Finland’s ‘ode’ to a new era in libraries

HELSINKI -- What do you give the world's most literate country for its 100th birthday? For Finland's politicians and public, the answer was simple: a vast, state-of-the-art library, a new "living room for the nation". Twenty years in the planning, Helsinki's central library officially opens on December 5 at the end of a year of festivities marking the centenary of Finland's independence after breaking with Russia in 1917 following six centuries under Swedish rule. It is a huge, flowing structure of wood and glass sitting on a prime spot in the city center, directly opposite the Finnish parliament. But whereas the parliament building is an austere and imposing hunk of granite...

Keep on reading: Finland’s ‘ode’ to a new era in libraries

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