Digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi information source and tool for academic research


LYHYT KATSAUS

T
his presentation is based in responses 
(n=128) to a survey realised in 
digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi -the portal for 
digitised and digital newspapers, 

journals and ephemera of the National Library 
of Finland, between May and September 2016. 
This survey was realised in the framework of 
the Aviisi project that aims to discover actual 
and potential uses in research and education of 
these materials. I will focus in this presentation 
in the comments and suggestions done by a 
group of 23 academic researchers among 
respondents. 

This survey had two motivations, first to 
evaluate the user interface of Digi, which has 
recently changed and secondly, to learn as much 
as possible about situations in education or 
research in which it has been used. Among the 
most important findings, some corroborate 
previous research on Digi (Hölttä, Rautiainen) 
or other digital platforms (Terras), new findings 
convey new knowledge that complements the 
literature on the subject and is sketched in this 
document.

What research questions do academic 
researchers have? 
When comparing researchers to other kind of 
users of Digi, similarities are found between 
academics and family researchers. This kind of 
researchers are driven by very specific questions 
and are as well systematic with their methods 
(“Haen tiettyihin sirkusperheisiin liittyviä lehti-
ilmoituksia, jotka kerään omaan leikekirjaani ja 
prosessoin sitä kautta eteenpäin.”). They are likely 
to have higher expectations of what materials 
they will find; and this contrasts with other users, 
such as hobbyists or people browsing, not looking 
for anything in particular, or looking something 
somehow related to a town, a person, an 
institution or event.

What materials are most important for 
research?
Due to the specificity that characterises academic 
research, to provide a comprehensive answer to 
this question would require acknowledging each 
single researcher (e.g. “Tein hakuja 1700-luvun 
aineistoon 1700-luvun ruotsalaisen (Ruotsin 
puolella valtakuntaa laaditun) 
historiankirjoituksen mahdollisen vastaanoton 

Inés Matres

Digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi information source 
and tool for academic research

Inés Matres, University of Helsinki, Ines.Matres@helsinki.fi



51 Matres: Digi.kansalliskirjasto.fi... Informaatiotutkimus 35 (3), 2016

tutkimukseen”). Nevertheless, among respondents 
there are similarities in the kind of materials on 
demand that could be arranged in datasets. 
Newspapers of the 1910s and the war periods are 
in high demand; product pamphlets, industry-
related materials and images found both in 
newspapers, magazines and other material are 
popular as well. Knowing the interests of 
researchers allows to sketch ideas for facilitating 
access to “hidden treasures”, to establish links 
with materials found elsewhere. This information 
that comes from historical and academic research 
is the first step towards developing new tools in 
digital humanities projects that can serve so called 
digital humanists, as the average humanities 
researcher.

Dialogue between researchers and data 
providers
In the responses from academic researchers there 
is an interested in Digi, beyond interest in 
materials. “[M]iten "sumea haku" käytännössä 
toimii? mitä tutkimusartikkeleita sanomalehtikor-
pukseen liittyen on jo julkaistu? onko mahdollista 
ladata kotikoneelle koko korpus?” These remarks 
raise another question that this presentation would 
like to pose to cultural heritage content providers, 
what can be done for opening more the dialogue 
between (digital) humanities researchers and data 
providers?

References
Hölttä, Tiina (2016). Digitoitujen kulttuuri-

perintöainestojen tutkimuskäyttö ja tutkijat. 
Tampereen yliopisto,

Rautiainen, Juha (2016). Getting to Know Users of 
Digital Newspaper and Journal Library – What Can 
Statistics of Use Tell Us. The Centre for Preservation 
and Digitisation, The National Library of Finland.

Terras, Melissa (2012). Virtual Visitors: what do we 
know about use of the British Museums' Collection 
Database Online? UCL Centre for Digital Humanities 
(UCLDH). Talk at University of Edinburgh.

Aviisi project blog, http://blogs.helsinki.fi/digiaviisi 
(2.9.2016)