Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments

CIRCULAR NEWSLETTER
Vol 19 - No. 1
December 1999

1. Introductory Remarks


2. Pre-conference: 15th Annual Conference of Parliamentary Librarians hosted by the National Assembly Library of Thailand


3. The 65th IFLA Conference, Bangkok 1999


3.1

Standing Committee Meetings


3.2

Open Meeting


3.3

Workshop


3.4

Special meeting on Research


4. Section Finances


Part 2 - Number 5 to 11

5. Annual report 1997/1998


6. Action plan 1999/2000


7. Discussion Paper on Twinning


8. Publications and announcements


9. The 66th IFLA Conference Jerusalem and pre-Conference in Athens


10. Standing Committee Members


11. Section e-mail and fax addresses


Note:

the appendices: Registration Form for Jerusalem, some information from the invitation booklet and the hotel reservation form for Jerusalem are not available electronically but in hard copy only.

1. Introductory Remarks

Those of you who came to Bangkok will remember a well-organised conference in a happy and friendly atmosphere. The Section highlights of the Conference included the pre-conference hosted by the Thai Parliament with an interesting program and a wonderful and cheerful dinner boat trip on the river, and the very participative workshop in the Royal Princess Shrinakarin hotel with parallel sessions on several items. We hope to organise such an equally good workshop in Jerusalem.

Preparations for Athens and Jerusalem are well underway. For Jerusalem we will have the regular program with standing committee meetings, open meeting, meeting on research and a workshop on Sunday 13 August hosted by the Knesset, the Israeli Parliament. We hope to have a workshop Bangkok style with parallel sessions again and we are working on a visit to Ramallah where the Library and Research Service of the Palestinian Legislative Council is situated.

In section 9 you will find further information about the Conference in Jerusalem and the Pre-conference in Athens. More detailed information will be included in the personal invitation letter of Richard Paré, the Chair of the Section, which you will receive soon. Up to date information will also be published in the May Newsletter and on the Section's website:
http://www.ifla.org/VII/s3/sparll.htm

You will find a copy of the registration forms and some general information about the Conference as an appendix to this Newsletter. Electronic versions of the registration forms and more general information on Jerusalem 2000 can be found at:
http://www.ifla.org/IV/ifla66/66.intro.htm

For hotel reservations in Jerusalem we advise you to use the special reservation form that is included in the appendix to this Newsletter. Neomi Kimhi, our colleague from the Knesset Library, will take care of the hotel reservations for our Section. She can guarantee your booking if she receives your reservation form before the 15th of April. Try to book as soon as possible as Jerusalem will be full of tourists and pilgrims in August and hotels will be fully booked.

In Bangkok we said goodbye to Jennifer Tanfield as Chair of the Section and Nick Bannenberg as Information Coordinator with votes of thanks for all the work that they did.
Jennifer also retired as Librarian of the House of Commons, Westminster, at the end of December. Those who would like to keep in touch with Jennifer will find her private e-mail address in section 8. Nick will stay as a member of our Section and Standing Committee. In Bangkok Richard Paré from the Library of the Federal Parliament of Canada was elected Chair of the Section and Marialyse Délano Serrano from Chile was appointed Information Coordinator. I myself was re-elected for a second and last term as Secretary.

In section 7 you will find the action plans 1999-2000 linked to the goals 1998-2001 and the Medium Term Program of the Section. With your help we will try to realise the goals outlined in this action plan. We will ask your direct support for some of these actions if necessary.

We hope to see as many of you as possible in Athens and Jerusalem. We look forward to renewing our acquaintance with those who have taken part in our Section's activities in recent years, and also to greeting new colleagues attending their first IFLA Conference meeting the old and eternal places of our civilisation, Athens and Jerusalem.

I would like to thank those who contributed to the Newsletter June Verrier, Nick Bannenberg and Richard Paré made major contributions by taking the minutes of many of the meetings that we had in Bangkok. I thank Jennifer Tanfield for corrections, amendments and advice for this Newsletter.

Richard, Marialyse and I wish you all a very happy New Year.

Jan Keukens
Editor
January 2000

2. Pre-conference: 15th Annual Conference of Parliamentary Librarians hosted by the National Assembly Library of Thailand

(68 people, 41countries)

The 15th Annual International Conference of Parliamentary Librarians was hosted by the National Assembly of the Kingdom of Thailand at the Royal River Hotel as a pre-conference in conjunction with the 65th Meeting of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA).The President of the National Assembly H.E. Wamnuhamadnoor Matha inaugurated the meeting. Mrs. Boonruksa Chomchuen, Director of National Assembly's Library Division, reported on the arrangement of the Conference, following by the welcoming address of Ms. Jennifer Tanfield, Chairman of the Section on Library and Research Series for Parliaments. Ms Tanfield was chair of the meeting.

National Assembly Library of Thailand by Mrs Boonruska Chomchuen The first presentation was of the host of the Conference, the National Assembly of Thailand and its library. The presentation on video gave information about the National Assembly and the National Assembly Library of Thailand. The Thai National Assembly is composed of two Houses; namely the House of Representatives and the Senate. At present, the House of Representatives is currently composed of 393 Members directly elected by the people. Following the promulgation of the new Constitution in 1997, Members of the House of Representatives will come from both direct election and election on a party list basis, altogether 500 members. The Senate consists of 200 members to be elected by the people.

The National Assembly Library, with 102 staff has organised the information services relating to legislative works into 4 sub-divisions: General Affairs, Information Development, Academic Affairs, Archives and Museum. In the afternoon a visit was made to the National Assembly building where tours and presentations on the Library and the Museum of the National Assembly were given.

CAMBODIA by Ms Seng Sowatha

In 1999 a second Chamber, the Senate was, established. The Senate meets at the Chamcarmon Palace and has its own small library for the Senators.

The Cambodian National Assembly Library followed the guidance of the "Parliamentary Reference Library Bibliography of core materials" of the Library of Congress, Washington, to develop the collection. There are no laws covering copyright and legal deposit in Cambodia, however most of the government departments and NGO's provide copies of their publications to the library. The library is supported by the Asia Foundation, IPU, Australia and France.

Initial training for the library staff was given by Mr Brudenall of the Parliamentary Library of Canberra Australia, and additional library training courses were held later at the University Library of Phnom Penh. The training focussed on awareness of availability of materials from other Library collections. Due to the limited budgets, Internet or other online sources of information are not yet accessible. However, there is a plan to expand the National Assembly so that the library will be bigger, more effective and efficient.

After the presentation Mr. Kirkwood (Canada) asked for an indication of what materials of the core collection are most needed from donations. Ms Seng Sowatha answered that legal materials and books on drafting were the priority needs. June Verrier (Australia) asked how many MPs could cope with English language. Ms Seng Sowatha explained that MPs older than 45 speak mostly French and MPs younger than 45 speak mostly English as a foreign language. Most of the research staff of the Parliament speak English.

COOK ISLANDS

For the remote librarian the Internet is often not cost-efficient as telecommunication costs are high. In the Cook Islands Government policy is that uneconomic services to 10 of the 12 inhabited islands should be maintained which results in international users subsidising domestic lines. In addition, while the Internet may give access to vast sources of information, the expertise to efficiently explore this is lacking. Consequently large tracts of information are often better obtained through hard copies sent by post, unless urgency demands immediate access to the information. Second, there is the obstacle of attitude. The Cook Islands Parliament has more elderly gentlemen than young Turks and this is reflected in the institution's attitude to modern technology. There are Members of Parliament whose literacy is not high or who are fluent only in their own native tongue and not in the English language. The scale of the library of the Cook Islands and its sole researcher, the problems of language, literacy, attitude, age and costs, remain barriers to the use of information technology. These obstacles are considerable and arguable. The first steps to deal with these problems are education and training. Without these, other efforts will have little meaning. For the sole parliamentary librarian of a small library in the midst of over 2 million sq. km of ocean the greatest challenge of all may not be in modernising the technology, but in modernising the parliamentarians themselves.

HONG KONG

Since 1995 the Research Staff conducted 139 studies covering a wide variety of policy areas. All these research reports are available from the Library sub-home page on the website of the Legislative Council at http://www.legco.gov.hk.

The Library collects Hansard (since 1890), Council related documents and records of committee open meetings (since 1994/95). It also collects official publications, including the Gazette, Government Briefing Notes to Legislative Council on policy proposals, annual departmental reports, and other government publications. Books total about 18.000, mainly on political, economic and social issues. The Library subscribes to 12 local and overseas newspapers, 25 periodicals and three publications on parliaments. There are 15 CD-Rom databases and over 3.000 audio tapes of committee meetings held since the 1994/95 session. To enable library users to search new reports about the Legislative Council and its activities, the Library subscribes to the first bilingual press cuttings database in Hong Kong, which covers more than 10 newspapers and which has made a customized search design for the Council. Each Member has an individual folder to facilitate the robot to update press cuttings every morning.
The Library is in the process of implementing a computerized system for storage and retrieval of papers and records of the Legislative Council and its committees as well as library holdings. Within the new system, bilingual search and retrieval of Council and committee papers and records can be carried out at 160 networked stations in the Legislative Council Secretariat as well as in Members' local offices. The project cost is about 1.3 million US dollars and full operation is expected in January 2000.

