IN THIS DOCUMENT: Introductory Remarks The 62nd IFLA Conference, Beijing Standing Committee Meetings Open Meeting Informal Meeting Workshop The Research and Parliamentary Library of the Chinese National People's Congress Draft Medium-Term Plan IFLA Conference 1997 - request for views Parliamentary Libraries Directory; request for references; journal article Standing Committee Members

Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments

CIRCULAR NEWSLETTER
Vol 16 - No. 1
November 1996

Jennifer Tanfield
Librarian, House of Commons
London SW1A OAA
Telephone: +44 171 210 3635
Fax: +44 171 219 4285
E-mail: tanfieldjb@parliament.uk

Introductory Remarks

That edition of the Newsletter concentrated on arrangements for the IFLA Conference in China but if there is anyone who would still like a copy please let me know by fax or email.

At the Beijing meeting Nick Bannenberg, the Queensland Parliamentary Librarian, agreed to act as the Section's first Information Coordinator. Nick has already done a lot of work to set up an Internet home page for the Section, and this Newsletter (and future Newsletters) as well as the papers written for the Beijing meeting, will shortly be available on the home page.

It was a pleasure to see so many colleagues in Beijing. The Open Meeting was attended by 37 Section members from 27 countries plus some librarians from other sections. One member of the Section who was not present, although we had a splendid Open Meeting paper from him, was John Brudenall who took early retirement in August from the post of Deputy Librarian of the Australian Parliament after thirty distinguished years in Canberra. John's email address is included in the contact list.

Items for inclusion in the Newsletter are always welcome as are any suggestions for improving it. Please let me know if any email addresses or fax numbers are wrong or if new ones come into operation. I will pass new email addresses to the Information Coordinator, Nick Bannenberg, but you may wish to inform him as well.

Please respond to the request for 1997 programme nominations on page 29 of this Newsletter by 15 November 1996.

The deadline for items for the Spring 1997 issue is early April.

Jennifer Tanfield - Editor
31 October 1996

The 62nd IFLA Conference, Beijing

Standing Committee Meetings

Minutes of Standing Committee Meeting 1, 24 August:

The meeting was attended by the following members of the Standing Committee:

Irina Andreeva (Russia), Nick Bannenberg (Queensland, Australia), Hilmi Celik (Turkey), Panayotis Christopolous (Greece), Ximena Feliu (Chile), Brit Floistad (Norway), Jan Keukens (Netherlands), Tembi Mtine (Zambia), Erik Spicer (Canada), Bill Robinson (Chairman, USA) Jennifer Tanfield (Secretary, UK).

Attending as observers were the following:

Hisae Umeda (Japan), Marialyse Delano (Chile), Anne Pries-Heijke (Netherlands), Francis Kirkwood (Canada), Wojciech Kulisiewicz (Poland), Miriam Robbers (Netherlands), Aurora Simandjuntak (Indonesia).

(i) Opening of Meeting

The Chairman, Bill Robinson, welcomed those who were present and explained that for the present Conference, the section was operating under its previous name of Parliamentary Libraries Section but that in future it would be known by its new name, the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments. It was the section's custom to open its Standing Committee meetings to all attendees but only Standing Committee members could vote.

(ii) Roll Call

Everyone introduced themselves.

(iii) Adoption of the Agenda

The agenda was adopted with one change: it was proposed that the reports on regional activities should be presented at the second standing committee on 30 August.

(iv) Approval of Minutes of SC Meetings in Istanbul, 19 and 25 August 1995

The Minutes were approved.

(v) Current membership position

There were now 102 library units in membership (an increase of 4 compared with 1995). This figure is composed of 71 parliamentary libraries (including 10 sub-national libraries), 7 national libraries, 16 library associations, 7 individuals, 2 international bodies and others (e.g.universities). The new parliamentary library members included Albania, Romania, Slovenia, Turkmenistan and Zambia.

(vi) Financial Position

Bill explained the financial position and circulated copies of a table from which the summary at the end of the minutes has been compiled.

(vii) IFLA Professional Board and Activities of Division I

Bill sought a volunteer to staff the IFLA booth for one hour (Jan Keukens volunteered).

Bill then explained that each Section had been asked to appoint an Information Co-ordinator to improve communications, in particular by use of the Internet. Nick Bannenberg had agreed to be the first Information Co-ordinator, and it was proposed that the section should set up a Home Page which could include the latest issue of the Section Newsletter, the Annual Report and details about IFLA conferences.

A conference evaluation form was distributed for discussion at the second SC meeting.

The Division's proposal for meetings involving more than one section at future conferences was mentioned. A debate on copyright, involving exponents of the rights of both copyright owners and information users, with commentators to explain the consequences of these positions, had been proposed by the Division for the Copenhagen Conference. Another subject which might lend itself to multi-sectional meetings was information technology.

(viii) Reports of sectional projects approved and partially funded by the IFLA Professional Board

a). Parliamentary Libraries in Latin America, the Caribbean and Iberia. The book will be published in both English and Spanish in 1996

b). Parliamentary Libraries and Research Services of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Work on editing this book is nearly complete and it will be published in 1996.

c). Translations of Guidelines for Legislative Libraries. The French translation is now complete and this edition will be published by IFLA. The Spanish version may be published by Saur. The Russian edition will be published by the Russian Federation. In addition, an Arabic version is being prepared and published by the Saudi Arabian Shura Council.

(ix) Proposed projects

Bill asked for ideas for new projects. A book on The Parliamentary Libraries of Asia and the Pacific was being planned, which would be based on the papers prepared for the 1996 workshop.

(x). World directories (National Parliamentary Libraries and Parliamentary Libraries of Federated States)

The 6th edition of the directory of national parliamentary libraries had just been published. The editor of both directories, Ernst Kohl of the German Bundestag, would not be editing further editions, so it would be necessary to find new editors. Volunteers were sought. It was agreed that for the federated states, the regional organisations could provide much of the information, to be co-ordinated by an overall editor. It was also suggested that the authors of the American Book of the States should be approached with the suggestion that they take state legislative libraries as a special topic.

(xi) Standing Committee (SC)

Bill explained that members of the Standing Committee could serve for a maximum of two consecutive four-year terms. He asked SC members elected in 1993 to let him know whether they were eligible for re-election and whether they wished to stand. He also asked any other SC members who did not wish to continue in office to notify him. There would be an effort to spread these opportunities for Section involvement more widely, so there would be more single terms of four years.

Other items on the agenda were held over to the second Standing Committee.

(xi) Standing Committee Meeting II, 30 August

The meeting was attended by the following members of the Standing Committee:

Irina Andreeva (Russia,) Nick Bannenberg (Queensland), Hilmi Celik (Turkey), Panayotis Christopolous (Greece), Ivi Eenmaa (Estonia), Ximena Feliu (Chile), Brit Floistad (Norway), Jan Keukens (Netherlands), Tembi Mtine (Zambia), Erik Spicer (Canada), Bill Robinson (Chairman, USA), Jennifer Tanfield (Secretary, UK)

Attending as observers were the following:

Miriam Robbers (Netherlands), Bruce Davidson (Victoria, Australia), Nelson Masawi(Zimbabwe), John Joseph (India), Younghee Park (Korea), Eva Liu (Hong Kong), Marga Coing (Germany), Anne Pries (Netherlands), Hisae Umeda (Japan), Rob Brian (New South Wales,Australia), Maria Fe S. Adeleda-Robles (Philippines), Richard Pare (Canada), Marialyse Delano (Chile), Hak-Myung Woo (Korea), Kyung-Shin Woo (Korea), Pleasance Purser (New Zealand), Aurora Simandjuntak (Indonesia), Margarita Angelova (Bulgaria), Dobrin Kanev (Bulgaria), Gulshan S Haji (Sind, Pakistan), Buriro Hadi-B (Pakistan), Frank Kirkwood (Canada).

