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At the beginning of 2010, new higher education legislation was enacted in Finland which caused several university mergers. In addition to that, a self-directed type of organizational restructuring had been going on in Finnish academic libraries. This chapter describes the merger and the restructuring processes of the libraries in three universities, namely Helsinki University, University of Eastern Finland, and the University of Turku. Using a case study approach, the chapter describes different approaches used in the merger process, particularly how to manage service integration, resource reallocation and planning, and implementing new types of services. Performance measures and indicators are among the tools used to assess the successes, particularly in direct services to library users. Although this is based on Finnish experiences, it is helpful for other libraries considering, or engaging in, similar mergers, because of the given examples and tools for the actions needed for new structures and services. Also described are the challenges that three libraries met in the strategic work of reshaping of their organizational structures. While this chapter addresses library mergers only in universities, the methods and tools used will provide models for other types of libraries and nonprofit organizations.

Open access to scientific publications is in this study looked at from the perspective of Finnish biomedical research. In the study we outline the development of open access in Finland and the different channels for open access publishing as well as the recommendations from officials. We argue that the discipline-specific patterns of communicating research should be taken into account when studying open access adoption, and when planning for initiatives and recommendations. We have in the case study on the prevalence of open access articles on the Internet, in the field of biomedical research, found that incentives to publish in open access channels could be developed and that the impact of open access in research publishing is growing and therefore future research is needed.

The Department of Nationality Literatures of the Russian National Library (RNB) in Saint Petersburg is a unique repository of publications in diverse languages of the peoples of the former USSR. In the collections are works in the Latvian language not to be found in Riga, works in the Tatar language not to be found in Kazan, and so on. Over the course of many decades academic researchers from all over the world have worked with these collections. Following the breakup of the USSR, the relevance of new functions for the department become apparent. First, as the nationality communities in Saint Petersburg came to life, many people were drawn back to their own ethnic roots. The Department of Nationality Literatures serves, in its own way, as a national center for representatives of nationality communities. Second, the need to promote tolerance is important in Russia today. The Department brings into the public eye the cultural riches of diverse peoples and, in that way, promotes mutual understanding and tolerance. The results of a sociological study have been employed to determine the role of the Department in current changing sociocultural conditions.

Purpose — The purpose of this study is to describe the development of contents, visibility and use of two Library 2.0 services, Häme-Wiki and the Virtual Path map service, launched by Hämeenlinna City Library and based on crowdsourcing, service convergence and the application on Web 2.0 technology.

Design/methodology/approach — The development of the contents of the services were analysed by observing the increase in articles and other items published in them. The interest in these sites and their use were studied by the number of their contributors, users and downloads and by link analysis concerning inbound links. To gather users’ experiences, a Web survey was directed to the registered users by e-mail. A questionnaire for all users was linked to the front page of both services. Qualitative theme interviews were conducted with the staff of Hämeenlinna City Library to elicit their experiences concerning the use of the services and their impact on the work community.

Findings — The reception of the services was evidenced by the daily increasing number of published articles and maps, also indicating crowdsourcing. Their use was clearly described by the increasing download figures and inbound links. Both services offered users information not available elsewhere.

The study is limited by the low number of responses in the Web surveys.

Practical implications — Practical implications originate from the concrete examples of content sharing, crowdsourcing and service convergence which have not been much studied in library context.

Originality/value — The practical implications of the work also contribute to the value of the paper for developers of Web 2.0 services and service convergence.

Drawing mainly on the ideas of Manuel Castells, this article discusses how globalization and informatization condition the development of public libraries. To explore this issue, recent public library strategies developed in Britain and Finland are analyzed. The analysis demonstrates how public libraries stand for structures that support and consolidate life forms in local communities that need to adjust to contextual changes. In this way, public libraries serve as mediating and filtering mechanisms in local-global interaction. To do this they may utilize the tools derived from the following four strategic options: institutional resource strategy; networking strategy; commercialization strategy; and civil society strategy. Whatever is the strategic choice or their mix at the national or local level, it seems essential that libraries utilize the potential of a hybrid library, which as a new library paradigm combines traditional local dimension with networked and ubiquitous library services.

Quality management was introduced to the European higher education with the decision made by European Union Ministers of Education in Bologna, year 1999. This paper describes its effect on the Kuopio University Library, Finland. Quality management has been used in the library as a tool for reorganizing the management, as well as, a tool for marketing and improving customer oriented library and information services.

Public libraries are incubators for collective action in the knowledge economy. As three case studies from the United States and Singapore demonstrate, public libraries can serve as influential champions that garner financial resources, communicate an urgent need for change, and respond to the unmet information and economic needs of marginalized individuals and communities. In the Raise Up Radio (RUR) case, public librarians engaged schools, museums, youth, and families in rural communities to develop and deliver STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) content over local radio stations. In collaboration with organizational partners, RUR librarians created a model for library-community-radio projects for the rural United States. In the What Health Looks Like (WHLL) case, public librarians engaged senior citizens in discussions of health and the creation of health comics. In partnership with an interdisciplinary health research team, WHLL librarians developed a pilot for library-community-public health projects aimed at information dissemination and health narrative generation. In the Singapore shopping mall libraries case, the National Library Board (NLB) created public libraries in commercial spaces serving working families, senior citizens, and the Chinese community. The NLB developed an exportable model for locating information centers in convenient, popular, and useful business spaces. These case studies demonstrate how libraries are nodes in the knowledge economy, providing vital services such as preservation of cultural heritage, technology education, community outreach, information access, and services to working families, small- and medium-size businesses, and other patrons. In the years to come, public libraries will be called upon to respond to shifting social norms, inequitable opportunities, emergencies and disasters, and information asymmetries. As the cases of RUR, WHLL, and the shopping mall libraries show, public librarians have the vision and capacities to serve as influential champions for collective action to solve complex problems and foster sustainable development and equitable participation in the knowledge economy.