INDONESIA by Mrs Damayanti Harris

From 1991 an online database was supported by a Local Area Network (LAN) system with 19 stations. Its software was Inmagic 7.1, which was user friendly and easy to access by entering keyword, title or subject. Conditions however changed rapidly. They found that the Inmagic database was no longer able to support Members' demands, so ISIS was installed. At the moment the database of the Parliament includes draft legislation and regulations, committee and research reports and other documentary materials The online database gives direct access to committees, factions and the staff of the Secretariat General. Like other developing countries the Indonesian Parliament experiences both financial problems and human resource problems in providing professional electronic services.

The Asia Foundation and the German Konrad Adenaur Stiftung supported the establishment of the electronic services. The more sophisticated hardware and software cause more problems with human resource development. So the development of human resources will be given priority. The library will need professional management, qualified librarians and technical staff to meet the demands of Members of Parliament.

SINGAPORE

INDIA by Mr. Rajagopalan Nair

India has taken significant steps in developing information technology to assist its parliamentarians in the effective discharge of their duties. In 1985 the Parliament Library Information Centre (PARLIS) was set up. The data currently available for on-line retrieval relate to: Parliamentary Questions, Parliamentary Debates, Bio-data of Members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, Government and Private Members' Bills, the Parliamentary Library, the Documentation Service and Press Clipping Service. Most of the data are from 1985 onwards. MPs can access the catalogue of the library through the terminals installed at the counters of the library. The data of the library system will soon be available on the Internet through the webpage of the parliament.

The "Parliament of India Home Page" on the Internet became available on 15 March 1996. The major components of information now available are: The Indian Constitution; important speeches of the President; Constituent Assembly debates; Indian Budget; Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of Lok Sabha; Directions by the Speaker; Decisions from the Chair; Bills and Policies; Bio-data of Members; Parliamentary Debates from 1991 onwards.

In order to help the Members to get instant and up-to-date information on a wide range of activities they have been provided with a Note-Book or Desk-Top computer with digital Versatile Disk (DVD) facility with fax/modem card and a printer. In order to provide on-line services to them such as e-mail and access to the Parliamentary databases, other Governmental databases and databases of foreign Legislatures, a central computer facility has been developed at Parliament House which is connected to the National Informatics Centre Network (NICNET). In this way the MPs can have access to all the electronic information through their personal computers from their residences/workplaces.

All the activities of the Lok Sabha Secretariat, activities of the Reporters, Questions, Committee Branches, Members' Service, Pay & Accounts, Budget and Payment, General Administration, Recruitment, Reception Office, Security Service, Library and Research, Reference, Documentation and Information Service have been fully computerised.

Parliamentary proceedings are telecast on a regular basis in India and the Parliament is working to progress this. As a prelude to complete live telecast of Parliamentary Proceedings throughout the nation, a Low Power Transmitter (LPT) was set up in Parliament House in August 1994 to provide for live telecast within a radius of 10 to 15 km from the Lok Sabha. The proceedings of the Question Hour of both Houses are also being telecast live on alternate weeks throughout the country on the Primary Channel of Doordarshan (the official electronic media).

An Audio-Visual Unit has been set up to enable parliamentarians to view/listen to video records of Lok Sabha debates, proceedings of international parliamentary conferences/seminars, parliamentary films etc. At present the Unit has a total collection of 1814 VHS cassettes, 1027 audiocassettes on parliamentary proceedings and on other activities.

For the future the Parliament plans to put all the parliamentary data onto the Internet. Today, in the context of restructuring of economies, information access has become a great national priority in India. No developed or developing nation can afford to neglect the existence and continuous advancement of information technology.

Frank Kirkwood (Canada) asked if there was some pressure in India not to provide official proceedings on paper anymore now so many things are available digitally. Mr. Nair answered that there is not such pressure, everything is available in print as well as digitally. Roslynn Membrey (Australia) asked how many MPs actually access the parliamentary databases from their home-addresses. Mr. Nair answered that very few do but that the number is increasing. The staff of the parliament is giving a lot of training courses so he is sure that more and more MPs will make use of the digital information sources from their home address in the time to come.

REPUBLIC OF TAIWAN by Ms. Irene Ching-Yueh Hsu

The National Parliamentary Library is responsible for:

• Acquisition, maintenance and utilization of legislative books, periodicals, CD-Roms and other related knowledge media or materials
• Collecting, value-adding, maintenance and utilization of public opinions due to the law making affairs through mass media
• Analysis, research, retrieval information systems
• Compilation and exchange of legislative publications
• Planning, processing and management of legislative information systems
• Inter-library cooperation with other libraries
• Office automation and network applications
• Other library-related matters

A whole range of Task Forces has been established to cope with the further development of the library. There are Task Forces for: IT new applications working group; client requirement survey working group; contents research working group; Library research developing working group; promotion statistics working group; education and staffing working group; next generation network and digitalization working group, and the librarian self-management working group.

Work plans and schedules for the future have been developed. There is a short-term work plan for the year 1999 to June 2000; a mid-term work plan for the year 2000 to 2002 and policy for long-term development. Some of the topics included in the short-term work plan are: the improvement of the information services to legislators using the manpower and library resources available; to make an activity survey on the information demands and its resolution focussed on different types of services and facilities; connect useful sites and offer user training; systematically conduct a comparative study of international parliamentary librarianship to get developmental experiences from other parliaments. The mid-term program includes among other things: full upgrade of the Legislative Information System to the second generation; systematically building up legislators' homepages connected to the Library's Internet site; constantly develop the plan for a new Parliamentary Library and new services based on the moving and construction proposal of the Legislative Yuan.

The policy for the long-term development includes: construct a legislative network infrastructure and information sharing system on Intranet and Internet, covering the capital area and every electoral district in Taiwan for practising governmental publicity and communication to the general public; actively organize a congressional knowledge centre linking to academic institutes for conducting research and literature analysis to the general public.

After this an outline was given of the Internet Services Net of the Parliamentary Library, the readers' reference and referral service, the information dissemination service, the multimedia information storage and retrieval service and the Internet and website access service.The presentation was ended by the statement that the National Parliamentary Library not only belongs to the Congress but also acts as the Public Knowledge Service Centre nationally and will definitely contribute to the progress of human civilisation world-wide.

The homepage of the Electronic National Parliamentary Library is accessible through http://npl.ly.gov.tw

After the presentation Frank Kirkwood (Canada) asked about the interchangeable of Chinese and Latin characters within the automation system of the Library. The answer was that this is a difficult problem but they are working on it and progress has been made.

ASSOCIATION OF PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARIES OF ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (APLAP) by Ms. Aurora Simandjuntak

After the presentations the delegates of the Conference went to the premises of the Thai Parliament to visit the Library and the Museum and then boarded a ship where the Thai Parliament hosted a beautiful and enjoyable dinner on the river with dance and music.

3. The 65th IFLA Conference, Bangkok 1999

3.1 Standing Committee Meetings

Minutes of Standing Committee I, Saturday 21 August

Wafaa Ali Abdel Elah (Egypt), Margarita Angelova (Bulgaria), Nick Bannenberg (Queensland, Australia), Gaston Bernier (Quebec, Canada), Margareta Brundin (Sweden), Amalia Buzón Carretero (Andalucia, Spain), Marga Coing (Germany), Marialyse Délano Serrano (Chile), Anita Dudina (Latvia), Wojciech Kulisiewicz (Poland), Tuula H. Laaksovirta (Finland), Bernard Nzo Nguty (Cameroon), Richard Paré (Canada), Young-Hee Park (Korea), Sara Parker (Missouri, USA), Donna Scheeder (USA), Bernard Vansteelandt (Belgium), June Verrier (Australia).

Attending as observers were the following:
Rob Brian (NSW, Australia), Roslynn Membrey (Australia), Bruce Davidson (Victoria, Australia), Mary E. Dickerson (Ontario, Canada), Irene Ching-Yueh Hsu (Republic of China Taiwan), Karel Sosna (Czech Republic), Sawsan el Hennawy (Egypt), Siiri Sillajõe (Estonia), W. Pooput (France), Kosi Kedem (Ghana), Eleni Mitrakou (Greece), M. Ratagopalan Nair (India), Bharti Tiwari (India), Aurora Simandjuntak (Indonesia), Reza Ardalan (Iran), Seyed Mohammad Ali Ahmadi Abhari (Iran), Neomi Kimhi (Israel), Yossi Kimhi (Israel), Giovanni Lazzari (Italy), Takashi Tsukamoto (Japan), Esther M. Kamau (Kenya), Ellen Ndeshi Namhila (Namibia), Byung Suk Min (Korea), Rob de Bruin (Netherlands), Felicity Caird (New Zealand), Brit Floistad (Norway), Jean-Antoine Milogo (PARDOC), Patricio Aranda Torres (Peru), Irina Andreeva (Russia), Ruby Cheah-Khoo (Singapore), Leon Gabriel (South Africa), Albert Mzinkulu Ntunja (South Africa), Liisa Kvist (Sweden), Gül Giloglu (Turkey), Cemal Yildiz (Turkey), Ishak Bozkurt (Turkey), Eduard Afonin (Ukraine), W. Tuchnello (USA), Dao Van Thach (Vietnam), Tembi C. Mtine (Zambia).

