The Hong Kong Legislative Council Library

Brief History

The Research and Library Services Division was created in the reorganization of the Secretariat of the Hong Kong Legislative Council in April 1993. With the appointment of the then Head of the Division in August 1994, recruitment was completed in December 1994 and service started in March 1995. The initial strength was one Head, one Librarian, two Research Officers and two support staff members. Service offered included parliamentary research service to the Council and committees on request and library service to individual Members on a first-come-first-served, confidential basis.

Demand in the initial period for research and library service from the Council and its 40 Committees prompted expansion, which began five months later, with the addition of three more Research Officers and one more Librarian, completed in May 1996. A new Head was appointed in April 1996 upon the early retirement of the previous one.

Setting of the Library

Concurrent with the development of the Research and Library Services Division, the Hong Kong Legislative Council also underwent a dramatic change. An election was held in September 1995, turning in a fully elected Legislative Council, unprecedented in Hong Kong's legislative history of 152 years. The majority party in the Council is the Democratic Party.

The main functions of the Legislative Council are to pass laws, control public expenditure and monitor Government policies. It meets normally once a week on Wednesday from October to July, with breaks during major public holidays. Members carry out their work mainly through a system of committees and panels. The Legislative Council is unicameral, and operates on a semi-presidential system, with the government of the day being represented by officials who attend Legislative Council sittings and panel meetings as and when required by the Council to answer questions on its accountability and explain policies.

There is no fusion of the Executive with the Legislature, but neither is the system fully presidential because the President of the Council is not directly elected by the electorate. The President of the Council is a non-Government elected Member, again elected amongst the 60 Members of the Council. These 60 Members are composed as follows: 20 of them are elected from geographical constituencies, 30 from functional constituencies, and 10 by an Election Committee. The electoral system is "first past the post". Election is held by universal suffrage, with voting age at 18 years.

During this session from October 1995 to July 1996, the Council held 36 meetings. A total of 112 bills was introduced, and 43 motion debates held. Members raised 573 original questions and 659 supplementary questions. For the third time in its history, the Legislative Council exercised its privileged powers to investigate an issue of significant public interest, namely, a landslip tragedy in which a whole building was buried by a slid slope.

The Research and Library Services Division is a division within the Secretariat, and reports to the Secretary General of the Legislative Council. It provides a centralized research service to the Council and its committees. It also manages the Council Library which is open to Members and staff of the Secretariat. Members of the public are allowed access to records of open meetings of the Council and related papers at the Library. The Library is a member of IFLA while the Hong Kong Legislative Council is a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

The Library has an inter-library loan relationship with all major libraries in Hong Kong, including the Urban Council libraries and university libraries. Unfortunately, there is no national library in Hong Kong.

Organization of the Parliamentary Library

Services and Product

The Research and Library Services Division provides research and reference services to Members and staff of the Legislative Council. The Division undertakes the following research studies on request from the Council and its committees: studies on public policy issues, assessment of strengths and weaknesses of policy options, and surveys. There are five Research Officers and a Head, with diverse background and training, including economics, journalism, political science and banking. Since its establishment in April 1995, 26 studies have been conducted and 9 are on-going. Policy areas reflect those of Members' concern: Internet, parliamentary privilege, university funding, housing, public transport monitoring mechanism, and so on.

Ordinary library services are provided to individual Members and their assistants: access to library collections, reading room facilities, reference service on topics of interest to Members, and inter-library loans. Reference service is also available to committee clerks and other senior staff of the Legislative Council Secretariat. Members of the public are allowed to inspect records, papers and reports of Legislative Council sittings and open committee meetings, Members' Claims for General Expenses Allowance, and the Register of Members' Interest. The Library is staffed by two professional Librarians and two clerical support staff.

Records of some Committee meetings have been uploaded onto the home page of the Legislative Council on the Internet since June 1996. This is a trial period and response has been very positive. The Legislative Council Secretariat now aims to upload all records since 1994 onto the Internet in the coming 12 to 24 months.

Patronage of the Library has been quite high: with an average of 450 users per month, 290 book loans per month, 400 enquiries per month, and about 500 books processed per month. Computer usage has increased from 2 per month to 42 times per month. For details, please see attached chart.

Library Collections and other resources

Library holdings consist of the following:

• Legislative Council-related documents:
  
  • Hansard (from 1890 to present)
    
  • records of committee meetings (1994/5 session onwards)

• Official publications:
  
  • Gazette
    
  • Government Briefing Notes to Legislative Council (on policy proposals)
    
  • annual departmental reports
    
  • topical reports

• Books, newspapers and periodicals:
  
  • books on political, economic and social issues (about 13,000 volumes),
    
  • local and overseas newspapers (10)
    
  • periodicals (23)
    
  • publications on parliaments (3)

• CD-ROMs:
  
  • seven databases

• Audiotapes:
  
  • 2,400, comprising records of all committee and panel meetings in the 1994/5 and 1995/6 sessions.

There is a simple reading room for Members. There are also three 486 computer stations for access to CD-ROM databases and the Internet; these are used mainly by Members' assistants.

Developments in Automation

The Hong Kong Legislative Council Secretariat has an internal electronic mail system to which the Library is connected. However, the three 486 computers in the Library are stand-alone stations and not networked. Hence, the Library databases cannot be accessed from this e-mail system. Users need to come to the Library physically to gain access to the CD-ROM databases and the Internet.

The Library is in the process of choosing a bidder from open tender to design a computerized database for storage and retrieval of legislative reference materials as well as library holdings. A feasibility study will be done from September to December, 1996, with the aim of confirming user requirements. Implementation of recommendations will start in spring next year. The aim will be for the Library to be networked to other libraries, both local and international, through the Internet and for Members to gain access through the internal e-mail system.

The Hong Kong Legislative Council Secretariat has engaged a consultant firm to design a pilot imaging scheme for records management purposes. Pilot tests will be conducted in October 1996. If this proves successful, archived material which is now deposited with the Government Public Records Office can be stored in the form of optical disks for future access.

Important Developments in the Library

In view of the exercise of Chinese sovereignty in Hong Kong starting in July 1997, the Library has started to enhance its China collection and acquire many more books about China so as to assist Members to know and understand more about China.