To (too?) Public: library Marketing and Public Relations in Public Libraries Today. Presentation by Hannu Sulin, Counsellor for Cultural Affairs, Division for Cultural Policy, Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland.

1. Twin Cities Conference in Tallinn 4.5.2011
ADVOCATING LIBRARIES USING NATIONAL STRATEGIES AND POLICIES
Hannu Sulin, Counsellor for Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Education and Culture
Dear friends and colleagues from Estonia, Scotland and Finland. It is a great honor to be here in
Tallinn and to tell you, how libraries can and should use national strategies and policies in
advocating and promoting public libraries and because of that, I am specially concentrating on the
municipality level and therefore on the municipal decision-makers. In Finland the municipalities
have the responsibility to organize basic services for instance health and social care, pre- and
comprehensive education and public library services.
In my presentation I use arguments from our legislation, strategies and other policies to show that
it is useful and most important to explain and argue to the decision-makers that library services are
worth of investing. During my professional years I have noticed that too many library directors are
mostly inside the library instead of going out from the library to be there where decisions are
prepared. Excuse me, but we have been too inward and thought that all the people love our
libraries and that is enough, but with love and sympathy you do not get that money. C´est la vie!
In our country library services are municipal basic and nearby services. The library services
actualize the basic cultural rights, as stated in the Constitution of Finland, of each and every
citizen. And now, more than ever, libraries must strive to achieve intellectual equality and reduce
the digital information gap between citizens.
I shall read a citation from The Constitution of Finland:
“Section 16 - Educational rights
Everyone has the right to basic education free of charge. Provisions on the duty to receive
education are laid down by an Act.
The public authorities shall, as provided in more detail by an Act, guarantee for everyone equal
opportunity to receive other educational services in accordance with their ability and special
needs, as well as the opportunity to develop themselves without being prevented by economic
hardship.
The freedom of science, the arts and higher education is guaranteed.”
When I give reasons to the decision-makers concerning the importance of library services, I start
very often from the basic cultural rights and continue then with our library legislation, because the
connection between both acts represent to me continuity.

2. The first Library Act came into force in 1929. Citizens´ right to services of quality regardless of
domicile or financial standing was emphasized from the very beginning. Later amendments of the
Act have been signals of societal changes and new paradigm.
The Library Act of 1961 came into force when the building of Finnish welfare society started and
brought the idea of the nearby library as well as substantial state subsidies for upkeep of services,
for constructing new library buildings and mobile libraries. Provincial libraries were established, a
network of well-resourced city libraries that support the smaller libraries in the area.
The Library Act of 1998 is strongly linked to the knowledge society. Public libraries had been
developing virtual services since 1995, heavily supported by the state. Since then state grants
have been allocated annually for developing contents and user friendly services on the web.
I shall pick up specially the last paragraph from Library Act 1998 Section 2:
“1. The objective of the library and information services provided by public libraries
is to promote equal opportunities among citizens for personal cultivation, for
literary and cultural pursuits, for continuous development of knowledge,
personal skills and civic skills, for internationalization, and for lifelong learning.
2. Library activities also aim at promoting the development of virtual and
interactive network services and their educational and cultural contents.”
This paragraph has given to us the legitimacy to allocate the state subsidies to the virtual library
services and it has also helped the public libraries explain to the munipal decision-makers, why
they should invest on web-services.
According to the Library Act users shall have access to library and information professionals, and
to continually renewing library material and equipment. Library services are free of charge. The
Library Decree defines the role of the Central library for public libraries and the 18 provincial
libraries, as well as the assignments of the library experts at the State Provincial Offices. The
Decree enacts about qualification requirements for the staff.
It is a statutory task to the municipalities in Finland to provide public library services for the citizens
and this makes it possible that library directors can give good reasons to the further development
of library services, but of course this is not enough. Many personal and social skills are needed,
but I reckon we can not handle the matter without wider perspective and societal connections. I
give you an example. Last year I was speaking in the meeting in Helsinki (Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation), where were many participants from the developing countries and from Eastern
Europe outside EU. One participant asked what kinds of words she should use to advocate

