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The library's collections offer rich and versatile materials from the fields of arts and science in printed and electronic format.

Arts and information

Uniarts Helsinki library collections offer materials for different arts to support students, teachers, and researchers. Journals, books and audio-visual materials from visual arts, music and performing arts are available comprehensively. The library also hosts a significant collection of sheet music and plays. Audio visual materials in various formats can be stramed, borrowed, or listened to in the library facilities. Read more about library locations’ facilities and equipment.

More information about the loan periods and policies is available on the Services page. Printed and electronic materials can be found through Uniarts Helsinki’s search service Arsca.

Arsca

Library’s databases provide academic articles, visual materials, music, plays, operas, and more, in electronic format. Suggest new materials for acquisition.

Databases A-Z

Library’s Research Guides contain information about materials in your field, tips on how to search for information, and how to use online materials.

Research Guides
A woman on a computer.

Theses and dissertations

You can find written theses, both printed and digital ones, produced at Uniarts Helsinki in the library catalogue Arsca. An exception to this are the oldest Master’s theses completed at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1995–2013. Uniarts Helsinki’s institutional repository Taju only contains a separate list of their reference information. In Taju, you can also browse all digital theses and dissertations completed at Uniarts Helsinki, for example by degree programme.    

Master’s theses completed at the Sibelius Academy are stored in Töölö Campus Library or Kuopio Campus Library, depending on the unit from which the student graduated. Master’s theses produced at the Academy of Fine Arts and the Theatre Academy are stored in Sörnäinen Campus Library for three years after the end of the year in which they were completed, and any theses older than this are stored in the Uniarts Helsinki Archives. The artistic sections of Master’s theses completed at the Theatre Academy are also stored in the library. While other Master’s theses can be read freely at the library, a separate appointment for reading works produced at the Academy of Fine Arts must be made within the library’s opening hours. 

For more information on reserving and reading theses and ordering them from the archive at the library, see the individual guides: Fine Arts, Performing Arts and Music.   

For more information about handing in and publishing a thesis, see the library’s Publishing Guide.  

Uniarts publication archive Taju

Special collections

The library holds rare exclusive collections that contain materials that have regional or cultural-historical significance. Some of the collections have been received as donations from domestic cultural personas or art institutes. The library also holds a valuable collection of composition manuscripts. The original manuscripts cannot be accessed by customers. In most cases, they can be scanned and published in Taju for research purposes. It is not possible at the moment to print materials from Taju during the Töölö Campus Library’s self-service hours.

Sörnäinen Campus Library hosts artist Lars-Gunnar Nordström’s (1924-2014) special collection of books (catalogue in Taju). Due to the extent of the collection only part of the Nordström’s collections titles are available in Arsca search service.

The Viipurin Näyttämö library collection includes play manuscripts and printed plays which represent plays performed on the Viipuri stage before World War II. Viipurin Näyttämö collection has been catalogued in Arsca and is available for reading room use in Sörnäinen Campus Library. 

In Töölö Campus Library you can use valuable music anthologies and collected works of ca. 130 composers. In addition the library stores: