Collection of Archived SKS Publications

The publishing activities of the Finnish Literature Society, SKS have continued for almost 200 years.

The Collection of Archived SKS Publications includes a copy of each book published by the SKS. In 2021, the collection was included in UNESCO’s National Memory of the World Register, which gathers documents and literary heritage of national significance.

The collection currently spans just over 100 shelf metres and is primarily displayed in the Society’s Great Hall.

The items in the collection are not available for borrowing, neither for home nor the reading room. The same titles are included in other collections of the library.

The Finnish Literature Society is the oldest still-active publisher in Finland.

The first publication of SKS was Heinrich Zschokke’s instructive literary work Kultala, which was published in 1834 and translated into Finnish by one of the founding members of SKS, Carl Niclas Keckman.

The collection includes, among other things, the SKS editions of the Kalevala, all 34 volumes of the book series Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (The Old Poems of the Finnish People), and the Suomen kansallisbiografia (National Biography of Finland), which is a compilation of thousands of Finnish mini-biographies.

Throughout its nearly two hundred years of operation, SKS has also published textbooks, dictionaries, source publications and studies in its key areas, including the first Finnish translations of William Shakespeare’s plays.

The collection traces the development of Finnish literature: it includes, for example, the first edition of our national author Aleksis Kivi’s novel Seitsemän veljestä (Seven Brothers) from 1869–1870, research publications related to Kivi’s work and, most recently, the critical editions of Kivi’s works prepared in the 2010s.

The publishing activities of SKS continue, and so the collection is actively expanding.

Starting in early 2021, SKS-owned SKS Oppi ja Tieto Oy began handling the publishing of non-fiction books and educational materials.

The publishing of peer-reviewed academic books continues in the Society’s academic publishing house. SKS’s academic books are published not only in print but also as open access books. You can access them through the service SKS Open Access Books.