Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments

CIRCULAR NEWSLETTER
Vol 18 - No. 2
June 1999

1. Introductory Remarks


2. The 14th IFLA pre-conference Brussels 1998


3. Elections for the Standing Committee


4. Workshop in the Hellenic Parliament Athens, January '99


5. Publications
- update of the World Directories on Parliamentary Libraries


6. Announcements


7. The 1999 IFLA Conference Bangkok and Pre-Conference


8. Standing Committee Members


9. Section e-mail and fax addresses


Appendix : Registration Forms for Bangkok and some information from the invitation booklet

1. Introductory Remarks

You will find a copy of the registration forms and some general information about the Conference as an appendix to the paper version of the Newsletter. Electronic versions of the registration forms for the main Conference can be found under "Registration" at
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla65/65intro.htm

As promised in the December '98 Newsletter, this issue includes the minutes of last year's Pre-Conference in Brussels at the European Parliament and the Belgium Parliament. The minutes are quite extensive, 19 pages, but I think that it is worthwhile to read them as it was a very interesting and well-attended pre-conference.

In section 3 you will find the results of the elections for the Standing Committee which were held this Spring. At the first Standing Committee Meeting in Bangkok a new Chairman will be elected and the SC will decide on retaining the services of Jan Keukens as Secretary.

In section 4 there is a report from Eleni Mitrakou about the Workshop held in the Greek parliament last January. The theme of the Workshop was "Parliamentary Libraries at the end of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st Century". Six members of the Section were invited to give presentations on special aspects of their services to MPs.

The regular issues on Publications, Announcements, and the full addresses of members of the Standing Committee and e-mail addresses and fax numbers of other members are included in this Newsletter.

In section 5 "Publications" you will find an article on the updating of both World Directories of our Section, which are maintained on the web site of the German Bundestag. It includes a list of entries which need updating as they have not been amended since their first publication in 1995.

Jennifer and I are hoping to see as many of you as possible in Bangkok. I think that the Section programme looks very interesting, especially the Workshop, which promises to be a very participative and active event. We look forward to renewing our acquaintance with those who have taken part in our Section activities in recent years, and also to greeting new colleagues attending their first IFLA Conference meetings in the old and beautiful Kingdom of Thailand.

Jan Keukens
Editor
16 June 1999

2. 14th Annual International Conference of Parliamentary Libraries

Those present:

Jennifer Tanfield (Chair, UK), Jan Keukens (Secretary, Netherlands)
Zana Bufi (Albania), Vjollca Hysenbegas (Albania),Nola Adcock (Australia), Rob Johnston (Australia), Rob Brian (NSW, Australia), Nick Bannenberg (Queensland, Australia), Gail Dunston (Victoria, Australia), Gerda Dekerk (Belgium), Bernard Vansteelandt (Belgium), Johannes van Zutphen (Belgium, Flemish Parliament), Florence Butale (Botswana) Margarita Angelova (Bulgaria), Gaston Bernier (Quebec, Canada), Francis Kirkwood (Canada), Richard Paré (Canada), Mary E. Dickerson (Ontario, Canada), Marialyse Delano (Chile), Daniela Sraga (Croatia), Branka Martincic (Croatia), Karel Sosna (Czech Republic), Ene Loddes (Estonia), Marju Rist (Estonia) Neville Keery (European Commission) Hannke Coppolecchia (European Parliament Brussels) Dick Toornstra (European Parliament Brussels), Freddy Drexler (European Parliament Brussels), Kevin Gunning (European Parliament Luxembourg), Ton Huijssoon (European Parliament Brussels), Steffen Jensen (European Parliament Luxembourg), Caroline Lecocq (European Parliament Brussels), Johan Loogman (European Parliament Brussels), Michael Mann (European Parliament Luxembourg), Teresa Marto de Oliveira (European Parliament Brussels), Zita Mazzario (European Parliament Brussels) Lambert Micha (European Parliament Brussels), Dietmar Nickel (European Parliament Brussels), Jacques Raybaut (European Parliament Brussels), Dorothea Scherzer (European Parliament Brussels), Jules van Eijndhoven (European Parliament Brussels), Debbie Watkins (European Parliament Brussels), Emanuella Giavarra (European Copyright Users Platform London), Marga Coing (Germany), Charles Brown (Ghana), Kosi Kedem (Ghana), Eleni Mitrakou (Greece) Beata Csako Szarka (Hungary), Christine Geirsottes (Iceland) John Joseph (India), N K Singh (India), Kumar Ravinder Chadha (India), Sandra Fine (Israel), Takashi Tsukamoto (Japan), Sousada Phoummasak (Lao PDR), Anita Dudina (Latvia), Renata Blagniene (Lithuania), Todorche Lukarevski (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Dulce Maria Liahut (Mexico), Enrique Molina (Mexico), Anne Pries Heijke (Netherlands), Pleasance Purser (New Zealand), Wojciech Kulisiewicz (Poland), Maria Jose Santos (Portugal), Ioana Borocan (Romania), Elisabeta Nicoara (Romania), Irina Andreeva (Russia), Oleg Kumalagov (Russia), Georgina Gadusova (Slovak Republic), Violeta Bottazzo (Slovenia), Renata Khataza Shilubana (South Africa), Albert Mzinkulu Ntunja (South Africa), James Retief (Western Cape, South Africa), Rosa Maria Grau Guadix (Spain), Juan Carlos da Silva (Basque, Spain), Isabel Gonzalez del Campo (Spain), Carmen Alba (Spain) Margareta Brundin (Sweden), Eva Falk (Sweden), Ernst Frischknecht (Switzerland), Fevzi Celik (Turkey), Ali Riza Cihan (Turkey), Tuncer Yilmaz (Turkey), Ishak Bozkurt (Turkey), Eduard Afonin (Ukraine), Jane Wainwright (United Kingdom), Richard Ware (United Kingdom), Alan Marchbank (United Kingdom), Donna Scheeder (USA), Tembi Mtine (Zambia).

(90 persons, 41 countries)

The conference was hosted by the European Parliament, where a full day session was held on the 12th and a half day session in the morning of August 13. In the afternoon of August 13 a session was held at the Federal Parliament of Belgium.

1. Opening

The Conference was opened by Dick Toornstra, who, after his words of welcome, gave a short sketch of the EP presenting some impressive statistics. The building of the EP, completed in December 1997, has a surface of 372.000 m2; 2600 offices; 87 meeting rooms, and a plenary room for 750 members. The annual budget is 920 million ECUS (ECU is equivalent to the US-Dollar); 3.500 officials work for the EP and 11 official languages are used; 40.000 telephone calls are transmitted daily; there are 350.000 visitors a year. In the building 5.000 PC's and 2700 printers have been installed.

During the month the parliament works one week in Luxembourg, and the rest of the month in Brussels. The EP is directly elected in 15 countries every 5 years. The EP has gained more rights and more political influence in the last few years and hopefully a greater sense of recognition from its electorate. The EP has a special position and is not comparable to national parliaments; there is no majority versus minority and there is no government. It is a new organisation and still developing. Although making things more difficult and complex, this makes it also more challenging and worthwhile.

2. General introduction to the EU and the EP.

2.1 Organisation of the EU and EP.

In 1952 the first European Community on Coal and Steel was created. The European Economic Community and Euratom (European Community on Atomic Energy) were created in1958.Closer co-operation was established in 1987 by the Single European Act and in 1993 by the Maastricht Treaty including a monetary union.

The EU is a special international organisation because it has institutions of its own.

• European Commission. The commission oversights the application of all treaties and drives the business because it holds the monopoly of the right of initiative.

• The Council of Ministers. Comprised of the Ministers of the member states, who deal with the legislative questions on their policy fields.

• The European Parliament is the co-decider and co-legislator, with the Council of Ministers, on legislation. EP is not co-decider and co-legislator on all subjects. Some are still the monopoly of the Council of Ministers.

• The European Court of Justice. The European Court has to guarantee that treaties and other regulations are respected.

The Organisation of the EU is still developing and not yet fixed. Though the power of the EP is increasing, it does not seek to become the sole legislator. It decides to be co-legislator with the Council of Ministers.

2.2 Interpretation

From the fifties till 1972 the Community had six countries and four languages: French, German, Italian and Dutch. In 1973 the United Kingdom, Ireland and Denmark joined the Community, adding two languages. At that time there were six languages, so 30 language combinations for interpretation. Today the EU has 11 languages. Those languages require 110 language combinations. As not all the MP's know foreign languages, interpretation is very important for them.

The Directorate of Interpretation has 11 language divisions and about 118 members of staff. There is a pool of about 1000 freelance interpreters who work for the EP. There are 60.000 interpretation days annually. One third of the annual budget of the EU is used to cover the costs of interpretation and translation.

2.3 Translation

The 11 official languages are: Danish, Italian, Dutch, Greek, French, German, English, Swedish, Spanish, Portuguese and Finnish. All the language combinations are covered by direct translation from the source language into the target language. All translators translate from a foreign language into their own language. The average coverage of a translator is 4 languages, but some translators cover 6 or 7 languages. There are 450 translators and 250 secretarial support staff, 500.000 pages are translated annually.

Four groups of documents are translated:

• Legislative documents (directives and regulations, reports and amendments)

• Budget documents (reports and amendments)

• Political documents (resolutions and questions)

• Administrative documents (notes and letters from the internal parliamentary administration)

Computers and word processing makes the work of the translation divisions easier than it was. However, despite all the electronic tools, translation is still essentially craft work.

