Project: FIN-CLARIAH
Grant agreement: Research Council of Finland no. 358720
Start date: 01-01-2024
Duration: 24 months
WP 3.2: Report on Ingestion of structured data from FINNA
Date of reporting: 04-06-2025
Report author: Joona Manner (National Library of Finland, Finna Unit)
Contributors: Joona Manner, Juha Luoma, Julia Isotalo, Riitta Peltonen, Päivi Maria Pihlaja (National Library of Finland)
Deliverable location: https://github.com/NatLibFi/Finna-API-image-file-downloader
The aim of the deliverable was to improve researchers’ access to vast image collections and related metadata for data-intensive research. Finna is a national infrastructure and discovery service maintained and developed by the National Library of Finland and providing access to collections of almost 500 libraries, archives and museums.
In this delivery, we enhance Finna’s data reuse services to meet researchers’ needs and improve the technical features of the Finna Application Interface (API) service. The deliverable contributes to the objective of connecting the research infrastructure to accruing data sources, enhancing researchers’ access to open data and enabling workflow automation.
We planned the technical improvements and guidance materials in consultation with researchers and other stakeholders, including an open survey questionnaire in August 2024 and a collaborative workshop in September 2024, which involved researchers from both the social sciences and humanities, as well as the IT Centre for Science (CSC).
The new API image file and metadata download system includes a command prompt-based Nodejs scripts that allow users to download high-resolution images with related metadata in JSON format based on Finna search from Finna’s material providers.
The script enables the downloading of thousands of high-resolution images without triggering Finna’s data rate limiter, which is also necessary to prevent malicious attacks on Finna’s infrastructure.
Finna’s API image file and metadata download system will in the future also automatically create a report on possibly missing image files, which will help users and organisations solve these issues, improving Finna’s content quality in the long run.
The automated Nodejs script requires an API key that users can generate with their personal Finna account. Creating a Finna account requires email confirmation. The API key feature will be available in Autumn 2025. Before this, keys are provided on demand for individual research purposes.
The project has been in line with many of the National Library’s strategic objectives, including the objective of the Finna vision to promote the use of data as a resource.
Instructions in GitHub:
https://github.com/NatLibFi/Finna-API-image-file-downloader/releases/download/Demo_for_Workshops/Finna_API_instructions.pdf
Instructions will also be added under the Finna service guidance materials:
https://www.kiwi.fi/display/Finna/Finna+API+Documentation+In+English
The new features were presented and tested at the following events:
FIN-CLARIAH project has received funding from the European Union – NextGenerationEU instrument and is funded by the Research Council of Finland under grant number 358720.
