NRL’s diverse language collection
Did you know that the National Repository Library of Finland holds a wide range of publications that are not in native Finnish language? As a country, Finland has very diverse language history. There are two main national languages, Finnish and Swedish. As we go back in Finland’s history, Swedish language was the main literature and academic language of Finland before the year 1923. Moreover, if we go even further in history, the main academic literature in Finland was actually the German language. Most literature from the 19th century and before was in German. The history and roots of using German as Finland’s academic language still shows in the collection of National Repository Library (NRL). From over 2 million books that the NRL currently has in the collection, the second most common language is still German. Currently Finnish comes closely behind holding the 3rd place in our collection. Current top 10 is as follows (Oct 2022):
Nevertheless, NRL currently holds a very impressive collection of publications from many different languages. Each day said collection grows even larger. To loan our books and articles, ask your local library if they have collaboration with the NRL. You can browse the collection using the following site: www.vaari.finna.fi