Helmet libraries

iPhone / Références

Search the entire Helsinki Metropolitan Area Libraries catalog, see real-time availability, and manage your library account — all in one clean, fast app.

SEARCH & DISCOVER
• Search across all Helmet libraries — books, music, movies, games, journals, sheet music, and more
• Discover what just came in — six cover-art carousels on the Search tab covering new books, movies, music, games, sheet music, and maps
• Browse by genre — Fiction, Crime, Children's, Fantasy & sci-fi, Documentary, Horror, Jazz, Classical, and many more — without having to think of a search term first. Categories your library area doesn't stock are hidden automatically
• Tap any cover for an Apple Books-style preview: swipe between items in the rail, see the full details, place a hold in one tap
• Browse the Library of Things — musical instruments, exercise gear, power drills, season tickets, board games, sensory cards, kitchen equipment, electronics, and more
• Pre-select content type (books, music, movies, …) with always-visible filter chips, or toggle filters on the fly
• Narrow further with a dedicated Filters sheet: Format (Blu-ray, DVD, CD, LP, audiobook, eBook, board / video game), Language, and Publication year — with counts across the full result set, not just the page on screen
• See cover images, authors, publishers, and detailed metadata
• Live results as you type

REAL-TIME AVAILABILITY
• See which libraries have the item you're looking for
• Check per-copy status: available on shelf, checked out, in transit
• View due dates for checked-out copies and number of requests
• Shelf numbers included so you can find the item quickly

YOUR LIBRARY ACCOUNT
• View your current loans with due dates and renewal status
• Browse your holds and track queue position
• Check and manage your fines
• Place new holds and choose your pickup library — when your hold is ready, the numbered pickup shelf is shown next to the library so you can walk straight to it
• Renew loans directly from the app
• Edit or cancel existing holds
• Display your library card barcode for easy checkout
• Set your home library (preferred pickup location), see today's opening hours and contact details at a glance, and tap the address to open it in your Maps app
• Save items to Lists — create as many lists as you like, attach notes, share a public list as a link, move items between lists. Lists stay in sync with helmet.finna.fi so everything is reachable from the website too

STAY ON TOP
• Get notified before your loans are due — 3 days before and on the due date
• See at a glance if any holds are ready for pickup
• Overdue and due-soon loans are highlighted

DESIGNED FOR YOU
• Beautiful liquid glass interface following the latest iOS design
• Available in English, Finnish, and Swedish
• Works offline with cached account data
• Your data stays on your device — no accounts, no tracking, no ads

GET IN TOUCH
Thank you for using the app. It's in active development, and your feedback shapes where it goes next. If something doesn't work, or there's a feature you'd like to see, write to apps@mla.run.

This app is an independent project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to the Helmet library consortium or any of its member libraries (Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Kauniainen). It uses the public Finna and Kirkanta APIs provided by the Finnish library system.

A Helsinki Metropolitan Area library card is required to access account features (loans, holds, fines). Catalog search is available to everyone without login.

Quoi de neuf dans la dernière version ?

Smaller things that add up:

• Frozen holds are now visible on the Holds screen — a chip on the status line tells you which holds you've paused so you can tell them apart from active ones at a glance.
• The Account dashboard cards now use proper plural agreement — "1 item" / "5 items" instead of the awkward "1 item(s)".
• When a hold is ready for pickup, the row tells you the hold can no longer be edited or cancelled — instead of just hiding the buttons with no explanation.
• Availability lists for popular items (in 5+ libraries) now collapse to the first few entries with a "Show N more" tap, so a 40-library record doesn't dwarf everything else on the screen.
• Lists overview: swipe a list to reveal a "Move all" button next to Delete — tap it to move every saved item from that list into another in one go. Handy for tidying up after a "Quick saves" / "To read" cleanup pass.
• Your home library card now surfaces today's exception note ("shortened hours", holiday name) right next to the open/closed status — instead of burying it in a section users rarely scrolled to.
• Home library card now shows the staffed window for branches that mix staffed and self-service hours (Haukilahti, Tapiola, others) — so you can tell at a glance whether a librarian is on duty right now, not just whether the door is open. Self-service-only days are flagged the same way.

Fixes worth mentioning:

• Sub-format filters (Blu-ray, DVD, CD, LP) now actually narrow the result list. Previously they were silently union'd with the parent format chip, so picking "Blu-ray" while Video was active still returned every Video record.
• Search-result cover thumbnails no longer latch into permanent blanks when you scroll fast.