This page contains links to SKS’s catalogues and indexes, as well as to the key databases on cultural studies and the study of Finnish literature, and other online sources of information. Materials produced by SKS are marked with a kantele icon.
List of ongoing collections developed by SKS archives
The database contains information on the folklore archive’s oldest (ca. 1700 -. 1880) collectors’ collections.
List of the collection materials in the folklore archive.
This database maintained by SKS's Biography Centre contains information on the personal portraits and photographs in the various archives. The database also includes image files that you can browse online and order as digital copies.
This database (in Finnish) allows you to find out which archives and collections are in the Literature Archives, what they contain, what search tools are available in the reading room, and whether there are any restrictions in using the materials.
In the letter collection database you can find information about the collections of letters catalogued by the letter recipients.
In the picture collection database you can find information about the content of the picture collections.
Materials on 'self -taught writers' from 1780s to the First World War.
As a compilation of the Royal Anthropological Institute’s Anthropological Index and Harvard University's Anthropological Literature databases, Anthropology Plus is the world’s most comprehensive index covering the fields of anthropology, archaeology, and related interdisciplinary research. See Terms of Use (EBSCO).
Online catalogue ESTER is the shared catalogue of 17 major Estonian libraries.
Europeana provides access to cultural materials from European archives, libraries and museums.
With Explore the British Library you can search:
The database of Estonian articles contains articles from newspapers, magazines and journals, serial publications and anthologies and collections from the 1990s on, allowing the full-text to be accessed in free digital archives and Web publications.
The catalogue contains the holdings information of the German National Library starting from 1913.
The LC Online Catalog contains 18 million catalog records for books, serials, manuscripts, maps, music, recordings, images, and electronic resources in the Library of Congress collections.
Libris provides references to more than 8 million books and journals held by 400 Swedish libraries (mostly research libraries). Virtually all Swedish titles since 1866 are included. LIBRIS also contains references to journal articles, notes, maps, and electronic documents.
A detailed bibliography of journal articles, books and dissertations.Subjects consist of literature, language and linguistics, folklore, literary theory & criticism, dramatic arts, as well as the historical aspects of printing and publishing. See User rights (FinELib).
Personal bibliography of ethnomusicologist A. O. Väisänen.
The database contains references to articles from Finnish popular magazines and newspapers. User rights (FinELib).
Reference database of articles from about 400 Finnish journals, also references to articles in monographs.
The National Bibliography of Finland.
Finna provides free access to material from Finnish museums, libraries and archives.
The database contains reference information on Finnish, Finland Swedish and Sami literature in translation.
The joint colllection database and circulation service of the Helsinki University libraries and five special libaries, including the SKS Library. Helka contains information about acquired books, periodicals and serials. Loans from the Helka libraries can be renewed online via the the self-service system (on the "patron information" screen ).
Personal bibliography of folklorist, academician Matti Kuusi.
Union catalogue of Finnish libraries.
SKS Finna provides access to SKS library’s print collections and e-resources. In addition to the local catalogue, it contains
You can browse printed and electronic periodicals from the SKS Library's collections.
The Folkloristics bibliography of the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland (SLS) includes monographs and journal articles on the subject of Finland-Swedish folklore research.
The National Discography of Finland
Journals of the American Anthropological Association.
Journals are one important part of the national collections digitized by the National Library of Finland for freely accessible online use. The journals up until 1910 are in free online use.
The National Library of Finland has digitised newspapers published in Finland 1771-1910. They are available for all. Even copyright based material is digitised in cooperation with e.g. newspaper publishers.
An online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
Open access journals. The EZB was founded in 1997 by the University Library of Regensburg in co-operation with the University Library of Technische Universität München. At the moment, 615 institutions actively take part in the Electronic Journals Library
Journal.fi is a new journal management and publishing service provided by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies. The site features 80 Finnish scholarly journals, with more to come.
A digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources. SKS provides access to collections
Open Access folklore journals. Open Folklore, a partnership of the American Folklore Society and the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries, is a scholarly resource devoted to increasing the number and variety of useful resources, published and unpublished, available for the field of folklore studies and the communities with which folklore scholars partner.