Each language division has its own library to support the translation staff. The Dutch Division Library has about 800 books, reviews and cd-roms. Besides general reference works such as encyclopaedias, atlases and dictionaries there is literature on all kind of topics: EU, Member States, law/legislation, agriculture, economy, trade, mining, energy, social affairs, education etc. The problem is that the texts of the official documents cover all kinds of subjects and the Division collection will never be big enough to cover everything and in depth. Information is interrogated from databases and from the intranet/internet as well.

After the presentations Frank Kirkwood asked for the costs per word or page. Loogman answered that the costs per page (standard 1500 characters) was about 150 ECU per page. Kirkwood asked if it is always possible to refer a translated text back to the original language and what documentation system is used to keep track of past translations. Loogman answered that this is always possible. There is a file-store where all original texts and translations produced, are kept and there is the database which contains (meta)data (dates, reference numbers, titles, authors, translators) on the text and the translations. A project to connect the file-store with the database will be commenced shortly.

Donna Scheeder asked who is responsible for the various translation division libraries. Loogman answered that there is someone responsible for the library in each division, but the language divisions are relatively autonomous. On the level of the Directorate someone is responsible for the budgets. Michael Mann asked what use is made of the general Library and Documentation Services of DG4 by the translators. Loogman answered it was very little. There is not enough time, and the library is situated just too far away.

3. Role and functioning of Parliamentary Committees and Inter-parliamentary
Delegations of the EP

A proposal comes from the European Commission and goes to the President of the Parliament who will consult the parliamentary committees directly. There are three kinds of procedure: the consultation procedure which has a single reading; the co-operation procedure which has two readings; and the co-decision procedure which can lead to 3 readings. There is also the assent procedure.

The parliamentary committee prepares the report, which will be sent on to the Plenary. The committee itself appoints a "rapporteur" from its members, who will be responsible for drafting the working document, which will be worked up to a report which will be voted on within that parliamentary committee. When the report is voted on in the committee it can also be amended. That in turn may involve compromise amendments, and the other committees may also table opinions to that report. The positions taken in the Plenary are already widely prepared at the committee stage and the major compromises have in fact already been made before the report comes in the Plenary. The Plenary has the right to refer the report back to the committee if it thinks that the issue is not properly prepared or if there is more that has to be set. In certain cases - single readings, request for opinions, initiative reports - the Plenary may delegate power to a committee to act in the place of the Plenary. All members can attend any committee meeting but there is a difference in role. There are full members and substitute members. Only full members have the right to vote. There are no specific rules for the number of full and substitute members of committees.

In addition to the Standing Parliamentary Committees there are parliamentary sub-committees and temporary committees. There are also temporary Committees of Inquiry. There have been two parliamentary committees of inquiry so far: one on fraud in community transit and one on BSE ("Mad cow disease"). The parliament itself sets up its new structure at the beginning of each legislative period. It decides on the number of committees, the number of seats and their membership etc.

In the parliamentary delegations there are full members and substitute members as in the committees. There are three categories of delegations: mixed parliamentary delegations or joint parliamentary delegations, inter-parliamentary delegations and parliamentary delegations based on co-operation. The joint or mixed committees have been set up by association agreements (candidates for membership of the EU). Members of the EP and MPs of the candidate country make up these committees. At the moment there are 13 such committees. There are 21 inter-parliamentary delegations. The inter-parliamentary delegations are the oldest institutionalised form of contact, and allow for contacts with parliaments of a third country. The oldest inter-parliamentary delegation is with the American Congress. The co-operation delegation is the newest form and are set up for partnership agreements, which have been established with the countries from the former Soviet Union. About 140 countries have specific institutionalised contacts with the EU. Ad hoc delegations have been created on special occasions, such as observers for elections

4 European Union Documentation in the Spanish Parliament

Spain joined the European Community in January 1986. Since then Spain has had to incorporate Community laws into its legal structure and has made an effort to harmonise its economic and social policies with those of the rest of the Community. Because of the long process of negotiations there were already some centres in Spain specialising in Community research. Nowadays there are European Documentation Centres spread all over the country. Among them there are two in the Spanish Parliament, the "Cortes Generales" which consists of the Congress of Deputies (Lower House) and the Senate (Upper House). In 1985 a joint committee of the Congress and Senate for the European Union was formed which has now 42 members (26 deputies and 16 senators).

European Documentation has an aspect that makes it different from the documentation of other international institutions. That is its legislative character and, as a result, the requirement on the part of all its member-nations to observe the EU regulations. This has the effect that the countries must either apply the content of the documentation directly, as in the case of regulations, or, in turn, make laws based on the rules established by the Community, as in the case of directives. The control of the EU documentary sources implies not only the handling of documents produced by the Community institutions, including the agreements with non-member countries and the official policies about this matter, but also all documentation that the member states produce as an result of being members of the EU, as well other documents and publications related to the EU. The reception of European documentation in the Congress is determined in accordance with two criteria: one is received from the Government, under the stipulation of Law 8/1994, and the other is received from the Office for Official Publications of the EU. The EU-databases, such as CELEX, EPOQUE, EUROSTAT etc. permit searches of the documentation needed, quite easily. The Documentation of the Congress gives the EU-periodicals (except the Official Journal) the same treatment as other periodicals. They are indexed in the database of the Congress. The number of titles for reviews dedicated to the EU has risen to 80. The Library buys most of the books published in Spain and a generous selection is made from those published in European and American countries.

The parliamentary documentation on EU matters is integrated in the Congress and Senate databases. The databases allow inquirers to follow the complete activities of the Joint Committee as well as the rest of the parliamentary process. For indexing, the EUROVOC thesaurus is used. Besides use of its internal resources a direct request can be made to the EU institutions or to personal contacts. Both have proven to be complementary and very useful. The Documentation Department answers all questions on European Union topics but also provides active information in the form of "notes of documentation", "dossiers", a bulletin of summaries, a monthly acquisition list and a recently created newsletter called "Novedades".

The notes of documentation are prepared for the committees when they are working in a particular subject or when it is considered necessary for some initiatives. They include Spanish and foreign legislation, a selection of documents and a bibliography. Notes on the relations between the European Parliament and National Parliaments, and on the Amsterdam Treaty were prepared. Dossiers are compiled for a legislative initiative and they include legislation, parliamentary documentation, documents from the EU and international organisations, jurisprudence and a bibliography of books and periodicals. A dossier has been prepared with regard to the bill to ratify the Treaty of Amsterdam. The monthly "Boletin of Sumarios" includes all references from the internal database, The "Boletin de Adquisiciones" of the Library includes a section on the EU. The bulletin "Novedades" is intended to give rapid information on the most important texts that appeared during the last week. It concentrates on foreign information, legislation or parliamentary documents, international organisations and the EU.

For the future there are plans to improve the dissemination of European Documentation by setting up a separate unit for this purpose. Presently the Documentation Department disseminates both EU and other documentation. The workload involved in the dissemination of EU publications is increasing and requires more and more specialisation. A separate unit would permit ongoing initiatives to keep the Deputies, functionaries and staff working in the Chamber, properly informed. The number of reference librarians for EU matters has to increase from one to three, and the bulletin Novedades will become electronically available. A separate access for EU-matters could be added to the Web page of the Congress for MPs.

(Printed copies of the full text of this presentation are available in English from Jan Keukens)

5A The Parliamentary Documentation Centre of the European Parliament and the coming into force of the Amsterdam Treaty

The Amsterdam Treaty will reinforce the role of the EP significantly. It will lead to a change of emphasis in the tasks, priorities and style of the institution, towards the more traditional role of a parliament: scrutinising, improving and deciding legislation, and holding its Executive to account. It means that the new priority for its legislative work, now that it will be a co-decider for the majority of legislative proposals, must be reflected in the way that it plans and organises its work, and allocates resources in accordance with this priority. It should be clear that these changes clearly indicate that a Directorate General for Research, or a Parliamentary Documentation Centre, can only function as a part of the overall architecture. They have to change their organisational schemes and working methods if and when the House assumes new and different responsibilities. Before Parliament assumed its legislative powers Research Staff were able to deal even-handedly with documentation and research requests from committees, groups and individual Members. Now work will need to be prioritised. Measures already taken to achieve synergies, particularly between officials in the Directorate General for Research and the Directorate General for Committees, should be strengthened for each legislative proposal. Preparatory documentation (fiches strategiques) is now being prepared for all legislative proposals. By improved co-ordination, research officials should assist directly "rapporteurs" for certain subjects corresponding to their areas of expertise. A better-defined annual research programme should ensure a scientific and intellectual back-up for Parliament's legislative work. Parliament's responsibility for informing national parliaments at all stages of the legislative process is reinforced as its powers increase in this area.

