On university campuses, the library is a central working and living space for students. In addition to study spaces, the library is also the venue for many student events. On the opening day of the university semester, Kaisa House becomes the stage for the Student Union's Opening Carnival. The Fresher Adventure in the autumn semester and the Tutor Adventure in the spring also bring colourful groups of students to the library.
A total of 24 books were published in the University of Helsinki Library's Helda Open Books service in 2024.
In 2024, the Helda Open Books project was carried out for the second time to identify course book requirements for possible open access publication of works written by teachers and researchers at the University of Helsinki. By the turn of the year, the Helda Open Books collection of open course books had been completed with 10 books.
Two new magazines joined Editor, the publishing platform for open access journals, during 2024. Helsinki Romanian Studies (HEROS) is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal dealing with issues related to Romanian language and culture. Synkooppi is a journal for musicology students at the University of Helsinki, focusing on different aspects of music, student life and general cultural issues.
The debate on the current state and future of scientific publishing has continued on the Think Open blog during 2024. The Open Science Annual Review summarises the main themes, news and reading tips for 2024.
The series of Library Expert Profiles (in Finnish) continued with three new interviews. In this series, experts from different library departments talk about their work. In the profiles published in 2024, we meet Katri, an equality expert (in Finnish) working in the library on sustainability themes, Sanna, who develops digital customer service (in Finnish), and Petri, who works in the metrics team (in Finnish) and supports the university's knowledge management. Petri's article opens up what the effectiveness of open access publishing looks like at the University of Helsinki.
Oppimiskeskus Aleksandria suljettiin juhannuksena 2024 muutostöiden ajaksi noin vuodeksi. Remontin aikana oppimiskeskuksen tilat päivitetään vastaamaan muuttuvia opetus- ja oppimismenetelmiä. Opiskelijat tarvitsevat esimerkiksi uudentyyppsiä tiloja verkkoluennoille osallistumiseen. Myös ryhmötyötilaa rakennetaan lisää. Oppimiskeskus Aleksandria on tarjonnut oppimistiloja myös iltaisin, joten Kaisa-talossa on vuonna 2024 ollut aiempaa laajemmat aukioloajat. Pääkirjasto on ollut avoinna arkisin jopa klo 22 asti sekä aiempaa useampana sunnuntaina.