Ms. Haavisto has been the Director of Libraries in the City of Tampere since November 2006.

In 1998-2006, Ms. Haavisto run her own enterprise Tuula Haavisto Library Knowledge T:mi. She made projects, teaching and writing both internationally and in Finland. E.g. she coordinated the WSIS actions of IFLA, Internatonal Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. She also led several projects on copyright and licensing of electronic material in Central and Eastern Europe and in Asia.

Before her free lancer career, she worked for ten years (1987-1997) as Secretary General of the Finnish Library Association. In Finland Ms. Haavisto has involved in different information society projects as representative of libraries. Both in Finland and internationally, she is an active lecturer and writer.

By education Ms. Haavisto is librarian and Master of Social Sciences from Tampere University, having Librarianship and Information Science as her main subject.

Since 2004, she is a member in the IFLA FAIFE Committee (Free Access to Information and Freedom of Expression).

Since 1999 she has been the Chair of the Board of the KVS Institute, Kansanvalistusseura (the eldest adult education organization in Finland). From 2005, she is the Vice Chair of Lukukeskus, Centre for Reading.