The priority for legislative work will influence the number of staff available for non-legislative work. As a result of that, programming will become the key word, and greater attention will be given to preparing work in advance. Close horizontal co-operation both within the Directorate and within other Directorates should be fostered, and exchange of information with national parliaments reinforced. If the majority of work is related to legislation, programmable in advance, part of this work will need to be out-sourced. Tailor-made and automated push-technology related information should be produced for MP's on the basis of detailed profiles. The control functions of the EP should be strengthened by structuring the information flow between it and national parliaments regarding the implementation of European laws. A new allocation of work between political group staff and the Parliamentary Documentation Centre will need to be decided, allowing the Parliamentary Documentation Centre to focus on its core activities. It seems unlikely that more funds will be made available, yet more work will be carried out. Educating the Members in using various on-line systems will reduce costs. Adhering to certain licensing principles, negotiating together with other libraries or developing barter trading initiatives, can save money. Copyright questions can considerably increase costs in the future and will not be resolved without political interference. International and inter-institutional co-operation will lower costs and enable better allocation of resources. Common digital library projects can be developed as can the storage of paper documents.

(Printed copies of the full text of this presentation are available in English from Jan Keukens)

5B EUROPARL

Raybaut gave a demonstration of the various databases of the EU. The systems must work in 11 languages and must be up to the minute, so it is very important to be able to co-ordinate between sites. Hypertext is available so you must be aware that the hyperlinks are correct and up to date. The structure of texts and meta-data are very important as full text searches do not give a precise result very often. Full text searches will not give a sufficient result in all the 11 languages, as sophisticated semantic tools will not be developed for all languages for economic reasons.

After this presentation there was a question on the standards used. The answer was that at the moment HTML is used as the standard, in the future that would be XML or SGML.
Richard Ware questioned the use of printed documents. Will there still be printed documents if all MPs, officials and citizens have access to full text official papers? Toornstra answered that he thinks that for a long time to come printed-paper and electronic documents will be available in parallel. Raybaut agreed on that - paper versions as well as electronic versions will be offered, but the "original version" will be on paper still.

Marga Coing stressed that in Germany there is a concern among librarians that they do not make enough information available for everyone on the Internet in comparison to, for instance, librarians in the USA. When she discussed this with the parliamentary administration, she found out that the Parliament is very much focused on itself, and is much more interested in internal availability of information. Moreover the Administration thinks that making information available to the public is the exclusive task of the Public Relations Department. Mrs Coing is concerned about that. She thinks that making this information available to the public should also be a task of Library and Documentation.

Toornstra thought that dissemination to the outside world is something that should definitely be done, but not by his department. Between 90 and 95% of all information produced by the Research Service, Library or Documentation can be available for the outside world because it is not confidential. If you want to do your work properly you have to know for whom you are working and why you are working for them. If you target your clients precisely and specifically you can be much more crisp and clear in the notes that you are submitting to that very precisely determined group of clients. If you open up to the outside world you are confronted with completely different target groups who, each of them, would require a different kind of approach. If you write a memo for an MP or a staff member, you write differently from when you know that your note will be disseminated to a target group outside that focus. In order to operate within a given set of restrictions on both the staff establishment plan and the money, and nevertheless at the same time modernise and invest for the future, you have to be extremely clear about what your target groups are: what kind of products and service you have to deliver, when and how. Toornstra feels that the Library, Research and Documentation of the EP is a closed gathering of services working for a very precisely determined group of clients doing a very precisely determined range of activities.

Marga Coing responded that she had been misunderstood. Research papers and analysis are not for the general public. She was talking of the plenary debates texts of which are not available for the general public on the Internet in Germany. She thinks that this is the job of the library, and how it should be handled in Germany. In the German situation this does not seem to be realised.

Raybout added to this that parliamentary jargon is not very easily understood by citizens. Making the documents available on the Internet to the citizens is not enough. You should rewrite those texts in everyday language if you really want to make these documents understandable to the general public.

6 The House of Commons Enquiries Database

The House of Commons Library operates a closely integrated Research and Library service.
Unlike many other Parliaments they are a single organisation with quite a lot of movement of staff between the research side and the reference and other information side. The Research Services deal with 30.000 individual requests a year, the Reference Service of the Library with 50.000 individual requests. The Public Information Office has over 100.000 individual requests a year.

Before the Enquiries database started in 1995, the enquiries were logged in a logbook and indexed in a card system. The Enquiries database includes a fairly complete list of enquiries from the Research Services, with only the very substantial enquiry requests from the Reference Service and the Public Information Office (about 500 a year). No attempt is made to log all enquiries made to the Research Service - only half of all the enquiries are in the database. The purpose of the Enquiries Database is to keep track in real time of the current status of the enquiry - who is dealing with it, what is the deadline, where was the work sent to, when was it completed. It replaces the old logbook and card indexes and is also an index to past research, giving information on performance and workload. For reasons of confidentiality it is possible for the library staff to suppress information on users on terminals in the public area of the library.

The database can give all sorts of management information:

• outstanding enquiries reports
• total numbers of enquiries
• individual workload
• use by individual MPs (Only 10 MP's had never come to the Research Service)
• meeting of deadlines
• meeting of non-deadlined enquiries within target period

The benefits are:

• instant access across library
• promotes internal flow of information
• good search tool for past research
• measures response to deadlines
• easy to learn and use
• assessed positively by users

Though both library staff and MPs are very satisfied with the system there are some problems.
The guidelines on what to log cannot possibly fit every situation. As a lot of the enquiries are not logged, the database has a limited value for measuring workloads. So the management information based on this database only is not entirely accurate. To get complete management information there are other kind of surveys, sampling the total workload twice a year, interviews with MPs etc. For the future there are plans for the introduction of a Document Managing System linked to the Enquiries Database. If that has been achieved there will be a single combined index archive (full text documents) for past research.

Mr Tsukamoto, from the Diet Library Japan, made a short statement that the Japanese Parliament also has an Enquiries database. (A written report on this database by Mr. Tsukamoto in English is available from Jan Keukens).

7. The European Parliament Press Service

8. Panel Discussion on copyright and electronic databases

The main theme of the panel discussion was copyright legislation for parliaments and electronic databases and how parliamentary libraries deal with copyright and press cuttings in particular.

Emanuella Giavarra: I am a copyright lawyer - When I was last in the European Parliament it was as a lobbyist for Libraries. I will be talking this morning about copyright, more from a world view, though I specialise in EU law. Why is copyright becoming so important to libraries? - It's because copyright is money, and money is very important to lots of people, including the creators of original work, and the industry. In our electronic environment this is going to become more and more important because it's easy to control either by technology or contracts.

I am here today actually to worry you quite a bit - to tell what you should know about copyright, and about contract law. I have been going through Europe and the US for the past eight years to inform librarians about copyright. I don't want to say that copyright is dead, because I am a copyright lawyer, but in an electronic environment it will be contracts in most instances that are going to rule your world. For my own information, how many of you have been involved in licensing? A few only. Who of you bought a CD-ROM lately? - Many more I see. Well all of you have been involved in licensing! On the back of nearly all CD ROM packages there is a licence that says "This and this you can do …." with this specific CD ROM. It restricts copyright, a contract restricts copyright, and I will go through this morning why most of the activities you are going to do in your libraries will not come under copyright as such, but under the terms of your licence. I am going to tell you a little of the latest trends in copyright, and then briefly go into licensing. I hope that by the time I am finished you will find the subject so interesting that you will want to have a whole session in the future on copyright and licensing in national libraries, and in parliamentary libraries, because it is of the utmost importance to the access of information.

In 1991 the European Union issued a directive on computer programs and a directive on lending and rental rights; those are not copyright, but the industry thought that they were important steps in having some remuneration for the lending of books. After this there were further directives:- on broadcasting by satellite and cable transmission; and another extending the period of copyright from 50 years to 70 years. What I am going to talk to you about more specifically today is the directive on databases. We have another directive coming up shortly which is going to harmonise all the laws in Europe. What you can see from this whole stream of directives is a specific trend. This trend, which is becoming universal, is toward an increase in the rights of owners, a decrease in the rights of libraries and their users, and access is going to be regulated by contract law rather than by copyright law.

When I say contract law I mean licences. Just to give you an idea of what is happening in the new directive under discussion, it's going to harmonise the whole copyright area in the paper and electronic environment. It will not be possible to send messages for private purposes to any of your users, not even within the parliament itself; there is no exception for archival copying, or preservation purposes, and libraries will only be able to make photocopies if they are establishments accessible to the public, which yours are not. If you don't come under any of these exemptions, you need to negotiate a licence and pay for it. This is dramatic because all of the laws in Europe have to be thrown out of the window, as a result of this new directive - all the exceptions that are currently in force for hard copy are gone forever if this is adopted, as expected, in about a year's time.

Going on to another associated topic necessary to interpret this legislation, what is a database? Well, as an example I have here a part of yesterday's newspaper - this is a database under the directive! It is a paper and an electronic database protected under the terms of the directive. So for your press clippings this is very important. What is being protected by copyright is the arrangement and the selection of the information. There's a new right coming - a sui generis right. This is a new right coming for the industry, but actually it's very good for libraries as well, because the new sui generis right means that all your catalogues (which are databases as well) are for the first time also protected. There are only a small number of exceptions - I don't want to go into them now - but I want to stress one particularly important one. This directive for the first time introduced licences into the law. You can't use a database, not even a paper database, without having a licence. Imagine the consequences which will flow from this. Then there is a 15 year protection for databases which are not original like a catalogue, but every time that you change the catalogue, the protection is updated for a further 15 years, so actually catalogues will never go out of copyright.

What I am trying to do is to show you, just using this newspaper again, the impact of the proposed legislation. Under existing conditions with the hard copy, you could open the paper, look at it, even make a photocopy of it. In the electronic environment even just to open it you need a licence. Just to become a lawful user you need to have a contract with the publisher or the author, so your life will become a nightmare - maybe it already is, because there are enormous pressures on libraries.

