures of groups of friends has swelled successfully. Even before these, series of Finnish horseriding stories had proved fruitful, enjoying a continued and loyal following of readers among horse enthusiasts of all ages. The depiction of various other sports has also increased in books for both children and teenagers. Authors have tackled downhill skiing, ice hockey and ballet, among others. Less attention has recently been paid to general, realistic children's stories about every-day life. And Finnish comic books for young people are only just beginning to appear.

One particularly delightful phenomenon is the emergence of a new kind of Finnish fantasy novel. This genre often takes its inspiration from traditional folk tales and magic beliefs about nature. The plots often lead the reader into the distant past or through the episodes of a mystical journey. This type in particular, with its universal themes, would surely appeal to readers abroad in translation.

Finnish verse for children is currently characterised by a tribute to fond and familiar classics as well as by new names expanding the list of contemporary Finnish poets. The collected works of poets from grandmother's youth have been published as well as anthologies containing even older poets. The tribute to established names also applies to prose. The fairy tales of Zachris Topelius have been published in a new Finnish edition of very different appearance from earlier versions. Collections of various traditional fairy stories have also proved worth their weight.

In terms of both quantity and quality, The Finnish picture book, a genre which underwent significant transformation in the late 1980s, continues to attract authors and illustrators. Alongside artists who have earned their solid reputation many times over, such as Maija Karma, Kaarina Kaila, Hannu Taina, Pekka Vuori and Kristiina Louhi, many young artists with a fresh new style have made their appearance. These include for example Julia Vuori, Anu Vanas and Marjut Heikkinen. The current range of styles and subjects in Finnish book illustration is enormously varied. Critics have particularly remarked upon the artists' increasing individuality, vigour and boldness of expression in their work.

Humour has become an increasingly important feature in recent writing. There is also a continued demand for 'easy' books which help to train reading ability. At the same time, a growing number of more demanding books are being published, in which the content and style of the text are more complex. This is a recent feature in Finnish literature, and doubtless a natural development in a country with such a high level of literacy.

That introduction was mostly the words of the president Vuokko Blinnikka of the Finnish section of IBBY an international organisation that will become 40 years this autumn. The section in Spain is as probably most of you know OEPLI.

The Finnish section of IBBY has a prize given every three years for Finnish children's and young people's literature, published in Finnish or Swedish, of a high standard. The medal is called after an author who had a very great impact on the development of Finnish children's stories and books. Her name is Anni Swan and here you see a slide of the cover of one of her collections of plays for children, Puss in boots. But the important thing here is of course the illustration which is made by the grand old lady of Finnish illustrators for children, Maija Karma.

Maija Karma's career as an artist started at the end of 1930's. She is still active in the field. First and foremost, Maija Karma has illustrated Finnish fairy tales; generations of children recognize her trademark - a light, impressionistic style. She has illustrated more than 110 books as well as hundreds of book covers for literature for young people.

Watercolour and ink drawings as well as pencil drawings with thin light lines are very typical of her artwork. During the 1980s, she became fascinated by the possibilities of modern printing techniques, and she has created picture books, rich in colour, of classical Finnish fairy tales. Maija Karma is known for her illustrations of birds, animals, and subjects from nature, but especialy for her vivid, spontaneous pictures of children.

Maija Karma's illustrations of Topelius's fairy tales are part of the central tradition of Finnish children's culture. Even internationally, Maija Karma is recognized for her skills with pen and brush.

Zacharias Topelius is another great figure who had a very big impact on children's literature in Finland. His mothertongue was Swedish and he was very influential in his texts for schools. He worked as a teacher himself and wrote many plays especially designed to be performed at the fiestas at school, at Christmas and when school ended in the late spring. He also founded a newspaper for children and wrote a very influentual combined history-geography book about Finland long before Finland became independent. He also wrote a vast amount of stories and fairy tales for children and some of his most famous ones are situated in Lappland, that mystical Nortern part of Finland.

The Topelius Prize is Finland's oldest and most prestiguous award for children's literature; it was given for the first time in 1946.

Recently Veronica Leo has illustrated some of Topelius's arctic stories. Leo is especially skilful at contarasting different elements; happiness is expressed with light and impressionistic colours, while hard reality, even the faces of characters illustrated are black. In many of her works, Leo groups her characters like a puppet theatre scene and open up wide vistas. For instance, in Sampo Lappalainen (Sampo the Lappish boy), a famous fairy tale by Topelius she painted Sampo travelling in the moonlight, among groups of animals in a vast mountain range. In a later work, Tähtisilmä (Star-Eye), she puts her pictures on top of each other having broader scenes making a frame to the more detailed picture in front of it. Veronica Leo lives in Sweden nowadays but we still consider her as a Finnish illustrator as her themes and stories are very close to Finland, but they are of course Nordic in a broader sense.

