Developing the international distribution of humanities studies in Finland: the exchange of publications of two learned societies in 1831–1914

Abstract

Examines the international exchange of publications of two Finnish learned societies: the Finnish Literature Society and the Finnish Antiquarian Society from their foundation until the outbreak of the First World War. The exchange of publications had two purposes: it was a means of acquiring international literature for the libraries of the societies and a way of distributing results of research to foreign scholars. In spite of the availability of texts written in the Finnish language and on Finnish subjects, the Finnish societies received many foreign exchange proposals. Relevancy of the received publications was usually not criticized and all the offers were accepted. These two societies trusted in the exchange as a means of distributing their studies internationally, and did not seriously endeavour to find commercial distribution channels for their publications.