(60 people, 41 countries)

Opening of the Meeting

The Chairman, Jennifer Tanfield, welcomed those attending the meeting and explained that it was the practice of the Section to encourage all members to attend Standing Committee meetings, although only the members of the Standing Committee could vote.

Approval of the Agenda

The draft agenda was approved.

Approval of Minutes of the Standing Committee meetings in Amsterdam on 16 August and 21 August 1998.

The Minutes of the meetings were approved.

Officers' report including membership report (Tanfield) and financial report (Keukens)

Jennifer Tanfield reported that the membership of the Section was 109 compared with 103 in 1998. The section now has 84 institutional members, 15 national associations, 9 personal affiliates and one international association.

Jan Keukens gave an overview of the Section's finances for the year 1999 to date. There was a small deficit of NLG 223,95 on Project 2, the publication "Parliamentary Libraries and Research Services in Central and Eastern Europe". He proposed that this amount be taken from the administrative funds to balance the deficit for this project. This proposal and the whole financial report were approved. Details of the expenditure would be published in the Section Newsletter.

Roll call of Standing Committee Members

The roll call of the Standing Committee took place with members of the Standing Committee introducing themselves to those present. 18 out of 20 SC members were present.

Election of the new Chairman and of the new Secretary

Nick Bannenberg (Australia) nominated Richard Paré, Parliamentary Librarian of the Federal Parliament of Canada, for the post of Chairman. Marialyse delano Serrano (Chile) seconded the nomination. As there were no other nominations Richard Paré was elected.

Jennifer Tanfield revisited comments made the previous year in Amsterdam, explaining why it was highly desirable for the good of the Section for Jan Keukens to serve a second term as Secretary. She reminded the meeting that a petition had been signed by all present at the second Standing Committee meeting in Amsterdam and presented to the IFLA Secretary General. While endorsing Jan Keukens's suitability, she made it clear that others could nominate for the position. However, as he was no longer eligible to serve on the Standing Committee after two consecutive terms, Jan could only serve for a second term as Secretary if no other member of the Standing Committee was nominated for the post. If there was no other candidate he could act as a Special Advisor to the Section, and continue as Secretary. There were no further nominations, so Jan Keukens was elected Secretary for a second and final term.

Proposal of a new Information Coordinator

Information Coordinator is not an elected post but an appointment made by the incoming officers. The new Information Coordinator will be Maria Délano Serrano from the Library of Parliament of Chile.

Approval of two new Corresponding Members (Irina Andreeva and Tembi Mtine)

Jennifer Tanfield explained that each IFLA Section was allowed to have five Corresponding Members. Corresponding membership is provided for section members who are unable to attend conferences but keep in regular touch and contribute opinions and active support, such as providing translations. The Section had for some years four Corresponding Members (included in the list of the Standing Committee in each Newsletter) but one of them, Ms Etekiera of Kiribati, had not been in touch with the section for some years and Jennifer had therefore written to notify her that she would no longer be a Corresponding Member - but would continue to be on the mailing list.

It was proposed that Irina Andreeva and Tembi Mtine should be made Corresponding Members. It had been intended that they continue on the Standing Committee, but due to an administrative oversight by the Chair at the time of the election, their names had been inadvertently omitted from the list of nominees. Both Irina and Tembi had been eligible for re-election and the former Standing Committee had been in favour of their re-nomination. As two other people had been properly nominated, and no other nominations had been received, Irina and Tembi had lost their places on the SC through no fault of their own. Both contributed a great deal to the section, especially Irina, who had organised all the translations of Open Meeting papers into Russian. It was hoped that despite this unfortunate error they would be able to attend future conferences, but there was some doubt about funding for this if they were not on the Standing Committee. The Chair strongly recommended that the Standing Committee approve the proposal to make them Corresponding Members.

The proposal was approved.

News from the IFLA Coordinating Board

The Chair advised that if regional groups wanted to plan informal meetings arrangements had been made for them to book room 218 in the BITEC.
At the Coordinating Board meeting it had been reported that a lot of the Arabic countries had a problem with Jerusalem as the place for IFLA 2000, because the Arabic countries do not recognise Jerusalem as Israeli territory. It was likely that the Arabic countries would boycott the 2000 Conference for that reason. IFLA stresses that the IFLA Conference 2000 will definitely be held in Jerusalem but is talking with representatives of the Arabic countries about extra facilities such as simultaneous interpretation into Arabic and pre- and post conferences in Arab countries.

During the current Conference, OCLC would be announcing sponsorships for librarians in developing countries to visit North America for 4 weeks, all expenses paid. Four librarians would be financed each year. Warren Horton, Chair of the Statutes Review Committee, would set up discussion groups on the New IFLA Statutes during this Conference. All IFLA members are invited to take part in these meetings. The time and place of meetings would be announced in IFLA Express.

Details of Sectional Activities at the Bangkok Conference

Jennifer Tanfield gave an overview on the sectional activities for this Conference. Anna Brundin volunteered to staff the IFLA Booth for our Section.

Report on regional Activities

APLA (Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Australasia)

In the temporary absence of President Margaret McGeehan, Bruce Davidson reported on the Association's 14th Biennial Conference, which had been held in Brisbane, Queensland in July 1999. The conference theme had been "A Milieu for the new Millennium: Parliamentary Libraries and Electronic Information". In the keynote address guest speaker Mike Middleton had covered issues such as empowerment, intermediations, knowledge management, constituency, digitalisation and added value. Papers such as "adding value in a Parliamentary Library"; "procedures and the reasons for measuring our performance and the need to monitor productivity"; "the electronic library" were presented. These papers will be available on the APLA website:
http://www.home.gil.com.au/~nickb/apla.html by the end of January.

APLAP (Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Asia and the Pacific)

(Aurora Simandjuntak reported about APLAP activities at the Pre-Conference and not during the meeting of the Standing Committee. However it seemed more relevant to include her report under this item of the SC meeting rather than to include it in the minutes of the Pre-Conference).

Aurora Simandjuntak reported that APLAP now encompasses 28 countries. On 23 October 1998 at the 5th Biennial Conference in Manila, the presiding officers for 1998-2000 were elected. Aurora Simandjuntak was elected President, Maria Fe Abeleda-Robles (Philippines) Secretary-General and Mrs Ruby Cheah Khoo Sait Poh (Singapore) Treasurer. APLAP has its own web site now but many of the smaller APLAP-countries are not yet able to access it. Problems and constraints that most of the APLAP-members are currently finding very hard to solve are:

How to make the MPs especially the Presiding Officers of the Houses aware of the need for staffers who are reliable, able and quick to solve problems to be employed in the Information Services of each legislature: the library should encompass information and research. Without these, the librarian will be seen as looking after books and magazines only: the keeper with no initiative and knowledge of how to find and prepare information.

Asurora Simandjuntak appealed to the librarians present, especially those of the rich and modern countries to give a helping hand to any of the APLAP countries, to help them to get the best applicants by interviewing them for their language ability, education and intellectual capabilities. If not, money, time and energy will be wasted. It was also important that they should return to the Library and Research Centre after training and not be transferred to another posting or Ministry otherwise the library has to start from zero again.

The next biennial conference will be held in Tokyo 2-6 October 2000.

APLIC /ABPAC (Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Canada)

Richard Paré gave a short report on the annual meeting in Ontario with 11 participants.
The issue of the exchange program and electronic publications was a major item for discussion, specifically, the Publication Exchange Program - paper versus electronic format. Legislative publications are a major issue for all. British Columbia uses electronic products but still prefers paper. B.C. is willing to provide paper copy at their expense. Some of the issues raised were the need to determine what is to be included in exchange. Is each jurisdiction prepared to take responsibility to provide core material in requested format? What if they are not available in paper format? Searching electronic publications can be an issue depending on search engine. The participants identified the following publications as core items: Preference is given to Statutes, Revised Statutes, Hansard, Gazette of Canada, Journals, Votes and Proceedings, Bills, (first draft and final draft), and Rules/Standing orders. Jurisdiction assumes responsibility for distribution/making available free of charge publications in one format. The Ontario Legislative Assembly Library agreed to update the survey list of publications in each jurisdiction.

It was the first participation of the legislative librarian of Nunavut, the new Territory established in Canada. Ms Gayle Jessop reported on the challenges of setting up a new legislative library in the context of the electronic information era.