(xii) The Internet

Bill Robinson told the meeting that it had been agreed that a world wide web page would be set up for the section. This would be done by Nick Bannenberg who had agreed to become the Section's Information Coordinator. The Parliamentary Libraries Home Page would aim to include, eventually, the annual report, email and fax addresses, the Newsletter, information about future conference programmes, conference papers starting with the papers of the Beijing Conference, and the directory. Nick Bannenberg undertook to have a pilot home page available by 1 January 1997.

(xiii) Translations: IFLA booth

Bill thanked those who had arranged the translations for the Open Meeting papers: Irina Andreeva of Russia had produced the Russian translation, Gaston Bernier of Quebec the French translation and Dulce Maria Liahut Baldomar of Mexico the Spanish translation. He also thanked Jan Keukens for undertaking to staff the IFLA booth in the time allotted to the section.

(xiv) Medium Term Plan (MTP)

The first draft of the Medium Term Plan was considered and ways of achieving some of thegoals and actions were discussed. It was agreed that Action 2-2 should be redrafted to make clear the sections relationship with the various regional associations. Reference to the association of Nordic Countries and the proposed association of the SARC countries of South Asia would be included. Action 3-2 would also be drafted to clarify what was meant by twinning. The reference to the listserver in Action 4-1 would be reviewed. An additional action under Goal 4 was suggested, taking up a point made in John Brudenall's paper for the Open Meeting. The new action would involve drawing up a list of those parliamentary libraries without any information technology facilities and making available to them information about possible sources of funding and advice.

The revised draft MTP would be published in the Section Newsletter and comments would be invited.

(xv) Directories

As there were no volunteers to undertake the editorship of either the World Directory of National Parliamentary Libraries or the World Directory of Parliamentary Libraries of Federated States and Autonomous Territories, Bill would be approaching members of the section and would be suggesting that regional associations assist with the second directory.

(xvi) Projects.

Marga Coing undertook to produce a German translation of Guidelines for Legislative Libraries. This offer was warmly welcomed and accepted. It was suggested that in the longer term the Guidelines should be added to the Internet.

(xvii) Regional Associations

APLA

Rob Brian the present chairman of the Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Australasia reported that the 1996 meeting of the Association would be held in the building of the ACT (the territorial government) in Canberra and that the next conference would be in Darwin in1997. Subjects discussed in 1996 had included copyright and legal deposit rights, research developments and the investigation of joint licences for databases such as AUSINET .

APLIC/ABPAC

Richard Pare reported on the meetings of the Association of Parliamentary Librarians in Canada. Their next conference would be in Toronto in October 1996 where the agenda would include the subject of web pages.

APLESA

Tembi Mtine as the chairperson of the Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Eastern and Southern Africa gave brief history of the Association which was born in Harare Zimbabwe in October 1994 when participants of eleven countries of the region met. These countries were Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The idea of forming an association had been around since 1986 as the parliamentary librarians became aware of the need for effective information exchange programmes and cooperation among the parliamentary libraries in the region. The idea was revived in 1990 when Mr Gurure, then Chief Librarian of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, circularised his colleagues asking for their opinion about a regional association. During the1990 IFLA Conference in Sweden a lot of encouragement was given to Mr Gurure and in 1992, with the assistance of IFLA and the International Development Research Centre (IRDC), feasibility study visits and a further survey were carried out which led to the inaugural meeting, funded by IFLA, in Harare.

At this meeting the topics discussed included a survey of Parliamentary Librarianship in the region, resource sharing among Parliaments of the region and the need for the Member of Parliament to have concise, timely and adequate information. A constitution was adopted and it was recommended that the different Parliaments should be asked to provide some funds to enable study visits, attachments, formal and informal training, collection development and attendance at Library meetings - national, regional and international. The promotion of exchange of parliamentary documents with the region was agreed as well as a regular newsletter. Since that meeting members of APLESA have kept in touch and exchange of some material has taken place.

The first APLESA Conference was held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in July 1995; eleven delegates from eight countries attended and there were observers from information centres in Dar-es-Salaam. Brit Floistad, the Parliamentary Library of the Norwegian Parliament, then Secretary of the Parliamentary Libraries Section, attended the Conference as facilitator. Topics discussed included the role of parliamentary libraries in multi-party states with special emphasis on the need to provide timely, up-to-date and accurate information; creation and utilisation of research services with special emphasis on the interrelationship between the ParliamentaryLibrary and the Research Section; the need for cooperation or sharing of resources; and the role of the library in the 21st century. It was clear that there was still much work to be done in realising certain of the set goals, including the implementation of exchange programmes and the initiation of informal training programmes, but much progress had been made in establishing professional co-operation. The next conference will be held in Cape Town, South Africa in September 1996 with the theme, 'The functioning of a modern Parliamentary Library in Africa'. South Africa is hosting this meeting because it is the only parliamentary library in the association which has access to the Internet at present.

CONFERENCE OF BLACK SEA COUNTRIES

Hilmi Celik explained that the initiative for the cooperation meetings of the eleven Black Sea countries had come from the Speaker of his Parliament. The third meeting had been held in Bucharest in May 1996. The main topic had been the GLIN (Global Legislation InformationNetwork) project and recommendations had been passed to the meeting of the secretaries-general of the Black Sea countries.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

This informal meeting moves between the member countries. Its 1996 meeting was held in July 1996 when one of the main subjects discussed was the celebration in 1997 of 75 years since the establishment of the meetings. One recommendation was that the book published in 1988 on the Nordic Parliamentary Libraries should be updated. Other subjects discussed were budget problems, acquisition, and who should be given access to the parliamentary library.

SARC

The proposal to establish an association of Parlimentary Libraries of South Asia had been mentioned during the workshop. It was hoped that there would be more to report in 1997.

LATIN AMERICA

Attempts to establish meetings of parliamentary librarians from Latin America and Spain had so far failed for lack of funding. The emphasis was now turning to the use of the Internet. It was hoped that there would be more positive news next year.

(xviii) Future IFLA Conferences

The conference in Copenhagen, Denmark was being publicised as being from 31 August to 5 September but it was likely that, as in earlier years, the first Section Standing Committee meeting would take place on Saturday 30 August. A pre-conference was being planned to take place in Stockholm, Sweden on 27 and 28 August.

The 1998 Conference would be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Financial Statement Form 1996

Financial Statement form for IFLA Professional Units for 1996

Date:15 August 1996

Currency: US Dollars (except columns F, H.)

Open Meeting

Regional and Global Co-operation among Parliamentary Libraries: A ten-year vision

Regional and Global Co-operation of the Future among Parliamentary Libraries by Richard Pare, Library of Parliament, Ottawa, Canada [Paper 039-PAR-1-E]

Richard Pare‚ summarized the main parts of his paper published in the Conference Booklet. He introduced himself in French and then spoke in English. He identified four reasons for a change in the type of demands for information which libraries faced while remaining convinced that libraries would experience a continuing increase in the level of demand. These reasons were:

• the change in the type of information demanded as a result of the changed environment and new user habits because of new technology;
  
• the need for libraries to adjust the services provided so as to support users in their search for information as the sources become more diverse and more complicated to use;
  
• the resources available to libraries would vary according to the state of the economy in the country.
  
