Archive and Library

Our archive is the largest Finnish archive specialising in folk music and dance. The collections span e.g. ca. 5600 hours of audio recordings, 1500 hours of video, 30000 photos and 100000 newspaper clippings.

The biggest single collection is formed by the recordings made during the Kaustinen Folk Music Festivals since 1968. Other material consists of field recordings from around Finland as well as the Finnish regions of the US. The archive's photos and videos give a comprehensive image of the phenomena and characters of Finnish music tradition throughout multiple decades.

The Folk Music Institute's reference library features a collection of ca. 5000 books, over 2700 audio records and a wide variety of magazines. The books represent mainly folk music, folk dance, folk tradition, folk art and cultural history.

The "Kansan ääni ja kuva" database has the reference info for the archive's digitised audio recordings, audio publications and books and sheet music as well as all the digital photo material and information about the instrument collections. The digitization process is still unfinished.

Please contact us if you're planning a visit to the archive or reference library. Some of the archive's services are paid services.

To access the database a username and password is required, which can be received by signing the user agreement form and sending it to the archive via mail or email.