Libraries and Reading in Finnish Military Hospitals during the Second World War

Mäkinen, Ilkka

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/3711 Copy

Description

Title

Libraries and Reading in Finnish Military Hospitals during the Second World War

Author(s)

Mäkinen, Ilkka

Issue Date

2007

Keyword(s)

• Libraries and society
• World War II
• Libraries in Finland
• Military hospitals

Abstract

The ground for library work in Finnish military hospitals during World War II was prepared before the war by three different traditions of library activity. First, professional librarians and state library authorities tried to initiate hospital library work in Finnish hospitals as an extension of municipal library services. Impulses from abroad, mainly from Great Britain through the International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), were important in this initiative. Second, nurses, especially in the Red Cross Hospital in Helsinki, started to give library services as a voluntary operation in late 1930s. The first full-time hospital librarian, a volunteer, was originally a nurse. Third, the Soldiers’ Homes Associations run by women volunteers organized libraries for conscript soldiers during peace time. This article describes how these traditions worked together during the Second World War. Professional librarians’ attitudes toward voluntary library work in military hospitals and the interaction between librarians and patients as readers are described. Library work in civilian hospitals grew out of wartime activities.

Publisher

Johns Hopkins University Press and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

ISSN

0024-2594

Type of Resource

text

Language

en

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/3711

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2007 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

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