In countries such as China, where the economy was growing, library services would be able to expand and develop. In other countries, when the economy had stabilized or was decreasing, libraries would face expenditure cuts and would need to rationalize and to find ways of sharing resources. This was the position in Canada.

Some futurists, such as the Canadian Frank Ogden (known as 'Doctor Tomorrow'), predict that new technology will spell the end of the book. Pare did not think that books would disappear but believed that they would become more expensive, bought only by the very rich and by libraries. Although the role of books would change, the role of the librarian would not. They would still need to choose the most relevant sources, select the most appropriate information and then download it.

He predicted more and more use of the Internet and the need for librarians to help users to obtain subject-based information and the growth of new sub-networks to facilitate this.

Turning to the changes affecting parliamentary libraries he pointed to the greater visibility of parliamentarians as a result of television and of their awareness of this; constituents' access to new technology such as fax and email; the increased complexity of legislation and specialist interests in this legislation; and to the increased volume of documentation. All of these developments led to more and more demand for research and analysis services. The demand for information and knowledge was growing, but changing, so the staff of parliamentary libraries needed to be flexible and to be ready to adapt to new patterns of working such as homeworking and part-time working.

On regional and global co-operation, he saw the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments as the 'master platform' with regional associations working alongside it. He explained that APLIC/ABPAC, the Association of Parliamentary Librarians in Canada, meets every two years and that as a result of the co-operation achieved, documents can be easily exchanged when required, the Directors can exchange confidential planning information, visits and staff exchanges can be organized, and there was now a move to the sharing of resources within local areas.

Amongst the points raised after the presentation was the position of the man in the street, especially those in developing countries, if books became an expensive luxury; whether APLIC/ABPAC members were sharing licences for database (not yet), but Parliamentary Library, National Library and local libraries in Ottawa were sharing licences; that use of IT would exist side by side with printed sources for some time to come; that parliamentarians would continue to want people to be able to call on; the lack of compatibility between computer systems, especially in Europe; and whether the price of paper would continue to rise.

Parliamentary libraries and research services: co-operation, co-ordination and future directions

by Dr Dobrin Kanev and Margarita Angelova, National Assembly of Bulgaria. [Paper 040-PAR-2-E]

Dobrin Kanev summarized the joint paper, a version of which was presented in Conference Booklet. A longer version is available from the Section Secretary, and both versions will be available on the section home page.

After reminding us of the Chinese dictum that "knowledge is power" and that if parliaments want to play an active and significant role, they need knowledge and information, Dr Kanev went on to discuss the background to the decision to set up a separate research service in Bulgaria given that a library had existed since 1880 and that since 1993 the Library had been a separate department of the parliamentary administration, reporting to the Secretary-General.

Although the former communist countries are considered uniform, there are in fact great differences between them. Nevertheless, most Central and East European countries had chosen the parliamentary system and all of them found the need to introduce a large number of new laws to facilitate the transition to a market economy and to do this very quickly.

In Bulgaria, it took five years for the idea of a research service to be implemented. The delay was the result of giving priority to the adoption of the constitution and the passing of much legislation, lack of resources, together with the feeling that a research department was a dangerous unknown, and scepticism that an impartial unit (in contrast to the existing analysis services for each party faction) could exist. The research department was established in February 1995. It started small, with four researchers - mainly because of the lack of resources- but as a result, it had been agreed that highly-qualified specialists would be recruited.

To allow the library and research service to function well together, it was necessary to have a clear distinction between the two functions. Examples of co-operative ventures, including joint information packages on local self-government and civil-service legislation, and work connected with the adjustment of Bulgarian legislation to European standards were given in the paper.

Looking to the future, there is already a need to increase the number of researchers and co-operation with the library needs to increase, common databases and indexes amongst the areas for co-operation.

During questions, Margarita Angelova, Head of the Library, was asked how in her view the two services were working together. She said that they had now worked together for 18 months. The main problems were connected with resources. The Library needed more staff and a bigger budget and it was difficult to convince the Assembly of this. The Research Service relied on the library so if that worked well, research could also work well. Anne Pries from the Institute of East-European Law at Leiden University mentioned a private organisation which was translating Bulgarian legislation into other East European languages. The Bulgarian Assembly is translating the laws of other countries into Bulgarian. The authors were asked why they thought separate services were best: Dr Kanev said he thought that one big organisation would not have been acceptable and Mrs Angelova pointed out that they did not duplicate materials such as books or CDs. Time would show whether the organisation was the best for the longer term. It was pointed out that the research service in the Parliament of Canada started with three researchers. The Bulgarian researchers included a political scientist, an economist and lawyers on contract. It had been difficult to recruit highly-qualified lawyers.

Bringing the Electronic Library to Parliament - Opportunities and Challenges

by John Brudenall, Commonwealth Parliamentary Library, Australia [Paper 217-PAR-9]

As John Brudenall was unable to attend, his paper was read by Bruce Davidson (Victoria,Australia) who began by explaining that John had retired on 6 August 1996 and that he had played a very important role as mentor to other librarians in Australia and, having started work in a book-based library in Canberra, he had guided its development into a sophisticated, high-technology one.

The paper identified elements of the emerging environment for parliamentary libraries:

• parliamentarians, and particularly their staff, will have high levels of information literacy skills and will be comfortable working with information in an electronic form;
  
• a dramatic shift in publishing from print to digital formats;
  
• international electronic networks which will break down geographic and language barriers to a large extent;
  
• parliaments (and nations) will grapple with problems on a regional and global level in many instances;
  
• a very competitive information industry with many sources, apart from theparliamentary library, available to parliamentarians; and
  
• a general acceptance that users pay for value-added information services with parliamentarians able to choose between using the parliamentary library or analternative source, making judgments on quality and price.
  
and five strategies which would be appropriate in the new environment:

1) Parliamentary libraries must establish strong co-operative links within their region devising appropriate mechanisms to ensure that all parliaments have access to key strategic data and information relevant to the region.

The individual libraries which co-operate effectively will benefit from a reduced emphasis upon building and organising print collections aimed at achieving a high degree of self-sufficiency and will be able to apply their resources more creatively.

2) Parliamentary libraries will need to develop special skills in providing guides to information resources available on electronic networks, to improve their capacity to filter the relevant from the irrelevant, and to enable their clients to understand and apply the information and data relevant to their parliamentary duties.

3) There will be a need to develop a client focus which will provide a service tailored to the individual needs of each parliamentarian. This will involve a close relationship between the parliamentary library and each parliamentarian, the flexibility to design a personalised mix of services and a capacity to respond swiftly to changing requirements.

4) Parliamentary libraries will need to maintain strong alliances with the providers of information technology to the parliament, as library services will be dependent upon these technologies. Liaison with the IT providers in developing the office information systems for parliamentarians will enable links to be created directly with the parliamentary library's own systems.

5) It will be important to forge strong alliances with major information industry providers as geographic and language barriers rapidly disappear. There will be strong competition for parliamentary libraries from information brokers and the libraries will need to achieve a competitive edge if they are to retain their role in the parliamentary process. The access to resources and information provided by strong regional or global co-operation would be a key ingredient in gaining such an edge.

