User regulations for the HelMet Library
HelMet is an abbreviation of the words Helsinki Metropolitan Area Libraries. The residents of the cities of Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen, and Vantaa have the right to use library services in any of the cities mentioned above.
Library open for everyone
You are welcome to the library to borrow, to sojourn, to study, to use appliances, to read magazines and books or to participate in different events and literary evenings.
The library offers you free of charge versatile collections, modern appliances and information retrieval methods, library facilities and the expertise of the staff members.
You need a valid library card and PIN code to use the library services.
User regulations
Please read the user regulations and keep them safe. The valid user regulations are available also at the www.helmet.fi website.
When you receive a library card or when you accept being a guarantor, you are committed to follow these user regulations and the potential changes of the regulations.
Appliances provided at the library and their user rights have separate instructions and rules, which are available on the homepages of the city libraries.
Let’s improve the service together
If you have any kinds of hopes or comments concerning the collections, activities or service, please present them to a staff member at the library in question or at the address www.helmet.fi in the HelMet Web Library.
Library card and PIN code How to get a library card
You can get a personal library card, the right to borrow and a PIN code at any HelMet library or mobile library. You will get a card, when you state your address and present a valid ID card with a photograph and personal identity number accepted by the library. To be able to receive a library card you need an address in Finland.
The first library card is free of charge.
If you do not have a Finnish personal identity number, your library card is valid for six months at a time.
A person younger than 15 years of age can get a library card with a written consent of the person’s guardian or another consenting adult acting as a guarantor. The guarantor is responsible for the material that has been borrowed with the library card of a person younger than 15 years of age.
A day-care center, school, other institution or community can get a library card for one year at a time with the written consent of a consenting adult acting as a guarantor. The guarantor is responsible for the material that has been borrowed with the library card of an institution or community.
A person who has lost his/her borrowing rights cannot act as a guarantor.
The library card is personal
You are responsible for the items that have been borrowed with your library card. In order to prevent the misuse of your library card you can ask that the employee in loan services always checks the identity of the borrower. Lending by the automatic lending machine is protected with your PIN code.
A staff member of an institution or community can use the institution’s or community’s library card with the consent of the guarantor of the institution or community.
Inform the library immediately about the disappearance of your library card
You must inform the library immediately about the disappearance of your library card. This responsibility also concerns the guarantor. If you have lost your library card, you can call the telephone number 09-310 85309 when the libraries are closed and leave a message in the answerphone.
You are not responsible for the material that has been borrowed with the lost card after you have informed the library that the library card is missing.
A library card that has been reported lost is removed from use. A new library card is subject to a charge.
How to get the PIN code
In addition to the library card you also need a PIN code, when you wish to use the automatic lending machine and when you wish to look at what you have borrowed, to renew the loans or to reserve material in the HelMet Web Library. The PIN code is also needed for other electronic services and for the use of customer computers. You will get the PIN code in person from the library or the mobile library.
Contact information must be up-to-date!
You must notify the library without delay about the changes of your address, email address and your name. You can check your contact information on the website www.helmet.fi.
To check the information in the customer register
You have the right to check the information on you that has been entered in the library’s customer register. You can check the information when you have proved your identity by presenting a valid ID card with a photograph and personal identity number accepted by the library.
If you are a guarantor, you have the right to check the information concerning the institution or community. As a guarantor, you have also the possibility to receive information on the overdue loans and unpaid fees of a person under 15 years of age. You can check the information when you have proved your identity by presenting a valid ID card with a photograph and personal identity number accepted by the library.
The relationship between the library and the customer is confidential
The library is responsible for the accuracy of the customer register. The personal information on the borrower and the guarantor is recorded in the common customer register of the City Libraries of Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen, and Vantaa. It is the library’s responsibility that the customer register is in accordance with the Personal Data Act.
In accordance with the Personal Data Act, the library has the right to record the customer’s personal identity number into the register. The register report is on view at the libraries and on the website www.helmet.fi.
Loans, returns and renewals
Amount of loans
You may not have more than 40 items at the same time on loan. Of this amount, you may not have more than 5 console games, 5 Blu-Ray discs and 5 DVDs.
Please note that the age limits prescribed by the Finnish Board of Film Classification are followed in the lending of visual recordings and the age limits recommended by the Finnish Board of Film Classification and the Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) are followed in the lending of console games.
Loan periods
The general loan period is 28 days.
The exceptions on the general loan period:
- Bestseller material seven (7) days
- DVDs and videocassettes seven (7) days
- The loan period for the most demanded music CDs can be seven (7) days.
You will receive a preliminary reminder concerning the due date two days before the due date if you have a functioning email address in the customer register of the library and you have selected email as the mailing method. You can also receive a notice by ordering a text message subject to a charge.
Renewals
You can renew your loans three (3) times at the HelMet Web Library, library or mobile library if the material has not been reserved. You cannot renew Bestseller material. In force majeure situations the library will not be responsible for the consequences of unsuccessful renewals if it concerns a technical failure or a failure in the network.
Returns
Please return your loans on the due date at the latest. You can return the material to any HelMet library during its opening hours. If you wish you can get a receipt of the return.
Some libraries have so-called returning boxes. If you return items via the returning box when the library is closed, you cannot get a receipt because the loans are not registered as returned into the library system this way. The library staff records the items returned via the returning box as returned only on the next opening day of the library. Items returned in the returning box can result in penalty fees until the returns are recorded.
It is your own responsibility if you return your loans via the returning box.
You will lose the right to borrow
- if you have not returned the items you have borrowed and 28 days have passed since the loan period ended
- if you have lost or damaged the material of the library
- you fail to pay your penalties when they have amounted to or exceeded the sum indicated in the payments attachment
If the library has outstanding fees from a borrower who has started the process of a loan arrangement, no actions toward the debtor may be taken to collect debts belonging to the freezing of payments or to secure the payment. Already started actions may not be continued. In the case of a debt like this, the debtor may not be targeted by the loss of borrowing rights due to a delay in payment.
You will regain your borrowing rights
- by returning the items that are late
- by compensating for lost or damaged items
- by paying accumulated fees
If you do not pay the fee at the library, the returning of the borrowing rights can take about a week. The borrowing rights are returned only after the library has dealt with the payments in its own bookkeeping.
If the payment has been transferred to a collection office the borrowing rights are returned only after the collection office has made the payment to the library’s account and the library has checked the payment.
Reservation
You can reserve material either at the HelMet Web Library or at the library. You can reserve material that is on the shelf by telephone without a reservation fee if you collect the material yourself from the library in question.
You may not have more than 30 valid reservations at the same time. For customers 18 years of age or older, reservations are subject to a charge. No reservation fee is debited for material in the children’s and teens’ department. You will receive a notice concerning reservations ready for picking up by a letter or email, or by ordering a text message subject to a charge.
You cannot reserve materials from the reference library or Bestseller material.
Material that has not yet been registered into the collections of the library cannot be reserved in advance.
Order an interlibrary loan
You can order an item as an interlibrary loan from elsewhere in Finland or abroad if the item is not available in the collections of any city library or in the collections of the scientific or special libraries in the metropolitan area. The library provides interlibrary loans in accordance with the valid interlibrary loan regulations and fees.
Payments and collection
A penalty fee is debited for an item you return or renew after the due date. The penalty fee accrues every calendar day after the due date until it reaches the maximum amount. No penalty fee is debited for material from the children’s and teens’ departments. Collection fees are debited, in addition, for items that have been transferred to collection services, and this concerns also items from the children’s and teens’ departments.
The most important fees that are debited at the library are specified in the appendix of the user regulations listing library fees.
You must compensate for lost or damaged material. Instructions to compensate for material are included in the appendix of fees enclosed to the user regulations.
Reminders
The first reminder concerning items that are overdue is sent 14 days after the due date, the second reminder 28 days after the due date. The first reminder can be also received by email.
The HelMet library system sends reminders on unpaid payments in order to avoid the expiration of the debt.
Collection
The library uses a collection office to collect outstanding payments. The outstanding payments are transferred from the HelMet library system to a collection office used by each city library in question approximately 60 days after the due date. The collection concerns also material borrowed by a person under 18 years of age and children’s and teens’ material. The guarantor is responsible for the material that has been borrowed with the library card of a person younger than 15 years of age.
The collection office is determined in accordance with the ownership of the material, i.e. which city library owns it. More information on collection can be found in the appendix of fees.
NB!
The library is not responsible for damages which the recordings you have borrowed possibly have caused to your appliances or to those damages the library appliances have caused to a third person.
Loss of user rights
The loss of user rights refers to a fixed term prohibition to use the library in cases when the customer acts disruptively towards the staff members or another customer despite forbiddance. The loss of user rights can last from one day to three months. The library director or a staff member of the library authorized by the director can order the loss of user rights.
Before the ordering of the loss of user rights the parties will be reserved the chance to be heard. In minor situations the prohibition regarding the loss of user rights will be ordered orally, otherwise it will be ordered in writing. The prohibition will be recorded in the customer register of the library and the record will be removed when the user rights are returned after the fixed term.
The application and validity of the user regulations
These user regulations are applied at the city libraries in Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen, and Vantaa after the city libraries in the respective cities have approved the regulations. The amendment of the regulations requires identical decisions.
The mobile libraries, institutional libraries and the home services of libraries apply these user regulations when applicable.
These user regulations repeal the user regulations approved on 15.5.2008. These user regulations will enter into force on 1.3.2010 and will be valid until further notice. The period of notice is six (6) months.
Please read also:
Fees of the city libraries in Espoo, Helsinki, Kauniainen and Vantaa:
Rules and instructions concerning appliances and their user rights:
Interlibrary service rules and fees:
Homepages of the libraries