Turku City Library (, ) is a municipal public library in Turku. The Main Library is located in the VI District at the city centre. The Turku City Library also operates several branch libraries and two mobile libraries. It is part of the Vaski library network, which is a consolidation of 18 public libraries in the Southwest Finland region. The library traces its roots to the 1860s, when a privately funded people's library and an academic oriented city library were established in Turku. The municipality of Turku soon took over operating both libraries, and in 1912 they were merged to form the Turku City Library. The Turku City Library is a regionally significant library and one of the largest public libraries in Finland. It has had a regional development responsibility in the regions of Finland Proper and Satakunta since 2018. The libraries with regional development responsibility are tasked with developing the working environment of the area's public libraries and updating the staff's skills and knowledge. History The People's Library and the City Library (1862–1912) The Turku City Library traces its roots to the 1860s, when two privately funded libraries were established in Turku: a people's library for the working class and an academic oriented city library for the educated classes. The People's Library (Finnish: Turun kansankirjasto) was established in 1862, and it operated at the beginning in the house of a factory owner's wife. The library was open only a couple of hours a week, and each customer was allowed to loan just one book at a time, because there were only around one thousand books in the collection. Loaning was free, but there was a voluntary annual fee of one mark. However, the People's Library was soon in financial troubles, and it was even temporarily closed for a short period at the beginning of the 1870s. The financial situation improved when the municipality of Turku took over the management of the library in 1878. After the Great Fire of Turku in 1827 the Royal Academy of Turku was moved to Helsinki. Also the library of the Royal Academy was moved, after which there was no more an academic library in Turku. For this reason an academic oriented City Library (Finnish: Turun kaupunginkirjasto) was established for the city's educated classes in 1869. Also the City Library was soon in financial difficulties, and the municipality took over its operations in 1891.