The paper then discussed the "electronic library" and the needs of parliamentarians which include:

• assistance in swiftly locating quality and reliable sources on the Internet relevant to a particular subject field;
  
• the preparation of background information, chronologies and review articles to save the time of the parliamentarian in coming to grips with significant issues;
  
• advice on the accuracy of particular information sources or data held by the parliamentarian;
  
• comparative international information;
  
• policy advice;
  
• information on subjects not usually dealt with by the parliamentarian and, therefore, not represented in the office information system;
  
• specific documents or facts not accessible electronically;
  
• verification of information available on the Net which lacks the quality control applied by editors of scholarly journals, etc.
  
The issues arising from the new environment include: the Internet and democracy - parliamentary libraries should provide expert advice on the Internet to parliamentarians and should support free speech on the Net; the need for organisation change, which should be driven by information systems specialists not technocrats. Brudenall advocated structures based on "subject clusters"; on copyright he raised the question of whether parliaments should pay annual licence fees to cover viewing and copying of digital documents by parliamentarians and library staff on their behalf, or whether they should argue for free access. He also suggested that parliamentary libraries should argue for free speech on the Net.

The paper proposed an initiative to seek to correct the situation in which some parliamentary libraries do not yet have IT capacity and underlined the need to share resources by publishing key parliamentary documents on the Net.

During questions the problems of archiving and whether parliaments should have to pay for information were raised.

Informal Meeting - 27 August

Attendance

Tembi Mtine (Zambia), Rob Brian (New South Wales, Australia), Bruce Davidson (Victoria, Australia), John Joseph (India), Brit Floistad (Norway), Nick Bannenberg (Queensland, Australia), Tuula Laaksovirta (Finland), Eva Liu (Hong Kong), Pleasance Purser (New Zealand), Hisae Umeda (Japan), Marga Coing (Germany), Younghee Park (Korea), Marialyse Delano (Chile), Ximena Feliu (Chile), Nelson Masawi (Zimbabwe), Richard Par‚ (Canada), Jan Keukens (Netherlands), Anne Pries (Netherlands), Dobrin Kanev (Bulgaria), Margarita Angelova (Bulgaria), Erik Spicer (Canada), Leila Nungaziyera (Kazakhstan), Aurora Simandjuntak (Indonesia), Maria Fe Abeleda-Robles (Phillipines), Miriam Robbers (Netherlands), Wojcieck Kulisiewicz (Poland), Irina Andreeva (Russia), Panayotis Christopoulos (Greece), Jennifer Tanfield (Secretary, UK), Bill Robinson (Chairman, USA).

1) ESSENTIAL HOLDINGS FOR A MODERN PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY

Brit Floistad was asked to open the discussion based on her experience in advising on the parliamentary library in Tanzania. She suggested that essential holdings included core reference books, newspapers, periodicals and that developing libraries should investigate what they can get for free by becoming depository libraries for international organisations such as the UN and its agencies, by approaching universities and foreign embassies in their own countries (the latter for newspapers in particular), and by suggesting to their parliamentarians travelling abroad that they ask their hosts for publications. She stressed that out-of-date reference books, as well as text books - for instance on economics - could be useful to small libraries and urged larger libraries to find ways to pass on superseded issues.

Anne Pries of the Institute of East European Law at Leiden University, Netherlands, mentioned that some law firms produced free periodicals.

Nick Bannenberg pointed out that Australia had a suggested list for a basic parliamentary collection and could make this available [the United Kingdom has a list and the US Congressional Research Service compiled a very comprehensive list in 1991 - Jennifer Tanfield can make these available].

Rob Brian said that for those with access to the Internet, it was better to use Net sources than to invest in expensive encyclopedias. Marga Coing made the point that as far as foreign law material was concerned, it was better to ask the country concerned for the up-to-date position rather than to rely on printed holdings. Aurora Simandjuntak identified the most important collection areas as "home affairs", the legislation of the parliament and politics/economy/law. Younghee Park mentioned GLIN [Global Legal Information Network] which included summaries of the laws of a number ofcountries. For libraries without computers, the first collection areas should be the country's own constitution and laws, treaties and then politics and government.

Bill Robinson summed up and stressed that all parliaments would do their best to fulfil requests from colleagues promptly but these should be sent by fax or email NOT by surface mail.

2) ADVERTISING SERVICES

Jennifer Tanfield opened a discussion on how to make the services of the parliamentary service known to parliamentarians and how to encourage them to use those services.

She explained that for the next general election in the United Kingdom (which has to be before the end of May 1997), the Library had made two 20-minute videos on its services. The first for Members of Parliament would be sent to all Members, not just new Members. The second, for the staff of Members, would be shown to them when they had the tour which is required before they make their first use of the Library. The long-standing Guides to Services was being updated and all publications as well as envelopes would have a new Library 'logo' to highlight the source of the material. She also drew attention to some of the publications which the Bulgarian Parliamentary Library prepared which included a regularly updated list of Members - surely a good advertisement for the Library.

John Joseph said that the Library of Lok Sabha in Delhi had an audio-visual presentation which it sent to the residences of Members and it also made available films on procedure, the organisation of the Lok Sabha etc. Tuula Laaksovirta explained a new initiative of the Finnish Parliamentary Library; she meets each Member of Parliament and following the last election, had offered each Member the name and contact number for a librarian who would become that Member's personal contact with the library. This had been so popular that existing Members had asked for it to be extended to them. The librarians also appreciated the system as it gave them an incentive to learn more about 'their' Member's constituency, to follow his/her speeches etc.

Tembi Mtine said that she found that the effects of orientation programmes soon wore off. Her most popular initiative had been to invite Members to take tea in the Library in groups of 10 - but even this only increased interest short-term.

Marga Coing said that an Information Desk in the Lobby of the Bundestag had been successful in promoting the Library but at present they were unlikely to get a similar space in the new building in Berlin.

Brit Floistad commented that general guidance material had only limited effect. What was more productive in Norway were daily press clippings sent out to Members under the library logo and a new daily information sheet on European Union issues. She suggested identifying some such service which fitted an information need felt by Members and their staff in their daily work.

Richard Pare said that the most popular service in Canada was the daily clippings service from papers across Canada.

Jan Keukens reported that in the Netherlands, Members came to the Library because it was a beautiful room and also because free copies of two important works were handed out via the Library and were therefore seen as a gift from the Library.

3) CO-OPERATION - HOW PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARIES COULD HELP EACH OTHER

John Joseph said that staff exchanges were very useful but that there were financial problems in secondments for the poorer countries who might not be able to meet the living expenses of their staff. Brit Floistad explained that the Nordic Parliamentary Libraries had regular meetings of the heads of the Libraries but in alternate years other staff met to discuss specific topics such as the European Union. Rob Brian said that there was a regular exchange of staff within Australia but they also made arrangements for attachments from the smaller libraries of their region. Law libraries had successful exchange programmes.

Bill Robinson offered to become a temporary clearing house for information on libraries seeking an exchange or able to offer one on a trial basis. He urged those interested in either giving or receiving technical assistance or exchange to contact him directly. If the volume warrants, a more structured arrangement may be created.

Tembi Mtine suggested that when regional meetings of developing parliaments were held, someone from a developed parliamentary library should attend.

