The History of Celia
Celia has served the blind and partially sighted in Finland since 1890. The library service was set up by a society called Books for the Blind at the turn of the last century. Celia has been state-owned since 1978.
Voluntary work for upper-class ladies
During the 19th and early 20th centuries, ladies belonging to the wealthy educated class carried out various charitable deeds to help the disadvantaged. Celia was founded on 1st April 18
The most important mission of the members of the Books for the Blind society was copying books into the Braille system by hand. The Braille books were copied using boards made from zinc and pigskin, and small styluses.
The zinc boards and styluses were gradually replaced with small Braille machines, and after the Second World War the library acquired a Braille typewriter of its own. In 1955, talking books recorded on reel-to-reel tapes appeared in the library's collections, and these made reading for leisure much easier – particularly for those who had lost their sight in the war.
Cely Mechelin managed the library from when it was founded up until 1932. The library adopted the name Celia – Library for the Visually Impaired in 2001, in honour of its founder Cely (Cecilia) Mechelin.
State-owned since 1978
In the 1920s, the library's activities began to be financially supported by the Finnish public. However, it was only in the 1960s that reading books began to be perceived as a right which society is obliged to arrange for every citizen, including those who are not able to read printed text.
When ownership was transferred to the state in 1978, it meant an increase in resources for the library and a shift to the domain of public-sector decision-making. Along with this nationalisation, the library's services expanded to encompass other print disabilities such as dyslexia.
Nowadays, Celia's operations are subject to the Finnish Act on the Library for the Visually Impaired as well as a Government Decree.
In 2004, Celia moved from Mäkelänkatu to the brand-new Iiris building near the Itäkeskus shopping centre, where the Finnish Federation of the Visually Impaired and other organisations have their offices.
In 2007, the distribution method of talking books and Braille books was changed – when a talking or a Braille book is requested, a personal lending copy is produced which the patron discards or recycles after use. After the introduction of the on demand system, the number of loans increased enormously, and in 2008 over 800,000 loans were made – 96% of which were talking books.
