The Finnish collection in the University of Washington Libraries contains a research collection of Finnish materials which support the basic needs of the Finnish program.
The collection, when it first began, was focused on works about Finland in the English and Scandinavian languages. However, as the Finnish program in the Scandinavian Department grew, the need for materials in Finnish became evident. Subsequently the collecting efforts have been focused on the following areas: Contemporary Finnish and Finland-Swedish literature and literary history as well as older, “classics” in these areas. Finnish language. Finnish folklore. Finnish history, economics, and political science. We currently have over 3000 volumes in Finnish, not including journal subscriptions. We have over 30 Finnish journal subscriptions. The books about Finland in English amount to close to 800 volumes. There are over 400 books about Finland in Swedish. Some of these English items are from the Finnish American community and thus deal with Finnish immigration and Finnish-American history.
Through the added support of endowments such as the Jarvie fund, we will be able to further increase our collection. Some areas that we would like to take a closer look at include Finnish film, music and other literary genres, such as crime fiction, reflecting the growing and changing interests of the faculty and students. We are continually working to improve the collection with the aim of being one of the best Finnish collections in the United States.