The development of the electronic library began in July 1994. The aim of the project was to find out what kind of communication connections there were between the libraries and the educational establishments of the Vaasa province and how the connections could be improved. A query was made and it was found out that many kinds of ADP -systems without any connections were used. The creation of connections was started e.g. with the Walli -server of the University of Vaasa.

The second stage of the project began in June, 1995. Computer-mediated communication lessons were given to librarians, technical facilities were developed further and the creation of web pages for Sukkula started. Access to databases of some libraries via Internet was made possible. At the end of the year the Fredrika-database of the coastal communes, the database of Vaasa University Library and the Botnia bibliography, which the provincial libraries made together, could be used via the Internet. Fredrika was one of the first databases of public libraries in the Internet.

The third stage of the project started in June, 1996. At the end of 1996 there were two new databases in the Internet: the database of the Library of the Vaasa Court of Appeal and the database of the Library of the Vaasa Institute of Techonology (which is a unit of the Vaasa Polytechnic Library). These databases do not belong to national catalogues; the latter has been replaced by a new version. The creation of several new databases was discussed with the specialists of the library systems.

In 1997 the first electronic publications were brought out on the web pages of Sukkula. The topic was the history of libraries. A festschrift called Finnish Public Libraries 200 years and some other publications dealing with the history of libraries are available on the Web both in Finnish and in Swedish. The summaries of the articles of the festschrift are also available in English. All the databases of every provincial library, the Vaasa Polytechnic Library and the museum of Ostrobothnia can be found in the compiled databases of libraries. Provincial libraries have been looking for a solution to create a new version of the Botnia bibliography. The town/provincial library of Vaasa has been making a database of provincial articles together with Pohjalainen, a local newspaper. The Vaasa Court of Appeal participated the Sections of the Law in Literature -project with the Ministry of Education, the University of Vaasa and Sukkula.

In 1994, 1995 and 1996 Sukkula was financed by the Ministry of Education. The development of electronic library services and Sukkula has been strongly supported by the work of computer network specialists in provincial and Fredrika -libraries. The work of computer network specialists has also been financed by the Ministry of Education. Sukkula has grown from an experimental project to an important part of continuing co-operation among Ostrobothinian libraries. Sukkula also helps public libraries to attain the aims of a public libraries project called House of Knowledge.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

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