APLESA (Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Eastern and Southern Africa)

Ellen Namhila reported on highlights of APLESA during 1998 and 1999. At the APLESA Conference in Lusaka in1998, it was observed that even though managers of parliamentary libraries in Eastern and Southern Africa have skills in traditional information management, they seriously lack skills in modern information management and administration. The meeting recognised in particular the need to provide electronic information management training. It was resolved that the Executive Committee of APLESA would seeks funds to organise an intensive management training workshop for Parliamentary Librarians of the APLESA region concurrently with APLESA's annual conference.

From 19th to 23rd of July 1999 the 5th annual APLESA Conference and concurrent workshop took place in Windhoek Namibia, with 22 delegates from 12 countries and 3 observers. The objectives of the workshop were aimed at empowering parliamentary librarians with information management techniques and skills in order to improve the information provision to parliamentarians for decision-making. The emphasis was on the premise that principles of democracy can be applied more effectively if those, who are responsible for providing and disseminating research results to the parliamentarians, are empowered with information management skills and the latest information technology. That would enable them to maximise their information-dissemination efforts at both regional and national levels. The workshop utilised lecturing, discussion and demonstration methods and was conducted in a participatory manner. The workshop resulted in passage of the following three resolutions:

1. To rigorously market APLESA by coming up with a directory of Parliamentary Libraries of Eastern and Southern Africa, which could be placed on the APLESA web site before the year 2000 conference and to promote networking within APLESA member countries;
2. To facilitate capacity-building through attachments and study visits and to promote exchange arrangements between member countries;
3. To ensure that all the knowledge produced in the country is made accessible to parliamentarians. Each parliament should have legal deposit status.

The next conference in 2000 will be held in Kenya while Lesotho is on standby.

AAPLDA (Proposed Association of African Parliamentary Librarians, Documentalists and Archivists)

Kosi Kedem reported that AAPLDA still does not exist at the moment. AAPLDA should be a organisation of parliamentary librarians from the whole African continent under the African Parliamentary Union. Though they are working on it, funding is still a problem but Kosi Kedem is encouraged by the success of APLESA. Bernard Nzo Nguty confirmed this and added that the problem will be the funding of this continental organisation, as regional organisations do get funding already. Another problem is the seat of AAPLDA. In which African capital should the AAPLDA office be? This will be a very difficult political choice.

PARDOC (Association of French Speaking Parliamentary Libraries)

Jean Milogo reported on the organisation, structure and activities of PARDOC. PARDOC is a general organisation for the cooperation of French speaking parliaments in the world and has a special library programme, APLF. Special support is given to the parliamentary libraries to have Internet access. Mr Milogo explained that the annual budget is 4 million French Francs and that there is no literature about PARDOC in English. Gaston Bernier suggested that there is a periodical article in French about the activities of PARDOC which could be translated in English and then be published in the Section Newsletter.

Jennifer Tanfield explained that she has written to the Bill Gates Foundation in order to get financial and practical support for those parliamentary libraries that do not have Internet access. These libraries should contact her or Richard Paré so that they can be included in the application for funding if the Gates Foundation responded positively. [The Gates Foundation would not be able to help because of their policy of "blitzing" one country]

ECPRD (European Centre for Parliamentary Documentation and Research)

Karel Sosna reported on this organisation which includes the EU-countries and the countries of the Council of Europe. ECPRD seminars on particular subjects are held several times a year. There is an annual seminar on information technology and one on macro-economy. The last meeting took place in Bulgaria and had staff appraisal and staff management as a theme.

NCLS (US National Conference of State Legislators)

Donna Scheeder reported that NCLS had 2 meetings last year. One in Pennsylvania on management issues and one in Indianapolis on electronic information delivery, legal research and research on Internet. In Indianapolis direct access for legislators to the Internet was an important item as well. At the meeting a reminder was done for the update of the World Directory of Parliamentary Libraries which is on the website of the German Bundestag. The next meeting will be this fall in Sacramento. Its theme will be digital library development.

NORDIC Countries

Tuula Laaksovirta reported on the 46th meeting of the Scandinavian parliamentary librarians that took place in Helsinki. The 5 female Librarians from Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland meet unofficially but highly effectively once a year. The staff of the Scandinavian Parliamentary Libraries meet biannually on a study tour. There is also an exchange of staff members among the Nordic Parliamentary Libraries for a period of between two weeks and two months.

Each meeting starts with a (written) report from each librarian. After that they discussed such things as time management, and what a chief librarian actually does. They found that they did not read enough because they were only attending meetings, so resolved to read more and to attend fewer meetings. They also made a comparison of salaries, working hours, education and duties of Chief Librarians and staff. One of the items of the Helsinki meeting was how to deal with new staff groups in the Parliament - how to educate them. For most of the Scandinavian Parliaments staff groups, that is the personal assistant to MPs, are a new client group. For the next meeting in Reykjavik 2000, this will be on the agenda as a special item.

SOUTH AMERICA

Patricio Aranda Torres of Peru reported that Peru and Chile are at the point of signing an agreement for cooperation which will be the beginning of the development of more intensive co-operation of the parliamentary libraries in South America and the Pacific.

Votes of Thanks to Jennifer Tanfield and Nick Bannenberg.

At the end of the meeting the floor was given to Richard Paré as the new Chair of the Section. On behalf of the members of the Section he paid tribute to all the work which Jennifer had done for the Section, both as Secretary and as Chairman. She was the first female Chair of our section and she did a wonderful job. She worked very hard and combined a helicopter view with a sharp eye for details. Her emphasis was to make the Section's activities and conference meetings more participative and active, she developed this policy which was started by her predecessor Bill Robinson. Richard Paré presented Jennifer with a tea set and wished her a very good time after her retirement as Chair now and as the Librarian as the House of Commons Westminster in December.

After this Jan Keukens was given the floor to thank Nick Bannenberg for all his work as the first Information Coordinator of the Section. Nick started from scratch only a few years ago, and built and maintained a beautifully designed, informative and user friendly website. Jan Keukens stressed that Nick did much more than that and that Jennifer, Nick and he really worked as a team in which Nick was an important person. He was the editor of many Open Meeting papers of the Section, he was responsible for the Section's information leaflets and for the fact that the Newsletter was written in impeccable English. As a token of appreciation he received a pen set.

Minutes of Standing Committee II, Friday 27 August

Attending as observers were the following:
Rob Brian (NSW, Australia), Roslynn Membrey (Australia), Bruce Davidson (Victoria, Australia), Margaret McGeehan (ACT, Australia), Mary E. Dickerson (Ontario, Canada), Irene Ching-Yueh Hsu (Republic of China Taiwan), Karel Sosna (Czech Republic), Sawsan el Hennawy (Egypt), Siiri Sillajõe (Estonia), Sven Backlund (European Parliament), Virpi Johansson (Finland), Kosi Kedem (Ghana), Eleni Mitrakou (Greece), M. Ratagopalan Nair (India), Bharti Tiwari (India), Aurora Simandjuntak (Indonesia), Seyed Mohammad Ali Ahmadi Abhari (Iran), Neomi Kimhi (Israel), Yossi Kimhi (Israel), Giovanni Lazzari (Italy), Takashi Tsukamoto (Japan), Esther M. Kamau (Kenya), Ellen Ndeshi Namhila (Namibia), Byung Suk Min (Korea), Rob de Bruin (Netherlands), Felicity Caird (New Zealand), Brit Floistad (Norway), Suleh Hlmaskuy (Oman), Adnan Owdah (Palestine), Liana Quider (Palestine), Jean-Antoine Milogo (PARDOC), Patricio Aranda Torres (Peru), Olga Suchova (Russia), Leon Gabriel (South Africa), Albert Mzinkulu Ntunja (South Africa), Angel Gonzalez Lara (Spain), Liisa Kvist (Sweden), Boonruska Chomchuen (Thailand), Ali Reza Cihan (Turkey), Gül Giloglu (Turkey), Cemal Yildiz (Turkey), Ishak Bozkurt (Turkey), Eduard Afonin (Ukraine), David Allum (UK), Jennifer Tanfield (UK), Dao Van Thach (Vietnam), Tembi C. Mtine (Zambia).

(66 people, 42 countries)

The agenda covering the two Standing Committee meetings was continued, commencing with item 12.

Discussion paper on "Twinning"

A working group set up at the last SC meeting in Amsterdam had prepared a draft discussion paper on twinning. The working group consisted of Mary Dickerson (Chair, Canada), Marialyse Délano Serrano (Chile) , Karel Sosna (Czech Republic) and Tembi Chalabesa Mtine (Zambia)

In her introduction Mary Dickerson, explained that the purpose of the paper was not to come to conclusions but to come to an evaluation and to sum up all the questions that remain to be identified. Working on this subject, the working group found out that sharing would be a better basis for co-operation than twinning on a one-to-one basis. Sharing information and expertise means that there would be partners on an equal level.

