Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific: Papers prepared for the 62nd IFLA Conference Beijing, China August 25-31, 1996 9783110947632, 9783598218088

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International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions Fédération Internationale des Associations de Bibliothécaires et des Bibliothèques Internationaler Verband der bibliothekarischen Vereine und Institutionen MentflyHapoflHad «teaepaumi BHÔ/iMOTesHbix AccounauHfi h yipeiKACHKA

Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Bibliotecas

IFLA Publications 83

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific Papers prepared for the 62nd IFLA Conference Beijing, China August 25-31, 1996

Edited by Rob Brian

K- G -Saur

München 1997

IFLA Publications edited by Carol Henry

Recommended catalogue entry: Parliamentary libraries and information services of Asia and the Pacific : papers prepared for the 62nd IFLA conference, Beijing, China, August 25 - 31,1996 / Ed. by Rob Brian under the auspices of the Section of Library and Research Services for Parliaments. - München : Saur, 1997 106p., 21 cm. (IFLA publications ; 83) ISBN 3-598-21808-7

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme Parliamentary libraries and information services of Asia and the Pacific : papers prepared for the 62nd IFLA conference, Beijing, China, August 25 - 31,1996 / [International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions]. Ed. by Rob Brian. - München : Saur (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions : IFLA publications ; 83). ISBN 3-598-21808-7

© Printed on acid-free paper The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48.1984. © 1997 by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, The Hague, The Netherlands Alle Rechte vorbehalten / All Rights Strictly Reserved K. G. Saur Verlag GmbH & Co. KG, München 1997 Part of Reed Elsevier Printed in the Federal Republic of Germany All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system of any nature, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed / Bound by Strauss Offsetdruck GmbH, Mörlenbach ISBN 3-598-21808-7 ISSN 0344-6891 (IFLA Publications)

Contents Contents

3

Prcfacc by William H. Robinson

5

Introduction by Rob Brian

7

The National Library οΓ China and Its Legislative Reference Service by Zhai Jianxiong

9

The Hong Kong Legislative Council Library by Eva Liu

17

The Combination of Legislation and Information: Current Status of the Library and Information Service, Legislative Yuan, Taipei, Taiwan, China by Karl Min Ku

20

Information Management in the Indian Parliament by John Joseph

40

The Legislative Support Services of the National Diet Library by Hisac Umeda

47

National Assembly Library of the Republic of Korea by Hyun Koo Lee

54

The Library of the State Great Hural of Mongolia by Banzragch Odonjil

63

Parliamentary Library and Information Services of Nepal by Jayanti Rana

68

The Congressional Library of the House of Representatives, Congress of the Philippines by Maria Fe S. Abeleda-Roblcs

76

Parliament Library of Sri Lanka by N.M.C. Thilakarathnc

85

Palau Congress Library Information Paper by Harry Besebes

93

The Parliamentary Library of New Zealand by Pleasance Purser

97

The Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific: Constraints, Challenges but Very Good Cooperation Among Its Members by Aurora Simandjuntak

104

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

5

Preface The' last ten years of the 20th century may become known as the "Decade of Democracy." American scholar Samuel P. Huntington would see this period as part of a "third wave of democracy." that had its origins in the democratic revolutions of Spain and Portugal in the early 1970's. But its culmination in the 1990's may be its defining moment. Few periods in modern history have seen such a broad sweep of the aspirations of political democracy and its economic counterpart, a market economy. Few people born in the mid-20th century ever expected these ideas to be adopted so widely, quickly, and peacefully as occurred in the current decade. It began with the peaceful destruction of the Berlin Wall (and the broader barrier between East and West Europe described by Winston Churchill as the "Iron Curtain"), freeing the modern nations of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia. The movement of democracy then spread across the continent affecting all of Eastern Europe and culminated in the unravelling of the former Soviet Empire. These movements in Europe have their counterparts in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. According to an annual survey done by Freedom House, there were 76 countries in 1996 that could be termed "free," accounting for 1.1 billion people (20% of the world population). In addition, there were 62 "partly free" countries accounting for another 2.4 billion. The remaining 53 countries, with 2.2 billion people lived in systems that arc "not free." These numbers remind us that democracy is not a settled condition. It is a dynamic process, with surges into and out of relative states of "freedom." It is a continuing quest, in which no nation can be content to settle for the current situation. Legislative scholars have also seen this period as "the age of parliaments," with legislatures becoming more assertive and playing a more active role in setting policies that govern their nations. This linkage is not accidental. The key to democracy is an effective legislature. It is inconceivable that democracy could thrive in the absence of effective representation of the views of the people. By the same token, the key to an effective legislature is the knowledge and information that permit it to make informed decisions on specific issues and to play an active role in the policy making process of the nation. Library and research services are the principal sources for meeting the information and analysis needs of the effective parliaments of today and the future. To make informed decisions on a myriad of complex policy issues, legislators need authoritative information on a timely basis. This need is amplified considerably as the legislature also seeks to fulfill its traditional functions of exercising control over executive activities (termed "oversight" in the US Congress), and ensuring that the voice of the people is reflected in all policies emanating from the slate. The Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments recognizes the central role that information must play in the effective functioning of a democratic legislature. J h e Section was created in 1966 and in its thirty-one year history has become an important mechanism for sharing ideas on how to improve services to our respective legislatures. We use a number of different tools: •

annual international meetings (with Open Meetings for the presentation and discussion of papers, workshops on particular themes or issues, and informal problem-solving sessions— but also often including pre-Confercnce satellite meetings in neighboring capitals);

6

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

•

regular regional meetings (with nearly all parts of the world represented in some form of regional association);

•

books and publications; and

•

informal contacts and information exchanges among colleagues.