The most famous author and illustrator of Finnish children's books must be Tove Jansson. Also she has Swedish as her mother-tongue but her books are Finnish even if they are written in Swedish. Most of you probably know Moomin as there has been an international animation series made on the Moomin trolls with Spanish Television being one of the producers. There is a Moomin boom at the moment in Finland and lots of things can be bought that has Moomin on them. My baby is using Moomin diapers, eat Moomin biscuits and drink a Moomin soft drink. Just to mention a very small part of the commercial aspect of modern Moomin who originally was white but now pop up in all kinds of different colours. The original Moomin to my mind is far better artistically than the modern television version.

Tove Jansson's works have been translated into 25 languages.In Finland she was awarded an honoury doctorate and in 1966, she recieved the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the most important international prize for children's literature given by IBBY.

Tove Jansson started her career as a painter. Being both an artist and an author has been a very fruitful combination in her work; she has portrayed a mythological world where illustrations follow a powerful story through the various phases of the adventure. In her first books, Jansson depicted the mythical world of the Moominvalley in great detail and in different styles; later her visual language became more uncomplicated and scetchy. Her picture books Vad hände sen? (What happened next) and Vem ska trösta Knyttet (Who will comfort Toffle?) were a real breakthrough in modern picture-book art in Finland. Jansson's clear colour surfaces, sharp contrasts, and stylized figures, most of whom are more abstract than real, are still a challenge today to the realistic picturebook tradition. When compared to the art of illustration of the 1980s, Tove Jansson represents classical modernism.

Art and picturebooks are not far apart. As librarians we are mostly better experts at words, texts, and even if we are fascinated by pictures in books we very often feel at loss when we have to describe them and analyse them. Even if we do not have such great painters and artists as Spain there was especially a period in the beginning of the century when Finnish art was very strong particularly nationalistic themes. At the National Museuem of Art, Ateneum, in Helsinki, many of these great pictures are exhibited and last year a book for children intended to guide them into the world of Finnish art and help them to understand the pictures was published by the Museum called Tunnetko? (Do you know?) where the young artist Julia Vuori hade been invited to paint her comments to this now classical Finnish art.

You see a very famous picture by Akseli Gallén Kallela called Lemminkäinen's mother, a motive from the Finnish National Epos Kalevala. The text says: Lemminkäinen was the wildest and most adventurous of all the Kalevala heroes. Although his mother warned him, he tried to achieve the most impossible: in order to win the virgin of the North Lemminkäinen tried to kill the swan of Tuonela, the immortal bird of the tales.

Lemminkäinen's mother is a picture depicting the moment when the mother has gotten her child, who has been unsuccessful at his task, out of the river of death, and the soul of life has not yet returned.

The picture is filled with symbols of death; the pale body of Lemminkäinen, his faced covered by a veil, the blackness of the river, the dark swan of death, stones made red from blood, the stony earth, the skull and the bones, the flowers of death. But in the picture there is also marks of the victory of life: golden sun-rays and the hero of the whole story, a golden bumble bee in the warmth of the sunrays. That small tiny bumble bee flew untiringly all around the world and succeeded finally to bring Lemminkäinens mother the lifegiving ointment.

Another way of approaching classical art is the way Mauri Kunnas has commented upon Kalevala and Gallén Kallela's art in his latest work The canine Kalevala.

Mauri Kunnas is one of Finland's best known children's authors. His books has been published in the USA, England, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Nordic countries: Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland, Switzerland and Canada. I don't know if there is anything by Kunnas in Spanish? Do you?

Kunnas's illustrations are charcaterized by humour and antics that make everyday happenings and even lofty and scary situations funny or at least less serious.

Quick sequences of events, rich details and an imaginative style are typical of Kunnas's work, which varies from cartoon to rich atmospheric drawings.

Kunnas is at home among brownies and spooks; he depicts his dogs' olympics and folk tradition with affection. Even Santa Claus appears in Kunnas's stories. Although his figures are fantastic beings or humanized animals, they clearly relate to the life of real human beings.