The subject of distribution of superseded reference material was raised again. Bill Robinson offered to set up a pilot information fund on books available and books needed. Rob Brian explained that he had enlisted the help of airlines and the Australian Navy to deliver books.

Workshop - 25 August and 29 August

First Day 25 August

Chairman, Bill Robinson, started the first full section meeting of the conference by explainingthat the new name of the section, "The Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments", had been approved by the IFLA authorities and would start to be used fromSeptember 1996. He thanked Rob Brian, the Parliamentary Librarian of New South Wales, for undertaking the work of organising the Workshop and arranging for twelve excellent papers to be prepared. Not all the authors were able to be present, so their papers would not be presented but the texts would be available from IFLA. (Parliamentary Library and Information Services of Nepal by Jayanti Rana, Kathmandu. 188-PAR(WS)-7; The Library of the State Great Hural of Mongolia by Banzragch Odonijil. 235-PAR(WS)-10; Palau Congress Library Information Paper by Harry Besebes, Congressional Librarian 186-PAR(WS)-5; Parliamentary Library of Sri Lanka by N M C Thilakarathne, Parliamentary Librarian 236-PAR(WS)-11.

Rob Brian thanked all those who had written papers and explained that the authors had been asked to use a standard format for their papers. He acknowledged the advantages of email to the organiser.

John Joseph, the Director of the Lok Sabha in New Delhi presented the first paper, Information Management in the Indian Parliament, (234-PAR(WS)-9) The author explained that the history of the India Parliament Library started in 1921 under British rule but that demands on the Library did not start to grow until after Independence in 1947. The systematic expansion of the collections of the Library began when India became a Republic in 1950 and at the same time an initially separate Research and Reference Branch was set up.

As a result of organisational changes in the mid 1970s the Library and Reference, Research, Documentation and Information Service was created, familiarly know as LARRDIS.

There are two Houses in the national Legislature - the House of the People (Lok Sabha) and the Council of States (Rajya Sabha). The Members of Parliament represent a wide spectrum of cultures, languages and political preference and therefore call on the LARRDIS for information and assistance on a wide range of subjects. There is a separate national library in India so the Parliament Library is intended mainly for Members of Parliament.

The LARRDIS is divided into six divisions with a total staff of 154 and holdings of about a million volumes including debates of the Indian Parliament, the State Legislatures of India and foreign parliaments, reports and Gazettes of Central and State Governments and reports of the United Nations and its agencies. 200 newspapers and 842 periodicals are received of which 263 are from abroad.

The software package LIBSYS is used for acquisition and Members are informed about new acquisitions by a monthly publication. A press clippings service is provided. The Research and Information Division produces a number of regular publications related to parliament, legislation and current affairs. The Members' Reference Service supplies information to Members, Committees and the Presiding Officers and also undertakes anticipatory work and produces Information Bulletins, Background Notes and Study Boxes.

The Parliamentary Library has introduced a computer-aided information system known as PARLIS. Members of Parliament can have access to the computerised information available in the Computer Centre from their homes through their personal computers. There is a Parliament of India home page on the Internet: http://alfa.nic.in.

A new Library Building due for completion in 1998 will provide much needed accommodation for books and staff as well as modern facilities to help to improve the information services.

Questions at the end of John Joseph's presentation included further information on the staff library which he had mentioned - this was for the use of all staff of the parliament, whereas the Lok Sabah Library was for the use of Members only; the extent to which the LARRDIS gave advice on the proper course of political action - this was only done in response to a request from a Member; the subject area of the most common questions put to the LARRDIS - economics, law and order, relations between states; information on planning for the new library.

Hisae Umeda then gave her paper on the Legislative Support Services of the National Diet Library (268-PAR(WS)-14). She explained first that the National Diet Library assists Members of the Diet to perform their duties but also provides library services for the executive and judicial branches of the government and for the general public. The Library was founded in 1948 and modelled on the Congressional Research Service in Washington; it is the sole deposit library in Japan.

The Diet is a bicameral parliament and the Library is under the control of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councillors.

The Research and Legislative Reference Bureau of the Library provides research and information for Diet members. It has 14 divisions with an expert staff of over 150, ten divisions organised on a subject basis are engaged in direct research work. The Bureau has its own library of 200,000 books, 3,000 periodicals and newspapers, but also draws on the resources of the National Diet Library. Within the National Diet Library there are rooms reserved for the use of the Members of the Diet which are managed by the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau, but there is also a library, `the Detached Library' at the centre of the Diet Building, which is separate from the Bureau. The research and reference services provided by the Bureau include book loans and photocopying, reports on issues, briefings for individual Members or policy study meetings and bill drafting. The Bureau's publications include three periodicals; Reference, Foreign Legislation and Overseas News as well as Issue Briefs and it is also responsible for the General Index to Debates and the Index to the Japanese Laws and Regulations in Force.

Computers are becoming increasingly important in the Diet and in the Bureau. A local area network is being implemented and should be opened to the public via the Internet in 1999. A new library in Kyoto is also planned in an effort to cope with the needs of the digital age.

Questions asked at the end of the presentation included clarification of the position of users - it was explained that the Diet Library always put Members first and that the Research and Legislative Bureau did some work for the public but could always say `no' to those who were not members of the Diet; and on the function of the new library - which might include an internationally networked asian materials centre.

Hyun Koo Lee, Director, National Assembly Library of Korea then presented his paper, (189-PAR(WS)-8). The National Assembly Library was founded in 1952. It currently operates under the second National Assembly Library Law enacted in 1988. The Library, which is the national and deposit library as well as the parliamentary library, moved into its own building in 1987. Its total collection is almost one million volumes including over 160,000 bound periodicals.

The National Assembly is unicameral and the Librarian is appointed by the Speaker. The units of the National Assembly Library are the Legislative Information Research and Analysis Department, the Acquisition and Processing Bureau, the Information Technology Management Bureau, the Office of Planning Budgeting and Auditing, and the General Affairs Division. The total staff is 276, half of whom have qualifications in library science. The services provided only to Members of the National Assembly include research and analysis provided by 23 researchers in the Legislative Analysis and Research Department. In addition these researchers produce Issue Briefs , Info-Briefs , Analysis of International Issues and Analysis of Legislative Research . Members of the National Assembly also receive bibliographical reference services related to bills, translation and interpretation services, information retrieved from the Internet, CD-ROMs and other databases, new acquisitions lists and free photocopying.

The use of information technology is very advanced in both the National Assembly and the Library, which participates in the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN). A full text database of National Assembly records is being tested and will be available to the public in1997 via the Internet.

Questions were answered by Young Hee Park and included a request for details of the deposit regulations, the size of the budget and the 'marketing' of the service to members of the National Assembly.

Next Eva Liu presented her paper on the Hong Kong Legislative Council Library (238-PAR(WS)-13). The Research and Library Services Division was created in April 1993 in the reorganisation of the Secretariat of the Legislative Council.

The Research and Library Services Division reports to the Secretary General of the Legislative Council. Its service started in March 1995. There is no national library in Hong Kong. The Division provides research and reference services to Members and staff of theLegislative Council and research studies on request from the Council and its committees. Library services are provided to individual Members and their assistants and senior staff of the Secretariat. Members of the public are allowed to inspect open records relating to Council sittings and Members Interests. The staff of fifteen includes five Research Officers and two professional librarians.