The working group outlined 3 options for co-operation and support with the advantages and disadvantages of that option:

1. Incorporate training programs into the Annual Conference as a mid-conference program, such as is being done at the Bangkok Conference
2. Expand the existing website to include a closed listserv for members of the Section. This would provide a vehicle for issuing news via email as well as serving in means of posing questions or asking advice. Section members could volunteer to monitor and handle news and/or questions. Monitoring assignments could be by language, geography, or other criteria.
3. A voluntary twinning program. The section could establish a twinning database along the lines of the IFLA program on the Section's website. That is, Section members would indicate interest in twinning, outlining areas of co-operation, capacity or scope of support and assistance provided, language capabilities etc.

As possible next steps, the working group gave the Section advice on considering expansion of the use of the Internet as a primary vehicle for information exchange among parliamentary libraries.. One approach to addressing these issues would be for members of the Section to volunteer to assume responsibility for completing the steps involved. The success in completing the steps would provide an indicator of how successful a more ambitious effort might be. In other words, if there is not enough commitment from enough Section members to complete these tasks, it is unlikely that a more ambitious effort could be sustained. The following will need to be done prior to developing the ways and means:

1. Compile a list that is as comprehensive as possible of the Section members that would be potentially interested in sharing information i.e. co-ordinate the information from the IFLA site with the World Directory of Parliamentary Libraries and the Section's website
2. Explore potential sources of funding for technology and/or travel support
3. Explore options for listserv software that could facilitate management of a listserv.

The conclusion of the working paper reads, "Acknowledging the value and need of a formal co-operative or twinning program is significantly different than the actual development, implementation and maintenance of such a program. The associated costs - whether they are financial or time and effort - can put a substantial burden on organisations and on individual Section members. Using the Internet as a primary vehicle for information sharing appears to be the way for the future. The section must consider the workload this could place on individuals and explore ways to appropriately share the workload."

Richard Paré thanked Mary Dickerson and the other members of the working group for their excellent paper. He suggested setting up an electronic form for all members of the Section. Members of the working group on Twinning, supported by other interested Section Members, could build up this form, gather information, relevant research papers etc. This information could be made available on the Section website.

Kosi Kedem from Ghana stressed that this idea of twinning was not the original concept. It was meant to help the developing countries which are not on an equal basis with more developed countries. Paré answered that he thought it better to broaden this twinning concept. Twinning on a one-to-one basis is not excluded in the paper and proposal of the working group. Kosi Kedem asked for guidelines. Paré answered that these guidelines could be developed and transmitted in electronic format.

World Directory of Parliamentary Libraries

Although a lot of entries have been updated since the Directory has been available electronically on the website of the German Bundestag, a lot of entries are still original, which means that a lot of information is outdated. Marga Coing of the German Bundestag stressed that to make the entries shorter could be a solution to the problem of updating but that would mean extra work and budgetary means. She could not make any promises that her staff would be able to do this in the present circumstances with the moving of the Bundestag to Berlin, which will take a lot of extra work and energy. Marga Coing requested all members present to ask all the colleagues on their continent to update their entries. Jennifer Tanfield suggested that some of the information in the World Directory is the same as on the web site of the IPU (Inter Parliamentary Union - http://www.ipu.org/) and could be dropped from the World Directory. Marga Coing agreed with that, she thought this a very good suggestion and she would see what would be possible. She will report on this and the updates at the meeting next year.

The Medium Term Programme 2002-2006

A new medium term program must be ready in 2001. The annual action plans are to be connected to the Medium Term Programme (MTP). The MTP must be flexible and broad in order to cover all the possible actions in the coming years.

Action Plans for 2000 and 2001

Richard Paré asked for suggestions from the floor to be included in the action programme by the Executive of the Section which would then be presented to IFLA HQ and published in the December Newsletter.

June Verrier (Australia) reported on an action point, which was discussed at the Research meeting. June Verrier is willing to produce a quality standard checklist for research publications.

Another suggestion was to put research papers on the Section's website so that all people can make use of it. London, Canberra and Ontario already publish their research papers on their own Internet web site. Also a separate email address list for researchers on the listserv was suggested as an action point

Wafaa Abdel Elah (Egypt) suggested that the Section make a list of parliamentary libraries, which are not connected to the Internet. This could be a starting point to get funding for these libraries for Internet access.

Richard Paré said in this context that he would like to set up a small list or database of companies or organisations that have funds. If the Section makes such a list or database he challenges all the members of the Standing Committee and other members to contribute at least one name of an organisation or institute. Mary Dickerson (Canada) is already able to do so. So is Margareta Brundin from Sweden.

Mr Nair (India) stressed that before funding is sought it was important to know the needs of these libraries. Brit Floistad (Norway) asked if there are still contacts between the Section and the Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU). Jennifer Tanfield (UK) answered that during her term as Chair of the Section there had no been direct contacts with the IPU but she thought that it would be wise to re-establish contacts between the Section and the IPU.

June Verrier (Australia) put forward a suggestion of Byung Suk Min (Korea): whether parliamentary librarians could address MPs directly for funding, as we are providing services to them. Young-Hee Park and Byung Suk Min (Korea) thought that using the contacts with IPU is a good suggestion. The Section should make recommendations or resolutions about parliamentary libraries and send them to their own MPs and then put pressure on them to do something with these resolutions. June Verrier (Australia) suggested using the support of relevant Library Committee and through the MPs on the Library Committee the support of other MPs. Donna Scheeder (USA) proposed that this item be put on the agenda for the next conference when resolutions or recommendations could be made.

Gaston Bernier (Quebec, Canada) suggested a survey about the acquisition policy of Parliamentary Libraries and exchange policy as an action point. Paré thought that a prior suggestion of Anita Dudina (Latvia) about having an updated list of core materials for a parliamentary library on the Section's web site and then sharing this information and to keeping it up to date would be more useful. Anita Dudina (Latvia) explained that it is very difficult for her to decide which reference work is the best, she cannot always compare publications. She would like to have the top five reference works per country, in print and on websites.

Liana Quider (Palestine) supported this idea. Moreover she would also like to have guidelines how to build up a parliamentary library. Paré asked Anita Dudina to work out a plan how to build this digital core collection for parliamentary libraries supported by Gaston Bernier and others. Anita Dudina would try to do this.

Jerusalem 2000

The Chair explained the draft programme for next year's conference in Jerusalem. Neomi Kimhi from the Israeli Parliament said "the Knesset" will organise a workshop in the Knesset. Neomi Kimhi suggested booking hotel rooms very early as the year 2000 will be a very busy year, full of pilgrims and tourists in Jerusalem. Eleni Mitrakou (Greece) will investigate the possibility of having a pre-conference in Athens.

June Verrier (Australia) asked if it would be possible to have the pre-conference during the IFLA Conference in Jerusalem. Jennifer Tanfield (UK) thought that this would be difficult. As the Conference agenda is very full already IFLA would be reluctant to give support for a pre-conference during this week and would be very unlikely to provide accommodation.

Richard Paré (Canada) will send personal letters of invitation to all Section members.

Adnan Owdah (Palestine) declared that he and all the Arabic delegates would boycott the Jerusalem Conference. The Arabic countries do not recognise Jerusalem as Israeli territory. It will be impossible for him and his colleagues to come. Francis Kirkwood (Canada) added that the Arabic countries plan to organise an alternative conference in Beirut during the IFLA conference in Jerusalem.

Richard Paré informed the Section that when the IFLA Conference of 2001 is held in Boston, he will organise a pre-conference in Ottawa, Canada.

Any other business

Patricio Aranda Torres (Peru) read a declaration about co-operation among the Parliaments of the Americas and the Asia Pacific in an Open Information Network Plan. He asked the Parliamentary Librarians of the countries of the APPF (Asian Pacific Parliamentary Forum) to sign an "agreement of Bangkok". The declaration reads as follows:

"The following members of the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) agree in the development of the Asia Pacific Open Information Network Plan (APOINT 2001), established by the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum (APPF), as an information infrastructure where diversity and openness will be respected and to promote mutual understanding and friendship between countries in the Asia-Pacific. This network will include legislative information exchange so that legislative experience and knowledge gained by each individual country of the region can be shared among APPF member countries".

3.2 Open Meeting

Minutes of the Open Meeting, Tuesday August 24, 1999

(80 people, 47 countries)

Three distinguished parliamentary library and research representatives presented papers; a question and answer period followed each presentation. The papers have been published by IFLA and are available on the IFLANET and the website of the section.

The first speaker, Waafa Ali Abdel Elah, presented her paper, "Developing a Parliamentary Research Service. The Egyptian experience"

Abstract:
There is almost a general consensus that to perform its role effectively, the legislature requires a research service that provides the information and analysis necessary to make informed decisions. However, creating a parliamentary research capacity raises crucial questions concerning its pattern of organization, style of operation, and its services and products.

Although research units in different parliaments offer a variety of successful models to choose from, reading one's own environment and responding to its needs and characteristics will always remain the key element in finding the right answers to the previous questions. In this context, the Egyptian experience in developing a parliamentary research unit might be of interest and value to parliaments which are also considering creating a research service.

In her presentation Mrs Abdel Elah underlined the key element the reading of one's own environment and responding to its needs and characteristics in finding the right answers to questions. She emphasised that the majority party shows tolerance for the different points of view of its members.