Licensing versus copyright. Librarians are becoming professional negotiators, but also managers of licences. All electronic material comes under a licence whether it be a CD ROM, software, an electronic journal or an electronic book. Management of these resources means that you need to negotiate a licence with every publisher; all are different (every contract is different) and there are different periods that each of the licences run, so if you are not aware that your licence period has run out, you no longer have access to the information. Librarians at the moment may like the idea of being negotiators, but there is something we should never forget:- generally speaking, there is no equality in the respective positions of the libraries and the publishers. The publisher has an exclusive right on a monopoly basis; libraries want the information for the use of their clients whether it be the general public, researchers or Members of Parliament, and the publishers are able to demand very, very high prices for this access.

That's why we need to have exceptions in the copyright law when it comes into place, and that is why libraries must be very careful not to embrace the proposed licensing legislation because it abrogates the rights that they have formerly enjoyed under copyright legislation. That's why we need to ensure that governments include safeguards in the legislation to provide access the information.

The European Commission (and indeed governments throughout the world) is looking towards reducing the numbers of exemptions, and putting everything under contract law, where there is an unequal position between libraries and rights owners. Librarians tend to focus on the price when they negotiate which is fair enough, but there are legal pitfalls involved which could mean that you end up paying twice as much for the material. These pitfalls are not just price or kind of access. In an electronic environment nobody knows who owns the electronic rights. For instance, with an article in the paper in electronic format, we don't know if the owner of the electronic right is the author or the publisher. They fight pretty effectively between themselves for the right of ownership and the librarian tends to be caught in the middle. What is very important when you sign a contract is to make sure that there are guarantees. For instance something that sets out what happens when the author knocks on your door and says "I am the one who owns the right to this information", not the publisher you have already paid, so that any court action is the responsibility of the supplier not you. There always should be warranty and indemnification clauses in licences, otherwise in cases of dispute you may end up paying once to the supplier and a second time to the owner, apart from footing the court costs involved. If you had to do that more than once you would be very quickly out of business.

Another matter of importance is choosing the law which will govern any disputes. Elsevier contracts for example come under Dutch law and not that of the country of the purchaser. It is important to change that if you can, because you don't want to have to go to Holland and engage a Dutch lawyer (or anywhere else for that matter) to defend your case. Make sure it is your law and your court which is applicable to the contract. The last point I wish to deal with is the perpetual access clause. A licence mostly is for one, or no more than three, years. Then access to information after the contract ceases - you no longer have access to the material you paid for the use of during that period. What about the archival function of a library? It's not possible if you don't negotiate for it. Be as sure as possible that you will always have access to the material you have paid for.

If there is any other information regarding copyright that you may be interested in, please contact me at through the European Copyright User Platform web site:
http://www.kaapeli.fi/eblida/ecup

(Nick Bannenberg did the Minutes of the presentation of Mrs. Giavarra)

Rob Brian, Parliamentary Librarian of New South Wales (Australia), stressed that the parliamentary libraries in Australia enjoy special privileges. Parliamentary libraries may copy any printed material and may copy any electronic material, for example TV programmes and Radio Broadcasting programmes and can also the scanning of newspaper articles. On the Intranet of the Parliament of New South Wales the full text of newspapers are available. Those things can be done for members of Parliament only in the performance of their parliamentary and electoral duties. At the moment this special privilege is under attack in Australia. Publishers want to remove these special privileges influenced by the world-wide trend. How long Australia can keep this special privilege is not sure. In 1983 the government set up a copyright review committee to consider copyright law reform when electronic databases started to come in and there was concern about protecting computer programmes. In 1988 the CLRC (Copyright Law Review Committee) considered the legal protection of computer software and in 1990 an issues paper was published. In 1993 a draft report was published and in 1995 a final report.

Under the new Government in 1997 the terms of reference of the Copyright Law Review Committee were changed and they were asked to advise on simplifying the Copyright Law. Simplifying is necessary as the present Act has some 140 pages. The committee has discussed so far mainly the matter of the fair dealing provisions. In the Australian Copyright Law Act a lot of fair dealing provisions are precisely described, which therefore exclude a lot of other things.

The Copyright Committee has suggested that Australia should perhaps move on more to the USA notion of fair use. That notion will cover all technological advances in the future as well. The Australian Act is so specific that it will give problems if technology changes in the future.
The present government has published a paper "Copyright reform in a digital agenda". In this paper they propose remedies for the abuse of technological copyright protection measures. These are for example electronic locks on computer programmes. Unlocking of such a programme will now become a criminal offence. These remedies against the rights management information, that is information that identifies the owner of the copyright including details about terms and conditions on which copyright materials may be used, is another proposed remedy. Another topic for librarians is the information on the Internet and the question "is all the information on the Internet free? Is cyberspace the lawless society that it seems to be?" The answer is that there is certainly copyright protection on the Internet.

At the moment the market or capitalist vision of copyright seems to be gaining the upper hand but we, as librarians, should be more on the side of the collectivist idea of copyright. It may seem to be a losing battle, and we have to be very alert and protect what we think is a reasonable and fair distribution of information. If that does not happen we should become more capitalistic ourselves and charge all those authors and creators of copyright material for the use of the information that is already in our libraries. Perhaps we have been too ready to give it away for free. Big publishers will come and try to get things from us for free or next to nothing and resell it at a great price. If we cannot win the battle on the copyright issue, we also have to become more commercial with the data that we do have and do control.

Mary Dickerson, Legislative Assembly Library of Canada, Ontario, explained the Canadian situation. The Canadian Copyright Law has been significantly revised in the last decade. At the moment two parts of three have been passed by the Parliament. The third part, which has not yet been drafted, deals with electronic products and the Internet. Under the existing legislation and the newly revised legislation, there are two possibilities for parliamentary and legislative libraries. One is the old argument of parliamentary privilege and the other one is fair dealing, which is covered in part two of the new Act, although fair dealing is not defined in the Act. The Canadian Copyright Act does not specifically indicate whether parliaments and legislatures are exempted from the Copyright legislation.

Legal Counsel for the Federal House of Commons has taken the position that Parliament is exempted under the aegis of parliamentary privilege, and there is other legal opinion that agrees with that. This is all of course in the paper age that the present legislation was drafted and the exemption is based on the fact that parliaments are not mentioned in the Act and therefore not included in the Act. However this aspect of parliamentary privilege has never been tested in the Canadian Courts. In the past few years several provincial parliaments have been approached and pressured into signing agreements with copyright collectives under the umbrella of the provinces. Each of those libraries serves the public, that is not the case in the Federal House in Ontario. Ontario separates itself from the government, jealously guarding its parliamentary privilege. Ontario tries to behave as responsibly as possible by posting notices about copyright over photocopiers and stamping photocopies provided with a copyright notice.

The library has had a press clipping service for over twenty years. Until two years ago all was by paper distribution - archived clips were indexed and filed manually. Ontario never sought copyright exemption and was never challenged on it. Two years ago Ontario entered into a licensing agreement with an electronic news service provider, to provide clippings based on a subject profile developed by the library. This license covers copyright compliance and authorisation to distribute to 320 specified clients. (The subject profiles cover 11 Ontario daily newspapers providing about 6.000 clippings a month) The current contract allows for archiving the clippings for one year, which is an exception, as 90 days are usual. Ontario currently tries to negotiate for permission to keep the clippings for two years, but that will be costly.

There is not yet a fixed policy and clear vision on the collecting and storage of electronic articles. One is thinking about solutions for copyright, storage and retrieval and management issues associated with that. Ontario does not have any programmes to download articles for periodicals to which one is not subscribed. Individual research officers are downloading individual articles into their own database but those are for personal use on their personal computer only, and would therefore comply with the fair dealing aspect of copyright legislation.

Nan van Zutphen, Flemish Parliamentary Library, gave an outline on copyright for press databases in Belgium. Last year -1997- a decree on reproduction rights was issued. Now you have to pay for each copy of a protected work. Press clipping services can only be provided if you pay for the reproduction rights. There is a fixed sum per copier or scanner and per copy. The maximum price is 1 Belgian Franc per copy. (1 USD is 35 B Fr.). When you co-operate with ReproBel, the organisation that collects the reproduction rights money, a discount is given. Educational institutions and public libraries will always get a discount. ReproBel tries to make agreements with sectors or central organisations. The amount is not based on the counting of copies but on certain criteria. Some of these criteria are the kind of activities of the organisation, the total of staff of an organisation, the existence of a library, documentation centre or press clipping service. The total amount is not that high, the Flemish Parliament for instance pays 500.000 Belgian Francs a year, that is USD 14.000 for all protected copies.

An interesting initiative, which did not survive, was the Central Station project. It started in 1969 as a project of all newspaper publishers in Belgium, the French as well as the Dutch. Every night the whole content of the newspapers was transferred to a central server. The articles were sent daily by e-mail to subscribers on the basis of a search profile. The Flemish Parliament had a profile based on the names of all the 124 MPs of the Flemish Parliament. Additional interrogation of the Database was possible by paying extra. This service made it possible for the Flemish Parliament to work without its own press clipping service. This project failed after some time on the copyright issue, not between the subscribers and the publisher, but the copyright issue occurred between the publishers and the authors, the journalists. The journalists claimed that the electronic articles were not the same as the printed information but a new form of information. They claimed to be the owner of that information and wanted extra money. The publishers felt that there was no economic basis for extra payment so the project stopped. Van Zutphen expects that this initiative will re-emerge again because these projects will be the future not only in Belgium but also in other countries.