The same kind of craziness that characterizes Kunnas's books can be find in Pekka Vuori's books, the father of Julia Vuori that we saw in the Art book from Ateneum.

Pekka Vuori has enjoyed a long career as an illustrator and a graphic designer. For thirty years he has illustrated and designed books and newspaper layouts; in the 1980s he drew illustrations for the Helsingin Sanomat, Finlands largest newspaper.

He often chooses traditional fairy tales for his illustration work. Large colour surfaces, the playful manipulation of the size of objects and creatures and a powerful sense of humour are characteristic of his art work. Hullu hajusuola (Crazy smelling salts) is full of the absurdity of nonsense landscapes. the story begins with a girl, Ulla, climbing into the attic to write in her diary. Looking for something new to tell her diary, she starts exploring the attic and discovers a jar of smelling salts. She lets various people take a whiff from the jar with very interesting results. People's behaviour changes immediately and they begin to act strangely. The last person to inhale the salts is Father Christmas, and so even the Christmas festivities are turned upside down.

Pekka Vuori's art work is rich in colour and luxuriant forms, but is also characterised by a clear architectonic quality. In his latest work Romuluksen raketti ja pakettimatkat (The rocket- and pocket-trips of Romulus) is about the fraud Romulus who arranges sightseeing tours arounds the world. The suspicions of the travellers awake when Paris seems a little bit too deserted and when what the camels has left behind looks more like bullshit.

The nominee for the H.C. Andersen award in 1992 was Hannu Mäkelä. As well as being one of the foremost authors of children's books in Finland, Hannu Mäkelä has written prose and verse for adults. In recent years, he has published several works which fall into the cathegory of 'lyrical prose'. Their tone is both melancholic and optimistic. Mäkelä's work conveys the feelings and aspirations of children with great sensitivity: their loneliness, their longing for friendship, the power of their imagination. In Ukko Lumi (Father Snow) the author describes the friendship between a lonely little girl and a snowman. As the snowman disappears from her world she finds a friend for herself. The book has also been translated into German. It's delicate illustrations are by Kaariina Kaila, the Finnish H. C. Andersen nominee for illustration in 1992.

Kaariina Kaila has illustrated both modern Finnish children's books and classical fairy tales. She uses mostly watercolours, giving her expression a dreamlike and poetic quality. Her colours are muted and transparent but rich in hues. Soft lines and delicate miniatures, which bear great resemblance to medieval art, are typical for her illustrations. Hans Christian Andersen, whose philosophy is akin to her own melancholy artwork, has influenced her work significantly.

Kaarina Kaila has won several prizes both in Finland and in other countries, including a Golden Apple at the BIB in Bratislava in 1983.

Four years later Hannu Taina won the Grand Prix at Bratislava, which is almost as far as you can get in the world of illustrating for children. The book that gave him the prize was Herra Kuningas (Mister King) written by Raija Siekkinen.

Hannu Taina is a versatile graphic artist with a great deal of experience in advertizing. He started his free-lance career in 1975. In addition to children's books, Hannu Taina has illustrated many books for adults. He has also designed book layouts and 200 to 300 book covers among them one edition of Blyton's Fabulous Five series. Taina's illustrations of children's books tell the story in a quickly progressing, humorous way. His skilled gouache and watercolour illustrations of picturebooks based on Raija Siekkinens texts are more lyrical. He creates a fairy tale atmosphere in his almost transparent, but shaded and glasslike pictures. The structural design is based on light.

Last year Taina published the first book that he has also written the text to, Matti ja krokotiili (Matti and the crocodile). The story is about friendship between Matti and his fantasy crocodile; it is easy to tell the crocodile all the things that grown-ups consider phony or nonsense. The scene of the story takes place in an old workers barrio in Helsinki.

Old Helsinki is also depicted in a series about the barrio Kukkula (Hill Quarter) in Helsinki written by Maija Larmola and illustrated by Leena Lumme. The second part Kesätukka (Summer Haircut) is set in Helsinki in 1930, ten years after Finland had gained its independence. Despite shortages, people lived in an athmosphere of joyful liberty. New ideas and trends penetrated Finland from abroad and influenced the life-style of the capital.

The book portrays the life and times of the 1930s seen through the eyes of children. The fiction is as realistic as possible, but also full of warmth and humour. The narrative style and comic scenes counterbalance the wealth of factual information. We encounter both the everyday and the festive. As spring term comes to an end it is time to go to the hairdresser's and have a haircut - as short as possible - to celebrate the freedom and fun of the approaching summer. The book was awarded the Pier Paolo Vergese Premio Europeo last winter.

