ARALIS LIBRARY AND INFORMATION CENTRE – A PARTNER LIBRARY FOR ARTS AND MUSIC

Metropolia is the largest multidisciplinary university of applied sciences in Finland, operating in the Helsinki metropolitan area. Metropolia offers degree programmes in the fields of business, culture, health care & social services and technology. The Metropolia library and information services have nine library units and three partner library units in Helsinki, Espoo and Vantaa.

Arabianranta region, near the place where Helsinki was founded, is the home of five degree programmes in the field of culture and creative industries:
•    Cultural Management
•    Film and Television
•    Media
•    Performing Arts
•    Pop and Jazz Music

The library services for these degree programmes are located in the Aralis Library and Information Centre, which is not a part of Metropolia library, but a partner library. The library services are produced in co-operation with the Aalto University Arabia Campus Library and Helsinki Pop & Jazz Conservatory Library.

These libraries are collectively called Aralis Art Libraries. The Art Libraries share a library system and a service desk. Furthermore, there is Helsinki City Library’s Arabianranta Library next to the Art Libraries. Aralis is a combination of art, research, and public libraries, and the libraries are open to everyone.
 
Arabia Campus Library focuses on visual arts, design, art education and audiovisual communication. The library services for Metropolia acquire material in the subject areas of film and television, performing arts, cultural management and digital media. The Pop and Jazz Conservatory Library has a collection of rhythm, jazz and popular music and related research literature. Arabianranta Library has a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction.

The library holds extensive and diverse electronic resources and a wide collection of books, magazines, journals, theses, slides, DVD’s, CD’s and sheet music. Arabia Campus Library"s collections also include the collections of the Finnish Comics Society and Finnish Animation Articles.

The library provides a modern multifunctional space: you can study in a quiet reading room, read and sit on comfortable sofas, converse with friends and colleagues, access the internet and databases, and listen to music.

New students are given an introduction to information retrieval and library services, thus learning how to use the library. Later during the studies the students learn more about information literacy, information retrieval and electronic resources. The library services are developed in cooperation with teachers and staff.