Access to electronic journals available at the library.
Lithuanian folklore collections of Finnish folklorist professor Aukusti Robert Niemi are stored in the archives of the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore (Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos institutas). In this e-publication the archive materials (manuscripts) of the professor‘s 1910 and 1911 folk expeditions are presented together with publications Lietuviu dainos ir giesmes šiaurrytinéje Lietuvoje / A. R. Niemi & A. Sabaliausko (Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1912) ja Lietuviu̦ dainu̦ ir giesmiu̦ gaidos = Mélodies des chansons populaires lithuaniennes / A. Sabaliauskas (Société Littéraire de Finlande, 1916). The database is created and published the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore.
The corpus of writings by Aleksis Kivi (1834-1872), which makes it possible to see the form in which they appeared in the original manuscripts and early editions. The corpus includes all of Kivi’s letters and book manuscripts, and the first editions of his works. In Finnish.
Ett uppslagsverk på svenska om personer med anknytning till Finlands historia och nutid. Verket omfattar mer än 1 600 biografiska artiklar om personer från korstågstiden till vår egen tid, skrivna av landets främsta specialister och historiker.
Codices Fennici is a digital collection of medieval and 16th century manuscripts written or used in Finland. The collection contains over 200 manuscripts or manuscripts fragments collected from libraries and archives in different countries. The Codices Fennici project is housed at the Finnish Literature Society (SKS).
This collection contains 4173 digitized dissertations that were defended at the Royal Academy of Turku between 1642 and 1828.
Directory of Open access Books is provided by OAPEN Foundation
The database offers an easy access to the Estonian regilaul legacy for everyone. At present the database includes all the regilaul texts from the folklore collections of the legendary 19th century folklore collectors Jakob Hurt and Matthias Johann Eisen, and of the Estonian Students' Society. Adding songs from other collections is an ongoing process.
Ethnographic collections covering all aspects of cultural and social life. eHRAF is unique in having subject indexing at the paragraph level. This allows detailed and precise searching for concepts not easily found with keywords.
The correspondence of Elias Lönnrot (1802 - 1884) provides a unique view of the world of the 19th century Finnish university-educated elite. The Finnish Literature Society is publishing facsimiles and transcriptions of the letters, amended with commentaries. The material is provided as xml files for free use and modification. First in line for publication are the c. 1800 private letters written by Lönnrot. New letters are continuously added to the collection.
The National Library of Finland’s digital collection of Finno-Ugric publications. The Fenno-Ugrica collection includes more than 1100 monographs and over 100 newspaper titles in 17 Uralic languages.
This online collection of over 100 Finnish biographies includes famous national figures, politicians and artists as well as a witch burned at stake and an 18th century bear hunter. Together they provide a panorama of Finnish life and culture from medieval times to the present day. The articles were originally published as part of Kansallisbiografia, The National Biography of Finland.
HAU Books is the book publishing wing of the HAU Society for Ethnographic Theory. It is committed to publishing the most distinguished texts in classic and advanced anthropological theory in both print editions and open-access formats.
Critical edition allows one to become familiar with the play’s linguistic, historical and poetic features, to search for information about the different versions that were published at various times, and also to look see digital images of the first edition. The critical edition is published by the Finnish Literature Society. In Finnish.
Manuscripta Castreniana publishes scholarly editions based on the vast academic heritage left by Matthias Alexander Castrén (1813–1852). The volumes of Manuscripta Castreniana are published mostly in printed form listed in the Publications. Here, you can find also digital editions ranging from linguistic materials to folklore and ethnography. The project is administered by Finno-Ugrian Society.
Open Book Publishers publishes books in hardback, paperback, pdf and ebook editions, but they also include a free online edition that can be read via their website, downloaded, reused or embedded anywhere. The subject categories include e.g. Anthropology, Archaeology and Religion (antropology, folklorististics, comparative religion), Digital Humanities, History and Biography and Literature and Language.
