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Why Helsinki’s library robots aren’t important

Tom Scott | October 15, 2025



Oodi, the new Helsinki Library, has robots to help reshelve books. They get a lot of press attention. But they’re not the important part of the library: here’s why.

Thanks to all the team at Oodi: https://www.oodihelsinki.fi/

Edited by Michelle Martin https://www.youtube.com/@OnTheCrux
With thanks to librarian-YouTuber Peter Musser for script checking: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC37J30wHpQOtc1vzuN6OdDA/videos

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Written by Tom Scott

Comments

This post currently has 29 comments.

  3. @gaswe9236

    October 15, 2025 at 1:37 am

    As someone who has been living in Finland for some years now, i can confirm this is like the only place worth spending your time without destroying your wallet in Helsinki 😹

  6. @gordonmorrow4720

    October 15, 2025 at 1:37 am

    Nice video. I really love seeing and handling a book, especially books older than 100 years. Can I see it digitally? Usually, yes. But there is something special about having the actual book in my hands. It’s a more immersive experience, especially if there are fold-out maps in the book. Rare book collections take you back in history.

  9. @MikkoRantalainen

    October 15, 2025 at 1:37 am

    Librarians in Finland are expected to have minimum education level of Master's degree from some Finnish university to make sure they can help you with even complex tasks. Unfornately, even many Finns are unaware of this and they only contact the staff to ask for access to bathroom or other simple tasks and then proceed to Google for stuff they don't know.

  11. @victoriasigsworth

    October 15, 2025 at 1:37 am

    It isn't only librarians who do the work. Most of the shelving etc is done by library Assistants. Everyone always refers to all staff in libraries as librarians but this isn't the case. The Assistants free up the librarians to do the research etc. I wish there would be more acknowledgement of their vital role.

  16. @jijitters

    October 15, 2025 at 1:37 am

    The coolest thing about this library for me is that it is generally a social space where people can freely talk, with specific rooms designated for silence. In the US it is usually the opposite, where specific areas may be designated for groups to meet but most of the library is expected to be silent. It made libraries intimidating and unsettling to be in for me growing up! Being shushed or feeling like everyone can hear every sound you make is stressful, not peaceful!

  19. @bekichan91

    October 15, 2025 at 1:37 am

    Libraries are community hubs. Access to information in only one important thing that they offer. Most libraries have events and programs that the community can attend (often for free), it is a place that you can go that is temperature controlled that you don't have to pay to spend time in and will often have at least water available. Many libraries also try to bridge the digital divide too, offering services for those less tech savvy.

  26. @KimdraStBiryukova

    October 15, 2025 at 1:37 am

    I know this video is a bit old now, but as a library clerk (someone who sorts and shelves the books, sits at the front desk, and does the general library things) who is in the process of gaining my master's in library sciences (which is a proper librarian), the two jobs are not the same at all.
    Library clerks are generally what people think of as "librarian," but a clerk and a librarian are what unit aids and nurses are to one another, or front end staff and managers. A librarian can do a clerk's job, but a clerk cannot do a librarian's job.
    So to say that a librarian pushes carts around all day… nah. That's not what librarians do. Clerks do that, but it's also so, so much more.
    My local library was just upgraded from a single room library to a two-story, multi-thousand square foot library. And it's become so popular that the town is planning on building a second one in a few years! Libraries are, happily, becoming more and more popular as people realise that we are "the last bastion of true democracy" – The Public

  29. @That1707

    October 15, 2025 at 1:37 am

    Feel like a lotta people forget that the Pages also do work as well. The robots aren't a replacement of the Librarian's time. They are a replacement for Pages

    But they probably do cost less. Even if Pages are paid – at least from what I've seen locally – barely over min wage

Comments are closed.

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