As a priority, the Research Service provides background papers and issues briefs. The Service also offers comparative studies on parliamentary procedures and analytical reports.
Mrs. Abdel Elah indicated staff recruitment as being a major challenge, since their Research Service competes with universities but offers lower salaries. On a question relating to staff turnover (D. Scheeder, USA), she indicated that their turnover was mainly due to low salaries and maternity leave.

How many requests are commissioned work? (J. Verrier, Australia). Waafa answered that they are not solely dealing with individuals. Most of the requests come through the Secretary-General and go back through the same channel. How are individual inquiries dealt with? (Mr. Nair, India). The answer was that Members go directly to the library for information and documentation. The Research Service does not deal with individual inquiries. On a question related to research work overseeing government actions (Adnan Owdah, Palestine) the answer that it was undertaken, especially for questions coming through the Secretary-General. Finally on position of the Research Service in the organisation of Parliament (M. Coing, Germany) Waafa indicated that she reports to the Secretary-General.

Patricio Aranda Torres (Peru) delivered a paper entitled "Parliamentary library and information services as instruments for democratic development"

Abstract:
Democracy in many countries is currently undergoing a crisis due to the influence of powerful media interests, which disseminate views and comment which can, in turn, determine political outcomes. The explosion of media networks has given rise to a new form of interactive citizens' participation within the political system. This 'network society" which incorporates the most dynamical social segments of the constituency, tends to exclude sectors which do not have the financial resources and technological skills necessary to access this new communication medium.

This paper formulates the means for an improved role for all citizens through a dynamic and interactive parliamentary library and information system. It illustrates the success of such a proposal to strengthen the legitimacy of parliaments by referring to the experience oft he Congress of the Republic of Peru and explains what is being done to help Peruvian citizens who do not yet have personal access to electronic networks.

Mr. Aranda Torres suggested that the multiplication of information networks has developed a new form of interactive citizen's participation within the political system. He also reported on the experience of the Congress of the Republic of Peru to help Peruvian citizens who do not have personal access to electronic networks. He indicated that we are living in a media culture and that politicians must perform well with the media and added that many young people are very interested in parliamentary video programs.

He suggested that the Internet is becoming a social institution. Their Congress Website is updated every day and has so many pages that the Search engine can only find or retrieve 60% of the total pages. They promote the use of electronic newspapers and develop digital archives. At their Library of Congress, he estimated the total documentation at 50% in printed material and 50% in electronic material.

The first question (N. Bannenberg, Australia, Queensland) dealt with the risk that the Library become embroiled politically due to the accessibility of this large mass of information. The answer was that Members have developed their own WebPages. Only objective, non-partisan information is put on the Library WebPages. Regarding the material available on the Internet, a question (T. Laaksovirta, Finland) was raised with regard to public access. The answer given was that the public has access through public booths. In this regard, co-operation with public libraries remains to be established.

A question was raised regarding the number of inquiries received and prioritisation (F. Caird, New Zealand). The number of requests received daily is 100 and priority is given to requests from Members of Parliament. L. Gabriel (South Africa) asked about training programs for MPs. "Yes, there are training programs but we cannot force MPs to attend" replied Mr. Aranda Torres. D. Sheeder (U.S.A.) raised the issue of the funding process. Mr. Torres indicated that the World Bank provided some funding, and thereafter, a budget for information and technology and the renewal of computer equipment had to be included in budgetary planning. He underlined the importance of these items in the budget.

The third paper, by Marga Coing (Germany) was entitled "Effective Communication: An essential tool to cope with the challenge of technological change"

Abstract
For a library to function effectively it is essential that it fosters an open management style, which encourages communication of ideas and objectives both within the library itself, and hopefully by example, in other elements in the overall administration of which the library is a part. This paper describes the improvement in morale, efficiency and flexibility in the Bundestag library from such an approach, with specific reference to the author's experiences in commissioning and installing an automated library system within a very short period.

The author explained the importance of encouraging the exchange of information within the library itself and with the personnel of the other units within the organisation, in order to improve the efficiency and the morale of staff. She described the different actions taken at the Bundestag Library, and how, through the implementation of new technology in the Library, they have been able to improve communications.

K. Kedem, (Ghana) addressed the main concern of how library staff would serve Members in Berlin, when the Library is still located in Bonn. Ms. Coing indicated that Members would occupy the building in Berlin designated for the Library. She underlined that most of the administrative staff of the Bundestag is still in Bonn. The Library will have a small office in Berlin with a direct line of communication with Bonn, and an overnight shuttle will ensure the transfer of documents. This experience will be assessed and adjustments will be made, if necessary. It appears that the Library will be the last service to be moved to Berlin.

Due to lack of time no more questions and discussion were possible.

Richard Paré

3.3 Workshop

Minutes of the Workshop, Wednesday August 25

(69 people, 45countries)

Following a brief explanation by Jennifer Tanfield about the objects of the exercise, the reasons for the groupings, and the choice of Rapporteurs, the various presentations were given. Following the completion of the final presentations, participants re-convened for reports on the discussions.

USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN MANAGEMENT (Richard Paré)

It was suggested that there was a need to examine the impact of IT on management, more than to have a detailed technical knowledge of IT itself - managers should think ahead. However the main focus of discussion was on email. The sheer volume of it; need for filtering; means for prioritisation. Dr. Verrier expressed concern about staff responding to client queries via email instead of using the approved formatted medium incorporating normal standards. Discussion took place on ethical standards and guidelines, including means of preventing staff abuse. Suggestions included centralised oversight of all communication, and pay deductions for over-use. Regarding management systems generally the value of data collection for assessing client demand was one example offered in which IT could be utilised. Others mentioned were Client Request databases; Human Resource Management tools providing managers with vital information on staff deployment. Many Libraries were aware of being in some sort of transition phase with IT.

Session 2 Rapporteur: Donna Scheeder (25 attendees)

Similar points were raised in this group to what has already been reported from Group 1. Email usage and the problems of control were discussed, with the need raised for written policy guidelines on appropriate use. Some reported personal use and the possibility of fees for this imposed at corporate level. There was mention of email stress, and the impact of email in speeding up communication. On the wider subject participants identified difficulties in good record keeping - filing electronic documents etcetera, and there was discussion on connectivity of institutional Internets and Intranets, which were seen as complementary.

Emails can in fact slow things down if everybody in the workplace doesn't use email and schedules. Although electronic diaries are very useful there is still a need to use telephones. It was thought that there should be training in use of email just as with other software introduced. Need to outline the way in which the organisation wants it used and other guidelines, which suppliers often don't provide.

The issue of security was aired. Service providers used to erect firewalls to prevent hacking and introduction of viruses. Intranets and Internet were important for connecting inquirers to answers. Repetitive questions and answers can be answered by searching previous answers and recycling some or all of them. Papers placed on the Internet for public access were reported to have resulted in problems for some libraries. A list of parliaments which place documents on their Internet sites would be useful to have. On the Y2K issue it was agreed that there were no answers of universal application. Essentially the problems were the same for manual and electronic libraries.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES (Nick Bannenberg)

Practical examples from Queensland and the Czech parliament illustrated the major issues. What should be measured - qualitative and quantitative measures. There was discussion of the relationship of Performance Measures to library operation, including International Standard ISO 2789 (International library statistics), other international standards, and EQLIPSE, (Evaluation and Quality in Library Performance: System for Europe). It was thought important that Performance Measures were carefully selected to reflect major services being provided, and that they were accepted by all staff as a tool to measure goals vital to the Library's operations. They should be able to be used to justify services provided and maintain funding and are also a significant factor in bench-marking.

Session 2 Rapporteur: Tuula Laaksovirta (32 attendees)

Discussion on this topic can be summarised by three questions:

• Why do we want to measure?
• How do we do it?
• What results do we get?

Concentration on the first two now and in the future using computers and software for quantitative sampling (not all the year around) moving to qualitative. Not a lot of discussion took place on the first issue, but it was agreed that it should not take up too much time. One reason for this measuring is to compare services with what is available commercially. It appeared that most participants were uneasy about being compared with other libraries because of concern of measuring "like with like". Bench-marking considered to not be helpful whether comparisons were to internal or outside groups. In some places it is not considered risky to compare staff with other elsewhere. Most important outcome is to see why we are keeping statistics.

PLANNING NEW DEVELOPMENTS (Margareta Brundin)

The topic was introduced through use of a detailed plan, setting out how to proceed, and taking into account the different stages. It was very important to develop the different steps in conjunction with staff members so they can participate and support the outcomes. An important factor is how to convince the administration of the need to foster planning of developments. A key requirement is that all must be seen to serve the interests of the Members. When the parliamentarians are convinced that they will benefit and that the planned developments will improve the work of the library and benefit them, budgetary means will be found.