Another development that has started in Flanders, and also in Germany and the Netherlands, is to form library consortia in order to deal with problems of copyrights and licensing. Working together in a consortium gives you more power in negotiations with publishers. The organisation of scientific libraries in Belgium tries to form a consortium for these purposes. Van Zutphen stresses that paying for copyright in rich and developed countries should not be a problem at all if the price is fair and according to good licensing principles. He thinks that Parliaments should not seek to special exemptions and privileges.

After questions from the floor Mrs. Giavarra stressed that working together in consortia or other forms of co-operation is very important because it gives negotiating power, buying power and expertise. Publishers like to negotiate with libraries on a one-to-one basis and this is what exclusive rights make possible. Founding consortia makes life only a little bit easier, but working together in a consortium is quite difficult. Mrs. Giavarra is involved in many consortia but it is her experience that there are many problems in running them properly. She only knows two successful consortia in the USA, and their success is due to the founding of a whole new legal entity.

Jane Wainwright, Director of Information Systems, House of Commons Library UK, explained the British situation. The House of Commons Library does not offer a current awareness service to Members. There has however been a press cutting service since the late 1960's. At the moment the cutting of newspaper articles is less substantial that it used to be because commercial online newspaper retrieval services are used heavily. Now about 3.000 articles a month are cut, mostly articles about policy issues and foreign countries which cannot easily be retrieved by word searching. They are stored in files or drawers under broad subject headings. The files are very much appreciated by the Members and are kept in the main reading room for two years. Since 1988 there have been plans for electronic storage of press clippings but cost benefit analyses had not made it worthwhile. Moreover there was insufficient network capacity to handle the images, and scanning was very labour intensive. However it is now planned to download the text to create a purely text database.

The House of Commons Library did not tackle the copyright issues until last year. In the UK there is a special parliamentary copyright, so Parliament has a negotiating position. The UK has a newspaper-licensing agency from which the Parliament has a license to cover their photocopying activities. The agency does not cover all the UK newspapers and a further complication is that not all newspapers want to participate in the licensing of electronic copies. Fifty pence per downloaded article is charged and four pence per display or printout. Apart from that the Library had to negotiate with 30 other newspapers for an agreement. About £100,000 will be spent on all the agreements. The Library is within sight of implementing the press database using the Basis plus information retrieval package, which is the standard information retrieval platform for text databases in the Parliament. The database will be available on the Parliamentary network.

There is another database compiled from an external source - the "Government Press Notices". This comes as a direct feed from the Central Office of Information. There is no written agreement on copyright with this information supplier but it has been working without any problems for ten years. There are plans to merge the Press Database of the House of Commons with the Press Notices database so that MPs can retrieve the articles, and the Press Notices on which the articles are based. There are negotiations going on with the publisher of the Economist on downloading the whole content of this periodical. The Library found that there was a big overlap in their paper cuttings with the content of the Economist.

After answering some more specific questions and discussion Emanuella Giavarra rounded up the discussions by stressing that one has to be aware that rights owners will make believe that everything is under copyright, even reading. There is a level of what you should believe and what you should not believe, but there is something that you really have to do: you should read the copyright law at once. Never sign licenses without reading them, and read them very closely before you sign them, because they will always restrict your rights. Apart from what rights owners want you to believe, the exceptions are also of course not the same in an electronic environment as they were, or are still, in a paper environment. What I have heard here today is, "shouldn't libraries be more commercial", and to be honest I think they should, but not so commercial that they will lose their right to your exemptions - do not go too far with that. If you are on the part of the publishers you cannot call on the exemptions anymore, made for the good of society. It is a very much a balancing act, the whole electronic environment, and I wish you good luck with it. It is unbelievably mind-boggling, but a very challenging time as well, especially for managing information. It will be a challenging time because through licenses you will be able to manage your collection even better than now.

9. Demonstration of the World Directory of Parliamentary Libraries on-line

Since January 1998 about 40 updates have been made, 20 by parliamentary libraries of Nations and 20 by Federated States. She discussed the need to find the most appropriate method to update entries from those countries which are not able to co-operate on an internet basis.
The online directory is accessible through the home page of the German Bundestag http://www.bundestag.de/datbk/libary/wd.htm or through the homepage of the section on the IFLA web site http://www.ifla.org/VII/s3/sparll.htm

In the publications section (5) of this Newsletter you will find on page 26 Marga Coing's instruction on the updating of the Directories and a list of entries which need updating.

10. Closing of Session

Belgian Federal Parliament, House of Representatives, Thursday 13th August 1998

M. Vansteelandt gave a presentation on the functions of the Federal Parliament which has French, Dutch and German speaking representatives elected on a proportional representation basis. There are also other sub-national parliaments, including the Flemish parliament. The Library was founded in 1831 and has been used by both chambers since 1905. It offers a good range of services to Members including some research. There is an information retrieval system. PAROLIS, with databases covering serials, press cuttings, biographies of Members, parliamentary debates (references only) and questions and answers in full text. Recently emphasis has been placed on Intranet and Internet development, as well as digitisation of past parliamentary debates and documents.

This was followed by an on-line demonstration of the Belgian press cuttings service by Ms Brigitte Peetersille. The service was first automated in 1986, and provides both a daily survey of media coverage of topical issues, and the full text of the approximately 200 articles selected daily. Searches can be made using about 900 subject headings. The final offering was a viewing of the Web site of the Senate and the Chamber, showing what was available currently and the planned development of an Intranet, together with a system of optic-fibre cabling expected to be completed at the end of 1999 enabling audio and video broadcasting of parliamentary debates. The internet is accessible in French: http://www.lachambre.be and in Dutch: http://wwww.dekamer.be or through http://www.fed-parl.be here you can choose a language first and then for House or Senate.

After the presentations there was a tour of the Building and an elegant reception hosted by the Belgian Parliament.

3. Elections for the Standing Committee

It had been the agreed intention of the former Standing Committee that Irina Andreeva of Russia and Tembi Mtine of Zambia should be elected for a second term as members of the Standing Committee. Unfortunately by an oversight they were not re-nominated. In their places we welcome Amalia Buzón Carretero of Andalucia, Spain and Sara Parker of Missouri, USA. We hope to stay in close contact with Irina and Tembi and will be making a proposal to the Standing Committee in Bangkok to ensure this.

The other newly elected members are: Wafaa Ali Abdel Elah (Egypt), Maragrita Angelova (Bulgaria), Gaston Bernier (Canada), Margareta Brundin (Sweden), Marialyse Délano Serrano (Chile), Anita Dudina (Latvia), Donna Scheeder (USA), Bernard Vansteelandt (Belgium) and June Verrier (Australia)

Nick Bannenberg (Australia), Marga Coing (Germany), Rosa Maria Grau Guadix (Spain), John Joseph (India), Vojciech Kulisiewicz (Poland), Tuula Laaksovirta (Finland), Bernard Nzo Nguty (Cameroon), Richard Paré (Canada) and Young-Hee Park (Korea) will continue on the Standing Committee.

The Standing Committee will choose a new chairman and will decide on retaining the services of Jan Keukens as Secretary of the Section at the first Standing Committee meeting in Bangkok.

The full list of the Standing Committee reads as follows:

Ali Abdel Elah, Wafaa	Egypt
Angelova, Maragarita	Bulgaria
Bannenberg, Nick	Australia
Bernier, Gaston	Canada
Brundin, Margareta	Sweden
Buzón Carretero, Amalia	Spain
Coing, Marga	Germany
Délano Serrano, Marialyse	Chile
Dudina, Anita	Latvia
Grau Guadix Rosa Maria	Spain
Jospeh, John	India
Kulisiewicz, Vojciech	Poland
Laaksovirta, Tuula	Finland
Nzo Nguty, Bernard	Cameroon
Paré Richard	Canada
Park Young-Hee	Korea
Parker, Sara	USA
Scheeder, Donna	USA
Vansteelandt, Bernard	Belgium
Verrier, June	Australia

4. Workshop on New Technologies in Parliamentary Libraries
Athens, 28-29 January 1999

25 Members of the Hellenic Parliament, coming from all political parties, the Speaker of the House, Mr Apostolos Kaklamanis, and the General Secretary of the House, Prof. Panayotis Tzortzopoulos, were attracted by the two-day workshop organized by the Library of the Hellenic Parliament with the support of the University of Crete, 28-29 January 1999.

The idea for the workshop was initiated by Mr. Michalis Tzekakis who has undertaken a feasibility study concerning the reorientation and reorganization of the Library of the Hellenic Parliament. Mr M. Tzekakis with his team from the University of Crete, has supported the Library from the very start of its automation project. It should be noted that the realization of the workshop owns a great deal to Mrs Julie Carpenter, former librarian at the Athens British Council and director of the "Education for Change" company, who offered her advice, made the contacts and worked persistently and tirelessly towards this goal.

Although the topic of workshop was "Parliamentary Libraries at the end of the 20th century and the dawn of the 21st century", librarians and documentalists from other major research institutions of Athens were invited; the National Library, the National Book Centre, the National Documentation Centre, research and academic libraries and other perspective collaborators of the country.

