Recreation Services of Turku

The City of Turku’s MyLibrary Project started with a project in Spring 2018 that found ways to bring culture and leisure services home to those who had difficulty in getting out to those services because of their advanced age, illness or disability. The principal target group were older people living at home and in nursing homes. The outcome of this project was a service offered by the Recreation Division in the City of Turku that allows residents to enjoy culture even when access to services is difficult. The service is free of charge for maximum accessibility. The digital services of the Recreation Division have been brought together on an accessible website (omakirjasto.fi). Some third-party services of high quality and free of charge are also included. The aim was to make the website as clear, easy to use and attractive as possible. MyLibrary provides access to
the selected services even for clients who have no previous experience of Internet use. The service can also accommodate a client’s possibly diminished ability to use the service due to a memory disorder or decline in motor functions, etc. Navigating the site has been made as easy as possible. Many clients have a hard time finding interesting and high-quality content online, so the selection in this service is deliberately limited on the principle of ‘less is more’. Having a clearly defined selection also makes it easy for staff in nursing homes to find digital cultural content. The website allows access for instance to audio books, e-books, concerts of the Turku Philharmonic, photograph collections of the Turku Museum Centre and exercise activities.