The holdings include Legislative Council and other official publications, books, newspapers and periodicals, CD-ROM and audiotapes of committee and panel meetings. The three computers in the Library are stand-alone and access to the CD-ROM databases and the Internet are from these terminals only. Records of some Committee meetings have been available on the home page of the Legislative Council since June 1996. Further information technology developments are planned.

Questions included requests for further details on staffing, access to the research services and participation in APLAP.

Maria Fe S. Abdeleda-Robles gave her paper on The Congressional Library of the House of Representatives of the Philippines (187-PAR(WS)-6). She explained that the Philippines Congress is bicameral with a Senate and House of Representatives.

The Library's mission is to serve as the principal source of information for Members of the House of Representatives and Secretariat staff, to conserve the permanent records of the constitutional and legislative bodies and to be the agency of last resort for evidence on matters of constitutionality and legality. There is a national library in the Philippines. The Congressional Library serves primarily Members of the House of Representatives and the staff of the Committees and Secretariat.

The Congressional Library consists of the Legislative Library and the Legislative Archive and has a staff of 34. The Legislative Library has four sections; acquisition, processing, conservation and services and a total collection of 53,319 volumes, including periodicals and newspapers, as well as two legal CD-ROM titles. The Legislative Archive has four similar sections and holds 56,802 documents and microfilm, tape and photograph archives. Special information files compiled on request include Subject Compilation of Philippine Laws , Vertical Files (files containing all studies, reports and other materials on a subject) and Info Packs which are produced either in response to a Members request or prepared in anticipation of such requests.

The Legislative Library has a four PC local area network plus one stand-alone terminal for CD-ROM use. The Archive has five PCs connected to a House system. A link with the Internet is currently being considered. Hopes for the future include the eventual merging of the Senate Library and House Congressional Library in the proposed new Congress building, a strengthened position in the organisation structure for the Library, more outreach services and further information technology developments linked to the world-wide parliamentary library community.

The questions at the end of the presentation included requests for more detail about the Library's role as the agency of last resort; access for researchers and the public; whether policy analysis was provided; the special relationship with the United Kingdom and collection of legislative material from the USA; relations between the two libraries - these are good.

Pleasance Purser presented her paper on The Parliamentary Library of New Zealand (237-PAR(WS)-11). She recounted the interesting history of the Parliamentary Library which dates back to the 1850s and existed before the creation of the National Library of New Zealand, of which, for a time it formed a part. The Library still receives one of the three deposit copies required from publishers. The Parliamentary Librarian now reports to the General Manager, the chief executive of the Parliamentary Service. In 1996 the Library, with the rest of Parliament moved back into the 1907 Parliament Buildings which had been strengthened and extended. Relocation of the Library has much reduced visits from Members.

Since 1951 the New Zealand Parliament has been unicameral. An explanation of the new mixed member proportional representation system to be used in the October 1996 election was given.

The Library is divided into four sections: Reference, Database, Serials/Acquisitions and International Documents and there is also a Development Manager, a Legislative Analyst who produces the Bills Digest and a Personal Assistant/Office Manager. The Reference Section, which has eleven librarians, a statistician, an economist, a library assistant and the circulation assistant (with some extra help in session) provides all the reference and research services.The Database Section produces the newspaper index and catalogue and runs the Profile, current awareness, service for Members. The bindery is attached to this section which has a staff including 5 librarians, 5 library assistants, 2 binders and an assistant. There are two librarians and five library assistants in Serials/Acquisitions and two librarians and two library assistants in the International Documents Section whose collection is available to everyone in the country. In June 1995 the collection included 315,976 monographs, 190,485 bound volumes of serials as well as the International Documents Collection, microfilms, microfiche, CD-ROM and audio and video tapes.

The Library has its own local area network (LAN) of some forty PCs which is linked to other LANs in Parliament and there is access to on-line databases of Hansard, bills, etc. Some Library users have gateways to the Internet. Developments are underway to enable the Library to make its databases available throughout Parliament.

The new electoral system has already increased the number of political parties seeking assistance from the Library and will bring an increase in the number of Members of Parliament. Other effects of the change would not be clear until after the election. Pleasance also explained the new competitive environment in which the Library worked: with Members being given individual budgets it was possible that in the future some of the Library's funding could come from Members.

Questions included the number of MPs in the new Parliament - not less than 120 but could be up to 130; questions on the total staff - 45 to 50 depending on the day of the week and whether the House was in session - and the likelihood of staff increases; qualifications of staff undertaking journal abstracting - new graduates, not specialists; the work of the International Documents Section and its role as a UN deposit; alternative sources which Members could use in place of the Library - purchased research and databases; analysis work; the role of the Library Committee and the Parliamentary Services Commission; the increase in the number of political parties with a publicly funded parliamentary research unit; the New Zealand Bibliographical Network run by the National Library; the distinction between reference and research work.

Aurora Simandjuntak presented a paper on The Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Asia and the Pacific (APLAP). She explained that the Association was founded in 1990, initiated and guided by Jane Lindley formerly of CRS in Washington. The members had met every two years, first in Seoul, then in Islamabad, and for a third time in Bangkok. The fourth meeting would be in Canberra in October 1996. There are currently 24 member countries and regions of APLAP.

The constraints affecting the parliamentary libraries in the Association included funding problems, the variations in education standards within and between member countries, the idea that libraries are a luxury, the lack of English speaking staff, and poor information flows. The challenges for APLAP Members include the need to encourage Members to ask for information and to find alternative sources for resources, including funding.

APLAP brings together people with common problems and as a result there is good cooperation and a desire to help.

Comments following this presentation included recognition of similar problems for African countries; requests for information about how to join APLAP; reference to the amount of money which Singapore is to devote to libraries in that country.

Bill Robinson thanked all those who had made presentations, particularly those whose first language was not English and thanked Rob Brian again for all his work towards the production of the Workshop papers.

Second Day 29 August

Zhai Jianxiong presented his paper on The National Library of China and its Legislative Reference Service (184-PAR(WS) -3). He apologised that he had unable to be present on 27 August due to illness.

The National Peoples Congress (NPC) has not had a special parliamentary library, instead the National Library of China has been responsible for providing reference services to the Congress. The NPC is the highest organ of state power and its Standing Committee exercises the legislative power and enact laws. The provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities can adopt regulations but these must conform with the Constitution. The NPC approves some levels of regulation before they take effect and others are reported to it. Figures of the volume of legislation and regulations passed in recent years were given and the role of the National Library in providing an active legislative reference service noted. The importance of this role had led to the setting up in 1991 of a special department, the Law and Policy Inquiry Section.

The main tasks of this section are to provide the document reference service to the NPC, to carry out legislative research and to produce bibliographies of legal materials of China and foreign countries, to compile abstracts, catalogues and databases and to carry out research on special subjects. About 30 major studies are produced each year. At present the Section does not have any reading rooms. It has a staff of six librarians, three specialising in law.

Amongst the Questions asked were whether there had ever been a separate parliamentary library, whether national and regional requests were handled, whether Members of the Congress asked for reference information, the role of committees and support staff available to them.

Rob Brian then summarised the responses to the request for Workshop papers and commented on the papers which had not been presented. He explained that it was intended that all the papers should be published in a book of about 100 pages.

At the end of the Workshop Ms Gulshan S Haji, Parliamentary Librarian of the Provincial Assembly of Sind, Pakistan read a brief paper with some details of her Library and of the equipment which had been presented to it by the Asia Foundation.