Session 2 Rapporteur: Marialyse Delano Serrano (26 attendees)

Margareta's paper identified 5 key issues in planning

• Users
• Support within organisation
• Money/Budget
• Knowledge
• Staff and leadership

Necessary to have careful coordination of people within the conceptual framework. There was a difficulty of providing future information. Need for caution in case the General goes too far ahead of his troops - danger of being shot in the back! Conscientious Objector role part of the solution - not a problem of itself.
The concept of Control: Project planning tools and automation; encouraging IT people to make them enthusiastic supporters actively helping the project.

STAFF APPRAISAL (Jennifer Tanfield)

The following notes summarise the points raised during this session. It was considered to have been pretty successful, with 36 participants actively discussing the issues raised. Personal evaluation offers an essential opportunity to exchange with staff views on the tasks they have set; to talk of the challenges of the coming year, and for them to speak on problems and issues.

If the administrative structure is flat, it can pose a bit of a problem in terms of time required to inter-act with all staff, but it may only require a manager to put in the equivalent of 5 to 6 full days per year. It is important for the staff to be able to provide feedback to supervisors, and for the manager to be able to give an assessment of how well the individual is coping with work responsibilities. The main aim is to maintain objectivity and equality of treatment.

The standards to be used for measurement must be clear to those making the evaluation as well as the staff.
Evaluation is a very important aspect of administration - 90% of resources for most libraries are human, making that by far the most expensive portion of the annual budget. Side issue was the need for self-assessment for managers.

The participants found this workshop a success and felt that a similar exercise should be planned next year.

Session 2 Rapporteur: Anita Dudina (10 atendees)

There was more discussion in this group as it comprised only 10 people. It was agreed that staff appraisal identifies performance levels and approval ratings - and should not be seen a means of punishment. Problems identified included inconsistency; lack of support and understanding from the parliamentary administration; and linkage to salary levels. Staff should understand the purpose - need to meet accepted standards of performance. Characteristics of individual staff members can play a role, so supervisory input is needed. Peer review can be useful where people work in a team. Staff should also be able to assess management performance. It is better if reports are not linked to salaries, but perhaps other bonuses such as cash, training, paid trips etcetera. Staff appraisal seen as working better where it is not directly linked to promotion. Even if there is no official assessment an unofficial assessment can be worth-while. It reflects the state of the art of management in individual countries and institutions.

BOOK SELECTION (Jan Keukens)

Fifteen people attended this presentation, and though the topic might appear "old-fashioned", the outcome was original - there was no formal introduction allowing the total time to be spent on discussion.

Policy Statements:
It was agreed that a written policy statement was an important tool which not only guided acquisition but also assisted in regulating withdrawal of stock. Not all libraries represented had one, but all attendees were interested in the practice. It was seen as offering some protection from personal requests for purchase by Members.

Collections:
Some agreement as to content - should be parliamentary documents; reference books; national documents; newspapers; magazines etcetera. It was conceded that there was a place for some recreational reading material. Considered that it was important to update the Ready Reference collection regularly.

Space & Budget:
All agreed that there was never enough of either, and the shock of budget cuts had become an almost regular occurrence. Canadian participants had spoken of a combined budget for all acquisition materials from books to electronic subscriptions.

Internet & External Databases:
It is also sensible to have profiles for selection of data from electronic sources. New South Wales has revised its collection development policy to take in this aspect of acquisition. In some places bookmarks on the Internet linking in URLs are included into the catalogue.

Section's Role in evolving a CD policy:
Need felt for a listing of core material - varies from region to region. Others thought that pursuing this through the Section was not worth the effort involved

Final Comments from the Chairman:

• Possibility of more time planned for future discussions/smaller groups;
• Good value as a problem-solving exercise;
• These topics were useful, but many more management issues remained to be addressed; As future topics were identified, participants could be encouraged to "swap and shop" - bring along copies of local material and practices to trade;
• An evaluation form for assessment of the usefulness of the exercise could assist. Bruce Davidson endorsed this idea, and drafted an evaluation sheet which was circulated the following day. (In the May Newsletter a report of this evaluation will be given)

Nick Bannenberg

3.4 Special meeting on Research

Special Meeting on Research, Sunday, August 22, 1999

(65 people, 44 countries)

The meeting was opened by Brit Floistad, the newly appointed head of Norway's Research Service which will start operating on 1 September. She reminded the meeting that the IFLA Parliamentary Section had decided to change its name from Parliamentary Libraries to Parliamentary Library and Research Services at its Istanbul meeting in 1995. This was the third special meeting on research which had taken place since then, following Copenhagen in 1997 and Amsterdam in 1998. Ms Floistad said the meeting would consider three subjects: Quality Standards, Relations between Research Services and Libraries and Success Factors for Small Research Services. She invited Margareta Brundin of the Swedish Riksdag to present the first paper.

Quality Standards in Research Work

How to Secure Quality in Research Services to Members of Parliament.

The paper rehearsed briefly the history and evolution of the Swedish Parliament's research service from 1955. It now has 30 staff of whom 18 are researchers who have a degree and 12 are research assistants who are educated to high school level. The work is a mix of customised service (approximately 3000 requests a year) and prepared briefs (about 20 a year). An interesting feature is the 3-4% of work done for other parliaments, reflecting the inter-connection of issues in the European Union.

Quality measures used in the Swedish Research Service include accuracy and timeliness, and also accessibility. In Sweden's view MPs must be able to lodge requests at all times and Intranets can be developed to include a capacity to lodge requests.

The paper was followed by very lively discussion of measures of quality. Main points made included Nick Bannenberg's (Queensland) comment on the return rate of evaluation forms included in all research papers, noting the apparently marked difference of attitude to these in Sweden and Australia. (Ms Brundin had reported a virtually 100% return rate on annual surveys and approximately 30% on evaluation forms used for one month each year.) Mrs Wafaa Abdel Elah of Eqypt raised questions about who does the quality assessment, questioning whether MPs, e.g, were necessarily in the best position to do this. Mr Nair of India doubted that there could be such a thing as objective quality assessment or that it was possible to write papers free from political perspectives.

Ms Donna Scheeder of the United States Congress queried Sweden's telecommuting experiment in a context in which staff were seen as a key value and client service primary. Ms Brundin replied that the 3 weeks out/ one week in model of working from home which had been tried had not proven to be satisfactory and a weekly regime of perhaps 3 days in/ two days out may be the better way to go. She added that the value of home based work was especially marked for researchers needing quiet, consecutive time to write papers, but costs included availability to clients and the additional work for research assistants ensuring that researchers had all the materials they required at home.

Ms Aurora Simandjuntak (Indonesia) wondered how resources were shared between librarians and researchers and was told that there are budgets for each in Sweden and Mr Gonzalez Lara of the Spanish Congress of Deputies asked about the mix of information and analysis and was told that it depended on the Member's needs and the time available.

In her paper, Ms Brundin had referred to the fact that the Swedish Research Service resources included funding for three positions to service committees. In response to a question from Mr Adnan Owdah of the Palestine Legislative Council Parliamentary Research Unit, she said that in practice, this meant that at any one time three of her research staff were working on Committee inquiries with all the benefits this brought of developing relations with MPs and gaining invaluable experience.

In response to an inquiry from Margarita Angelova of the Bulgarian National Assembly about whether papers were available to the public, the response was 'no'. The UK House of Commons and the Ontario Legislature appear to be the only parliaments to have followed Canberra's lead in making its General Distribution (pre-prepared) papers available to the public on the Internet. [Also Hong Kong, see Pre-Conference above]

ACTION 1:

Participants to advise whether they do, or they plan to put their briefing papers on the Internet. Coordinator: (Marialyse Delano on email: mdelano@BIBLIOTECA.CONGRESO.cl or fax: 5626715331).

The second presentation under the Quality Standards in Research Work heading was made by Jennifer Tanfield of the UK on The Use of a Research Papers Manual.

Ms Tanfield began her presentation by outlining the research services provided in the House of Commons where approximately 40 researchers looked after the requirements of 659 MPs. (The House of Lords has its own small library and research service). There are primarily three ways of working:

• By letter to MP in response to specific questions. This amounts to more than 50% of work and 60% of these requests are required within a 24 hour timeframe.
• Oral advice to MPs in response to specific request, a growing demand area which puts more pressure on deadlines.
• Written papers of which approximately 100 are released annually and are on the Internet site www.parliament.uk.

Referring to the earlier discussion on quality assessment, Ms Tanfield noted that there was a permanent quality standards review committee for the House of Commons Library as a whole (currently chaired by the Director of Research, Dr Richard Ware). Quality measures for research product include accuracy, impartiality, timeliness, presentation (including recognition as House of Commons research section product) and 'fitness for use'. She offered to make available the first drafts of quality standards on "one off" responses to requests and on regular publications.

The Research Papers Manual has to do with presentation, provides general guidelines on what a research paper should look like, provides a guide for using relevant templates and advises authors on the implications for them of UK copyright law.

