Pasila library is the main library and has a larger collection than any branch library in Helsinki. Our literature collection contains fiction from all periods and genres, and the non-fiction section is kept as up-to-date as possible. On the open shelves there are 200.000 volumes and downstairs in the book stacks about as many. The book stacks have open doors days once a week, but the material is available anytime.
Movies, talking books, music, lots of electronic publications… you name it, we have it!
Pasila library subscribes to more than 600 periodicals and 70 newspapers. They are always available because we do not lend them out. Old periodicals and newspapers are stored and available as microfilms or bound in covers. There are also over 100 periodicals for borrowing.
Special collections
If you are looking for information about Helsinki City or the Metropolitan area, you will find it in the Helsinki Collection in Pasila library. Here we have over 13.000 volumes concerning the capital city: old books from as early as the 1860s as well as the newest publications, maps, surveys, district histories and so on. These materials are for reference use only.
For more information about the Helsinki Collection, please consult the information service department, tel. (09) 31085001. You can also easily check the collections from HelMet Web Library.
Pasila Library maintains a Multilingual Library as a nationwide service. Thus, we offer books and other materials in over 70 languages. We serve the immigrants in the Metropolitan area and lend collections in foreign languages to other libraries anywhere in Finland.
The stored materials from Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen and Vantaa City Libraries are kept in the HelMet Book Stacks. There are over 200.000 volumes of books and 900 periodicals in the stacks. The stacks are situated downstairs in Pasila Library.
Most of the material stored in the stacks has been sold out and is therefore not easily available elsewhere. Although primarily Finnish books are stored in the stacks, there are also lots of books in other languages. Most materials in the book stacks can be borrowed, but the periodicals and some books are meant for reference use only.
Musical recordings, sheet music and books about music are stored in the HelMet Music Stacks in Vantaa City Library in Tikkurila. An even larger collection of stored books and other materials is available from National Repository Library in Kuopio.