The Library of the Labour Movement (Työväenliikkeen kirjasto) is a special library located in Helsinki, Finland. The library’s diverse collection is open for everyone and broadly focuses on the labour movement, trade unions and labour history.
- Printed collections are catalogued into the HELKA database
- Digitised material can be found in the HELDA digital archive
Regular opening hours
Tuesday 10:00 – 17:00
Wednesday 10:00 – 17:00
Thursday 10:00 – 16:00
Friday 10:00 – 16:00
Self-service from 10:00 until 12:00. The library is closed on mondays.
Contact details
Address
Library of the Labour Movement
Sornaisten rantatie 25 A 1
00500 Helsinki, Finland
email: perinne (at) tyovaenperinne.fi (front desk)
tel. (+358) 09766429 (during opening hours)
For interlibrary loans, please contact us at our e-mail address listed above. We accept IFLA-vouchers.
Library Director
Tuija Siimes, tuija.siimes (at) tyovaenperinne.fi
Collections
When the library was founded, the Finnish Labour Archives and People’s Archives donated their libraries almost entirely to it. The most important parts of the book and booklet collections are the materials of the (mainly Finnish) labour movement and trade union organisations, ideological literature, biographical studies, business and cooperation of the labour movement, and working-class culture (theatre, music, sport, tradition, cultural work, press and fiction). The collections also include among other things literature on working life and general political and historical literature. There are about 120 000 monographies and 30 000 booklets in the library’s collections.
The periodicals collection consists of magazines published by labour movement organisations and other periodicals. There are about 5.000 titles in the collection. The video collection, with about 180 titles, consists of films that deal with mainly the Finnish labour movement.
New acquisitions are focused on social policy and history, as well as literature on working class history and labour movement.
The materials donated by the two archives have been partially catalogued, alphabetically and/or systematically. Newer materials are catalogued in databases. There are now about 90 000 book titles and about 3000 periodical titles in the databases. Printed catalogues on some special collections are available also in digitized form in the Helda-database.