The Research and Parliamentary Library of the Chinese National People's Congress

A special meeting was arranged by Bill Robinson on August 30, 1996 which brought together a number of members of the Parliamentary Libraries Section with their counterparts in the Chinese Congressional Research Service. The meeting involved seven representatives of the Chinese CRS (including Mr. Yin Zhongquing, Deputy Director General of the Service, and Dr. Jiang Jinsong, Deputy Director of the International Division of the CRS, and six members of the Parliamentary Libraries Section (Richard Pare of Canada, Marga Cooing of the German Bundestag, Young Hee Park of Korea, Hisae Umeda of the Japanese Research and Legislative Reference Service, Jennifer Tanfield of the U.K. House of Commons Library, and Bill Robinson of the U.S. Library of Congress-- CRS. Dr. Jiang attended the Section dinner later in the day.

Overview of the Structure of NPC and Information Sources

The National People's Congress is the largest legislature in the world with a plenary body of 2,968 which meets twice each year for approximately two weeks. The ongoing operations of the NPC are overseen by a Standing Committee (SC) consisting of 150 members, selected from among the members of the Plenary session. The Standing Committee meets once every two months for a period of about two weeks.

The SC gets analysis and information services from three internal sources and at least one external source:

The General Office of the NPC provides general services to the NPC and the SC. It has a staff of about 600. Within the General Office is the Chinese CRS with a staff of approximately 70 people. This group will be described in greater detail below;

The Committee on Legal Affairs (CLA) of the NPC. This is a body of approximately 220 lawyers, who do bill drafting and legal analysis;

Staff of the eight Standing Committees, with each committee having a staff of about 8 people plus one or two contractors or ad hoc staff;

The external source is the National Library of China (NLC). Since the NPC has no substantial parliamentary library of its own, it relies on a special group of five librarians in the NLC to meet its reference needs (the Section on Law and Policy Inquiries). The Section was established in 1991, and drew some lessons from the National Diet Library of Japan.

Recently, the NPC has undertaken a special comparative study of the organization, operations, and procedures of several modern legislatures (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, and Japan). The study is being financially assisted by the Ford Foundation. The Chinese CRS held the first comparative seminar on August 3-9, 1996, covering the legislatures of the U.K., U.S., and Germany. The second seminar was conducted on August 10-15, 1996 with France and Italy (the Japanese representative was unable to attend).

Structure and Functions of Chinese CRS

The Chinese CRS has a staff of 70 people. Most have college degrees, with many MA degrees and a few with doctorates. The average age of the staff is quite young, at about 30. The CRS is organized in 7 units: Politics; Economics; Culture; International; Information; Office Support; and Service department (including a small internal library). The library was created in 1951 and has about 23,000 volumes-- covering mainly politics, law, economics, and other areas relevant to public policy.

The Chinese CRS undertakes a number of functions: (1) issues research reports, (2) drafts speeches for high-ranking legislative leaders, (3) helps the Standing Committee frame the legislative agenda for both the SC bi-monthly sessions and the Plenary bi-annual sessions; (4)engages in comparative studies of legislative systems and processes (issuing 39 books in theprocess), (5) serves as a training center for staff, and (6) directs the publishing house.

The Chinese CRS believes that communication between legislatures needs to be improved. Among other goals, they are seeking more comparative bibliographies on legislatures and are also interested in such issues as comparative structures for legislative research organizations, kinds of reports issued by other legislative research groups, staffing and assignments, and a conceptual model of the information gathering process followed by other legislative research organizations. More importantly, they are also interested in developing procedures for better supervising the operations of the executive.

The Chinese gave every indication that they were interested in joining the Parliamentary Library Section of IFLA and taking part in the next meeting of the Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Asia and the Pacific (APLAP).

IFLA Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments 1998-2001 Medium Term Programme

The Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments recognizes the central role that information must play in the effective functioning of a democratic legislature. In some cases, the parliamentary library includes a research service; in others there is a separate department which provides research and analysis for legislatures. Moreover these services are provided to national legislatures in unitary states, and to both national and regional legislatures in countries with a federal system of government. The activities undertaken by those who provide library and research services for parliaments range from the identification, location, interpretation, synthesis, and timely delivery of information to in-depth analysis and development of choices for the legislature. In addition to the library skills of acquisition, indexing, reference work and the use of information technology, there is often a need for subject and disciplinary expertise, significant presentational skills and an understanding of legislative procedures and official publications. The concept of service to members of the legislature, the primary clientele, is fundamental to parliamentary libraries and research services.

Part 2: Goals, 1998-2001

1) Promote understanding and cooperation between legislatures and their information services, recognising the ever growing need for legislators to have access to up-to-date and accurate information about developments world wide, but also the financial constraints which apply to every parliament in some degree.

2) Promote fruitful relations between the parliamentary libraries and research services of the world and encourage the organisation of regional conferences and other forms of regular contact between parliamentary information services operating in particular world regions.

3) Provide advice and assistance for the establishment of new parliamentary libraries and the development of comprehensive parliamentary information systems throughout the world. In the context of newly emerging democratic legislatures, it is important to encourage library and research services to help sustain democratic development. The Section works with bodies such as the European Parliament and IPU to encourage bilateral and multilateral assistance and development programmes and acts as a clearing house to further such help.

4) Encourage programmes to foster the adoption of the latest information technologies, including the Internet, by parliamentary information services and promote liaison with other libraries and research services so as disseminate knowledge about new systems and databases.

5) Promote membership of, and active participation in, the Section to encourage the development of active libraries and research services for parliaments throughout the world.

Annex: Action Plan, 1998-1999

Goal 1 - Promote understanding and cooperation between legislatures and their information services, recognising the ever growing need for legislators to have access to up-to-date and accurate information about developments world wide, but also the financial constraints which apply to every parliament in some degree.

1.1) Publish a seventh edition of the Section's World Directory of National Parliaments or some equivalent source of information. Make arrangements for the compilation of a new edition of the World Directory of Non-National Parliamentary Libraries or some equivalent source of information.

1.2) Plan conference papers and discussion meetings which are relevant to the developments affecting legislatures, including budget restrictions, electronic publishing and other changes in the field of government printing and copyright.

Goal 2 - Promote fruitful relations between the parliamentary libraries and research services of the world and encourage the organisation of regional conferences and other forms of regular contact between parliamentary information services operating in particular world regions.

2.1) Seek to hold a Parliamentary Libraries Conference before the main IFLA Conference in 1998 and 1999 and to organise a workshop and an open meeting with agendas which are of interest to both librarians and researchers at the Parliamentary Libraries Conference and/or the main IFLA Conference in each year.

2.2) Encourage the establishment of regional associations in the Black Sea and in Latin America. In Africa support will be given to the newly formed association of Parliamentary Libraries of Eastern and Southern Africa (APLESA) and the Association of Librarians, Documentalists and Archivists of African Parliaments (ALDAAP). Backing will be given to the proposed regional association in South Asia of the SARC parliamentary libraries and research services. The Section also recognises the importance of the Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Australasia (APLA), the Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Asia and the Pacific (APLAP), APLIC/ABPAC, the Association of Parliamentary Libraries in Canada/L'Association des Biblioth‚caires Parlementaires au Canada, the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Development (ECPRD), the meetings of the Parliamentary Libraries of Nordic Countries and PARDOC, the program of assistance to parliamentary library development in countries of the south set up by the Assembl‚e Internationale des Parliamentaires de Langue Francaise (AIPLF). The section will work with these all organisations to increase cooperation between parliamentary information services.