The invited speakers responded promptly and contributed in the most efficient and effective way. Mr Sven Backlund represented the Library of the European Parliament, Mr Keith Cuninghame the Library of the House of Commons, Mr Jan Keukens the Parliamentary Library of The Hague, Mrs Emilia Lamaro the Italian Parliamentary Library and the relatively newer parliamentary libraries of Latvia and Czechoslovakia were represented by Mrs Anita Dudina and Dr Karel Sosna respectively.

The opening of the seminar bore the element of formality since the Speaker of the House, Mr. Apostolos Kaklamanis, addressed the participants and attended the first presentation given by Mr. Michalis Tzekakis which concerned the Parliamentary Library's reorganization proposals. In his speech, the Speaker of the House demonstrated his respect for the institution of the Library and at the same time, he pointed out the need for change in reorganizing the structures and introducing the use of new technologies in the library premises. The Director of our Library, Mrs Irini Eliopoulou, welcomed the participants, expressed her expectations for a fruitful exchange of experience and noted that the Library is open to resource sharing and co-operation with other libraries and research institutions from all over Greece and abroad.

Mr Tzekakis presented in a concise way, the results of his study: "The Greek Parliament Library; results and suggestions of a project". He underlined the strengths and the weaknesses of the Library, insisted on its mission in serving the legislation needs of the MPs and proposed the reorganization of the Library from a user's point of view.

A survey to record the library needs and behavior of Members of Parliament had been conducted recently for the first time by Mrs Aliki Tsoukala who presented the results and the conclusions of the survey. The questionnaire was constructed under the units: personal information and particulars, working conditions, information needs and the MPs as library users. According to the findings of her paper under the title: "The information needs of the Members of the Greek Parliament; conclusions drawn from a users' survey", Greek MPs have no specific interests since all social subjects may interest them in case they draw the interest of the public opinion. Timely and accurate information, on the other hand, play an important role. While they wish to consult a large variety of publications they do not have the time to do so. The survey showed that the Members of Parliament, with few exceptions, do not use the Library, but they expressed the need for access to data bases, the Internet, the creation of a home data information base. They also expressed the need for more information concerning the services offered.

Mr Jan Keukens, deployed "The services of the Library and Documentation Department of the Second Chamber of the States-General in the Netherlands; What members need and how the library and documentation respond". He described briefly how the Members of Parliament are elected and how Parliament in the Netherlands is organized. He went on to describe the Library and Documentation Services; he referred to the staff, the Library users and the number and sort of questions the Library deals with. He announced that their services, as presented in his paper, will be altered as from May 1999, due to the Integration of Database Project where -with the exception of books- all information of parliamentary interest will be accessible in full electronic form. In the meanwhile, information services are provided by the Library, the Press and Periodical Documentation Department, the Parliamentary Documentation Department, the European Union Documentation Department and some Research service by the staff of the Standing Committees. Quite a sensation was provoked by the Dutch paradigm with its comparatively small but flexible library model.

Mrs Anita Dudina impressed the audience by recounting the achievements accomplished by the newly founded Parliamentary Library of the Republic of Latvia in the short time between 1990 till today: "Affordable IT and networking solutions for Parliamentary Information Services; some ideas from the Republic of Latvia". Public information is available through the Internet and in-house information is accessed through the Intranet. The infosystem supports functionally and organizationally the parliamentary work with business application programs, office administration support, single-user programs and information support. The Library has a stock of over 3500 volumes and supplements its services by exchanging information with various institutions besides Saeima, such as the National Library. The goal of the Library is to combine a small, flexible traditional library structure with new information technologies ie data bases, www, CD-ROMS, e-mail. They rely heavily on specialized staff and their future plans include tailor-made products for legislators and society, as well as to expand their services to new political and geographical horizons. The transparencies that were shown provided a good taste of the achievements and services offered through new technologies.

The following day, on the 29th, Mr Sven Backlund introduced us to "The development of library and documentation services in light of a changing technological environment". Mr Backlund offered information concerning the history of the European Parliament Library and its dual sites in Brussels and Luxembourg, the latter loosing its primary importance. Since December 1997 there has been a change of operations. He numbered the services developed by the Technical Service: SCAD, CELEX. Europar etc. Members of the European Parliament are offered training courses on how to use the website and have access in an internal network. Information is presented in a fast, concise, precise and balanced way. The Library staff and the Research Services staff are working closer despite their antagonism over the control of information diffusion and the difficulties created by the eleven used languages. Mr Backlund underlined the increasing power of the European Parliament influencing decisions concerning all European Community countries and the importance that information access plays under the circumstances.

Dr Karel Sosna spoke about the "New Developments in Library Services and Technologies: Modernization of Information Services of the Parliamentary Library of the Czech Republic". First, he dealt with the transition of libraries from the traditional model to the automated, then to the electronic era and finally to the 'virtual' library. The Czech Parliamentary Library was used as an example. Through the card catalogue retroconversion program, they have scanned 'pictures' of 140 000 cards of the general author catalogue out of 200 000 volumes. A meta-information system of cognitive type has been designed and 'when completed … will enable readers to search and obtain information regardless' of the location or the sort of the material. They also ran a project that aims in putting in electronic form complete parliamentary texts since 1861, in three years time. The converted documents will eventually be stored in CD-ROMs. The project is halfway through and when completed the special collection of parliamentary documents will be open 24 hours a day. Following these projects, the Parliamentary Library of the Czech Republic plans to switch over from the traditional library to 'a rich source or treasury of information'.

Mr Keith Cuninghame enlightened the participants on "Networking in Parliamentary Libraries and information delivery to remote users; experience based on services in the House of Commons Library". The audience was guided to the technological services offered: the complicated POLIS (Parliamentary On Line Indexing Service), EDM (Early Day Motions), PEDDS (Parliamentary Electronic Document Distribution Service), the Library Research Papers, the Economic and Monetary Union, the Business and Transport Section. New services on the area will be an improved version of POLIS and the Quest Data Base. His presentation was supported by an on-line computer demonstration, connected to the Commons Library electronic site.

Mrs. Emilia Lamaro, Director of the Italian Parliament Library, was not able to attend the meeting due to sickness but she kindly faxed her paper which was distributed to all participants. Mrs. Lamaro's presentation was titled: "Information Services of the Italian Parliament Library". In her paper, she is introducing us briefly to the Italian political system and is giving certain historical and factual information. Additionally, the offered services, new practices - such as the presence of a librarian in every Standing Committee of the Chamber of Deputies in order to provide quick scans on requested topics- and products are described. It is also noted that the 'Library is engaged in a collaborative effort with the Research Service and the Information Technology Department, to support the use of electronic services in research and to integrate the different skills…, to be prepared for the information society'.

Mr Tzekakis rounded up the content of the given papers and the discussion that followed. He eventually transmitted an urgent message concerning the introduction of the new technologies in the Library, otherwise, he warned that the Library will become a 'museum'.

The closure speech of the workshop was given by the Secretary General of the Greek Parliament, Prof. P. Tzortzopoulos. He thanked the invited guest speakers for their willing participation and the input they transfered during the two days of the workshop. He also thanked the architect for the organization of the workshop. He expressed his belief that the new technologies should enter the Library in order to support the users and confirmed that the issues stated by the papers and the conclusions of the Conference will be taken seriously.

5. Publications
- update of the World Directories on Parliamentary Libraries

Another important German publication is a monograph on the history of the Library of the German Parliament which was published in 1997.

Hahn, Gerhard
Die Reichstagbibliothek zu Berlin, ein Spiegel deutscher Geschichte. Mit einer Darstellung zur Geschichte der Bibliothek der Frankfurter Nationalversammlung, des deutschen Bundestages und der Volkskammer sowie einem Anhang : Ausländsiche Parlamentsbibliotheken unter nationalsozialistischer Herrschaft und Dokumenten. - Düsseldorf : Droste Verlag, 1997. - 758 S. DM 198.00

The book was reviewed by Russell Cope, the former Parliamentary Librarian of News South Wales Australia, in the Journal Legislative Studies (Vol 13 No 1, Spring 1998)

IFLA World Directory of Parliamentary Libraries

The online directory is accessible through the home page of the German Bundestag http://www.bundestag.de/datbk/library/wd.htm or through the homepage of the section on the IFLA web site http://www.ifla.org/VII/s3/sparll.htm

Advice on how to update

1. name of person submitting (your name)
   
2. name of country/territory
   
3. name of the library

These three answers have to be completed in order to receive a print version of the whole questionnaire or in order to continue. The e-mail address is useful, but it is not necessary for continuing the task. You must also click on one of the three entries on top of the questionnaire:

1. new entry
   
2. additions
   
3. modifications

If you forget to choose one of these, you cannot proceed.

1. Tick "New Entry" when your country is not mentioned in the directory, so as to create a totally new entry.

2. "Additions" has to be ticked if you want to add answers not previously completed.

3. "Modifications" have to be marked when you want to amend answers which have been entered previously.

Having filled in all these items, you now mark next page and you may print out the complete questionnaire.

It is advisable to prepare for yourself a written version before entering the on-line answers. This applies especially to answers where you may have to transcribe or to transliterate names in scripts other than the Latin script (or even Latin script letters which do not exist in the German alphabet, like the "ø" in Norwegian). If you have problems with this aspect, do not be irritated, you can always use the English names to avoid these problems. Please write to the German Bundestag if it is not possible to update or change information in specific fields The Bundestag will then delete the information and leave these items in the questionnaire empty.