The discussion that followed included once more Mr Nair and Ms Simandjuntak's concerns about whether quality measurement was objectively possible and Mrs Abdel Elah's about who should do it anyway. Ms Tuula Laaksovirta introduced an interesting aspect of quality measurement in terms of ensuring that papers written, or advice given, took into account all the European Union legislation that may be relevant.

Dr Verrier of Australia offered a brief summary of the rigorous quality control mechanisms used in the Federal Parliament for General Distribution Papers including workshops, the use of external expert readers as well as routine peer review and clearance by the Head.

ACTION 2:

At Mrs Abdel Elah's suggestion, members of the Section to list their instruments of quality control mechanisms for the creation of a central directory. (Email or fax June Verrier: Email June.Verrier@aph.gov.au or fax: 61-2-6277 2528)

Relations Between Library and Research Services

The third paper was a presentation from Mr Albert Ntunja and Dr Leon Gabriel of the Parliament of South Africa on Forming a New Information Services Section.

Mr Ntunja said that there had been a major review of the support services in the Parliament of South Africa as a whole with the objective of strengthening Parliament as an institution. One result was a recommendation to amalgamate the Library (22 professionals and 20 support staff) and Research Services (12 staff, nine of whom are just about to be appointed) into Information Services. Thus over the last 15 months a great deal of effort had been put into improving both library and research services, including upgrading technology. The rationale for the amalgamation was that the two services served the same clientele, used the same resources and shared some physical and personnel services. Benefits were expected to include a 'one-stop-shop' for clients, the capacity for flexible response and an interdisciplinary approach to handling requests.

Recognising the problems of both access and attitude to electronic communication, which may be an impediment for some time to come, the objective is to give Members desktop access in their electorate offices and to provide the potential to improve inter-action between the parliaments of the states and the national parliament.

Discussion that followed included a contribution from Marga Coing of the Deutscher Bundestag who noted that this was the model used in Germany for the first 20 years after the war but which was replaced by separate services when research became more specialised. Some attempt had been made to bring them back together about 6 years ago but this had failed on account of fears that quality would be compromised. Mr Nair inquired about the public affairs role of the South African Parliament and Ms Tuula Laaksovirta congratulated South Africa for putting the needs of its clients for seamless service first and foremost, rather than allowing professional demarcation to create obstacles.

Dr June Verrier supported Ms Laaksovirta's contribution on the client friendliness of an integrated service and offered a comment on Canberra's experience following the amalgamation of library and research services in January 1997. Staff had naturally been fearful or sceptical of the change but key success factors had been:

• Speed: a decision to do it with a very tight timeframe cushioned by a commitment to evolutionary adjustment and ongoing review.
• Emphasis on respecting the professional identity and integrity of the two separate professions involved.
• Guarantees of no loss of position and that all staff would continue to do the work they were employed to do (i.e. as librarians or researchers) the only difference being that they would do it in combined subject teams.

The second presentation in this section was made by Ms Mary Dickerson of the Ontario Legislature in Canada on Combining Library and Research Services. Inspired by the Canberra model, Ontario had decided to follow suit after struggling with the consequences of a 20% 'downsizing' 5 years ago in which 18 staff were lost. (The research service had been created 20 years ago in a period of major growth between 1978-1985). Issues that Ontario had taken into account in making this decision included pressures of time (Internet increasing expectations and clients lack of awareness of time necessary to respond to requests), the value-adding aspect, providing services not available elsewhere, a client needs assessment (their lack of awareness of distinctions between information and research) etc.

Problems included traditional staff attitudes and resistance to change, fears of 'debasing the coinage' and concerns of librarian supervision of research work.

In discussion, Mr Gonzalez Lara (Spain) said that with such a small research element (2 lawyers and 2 economists only) in his own parliament he had been fighting for an amalgamation for 7 years. Ms Donna Scheeder (USA) asked whether performance measures changed to reflect the value placed in a combined service on team playing and Ms Marga Coing (Germany) commented on the importance of using the skills available and recognising the different qualifications of librarians.

Mrs Wafaa Abdel Elah (Egypt) noted the need to recognise that there would be different approaches for different countries and asked who in amalgamated services should be the head, a librarian or a researcher? Mr Nair (India) observed that such a head should, of course, be the most senior person while Dr Gabriel concluded, to the general applause of all, that it should be the person with the most competence and vision.

Success factors for a Small Research Service

Mr Bruce Davidson of the Victorian Parliament in Australia gave the final presentation of the morning. He tabled a paper written by one of his two research offices , and addressed his remarks to the general context of his state parliament. Services, he said, need to reflect the circumstances of a given parliament which in Victoria's case included the fact that all members of the Lower House have two personal staffers each while Members of the Upper House have one. Electronic services are available to all Members by laptop wherever they are. (It had been decided to do this rather than attempt to install PCs with all the cabling problems involved in an old and historic building). Victoria's Parliament has a five department structure of which the Library, with 24 staff, is one. It's responsibilities include education and public relations, responsibility for Internet and Intranet publishing for the Parliament.

Mr Davidson emphasised the critical importance the Library's strategic position (between the two Houses and adjacent to the dining room) played in keeping it in the forefront of Members' consciousness. A survey on client use in two parliamentary weeks of 4 days revealed that an astonishing 80% of members used it in one week and 90% in another. [It had been called 'pollie-zap', a means of marking off electronically any Member who used the library in any way, (except self-help electronic services) in the period under review].

An interesting contrast in the business of state and federal Members of Parliament was drawn noting that in the former issues such as foreign affairs and defence, immigration and taxation policy were not of concern. This, in turn, reflected upon the requirements of research services which were obviously, correspondingly, narrower.

Nonetheless, with just two researchers and unrealisable expectations promotion of a research service created, it had been impossible to continue writing background papers or Bills Digests. Because they had had to be selective in choosing bills to digest for example, Ministers had complained about 'their' bill being selected for digesting and the Library Committee had complained about 'spoon feeding' Members.

A review 2 years ago, involving what turned out to be very successful client focus groups, resulted in the identification of a hierarchy of priorities. In descending order the first 3 were:

• Access to 24 hours self-help electronic library and research services.
• More pro-active service (Members wanted to be treated like 'frequent flyers' whose preferences were known and would automatically be met).
• Access to 'knowledgeable' staff.

The efforts of the two researchers as a result are being focussed in the statistical area and more smaller jobs for a greater number of Members. The Library Committee has recognised the need for two more researchers, as has the Parliament's Budget Committee but the Government has yet to provide the necessary funds. Mr Davidson concluded that a staff of 5 or 6 was a minimum to create the critical mass necessary to provide a credible research service - and until that stage was reached he would remain extremely reluctant to promote research services because it created expectations which could not be met.

In the discussion that followed Mr Byung Suk Min of the Korean National Assembly said that his Parliamentary Research Service faced similar problems to that of Victoria and endorsed comments made earlier about the value of parliamentary research workers because they understood the unique needs of Members. He asked how support could be mobilised to increase resources provided for parliamentary information and research services and suggested that this was something for the next meeting to consider.

ACTION 3:

That the issue of mobilising support for increased resources for parliamentary information and research services be placed on the Section agenda at its next meeting in Jerusalem. Attention: Mr Jan Keukens, Secretary.

Mr Patricio Aranda Torres of Peru said he had similar problems as Victoria and outsourced research as a result. This research, though, was less likely to meet the needs of parliamentarians. Dr June Verrier added that even with one of the biggest research services, Australia still saw value in outsourcing some research where there was inadequate current in-house expertise. To avoid the problem Peru had encountered, the Australian Research Service worked closely with external researchers (e.g. establishing Terms of Reference for a paper and an agreed outline, and commenting on drafts) and do not release their work unless it met the criteria set. Other questions included inquiries about the relative size of research services and the application of ethical standards in parliamentary research.

The Chair thanked presenters and participants for a very lively meeting which demonstrated the importance of the inclusion of the research agenda and drew the meeting to a close.

Dr J R Verrier

4. Section Finances

Jan Keukens
Treasurer

Financial report 1999

expenditures and income 1998/1999

I suggest using the balance of the interest and the administrative money to give project 2 an end balance of 0,00. If this will not be possible, the alternative would be to use 52,93 of the interest and 171,02 from project 3 to give project 2 a balance of 0,00. The balance for project 3 will then be 2334,23 -171.02 = 2163,21

project 2 :

Parliamentary Libraries and Research Services in Central and Eastern Europe Project has been completed in 1998; Saur Publication nr 87 purchases for distribution among parliamentary libraries involved : 33 copies.
Distributed : 26 copies. In stock: 7 copies

project 3 :

Translations of Guidelines for legislative libraries (Saur Publication 64)
Translations in French, German, Spanish and Arabic have been completed.
The Russian publication is the only one that still has to be published. Free distributions will be made to parliamentary libraries that cannot afford to purchase copies.

project 4 :

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific Project has been completed in 1997; Saur Publication nr 83.
After purchase and distribution of free copies in 1998; 3 extra copies have been purchased in 1999. In stock 3 copies.

15 August 1999
Jan Keukens,
Treasurer of the Section

The Financial Statement Form 1999 is available in hard copy only