The third book in the series about Kukkula is Monosukka (Ski shoe sock) and Leena Lumme is one of the 6 Finnish candidates for the exhibition of children's book illustration in Bratislava this fall. Now the time depicted is the 1950s a time that even I can remember to some extent. The electric red paper Christmas star was very typical of that time and still is to a degree.

Another candidate for BIB in Bratislava this year is Markus Majaluoma, a young illustrator who has illustrated the very popular books about Strawhat and Feltslipper, two vivacious little girls that Sinikka and Tiina Nopola has written four books about. The books are free from adult moralizing and didactism. The first book begins as the two girls wonder why they are stuck indoors getting bored - and consequently decide to run away. It is a gleeful story of the girls' many varied experiences and exiting encounters. The second is about expecting a baby and the third is about a surprise visit by the children's grandfather. In the latest book their family is in need of a holiday, or that's what the two mischevious little girls want them to do.

The main idea in the books is that the difference between the logic of adults and that of children is emphasised, as well as the advantages of maintaining a sense of humour in solving problems. Sinikka and Tiina Nopola's books are not simply amusing adventure stories, but are almost sublime studies of life and human relationships.

Another little tough girl is introduced in Margareta Thun's Ängelungen (The Angel Child) The story begins with the death of Vera's four year old brother Ove. The book describes the families reaction and grief and how Vera, who is 7 years old deals with her brother's death. Vera thinks that her brother is still part of the world, she imagines that he now has taken the shape of an angel which only she can see. She remembers the good and the bad times they had together and does not only see the positive sides. In Vera's recollections Ove is sometimes a playful clown, sometimes mischevious and sometimes even a proper rascal. She remembers how he threw her sandals in the sea, how he stole granma's medice and gave it to the horses to eat, and how he spilled milk in the bathtub in order to see if their pet would turn white when swimming in it. Cris af Enehielm's unusual illustrations enchance this grasping story. Ängelungen was on The IBBY Honour list in 1992 as The Finnish Author candidate for books written in Swedish.

That same year the illustration candidate on the IBBY honour list was Outi Markkanen who in all her illustrations experiments with changes of size and form as well with surrealistic modifications of space. Her illustrations often depict graphic, surrealistic animals. Her attraction to surrealism may be the reason why she became an illustrator of modern children's poems of which Leena Laulajainen's Lumileopardi tanssi (The Snow leopard danses) and Yksisarvinen ja sadepuu (The unicorn and the raintree) belong to the foremost.

Leena Laulajainen is a talented writer who began her career in the early 1980s. Her works range from narrative prose, poetry and picture books to television and radio presentations and textbooks. Her series of picturebooks about a pink space hare are full of symbolism and resemble folk tales.

The first part of the series Alvar Avaruusjänis (Alvar the Space hare) focuses on a grey mother hare and her strange-coloured baby and on the difficulties they have adapting to their different appearance.
The Alvar series is characterised by the rich handling of the material. Laulajainen has a controlled, poetic style which is full of contrasts and imaginative language usage. The books are illustrated by Kristiina Louhi.

Colour is also the theme of another book illustrated by Louhi which was on the IBBY honour list in 1990, Taivaanpojan verkko (The Skyboy's net. Colour Tales.) written by Hannele Huovi. It is an unusual collection of fairy tales built around different colours. White is the story of cloudcotton. Blue is about the blue eyes of the girl Sinikka, a name actually derived from the Finnish word for blue. Green is the Skyboy's net in the spring and yellow is the dandelion. Although the eight stories in lovely pastel colours are modern, they still have much in common with traditional Finnish folklore.

Kristiina Louhi is best known for her stories about the little girl Aino which has been published in England, Germany, Holland and all the Nordic countries. This series depicts the everyday joys and sorrows of a little girl in a humorous, genuine way. Louhi's watercolour illustrations are expressive and clear, with bright and translucent colours. The modern freshness and simplicity in her art, especially in the way she decorates the clothing of her characters, are closely related to Finish design.

Hannele Huovi who had written the colour tales is a popular and active writer of fairy tales, poems and books for young people. Her work is imbued with a great sense of her love of nature, people and life in general. Huovi is not without humour in her literary exploits. This is obvious from her hillarious stories about two teddy bears, Urpo and Turpo. These two pranksters are always up to new tricks in the playroom, much to their own delight and to mum's annoyance. The illustrator Jukka Lemmetty is as cheerful and goodhumoured in his art as Huovi in her text.