3. libraries on the government level. I suggested “libraries are good for business”. And why? Because
in the countryside of the developing countries the information technology infrastructure is not very
good, so it is reasonable to invest to the libraries. For instance farmers and other small
entrepreneurs can use library premises in their business. And by making some money they can
send their children to school, which is important especially for the girls – the future is in their hands
in many countries. And of course good business is good for libraries. You only need to read about
American and English library history in order to understand that many of the libraries were founded
over one hundred years ago by rich donators as Andrew Carnegie (born in Scotland 1835 as our
Scottish friends know).
Dear friends!
The libraries are inside the society and they have to change when the society is changing. The
changes should be procactive. The future is done right now, it does not come by itself. That is why
we need national strategies, policies and priorities to improve, promote and advocate the libraries.
After the Library Act 1998 the ministry started to work with Finnish Library Policy Programme. It
was published in 2001 and it identifies challenges arising in the civil information society and
suggested concrete solutions to them. The programme strongly pointed out that as certain
assignments were given to public libraries with the Library Act, there should be corresponding
resources. Measures should be taken to gear up library funding, personnel resources and
technological capacity. Recommendations were given out for material acquisition, number of
personnel and Internet terminals, indicating a service level that should be possible to achieve for all
municipalities.
The Library Strategy 2010, a policy for access to knowledge and culture was issued in 2003 as one
of the first European library strategies. The strategy presented visions and objectives to ensure
access to knowledge and culture, outlining the responsibilities of local authorities and the state.
The importance of a skilled staff and the specific role of libraries in the knowledge society was
brought forth:
"A first prerequisite for developing information provision for all is that skilled staff be available;
then, an up-to-date standardised technological infrastructure must be in place for all types of
libraries. After that, the emphasis falls on developing web-services that correspond to the citizens´
need for information."
There was parliamentary election the following year and the strategy was referred to in the
Government platform.

4. The Library Development Program 2006 - 2010 − the library as an integrated service centre for
rural and urban areas carried on the action plan of the Library Strategy 2010. It also responded to
the proposal made in a national policy paper for developing the regions to transform public libraries
in rural areas into cultural, information and action centres. The driving forces behind the program
were new user needs and lifestyles, new possibilities created by technologies as well as the aim to
deepen regional cooperation. Many of the rural libraries are small and not very well resourced. The
Program stressed also the importance of a skilled library staff and comprehensive collections and
services.
And finally The Finnish Public Library Policy 2015 from 2009, which is a national volition, aiming at
political visibility and secured financial support for public libraries. The Policy brings forth the library
as a basic service implementing along with comprehensive education the basic cultural rights,
which the Constitution guarantees for each and every citizen.
For the first time, libraries are clearly placed in a situation, where they have to compete with other
actors in the field of information provision and they also have to compete for people´s time.
Future success must be earned. To succeed, libraries must produce added value, something that
the others are not able to offer. Library Policy 2015 emphasizes that libraries can answer to future
challenges only by focusing on expertise and emphasizing quality.
With the drafting of the Library Policy 2015 program, it became clear that the previous quality
recommendations and goals for public libraries had to be revised. In the spring of 2009 the Ministry
of Education and Culture appointed a workgroup to renew the quality recommendations. The
workgroup consisted of representatives from public libraries and state administration. The basis for
the work was the quality recommendations from the library policy program from 2001. These
recommendations have since been partially modified and have been used widely as a tool for local,
regional and national evaluation.
The workgroup drew up a presentation of a national set of criteria for quality for public library
operations, which observes local and regional conditions and which generate tools for libraries’
self-evaluation. The drafting of a national library services quality recommendation is the agenda of
the Ministry of Education and Culture, and it clarifies the rights of the library user and the
availability, accessibility and quality of the services. High quality library and information services
provide timely and economic benefits and positive, lasting social change. The quality

5. recommendation is a logical continuation of the previous recommendations and goals and it
supports the implementation of national library policy agendas.
So, maybe some of you already wonder, where is the beef of this presentation, because I do not
give any examples or advices, how to market libraries. Dear participants, we have worked in the
ministry consistent to give to the libraries a clear framework, from which libraries can choose their
own priorities, when they are marketing and advocating their libraries to the local decision-makers,
media and of course users and non-users. In Finland municipalities are very independent and
many of them are still rather small. To provide equal library services we need national strategic
areas of focus and we should use them constructive and coherent
Dear friends!
I said earlier, the future is done right now and if we work on it together, the result is much better.
Our mission is crystal clear: to assure the equal access of information and culture. This social
mission has lasted for centuries and it will last in the future. But we do need global, national,
regional and local strategies and priorities, which are based on the main policies of our mission. I
am almost finished, but finally I can give you one advice when the backgrounds of our existence
are under control, the sky is the limit, when you are marketing your libraries.
As some have noticed, I have not used the word “vision”. I googled the word from the Finnish web-
sites and I got over one million results and the population in Finland is about 5,3 million inhabitants.
I admit to be guilty of populism and exaggeration, but in Finnish dictionary vision means
hallucination. The visions are based on 20 keywords and they are quite similar. I really do not
mean that all the visions of the public libraries are useless, but if they are not based on the basic
civic rights and social and cultural values in the society, maybe they are only results of poor
consults. To make a good vision, we should know, why libraries were founded and why people still
use them, that is simple, but basic deal – remember the mission, because the public libraries are
financed by the public funds - taxes. I admit to be in this question a pragmatist, but I remind you
that our theme is how to market libraries and here the decision-maker level is quite important,
because from them you can get that money and resources. Once again, sympathy is not enough.
Finally, my message is quite simple; in marketing public libraries we have to understand our
mission and see our possibilities to serve our citizens in the future and then something that makes
everything possible – our personal expertise, spirit and passion. The future is in our hands.
Thank you for listening!