We will deliver all reading room orders in Hämeenlinna digitally starting from 22 October
The branch office’s reading room will be closed 22.10.2024–31.3.2025.
The National Archives of Finland will deliver all reading room orders for the Hämeenlinna branch digitally between 22 October 2024 and 31 March 2025.
What does this mean? Normally, a reading room order means ordering material to a reading room at a branch office. To use the material, you need to travel to the branch office and visit it within the indicated opening hours.
When delivered digitally, the customer receives the same material digitised in the Astia online service. The delivery time is 2–16 days, after which the material is available 24 hours a day, regardless of location.
We also digitise materials with display and access restrictions, but they are only available in the reading rooms of the National Archives’ branch offices for the time being.
Nationwide access to materials will improve
The digital delivery service enables the digitisation of materials based on needs, as well as access to the archive materials needed by customers regardless of time and place.
The service reduces the need for physical customer visits and improves the availability of materials nationwide. With digital delivery, digitisation resources can be allocated more efficiently to the materials that are used most.
Digitisation also protects the fragile original materials, because the need to process physical materials decreases.
The Hämeenlinna reading room will be closed after 17 October
We want to boldly try a new kind of operating model. This will inevitably have an impact on the current service.
To enable digital delivery, the reading room and customer service at the Hämeenlinna branch will be closed for the duration of the pilot project. Information services will be available through the shared telephone service for the reading rooms and through the National Archives’ live chat service.
The reading room will be open for the last time from 15 to 17 October 2024. The last orders to be delivered to the reading room need to be made on 16 October 2024.
Unfortunately, it will not be possible to process orders through Astia at all between 18 and 21 October 2024.
How we deliver materials digitally
- Order the material you need through the Astia online service in the same way as if you were making a regular material order for the reading room.
- Instead of a delivery to the reading room, the material will be made available to you digitally.
- We process and digitise the orders one archival unit or storage unit at a time.
- We also digitise materials with display and access restrictions, but they are only available in the reading rooms of the National Archives’ branch offices for the time being.
- If it is not possible to deliver the material you have requested digitally (due to the quality of the material or legal grounds, for example), we will provide you with access to the material at the National Archives’ branch office.
- We deliver the digitised archival units to the Astia online service within 2–16 days from the order.
- When the material is available, you will receive a notification in your email. The material will also be available to other customers.
Ask for help and give feedback!
The change to the service is significant and can raise a lot of questions, but don’t worry – we are here to help. We offer customer support in the chat service of our website from Monday to Thursday from 1 to 4 p.m. The service number for the reading rooms is open from Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Feedback on the digital delivery service can be given via a link provided to the customer after placing the order. In case of problems, the customer can send email to [email protected].
Additional information
Maria Kallio-Hirvonen
head of unit, User Experience
[email protected]
Vili Herdell
director, User Experience and Innovation
[email protected]