Vladimirin kirja (Vladimir's book) is a novel for young people which relates the experiences of a young farm-boy who is brought up to become an adviser to the Russian Tsar and a governor of great power and riches. Vladimir's "pauper-to-prince" destiny is marked by both sympathy and cruelty , beauty and vileness, wealth and poverty. The story's fairy tale, poetic quality does not detract from its realism. The author eagerly strives to analyse the problems of power and freedom as well as the question of what is really important in life. The book was awarded the Anni Swan Medal in 1991, and is recommended for ages 10 and up.

Books for older children, at least more than 10 years of age are written by two other distinguished female authors.

Anna Liisa Haakana was the leading author of books for young people in the 1980s. She mostly described youngsters living in the North of Finland where the landscape and mentality is different from that of the southern part even if young people has to be confronted with the same problems of growing up as elsewhere in the world. The book depicted here is the Swedish version of her Kukka Kumminkin (A flower anyway) which I had the honour to translate, a very difficult job as the dialect up North is very distinct. The 14 year old Suvi is a punk girl who has a widowed mother with alcoholic problems which leaves Suvi responsible for much of the upbringing of her little sister. She loves her mother when she is sober, but hates her when she drinks and makes a nuisance of herself. When the mother meets a man who Suvi also becomes attracted to in a dim confusion as missing father/first lover the conflict explodes and Suvi almost drinks herself to death.

In Riitta Jalonen's first novel Enkeliyöt (Angel nights) there are some links to Haakana's book. Enkeliyöt is an unusual account of a young girl's gradual acceptance of her self. Vilja looks after her mother who is mentally ill. She is ashamed of her mother and although she is fiercely loyal, she keeps the truth about her mother's illness, as well as her own difficulties hidden from everyone, even her closest friend, Mana. Vilja spent part of her childhood in a children's home. It is a period of her life which she records in a personal diary, in an effort to exorcise the memory of her experiences there. Gradually her memories take form, and in the end Vilja, at the same time courageous and frightened, decides to take Mana with her on a journey into her secret past. She allows him to read her diary. This marks Vilja's first step towards revelation and trust, towards life. Enkeliyöt functions on many levels which form an artistic unity, making it enjoyable for teenagers and adults alike. The book was awarded the Topelius prize in 1990 and has been translated into Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

Books about boys maturing has been written by Timo Parvela and Esko-Pekka Tiittinen. Timo Parvela was on the IBBY honour list last year and Tiittinen will be there next year.

Poika (Boy) is a sophisticated novel for young people which places emphasis on the inner mind of the young boy, rather than on external events. A boy, just named Boy grows up to become a man. He starts to be interested in the other sex and meets Girl. He is not very sure of himself and the reader gets to know him through his thoughts and interior monologues; there are many situations in which he does not know what to do or how to react. Boy's relationship with his parents is tense and the only members of the family he can relate to are Grandfather and Dog. Poika is an unusual book for adolescents, dealing with a usual topic. The writer shows an extraordinary command of modern Finnish and he conveys his protagonists thoughts in a fresh and authentic language not often found in books for young people.

Esko-Pekka Tiitinen's Parempi valita susi (Better to choose the wolf) is a teenage novel about a few months in the life of a boy called Risto. It traces his development over one autumn until Christmas. Risto gets bored of school and applies for a job in an old people's home. He longs for freedom in order to ponder his own life. Distancing himself from school and his parents seems an essential part of that. Risto's job marks a new phase in life. Freedom and responsibility are not as easy as they look, but they make surviving the problems feel even better. The boy has time to think; he wants to have brains enough for philosophy.

Tiitinen's protagonist is a new kind of male hero in Finnish teenage literature. Risto's development toward adulthood emerges not as an uncontrolled frenzy, but as the courage to create a philosophy of life for himself. Told in the first person, the narrative successfully reveals the boy's innermost thoughts to the reader. An optimistic sense of humour and the authentic description of the pains of growing up make this novel an enlivening reading experience...

Well dear listeners this was only a very small part of Finnish literature for children and young people but I hope that you have found it interesting enough to take part of this short survey. When I looked for the books at the shelves of the children's library where I work I also looked for Spanish books that were represented in our collections and I must say that there were not very many. But then again how many Finnish books do you have in your libraries with perhaps the exception of Moomin.