It is very important to scroll down to the end of the questionnaire in order to click the "submit" button. Only this will make sure that the questionnaire will be sent to the German Parliament.

The following national parliamentary libraries or parliaments do not appear to have updated their entry in the on-line World Directory: the entry on the Internet is the still the same as that in the 1995 hardcopy edition. The list below does not include parliaments which did not submit copy for the 1995 edition.

For the parliamentary libraries within federated states it is more difficult to be sure which have been updated because there is no date at the end of the original entry. Most of entries for the state parliamentary libraries in Australia and Canada have been updated, as have a number of the German lander. In the case of Spain no entries for the autonomous states were included in the on-line Directory but Cataluna, Pais Vasco and Valencia have created an entry and it is possible for the other states (and any other parliamentary libraries omitted) to submit a current entry.

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Brazil: Senado Federal Câmara dos Deputados Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad China Colombia Comoros Congo Cuba Cyprus Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Ethiopia France: Senat Assemblee Gabon Georgia Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Honduras Hungary Indonesia Iran Iraq Italy: Senato della Repubblica Camera dei Deputati Jamaica Jordan Kazachstan Kenya Kiribati Korea (Democratic People's Republic) Kuwait Kyrgystan Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Liechtenstein Madagascar

Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico: Cámara de Senadores Cámara de Diputados Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nicaragua Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Paraguay Philippines: Senado Portugal Qatar Romania: Senatul Camera Deputatilor Russia Rwanda Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa Spain: Congreso de los Diputados Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Switzerland Syria Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom: House of Lords United States of America Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Viet Nam Western Samoa Yemen Yugoslavia Zaire Zambia Zimbabwe

6. Announcements

Donna Scheeder from the Congressional Research Service in Washington has been elected President-elect of the International Special Libraries Association. She will take on the Presidency for the year 2000. The Association plans to conduct an international conference in October 1999 in Brighton called Global 2000.

Brit Floistad, the Parliamentary Librarian of Norway and a former Secretary of the Section, has been appointed Head of the new research service to be established in the Norwegian Parliament.

Eva Prohle has left the Library of the Hungarian Parliament. Mrs Prohle attended some IFLA conferences and presented an Open Meeting paper at the Barcelona Conference of 1993. She is now working in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Her fax number is: 36-1-311 4683 and her e-mail address: prohle@vax.mtak.hu

Mrs Damayanti Harris is now in charge of the library of the Indonesian Parliament. She is the successor of Mrs. Emma Salma Kumaidi who attended the Copenhagen Conference in 1997.

Mr Igor Klipii has been appointed Head of the Informative-Analytical Centre of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. This Informative-Analytical Centre includes the Department on Information and Documentation, the Parliamentary Library and the Parliamentary Archive.

Mr. Andrzej Dziubecki is the new Director of the Information and Documentation Office of the Senate of Poland. He is the successor of Jacek Michalowski who is now working in the Prime Minister's Office.

Mrs Natasa Glavnik is the new Head of the Parliamentary Library of Slovenia. She is the successor of Majda Filipovska.

Mrs Tiiu Valm is the new librarian of the National Library of Estonia which also acts as the Parliamentary Library of Estonia. She is the successor of Ivi Eenmaa who became Mayoress of Tallinn some years ago and has now been elected as an MP. Ivi attended many IFLA conferences and was a member of the Standing Committee for many years.

Mrs Seng Sowatha has become Librarian of the National Assembly Library of Cambodia.

Kileo Nyambele is the new Parliamentary Librarian of Tanzania. Mr. Tmola, the former librarian, passed away.

7. Schedule for Conferences in Bangkok, 19-28 August 1999

18 August (Wednesday)

Participants arrive in Bangkok

19 August (Thursday)

Pre-IFLA Conference, 15th Annual International Conference of Parliamentary Librarians
Hosted by the National Assembly of Thailand

Srinakarin Hall II, Royal Princess Srinakarin Hotel

9.10 - 9.30
Registration

9.30 - 9.50
Opening of the Conference by the Speaker of the House of Representatives
Thanks and announcements (Chairman of the Section)

9.50 -10.20
Presentation on the National Assembly of Thailand

10.20 - 10.40
Tea/Coffee break

10.40 - 12.00
Developments in the Parliamentary Libraries of the Asian Region (including , Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore,and Taiwan)

12.00 - 13.30
Buffet lunch (Hosted by the Secretariat of the House of Representatives)

13.30 -14.40
Continuation of presentations on libraries of the region

14.40 -15.00
Tea/Coffee break

Conference suspended

15.00-1600
Transfers to National Assembly

16.00 -17.00
Tour of the Assembly and the Library

17.30- 19.30
Dinner at the invitation of the National Assembly (Hosted by the Speaker)

The 65th IFLA Conference, Bangkok, 1999

20 August (Friday)

14.00
Coordinating Board (Section Officers only)

21 August (Saturday)

09.00 - 11.50
Standing Committee I (Officer elections at which only Standing Committee members may vote BUT everyone is invited to attend meeting)

17.30-18.30
Caucus meetings for countries which hold these

22 August (Sunday)

09.00 - 12.00
Special meeting on Research

12.30-16.30
IFLA Council 1

16.30
Exhibition Opening and Reception

23 August (Monday)

09.00 -11.50
Meeting of Government Information and Official Publications Section on "Government Information in the New Millennium: The Issuing, Deposit and exchange of Official Publications"

16.00 - 18.00
Opening Session

19.30-23.30
Gala Reception

24 August (Tuesday)

19.00-11.20
Section Open Meeting:

Effective Communication: An essential tool to cope with the challenge of technical change by Marga Coing, Deutscher Bundestag

Developing a Parliamentary Research Service. The Egyptian Experience by Wafaa Ali Abdel Elah, People's Assembly of Egypt

Parliamentary Library and Information Services as Instruments for Democratic Development by Patricio Aranda Torres, Congress of the Republic of Peru

These papers will be published by IFLA and available on the Internet.

pm
Library visits

25 August (Wednesday)

09.00 - 17.00
Workshop sponsored by Reed Elsevier plc in the Princess Rooms, Royal Princess Srinakarin Hotel (for members of the Section only)

The workshop will consist of a series of working groups discussing staff appraisal, performance measurement, planning new developments, book selection and use of information technology in management. A draft schedule follows these programmes.

(lunch will be at participants own expense in hotel or elsewhere)

Evening free for receptions at embassies

26 August (Thursday)

13.00 - 17.00
Workshop of Government Information and Publications Section at UN Conference Centre on "The use of the Internet to Access Government Publications"

27 August (Friday)

10.30 - 12.20
Standing Committee II

12.30 - 14.25
Coordinating Board II (old and new Section Officers only)

15.00 -18.00
Council II and Closing Session

28 August (Saturday)

Tours

Schedule for the workshop in the Royal Princess Srinakarin Hotel on Wednesday 25 August