2.3) Publish further volumes in the integrated series of publications analysing the development of parliamentary libraries in various areas of the world to follow books which will be published shortly on Latin America and on Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Goal 3 - Provide advice and assistance for the establishment of new parliamentary libraries and the development of comprehensive parliamentary information systems throughout the world. In the context of newly emerging democratic legislatures, it is important to encourage library and research services to help sustain democratic development. The Section works with bodies such as the European Parliament and IPU to encourage bilateral and multilateral assistance and development programmes and acts as a clearing house to further such help.

3.1) Review the currency of Guidelines for Legislative Libraries so that advice can be readily supplied to new parliamentary libraries.

3.2)Explore methods of establishing more effective partnering between established library and research services and nations seeking to build more effective services for their legislatures.

Goal 4 - Encourage programmes to foster the adoption of the latest information technologies, including the Internet, by parliamentary information services and promote liaison with other libraries and research services so as to disseminate knowledge about new systems and databases.

4.1) The section will use its new home page to facilitate electronic communication between its members and will keep up-to-date email and fax address lists on the Internet.

4.2) The section will identify those parliamentary libraries in developing countries which do not have any information technology capacity or access to the Internet and, by making available information about assistance available from private foundations and from the IFLA core programme ALP, will seek to ensure that all parliamentary libraries have core IT facilities (including email and Internet access).

4.3) Initiatives suggested at the 1997 IFLA meetings, which will focus on automation, will be followed through and the section's publications will be reviewed to assess whether any should be converted to, or duplicated in, electronic format.

Goal 5 - Promote membership of, and active participation in, the Section to encourage the development of active libraries and research services for parliaments throughout the world.

5.1) Discuss with the Section Standing Committee and regional associations a strategy for increasing the membership of, and participation in, the Section.

[Areas in bold italics represent changes from the first draft discussed in the Standing Committee in Beijing.]

Please let Jennifer Tanfield, the section secretary have any comments on this draft.

IFLA Conference 1997 - request for views

Our colleague Margareta Brundin and the Swedish Riksdagen will serve as our host for the12th Annual International Conference on Library and Research Services for Parliaments. We are grateful for their hospitality and look forward to an interesting program. Plan to arrive on 26 August for a full day of activity on 27 August. Then, if for some reason you cannot come to Stockholm, please plan to arrive in Copenhagen on 29 August so that you can attend the Standing Committee Meeting on 30 August. For those who can join us for both, plan for 27 August to 5 September with 26 August as a travel day.

At the Pre-Conference, we will have an opportunity to hear presentations on the Parliamentary Libraries of the Nordic countries, with special attention paid to the parliament of our Swedish hosts. The sessions should be interesting for comparative purposes, and build our knowledge not only of these individual legislative libraries, but also of the oldest regional association of parliamentary libraries. This will be the 75th anniversary of the Association of Nordic Libraries, so we expect to spend some time learning of its activities as well.

At the Conference in Copenhagen, we will have a very full agenda. The Standing Committee meeting will include the election of officers, including a new chairman since the current chairman has served the maximum of two consecutive terms and several new members of the Standing Committee will be elected this spring; a discussion of the Medium-Term Program for the next four years (our goals and plans as a Section); and several other important topics. We will have another of our very popular Informal Meetings for problem solving on topics of concern to you, the discussion of the progress of regional associations, and other matters.

Prior to our Open Meeting, we will participate in a joint open forum with other sections and divisions of IFLA on 'Issues of Ownership and Availability of Electronic Information' which will feature a debate and subsequent panel discussion with audience participation. The Open Meeting will be a continuations of the discussion of technology and its implications, with the theme 'The Modern Legislature and the Use of Technology'. The program is still in development, but tentatively we envision one paper on the parliament's need for access to information and the impact of copyright on that access. This will not be a repeat of the open forum, but will instead focus on the special needs of the legislature and offer some suggested ways to resolve the conflict - including the possibility of special legislation (extending the idea of 'fair use' to all uses within the walls of the legislature as in the US, for example). A second paper would focus on the use of technology in gathering and sharing information in the parliament (with special emphasis on developing and tracking legislation, and on library, reference and current awareness services). The third paper will discuss the uses of technology in research and analysis.

The Workshop will be a full day in the Parliament of Denmark. The morning will be devoted to an in-depth orientation to the Parliament and information services of Denmark. The afternoon feature technology demonstrations - for example, of the Section's new home page, use of the Internet for specific searching needs, use of CD-ROM technology for preserving videotapes of legislative proceedings, etc.

But we need your help at this stage. These are general ideas only. We need your reactions to these suggestions and concrete ideas. Please give us the names of people you would like to hear from in each of the roles identified for the Open Meeting and the Workshop. (Do not be shy: if you want to present something, propose it.) Even suggest other topics that you think will be more interesting than what has been proposed. But please send your ideas no later than 15 November. (We must notify IFLA headquarters of the details of our program by December.)

Thanks for your interest and co-operation. Your involvement is what makes the Section interesting and worthwhile for all of us. Without your high-level involvement, it would be just another meeting.

Bill Robinson

October 1996

Parliamentary Libraries Directory; request for references; journal article

World directory of national parliamentary libraries. Edited by Ernst Kohl. International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 6th ed., 1995 - Bonn: Deutscher Bundestag, Wissenschaftliche Dienste, 1996 - 2 vols, XXII, 693 p. ISBN 3-89372-014-6: DM 49) 80 ISSN 1012-7690

The Section thanks Ernst Kohl for the considerable time and energy which he has put into compiling this and two earlier editions of the Directory as well as the World Directory of Parliamentary Libraries of Federated States. Dr Kohl will no longer be editing these two directories: replacement editors are being sought.

Aide bibliographique: Ayuda Bibliografica: Bibliographical help

Russell Cope, the former Parliamentary Librarian in Sydney, is holding a Research Seminar in November 1996 at the University of New South Wales on the Historiography of the Australian Parliamentary Libraries. However, as part of a longer-term project he is anxious to have as much information as possible on histories of parliamentary libraries throughout the world. Whilst he is aware of much of the material in English, he feels that material in other languages may have escaped his notice and there may be pamphlets and smaller items in English which have not received wide circulation.

If anyone has knowledge of any item published since 1990 which deals with the history of an individual parliamentary library in any country other than Great Britain or Australia, it would be appreciated if a note could be sent to:

Dr R L Cope University of New South Wales Sydney 2052 Australia

He can also be reached by email at -

r.cope@unsw.EDU.AU

If anyone is aware of general histories of legislative librarianship published in the same period - university theses for example - details of those would also be useful to Dr Cope.

Article on the implications for "governance" of a global information society

The October 1996 edition (Vol 72 No 4) of International Affairs, the journal of the royal Institute of International Affairs in London, contains an article by Steven A Rosell called "Changing maps: scenarios for Canada in an information age" which may be of interest to members of the section.

Standing Committee Members

Standing Committee representatives:

Elected 1993:

Elected 1995:

Jennifer Tanfield (Secretary)
Librarian
House of Commons
London SW1A OAA
United Kingdom
Phone: 44-171-210 3635
Fax: 44-171-219 4285
email: tanfieldjb@parliament.uk

Corresponding Members: