Finnish folklore: information sources in English: Library Services

Our folklore collection is a part of the Cultural Research Collection, which is housed on the ground floor of the Library, call numbers D-H and Di.

The collection includes Finnish and international research literature in the fields of folkloristics, ethnology, cultural anthropology and religious studies. All books on the collection are placed on shelves in one alphabetical order. You can find literature on a specific topic by searching SKS Finna.

The collection is available for on site reference and for circulation. Taking out loans requires a Helka library card. See our website for further information on loans.

We are happy to help you find materials from our collections and to give you guidance for information retrieval on site at the library.

You can also submit information retrieval request using the Ask SKS form. The SKS Library and Archives work together to answer your questions.

SKS Finna provides access to SKS Library's print collections and e-resources.

Find printed and electronic books and journals:

Via SKS Finna you also have access to:

• Arto reference database
  Search Arto to find information on Finnish journal articles (also links to full text articles)
• Helka union catalogue and the National Library collections
  ​Find material from all of the Helka libraries and from the National Library of Finland
• Ebsco Discovery Servise (EDS)
  Search EDS to find international e-materials. Some records and full texts are openly available while others can be accessed only via the SKS network. You can find articles on Finnish folklore from MLA-database, which can be searched via SKS Finna's EDS-search.

Use keyword and subject searches to find items on your specific topic in SKS Finna.

Keyword searching is the default search option. Several fields are searched for the keyword (title, table of contents, abstract, subject etc.).

Keyword search is a good way to start your search process, but it may retrieve too many, too few or irrelevant items. Subject searching is more specific, only the subject field is searched. Subject headings from controlled vocabularies are used in subject fields to ensure consistency of terms.

SKS Library uses subject headings in Finnish-language, as do most Finnish libraries. Using YSO – General Finnish Ontology will help you identify relevant search terms for subject searching. YSO is trilingual (Finnish – Swedish – English), so you can use it to find Finnish equivalents for English terms.

For instructions on search techniques and filtering search results (by language, for instance), see pages Search tips and Search results in SKS Finna.