Sustainability is an integral part of Finna’s operations
Finna supports sustainable development in many ways. We offer easy access to reliable information, equally for all. Ensuring the reliability, safety and accessibility of the service is a key part of Finna.
We critically assess our own actions and focus our sustainability efforts on concrete actions and their impact. We will work on issues such as supporting multilingualism in Finna, providing instructions on the responsible use of materials and minimizing environmental impact.
Finna is maintained by the National Library of Finland, which is responsible for the development of the service together with its partners such as CSC IT Center for Science Ltd. The National Library is part of the University of Helsinki.
- About sustainability and responsibility in the National Library of Finland (opens in a new tab)
- About sustainability and responsibility in the University of Helsinki (opens in a new tab)
- About sustainability and responsibility in CSC (opens in a new tab)
Finna’s sustainability efforts are built on three main themes
Our sustainability efforts are guided by three main themes developed in collaboration with the Finna organisations and other stakeholders. Users’ wishes on concrete development measures have also been determined.
1. We offer equal access to open, reliable information
Finna’s underlying idea is that culture, science and the opportunity to learn belong to everyone. Finna offers materials from trusted operators, learning content and research data as openly as possible.
Equality is continuously improved by developing the accessibility of and supporting multilingualism in the service. New materials are constantly being added to the service in cooperation with the organisations that provide them. For further reading see Finna’s accessibility statement.
The improvement of sustainability requires cooperation between Finna, the organisations providing the materials and the material users. As a user, you can pay attention to the ethical use of materials, for example. For further reading see ethical use of materials.
We support the UN Sustainable Development Goals
2. We develop a sustainable digital infrastructure for the benefit of society
Finna’s core mission is to provide a reliable, secure and user-oriented digital customer experience of a high quality. We pay particular attention to the responsible handling of users’ data and the users’ ability to control the data we collect about them.
Finna is a key infrastructure in the Finnish academic and cultural field, and we take care of the reliability and security of the service. Safety is a core value for us, and we are constantly improving the safety culture of the service.
We support the UN Sustainable Development Goals
3. We develop the ecological sustainability of our operations
We are aware of the dual impact of digitalisation: on the one hand, digital services save unnecessary travel and reduce paper consumption, but on the other, the transfer of data, the use of online services and the digital storage of information consume energy. At Finna, we can influence the consumption of energy by ensuring the efficient use of technical resources and by influencing the ways in which materials are used, for example.
We are constantly developing Finna so that it uses as little energy as possible. We achieve this by using browser caching and efficient coding practices, and by making sure that Finna does not do anything extra such as upload content that the user cannot see.
Our aim is to increase the transparency of our operations also in terms of emissions from the service. Assessing the environmental impact of Finna's carbon footprint is a long-term goal that will be achieved in collaboration with the University of Helsinki and CSC IT Center for Science Ltd, which is involved in the implementation of the service.
We support the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Ethical use of materials
Finna provides access to millions of cultural heritage resources. Cultural heritage is an important part of the identity of communities and individuals, and some of the legally unrestricted materials may be subject to cultural restrictions on use. For this reason, we recommend that users familiarise themselves with the principles and ethical guidelines for respectful use when using sensitive cultural heritage materials. Sensitivity is a fluid concept, but related issues can include death, disability or ethnicity, for example. If you are unsure whether some material can be used, please contact the organisation that has provided the material.
Instructions on Sámi cultural heritage are available in the Nuohtti online service. We recommend familiarising yourself with Nuohtti’s comprehensive guidelines and complying with them, where applicable, also in the use of other materials. Ethical guidelines of Nuohtti (opens in a new tab).
Please consider also the ethical use of research data by following the guidelines for responsible conduct of research. Examples of non-responsible conduct of research include falsification and plagiarism. Further reading in Finnish Hyvä tieteellinen käytäntö ja sen loukkausepäilyjen käsitteleminen Suomessa 2023 (pdf) (opens in a new tab) by the Finnish National Board on Research Integrity TENK.
Material users are always obliged to respect copyrights, privacy protection and other legislation. For more information, see the material usage rights page on Finna.