The service provides a searchable index to peer-reviewed monographs and edited volumes published under an Open Access business model, with links to the full texts of the publications at the publisher’s website or repository.
Sarmela, Matti: Finnish folklore atlas : ethnic culture of Finland 2 / translated from Finnish by Annira Silver.
4th partially revised edition. Helsinki : Matti Sarmela, 2009. ISBN 978-952-99977-3-2 (PDF).
The Finnish Literature Society (SKS) makes its English-language academic series, Studia Fennica, as well as a selection of Finnish-language research publications available in open access.
Finnish runic songs' database, a digital edition of the anthology Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (1908 - 1948).
Collection of Finnish folk tunes, based on the collection published by the Finnish Literary Society, called Suomen Kansan Sävelmiä / edited by Ilmari Krohn (1898-1933).
The Travel collection contains first travel journals, maps and pictures from Finland from 17th to 19th centuries. Special focus is on Lapland.
Reference works:
See User rights / FinELib.
Multidisciplinary and multilinguistic encyclopaedia on the Saami, Saami culture and languages.
Electronic version of the reference work Encyclopedia of Religion / Lindsey Jones, editor. 2nd ed. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 15 volumes, 10735 pages.
MOT Kielipalvelu contains wide selection of dictionaries (MOT Sanakirjat), quick and handy machine translation (MOT Kääntäjä) and useful proofreading and spellchecking (MOT Kielentarkistin).
Substantive, peer-reviewed, and regularly updated, the ORE Religion combines the speed & flexibility of digital with the rigorous standards of academic publishing. Enjoy free access while articles and content grow to substantial numbers.
A lexicon of Textual Scholarship. In Finnish.
The database contains information about books and their owners in Finland up to and including 1810. This information has been retrieved from estate inventory deeds and auction protocols.
The database of international proverb types and literature references is based on the paremiological collection of Professor Matti Kuusi. See also the Library's special collection, The M6 Collection.
SKS's calendar holiday packs (in Finnish) are intended for folklore enthusiasts, the media and older schoolchildren. These contain concise articles, samples of SKS archive material and also literary references and Internet links.
The SKS information pack The life and work of Elias Lönnrot (in Finnish) was prepared for his bicentenary in 2002.
SKS offers schools the following learning materials (in Finnish):
This information pack (in Finnish) was prepared for the Runeberg bicentenary in 2005.
This information pack (in Finnish) was made for the centenary of Sarkia’s birth in 2002.
SKS's information pack contains the complete text of the Kalevala (1849), as well as information on the epic’s background, origin and impact. The pack is available in Finnish, English, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Polish, French, Swedish, German, Russian and Estonian.
Kolonkolonkolo (‘Holey-holey-hole’) is a website about children’s and young people’s literature, intended to introduce both Finnish and foreign readers to the work and individual working methods of eminent authors of literature for children and young people. The website is a collaborative project between The Arts Council of Häme and FILI, and it is also a part of Finland’s Guest of Honour Project for Frankfurt Book Fair 2014.
The information pack (in Finnish) presents an introduction to the old poltergeist tradition at SKS folklore archives and to the folkloristic research made into it. The site was a thesis by Heidi Kalm, Outi Pohjanheimo and Antti Pokela at the Humanities Faculty of the University of Helsinki Digital communications and new media as learning material (2003).
Tiet lähteisiin: Aleksis Kivi SKS:ssa - The roads to the sources: Aleksis Kivi in SKS web site (in Finnish) presents the Kivi material that has been preserved at SKS and his other activities connected with SKS.
The information pack (in Finnish) was compiled to celebrate the centenary of the Finnish author Pekkanen’s birth in 2002.
The AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus (version 2.3) is a vocabulary that can be used to improve access to information about folklore, ethnomusicology, ethnology, and related fields. The American Folklore Society developed the Thesaurus in cooperation with the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress and supported by a generous grant from the Scholarly Communications Program of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
A Finnish thesaurus and ontology service, which enables both the publication and browsing of vocabularies. The service includes YSO - General Finnish ontology.
