Helsinki libraries branch out: skis and tennis equipment made available for borrowing

All of Roihuvuori Library’s Finnish-rules baseball equipment was out on loan over the warm weekend

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By Vesa Mäkinen
     
      This coming winter Helsinki residents will even be able to borrow skis from some of the city’s libraries.
      At least the Roihuvuori and Herttoniemi libraries plan to add a few pairs of cross-country skis to their collections.
     
During the summer it has already been possible to borrow - on short loans - certain sporting and outdoor leisure equipment donated by the City of Helsinki's Sports Department.
      Some of the borrowed equipment has been in great demand within the nearby communities, including even the Finnish-rules baseball equipment. This was a revelation, since baseball is generally viewed as a provincial sport and something that hardboiled city-dwellers would traditionally view as very "un-Helsinki-like".
      Last weekend’s warm and sunny weather immediately caused a fuss at the lending desk of the Roihuvuori library.
      “On Friday all the baseball bats and gloves were taken out”, explains Leeni Hurskainen, director of the Roihuvuori and Herttoniemi libraries.
      The explanation is simple.
      “I suspect not too many Helsinki residents actually ever get around to actually buying such equipment.”
     
The leisure time equipment can be borrowed for one week at a time with a library card or by paying a small deposit.
      Roihuvuori library assistant Marita Nuto reports that all the equipment has been returned on time and in good condition.
      And if the borrower is lucky, he or she may even receive competent tutoring as to how to use the equipment. At least Nuto is very familiar with tennis and gymsticks, not to mention simpler items.
      “I am so fond of physical exercising”, Nuto explains.
      On Monday Nuto gave hands-on instructions with regard to the basics of tennis to seven-year-old Eero Lindqvist.
      “Alright, we can borrow these one day”, smiled Eero’s mother Anna Lindqvist, while Eero practised how to hit a tennis ball under Nuto’s watchful eye.
      The Lindqvists reckoned that there might be use in the family also for the library’s Finnish-rules baseball and mölkky equipment. (Mölkky is a totally Finnish throwing game invented in 1996. See the link below for details.)
      “Fortunately this kind of possibility exists”, Anna Lindqvist says.
      Library director Hurskainen can be considered the mother of the idea, which first came up in connection with the Healthy Roihuvuori-Herttoniemi Project that Hurskainen leads.
     
The lending out of exercise equipment by libraries has caused some city-dwellers to wonder if funds allocated for books have been wrongly spent.
      City of Helsinki Library Director Maija Berndtson points out, however, that such worries are unfounded. All the libraries’ supplementary material has been received from elsewhere and the sporting equipment has been donated by the City of Helsinki's Sports Department.
      Librarian Marita Nuto is delighted about the branching out.
      “This can bring to libraries new people, who normally would not set foot in such establishments. And who knows, maybe they will experience an epiphany of some kind. And those who come here to borrow books may in turn become inspired to try a new sport.”
     

From the Herttoniemi library one can borrow Nordic Walking poles, pedometers, gymsticks, plus tennis rackets and balls.
      In addition to these, the Roihuvuori library also has Finnish-rules baseball bats, balls, and gloves on offer, accompanied by mölkky and other yard-game equipment.
      Nordic Walking poles can also be borrowed from a couple of other Helsinki libraries.
      More information is available in the libraries themselves and on the City of Helsinki Internet site at www.hel.fi.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 11.8.2009


Links:
  Pesäpallo – Finnish-rules baseball (Wikipedia)
  Mölkky (Wikipedia)
  Gymstick
  Helsinki City Library - Libraries

VESA MÄKINEN / Helsingin Sanomat