Library loans in Vaasa increased in 2025

Vaasa City Library has seven branches across the city, as well as a new mobile library, Hilda, which serves customers throughout the city. In 2025, the library acquired nearly 20,000 new items, bringing its collection to over 477,000 items.

Library loans are on the rise

Last year, a total of 1,037,407 items were borrowed from Vaasa’s libraries, an increase of 1.8 per cent compared with the previous year. The use of e-materials, such as e-books, music, magazines and audiovisual recordings, continued to increase. They were borrowed nearly 69,000 times, an increase of more than 12 per cent compared with 2024.

– The use of electronic materials continues to grow. The E-library has brought new opportunities, and we continued to maintain Biblio alongside it. Use of Biblio ended at the end of the year, and we are now focusing on the E-library run by the National Library of Finland for all book materials. E-magazines are available through both ePress and PressReader, in addition to the E-library, says Sanna Bondas, Director of Culture and Library Services.

In terms of borrowers, the figures are at the same level as in 2024. Last year, 35 per cent of local residents used library services to borrow materials, with each borrowing an average of nearly 15 items over the year.

– In terms of borrowing, the largest percentage increase has been for books in languages other than Finnish and Swedish. Borrowing of children’s and young adult books has continued to rise, a very welcome trend. But borrowing of adult books is increasing as well! I would especially encourage working-age people to visit their local library branch or explore the E-library. Reading is a wonderful gift we can give ourselves, Bondas continues.

Libraries as centres of activity

Last year, residents of Vaasa made over 530,000 visits to the library. The number of visits fell slightly compared with 2024, with each resident visiting the library an average of 7.5 times during the year.

Libraries are also busy centres of activity. Over the year, Vaasa’s libraries hosted 511 events, organised by the library or other parties, which were attended by more than 14,600 people.

More than 600 training sessions were held on literacy and information retrieval. Nearly 12,000 people attended the training sessions, about 92 per cent of them under the age of 18.

Opening hours at the Main Library were extended for self-service mornings and evenings, resulting in an increase of over 8 per cent compared with 2024.