Finland: Helsinki University Library

Helsinki University Library is the largest multidisciplinary university library in Finland. The Main Library at the City

Centre Campus is located in the Kaisa House. The Main Library serves the fields of arts, educational sciences, law, theology and social sciences. It also contains the area studies collections, including collections on Asian Studies on the 6th floor. An overview of their location can be found on the library’s homepage.

The majority of Asian studies books is located in the general collection. The collection covers all of Asia and includes for example several classes dedicated to Turkic and Mongolian languages.

The oldest books in the library are located in the Student Nations’ Collection, which is held in closed storage. The Student Nations’ Collection is only partly catalogued in the library database but a card catalogue is available. Classes of interest to Asian Studies are:

09 A            Geography

09 B            Maps
08 H            History of Africa and Near East
08 I              History of Asia
10 E 2         Other Indo-European Languages
10 G            Semitic and Hamitic languages
10 H            Other Asian, African and American languages
11 A            Ancient Oriental literature

These classes include about 140 Western books on Asia, mostly from the 19th century, and a few examples from the 18th century.

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