8. Standing Committee Members

Ms Wafaa Ali Abdel Elah* Head of Research Service People's Assembly Majlis Al Sheab Str., P.O. Box 1183 CAIRO Egypt Tel. 20-2-354-0137 Fax 20-2-243-3295 Email: wafaa@hotmail.com	Margarita Angelova * Head of the Library National Assembly of Bulgaria 2 Narodno Sobranie St 1169 SOFIA Bulgaria Tel. 359-2-840-2353 Fax 359-2-981-3131 Email: mangelova@nt14.parliament.bg
Nick Bannenberg Parliamentary Librarian Queensland Parliamentary Library Alice & George Streets Brisbane 4000, Australia Phone: 61-7-3406-7280 Fax: 61-7-3210-0172 Email: Nick.Bannenberg@parliament.qld.gov.au	Gaston Bernier* Director Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée Nationale, Edifice Pamphile - Le May QUEBEC, Quebec G1A 1A5 Canada Tel. 1-418-643-4032 Fax 1-418-643-4873 Email: gaston.bernier/padm/bi@assnat.qc.ca
Ms Marga Coing Leiterin der Bibliothek Deutscher Bundestag Bundeshaus, Gorrestrasse 15 D-53113 BONN Germany Tel. 49-228-162-3073 Fax 49-228-162-6087 Email: vorzimmer@wd2.bundestag.dpb.de	Ms Marialyse Délano Serrano* Head of Department, Information, Resources Production Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile Huerfanos 1117- 2 do Piso SANTIAGO Chile Tel. 56-2-671-5331 Fax 56-2-698-5121 Email: mdelano@biblioteca.congreso.cl
Ms Margareta Brundin* Chief Librarian Riksdagsbiblioteket S-100 12 STOCKHOLM Sweden Tel. 46-8-786-4000 Fax 46-8-786-5871 Email: margareta.brundin@riksdagen.se	Ms Amalia Buzón Carretero* Librarian Parlamento de Andalucia, Servicio de Biblioteca c./Parlamento s/n 41071 SEVILLA Spain Tel. 34-95-459-2100 Fax:34-95-459-2103 Email: a.buzon@parlamento-and.es
Ms Anita Dudina* Director of the Information Department Saeima of the Republic of Latvia Jekaba 11 RIGA Latvia 1811 Tel. 371-7087-157 Fax 371-7087-174 Email: adudina@saeima.lv	Ms Rosa Maria Grau Guadix Librarian, Congress of Deputies Direccion de Estudios y Documentation Floridablanca s/n Madrid 28014, Spain Phone: 34-91-3906388 Fax: 34-91-3906765 Email: rosa.grau@congreso.es
John Joseph Lok Sabha, India Parliament House NEW DEHLI 110001 India Tel. 91-11-303-4738 Fax 91-11-301-6495 Email: josephj@parlis.nic.in	Vojciech Kulisiewicz Director Sejm Library Str. Wiejska 4 PL 00-902 WARSAW Poland Tel. 48-2-694-2429 Fax 48-2-694-1778 Email: kulis@bs.sejm.gov.pl
Ms Tuula H. Laaksovirta Chief Librarian Library of Parliament FIN-00102 HELSINKI Finland Tel. 358-9-4321 Fax 358-9-432-3495 Email: kirjasto@eduskunta.fl	Bernard Nzo Nguty Assistant Secretary-General Assemblée Nationale Yaonde Cameroon Tel: 237-22-1131 Fax: 237-22-0979
Richard Paré Parliamentary Librarian Library of Parliament Wellington Street OTTAWA, K1A 0A9 Canada Tel. 1-613-992-3122 Fax 1-613-996-7092 Email: parer@parl.gc.ca	Young-Hee Park Director of Reference Service Bureau National Assembly Library 1 Yoido-Dong, Yeongdeungpo Gu. SEOUL 150-703 Korea Tel. 82-2-788-4103 Fax 82-2-788-4402 Email: yhp@nanet.go.kr
Ms Sara Parker* State Librarian Missouri State Library 600 W. Main, P.O.Box 387 JEFFERSON CITY, MO 65102 USA Tel. 1-573-751-3615 Fax 1-573-751-3612 Email: sparker@mail.sos.state.mo.us	Ms Donna Scheeder * Deputy Assistant Director, Information Research Division Congressional Research Service - LM 215, Library of Congress 101 Independence Ave., SE WASHINGTON DC 20540 USA Tel. 1-202-707-8939 Fax 1-202-707-1833 Email: dscheeder@crs.loc.gov
Bernard Vansteelandt* Librarian of the Belgian Parliament Belgian Parliament 13 Rue de la Loi BRUSSELS Belgium Tel. 32-2-549-9280 Fax 32-2-549-9497 Email: bibliotheque.parl@lachambre.be	Dr June Verrier* Head, Information and Research Services Department of the Parliamentary Library Parliament House CANBERRA Australia Tel. 61-2-6277-2470 Fax 61-2-6277-2528 Email: june.verrier@aph.gov.au

Corresponding Members:

9. Section e-mail and fax addresses

Chair: Jennifer Tanfield	House of Commons Library, Westminster, UK	tanfieldjb@parliament.uk fax: 44 171 219 4285
Secretary: Jan Keukens	Library of Second Chamber The Hague, Netherlands	jc.keukens@tk.parlement.nl fax: 31-70-3182307
Information Coordinator: Nick Bannenberg	Queensland Parliamentary Library, Australia	Nick.Bannenberg@parliament.qld.gov.au fax: 61-7-3210-0172
Abeleda- Robles, Maria Fe S l	Congressional Library Philippines	fax: 632 931 5566
Afonin, Eduard	Rada of the Ukraine	afonin@Alpha.rada.kiev.ua fax: 380 44 2262145
Andreeva, Irina	Russian Federation Library Moscow	andreeva@duma.gov.ru fax:7 095 2929736
Angelova, Margarita	National Assembly Library, Bulgaria	mangelova@nt.14.parliament.bg fax: 3592 981 3131
Aranda Torres, Patricio	Parliamentary Library, Peru	paranda@congreso.gob.pe
Bannenberg, Nick	Queensland Parliamentary Library, Australia	Nick.Bannenberg@parliament.qld.gov.au fax: 61 7 3210 0172
Bernier, Gaston	Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée Nationale, Québec, Canada	gaston.bernier/padm/bi@assnat.qc.ca fax: 418 646 4873
Blagniene, Renata	National Parliamentary Library Inf Analysis Group, Lithuania	reblag@rc.lrs.lt fax: 370-2-224543
Borocan, Ioana	Parliamentary Library Romania	borocan@dias.vsat.ro fax 40 1 3124406
Brian, Rob	Parliamentary Library, NSW Sydney, Australia	lbrian@parliament.nsw.gov.au fax: 61 2 9231 1932
Brown, Charles M	Librarian, Parliament House, Accra, Ghana	pis@ncs.com.gh fax: 233-21-665957
Brudenall, John	Australia	john.brudenall@alianet.alia.org.au
Brundin, Margareta	Library of the Riksdag Stockholm, Sweden	Margareta.brundin@riksdagen.se fax: 46-8-7865871
Bufi, Zana	People's Assembly Tirana, Albanian Republic	zbufi@parliament.tirana.al fax: 355 42 27949
Bulavas, Vladas	National Parliamentary Library Inf Analysis Group, Lithuania	vladas.bulava@lnb.mcb.lt
Burgers, Marius	Library of Parliament Cape Town, South Africa	parlib@iafrica.com fax (021) 461-4331
Butale, Florence	Parliamentary Library Botswana	Fbutale@gov.bw fax 267 313103
Celik, Hilmi	Turkey	fax: 90-212-281-4231 hilmi@sabanciuniv.edu.tr
Chomchuen Boonruksa	Nat Assembly Library, Bangkok, Thailand	Boonruksa@parcy.parliament.go.th fax: 66-2 244 1322
Cihan, Ali Riza	Library Grand Nat Assembly Ankara, Turkey	Acihan@tbmm.gov.tr fax: 90-312-420 7548
Coing, Marga	Bundestag Library Bonn, Germany	Vorzimmer@wd2.bundestag.dbp.de fax: 49 228 16 26087
Davidson, Bruce	Victorian Parliamentary Library Melbourne, Australia	Bruced@parliament.vic.gov.au fax: 61 3 9651 8630
Délano Serrano, Marialyse	Biblioteca del Congreso Santiago, Chile	mdelano@biblioteca.congreso.cl fax: 56 2 6985121
Dudina, Anita	Information. Office, Supreme Council Riga, Latvia	adudina@saeima.lv fax 371-7087174
Eenmaa, Ivi	Parliament of Estonia	ivi.Eenmaa@venus.nlib.ee fax: 372 6 404100
Feliu, Ximena	Biblioteca del Congreso Santiago, Chile	direcbcn@congreso.cl fax: 56-26715331
Floistad, Brit	Parliamentary Library Norway	brit.floistad@st.dep.telemax.no fax: 47 22 31 38 59
Gadusova, Georgina	Parliamentary Library Slovak Republic	gadugeor@ncsr.sk fax: 421-7-5315-541
Glavnik, Natasa	Parliamentary Library Slovenia	natasa.glavnik@dz-rs.si
Grau-Guadix, Rosa Maria	Camera de los Diputados, Spain	rosa.grau@s.gral.congreso.es fax: 34-91-3906765
Harris, Damayanti	Parliamentary Library Indonesia	fax 62 21 575 6068
Haraszti Katalin	Library of Hungarian Parl	f10hk@mkogy.hu fax: 36 1 268 4839
Holt, Elise	Folketing, Copenhagen Denmark	elise.holt@folketinget.dk fax: 0045 33 14 70 60
Joseph, John	Lok Sabha New Delhi, India	josephj@sansad.nic.in fax: 91 11 3016495
Junga, Ahn	National Assembly Library, Seoul Korea	cdc01@sun.nanet.go.kr fax: 82 2 788 4401
Kasemets, Aare	Chancellery of the Riigikogu Estonia	aare.kasemets@riigikogu.ee fax 372 6 31 6504
Keukens, Jan	Library of Second Chamber The Hague, Netherlands	jc.keukens@tk.parlement.nl fax: 31 70 318 23 07
Kirkwood, Francis	Library of Parliament Ottawa, Canada	frankirk@gabriel.resudox.net fax: 613-947-8797
Klipii, Igor	Informative-Analytical Centre Parliament of Moldova	fax 373 2 233012
Kohl, Ernst	Subject and Speakers Indexes Bonn, Germany	vorzimmer@wd5.bundestag.dbp.de fax: 49 228 16 26107
Kulisiewicz, Wojciech	The Sejm, Warsaw, Poland	kulis.@bs.sejm.gov.pl fax: 0-22 694 1778
Laaksovirta, Tuula H	Riksdag Library, Helsinki. Finland	tuula.h.laaksovirta.@eduskunta.fi fax: 358 9432 3495
Lamaro, Emilia	Camera dei Deputati. Italy	lamaro-e@camera.it fax 39-6-6786886
Lapiashvili, Georgi	Parliamentary Research Service Tblisi, Georgia	meta@beriapac.ge, fax: 88 32 99 87 50
Liahut Baldomar, Dulce Maria	Parliamentary Library Mexico	liahut@info.cddhcu.gob.mx fax: 52-5-628-1316
Lindley, Jane	Koc University Library Istanbul, Turkey	jlindley@ku.edu.tr
Liu, Eva	Library Legislative Council Hong Kong	eliu@legco.gov.hk fax: 852 25250990
Loddes, Ene	National and Parliamentary Library of Estonia	ene@venus.nlib.ee fax: 372 6 311 410
Lukarevski, Todorche	Assembly of the former Yug. Republic of Macedonia	l.toni@assembly.gov.mk fax 389 91 111675