“I’d like to ask if you accept book donations?”—Donation activities in Oulu University Library

The library regularly receives a wide variety of donation offers, mostly from private individuals both in Finland and abroad. Most recently, early this year, we received a large donation offer from a private individual in Norway. Unfortunately, we are often unable to accept these offers due to limited storage facilities. Limited resources and the fact that there is simply no need for the books offered are also reasons for declining donations. For example, our extensive legal deposit collection covers Finnish literature very well. Our collections also currently place a strong emphasis on electronic materials, which we also prioritize for acquisition. Donations must therefore be weighed very carefully and accepted only with great deliberation. 

Donations, however, have a long and significant history at Oulu University Library. The library began operations in 1959. In the early years, large-scale, nationwide book drives were organized to build up the collections, and hundreds of donations were received annually from private individuals and organizations, as well as from other university libraries and public libraries. Rae Murhu, founder of the Oulu University Library and its first Library Director, describes in his publication Oulu University Library 1959-1984 how the people of Oulu donated materials to the library’s collections so enthusiastically that the city was almost depleted of suitable literature to donate within a few years. The library also began to select donated literature more carefully to prevent unnecessary duplicates from accumulating. 

Over the years, the library has acquired or received as a donation numerous individual books and collections that are culturally and historically significant. One of the most valuable purchased collections is the extensive collection of religious literature published in Finland prior to 1877, belonging to the Hämeenlinna based bibliophile and assessor Einar Palmunen, which the library purchased for 4,500 marks in 1969. The collection includes, among other things, all old Finnish-language Bibles except for Agricola’s New Testament. No similar collections have been purchased for the library since the early years. 

However, the library has received valuable and significant donations in recent years as well. The most recent of these is a valuable book donation from the estate of Veli Aine, which was entrusted to the library in 2021 for safekeeping on behalf of the Department of History at the University of Oulu. The collection, consisting of just over 100 volumes, consists mainly of old Nordic travel literature, including a copy of Olaus Magnus’s Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (History of the Northern Peoples) from 1555, which is in excellent condition. Both the Palmunen and Aine collections have been placed in the library’s "holvi", which is the library's climate-controlled storage facility for its oldest and most valuable materials.

One of the largest collections donated by a private individual consists of publications donated by President Urho Kaleva Kekkonen from his personal library between 1964 and 1982. In total, the collection comprises approximately 4000 publications, including works in the fields of political science, social sciences, linguistics, history, and sports, as well as fiction. The first part of Kekkonen’s donation in 1964 is described as having arrived in Oulu with remarkable speed. The President’s second aide-de-camp, Captain Bo Klenberg, had called the library, informed them of the President’s intention to donate, and within less than two days, soldiers from the Guard delivered and unloaded the books at the library before departing on their return journey to Helsinki—all with military efficiency. According to Murhu, this was unusually hassle-free, as in most cases a university library clerk was asked to come in person to select the donated literature, pack it, and even arrange for its shipment to Oulu, usually from Helsinki. The clerk even had to arrange for the cardboard boxes on site by asking for them at local stores. Quite a hassle!

Sometimes it even happens that the donated collection is presented to the donor in person. President Urho Kekkonen visited the Oulu University Library’s main library at the time, located at Kasarmintie, on December 16, 1968, and during this visit—which was closely followed by the media—he was shown, among other things, the collection he himself had donated. Preparations for the visit were made with great care; for example, thick rubber was glued to the ceiling beam on the staircase leading to the library’s second floor so that Kekkonen would not bump his head on it.

However, the visit reportedly involved quite a bit of confusion, as, among other things, the police officers assigned to the president’s security got lost in the labyrinthine library building, and the librarian who had shown Kekkonen around the library became so engrossed in her work after the visit that she forgot about the lunch invitation extended to her as part of the presidential entourage. Well, human errors like these happen to everyone! President Kekkonen, however, left the library unscathed.

If you believe you have literature in good condition that might be of interest to Oulu University Library—such as new research literature relevant to the University of Oulu’s research fields that the library does not currently hold— please proceed as follows:

• Contact the library collections at kirjasto.kokoelmat@oulu.fi.
• In your message, please provide as much detail as possible about the materials you wish to donate (titles, authors, publication years) and their condition. You may also attach photos of the materials to your message. We will respond to you as soon as possible, and if we accept the donation, you will receive instructions on how to deliver the donation to the library.

Thank you to all our donors!

Author: 
Alisa Tirroniemi, Information Specialist
Oulu University Library

Sources:
Murhu, Rae. Oulun yliopiston kirjasto 1959-1984 = Oulu University Library 1959-1984. Oulu: Oulun yliopisto 1985. Oulun yliopiston kirjaston julkaisuja 12.