Electronic Libraries: Creation of Finno-Ugric Digital Library

The meeting of Moscow librarians and representatives of The National Library of Finland (NLF) has taken place at the Central Universal Scientific Library named after N.A. Nekrasov, in Moscow, on April 10, 2013, with the support of Finland Consulate in Russian Federation.

The digitization of the Finno-Ugric heritage within the framework of Kone Foundation linguistic program was covered in the lecture of research center specialist Jussi-Pekka Hakkarainen. Founded in 1956, the Koneen Säätiö - Kone Foundation is an independent non-governmental organization, promoting research work in humanities, social sciences and environmental sciences, as well as in the field of art and culture in Finland. One of the main strategies of the Kone Foundation is to strengthen the position of the Finnish language and the national minorities’ languages ​of Baltic region. Basing on grants awarded by Kone Foundation in 2012-13, the National Library of Finland, Russian National Library and the Russian National Library Resource determine the amount of digitized materials in the Finno-Ugric languages: about 7000 pages of monographs on Izhorskii and Veppsian languages, and almost 20,000 pages of Mari and Mordovia texts published in the 1920-30's newspapers.

Irma Reyenen, a head of NLF Slavonic Library, dedicated her speech to the history of establishment and the work of the largest in the world repository, specifically highlighting the creation of a new search engine system called “Finna”. NLF digital funds include the newspapers and magazines from 1771-1910 years, 5000 sound recordings (300 available online), the maps from the collection of the famous Swedish traveler Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, fiction in Finnish and Swedish.