Sometimes these devices are used in tandem, as is the case with the current volume. This volume is the result of a Workshop sponsored by the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments and held during the 62nd Conference of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in Beijing, China in August 1996. There were 13 papers prepared for the workshop, 12 of which covered the Parliamentary Library or research service of a stale in the region. The 12 countries covered in the volume account for nearly 2.5 billion people. The library and research services of the Asia and Pacific region are a relatively young, but vibrant group. Over half of the parliamentary libraries were created after 1970, despite two early entries— New Zealand in 1858 and Australia in 1901. In addition, several of the parliamentary libraries of the state parliaments in Australia have venerable traditions that pre-date their national parliamentary library (with New South Wales dating to 1840; Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia going back to the early 1850's; Queensland to 1860; and Western Australia to 1873). Today, several of the parliamentary libraries and research services in the region arc among the largest in the world (Japan, India, Australia, and the Republic of Korea). The libraries of the region are united in a very active regional association, the Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Asia and the Pacific (APLAP), which was founded in 1990. The editor for this volume, Rob Brian, is the Parliamentary Librarian for New South Wales, and is former vice-president (for the Pacific) of APLAP. We appreciate the splendid job he did in bringing very useful information to us in such interesting and readable form. And, of course, we arc grateful to the contributors to this volume for their effort and care in producing such thoughtful analyses of their parliamentary libraries. The Section also plans to publish other books in a series on Parliamentary Libraries around the world. Later this year, the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments will publish separate volumes on The Parliamentary Libraries of Latin America and Iberia (in Spanish, and hopefully also in English), and on The Parliamentary Libraries of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. All these efforts are undertaken to contribute in some small way to the creation of more informed legislatures throughout the world— in the hope that more vital legislatures might further the progress of democracy itself.

William H. Robinson Chairman Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments IFLA 23 May 1997

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

7

Introduction On 2 February 1996 Bill Robinson, Chairman of then Parliamentary Libraries Section [now renamed the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments] of IFLA, e-mailed me foreshadowing that he might ask me to coordinate the Workshop on Parliamentary Libraries of Asia and the Pacific, and to edit the resulting book. At that time it was not at all certain that the Parliamentary Libraries Section would actually meet at the IFLA Conference in Beijing. However, all the problems were eventually overcome and we had a wonderful meeting of the Section in Beijing. I noted that Bill had an interesting quote from Leon Trotsky at the end of his e-mail: "Anyone desiring α quiet life has done badly to be bom in the twentieth century. " I did not realise then how ominous this quote was! On 6 March Bill e-mailed me an official invitation to undertake the task he had already foreshadowed. This time he finished with an apt quote from Marcus Aurelius: "Andyou will give yourself relief, if you do every act of your life as if it were the last... " On the Saturday of my arrival in Beijing I felt so sick that I did indeed think for a moment that this Workshop was, in fact, to be my last act! Ever! On 1 April I received from Bill's secretary a copy of the sample chapter outline which was used for the Central and East European Parliamentary Libraries book, as well as Mr Zhai Jianxiong's interesting paper. We had made a start! On 20 May I wrote to 34 countries and regions in Asia and the Pacific, inviting their respective parliamentary librarians to prepare and present a paper on their Library at this Workshop. I enclosed a draft chapter outline, based on the previous outline. Of these 34, 18 did not respond: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, North Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Pakistan, Thailand, Vanuatu, Vietnam, and Western Samoa. And the following did respond: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka,, and Tuvalu. Unfortunately, only thirteen of these sixteen were able to prepare papers and eight of them were actually delivered at the Conference by their authors. Five of the authors were not able to attend the Conference through lack of funds. However, all papers were available at the Conference and they arc also available at the Section's homepage on the Internet at: http://www.citec.com.au/iflaparl. The Section always intended that the papers should be published as an important addition to the growing body of literature on parliamentary libraries and research services. We are extremely grateful to Saur Verlag for undertaking this task. I should mention those Librarians who did respond to my letter, but were unable to prepare papers and/or attend this IFLA Conference. Karl Min Ku, the Director of the Library and Information Service of the Legislative Yuan in Taiwan, China, and the President of APLAP [Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific], sent me a paper on disc. IFLA follows established United Nations policy guidelines. For this reason Karl Min Ku's paper has been grouped under China, where we find not only Zhai Jianxiong's paper on the National Library of China and its legislative reference service, but also Eva Liu's paper on the Legislative Council Library in Hong Kong.

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Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asie and the Pacific

Banzragch Odonjil's paper was faxed to me from Mongolia on 1 August, but because of a couple of stray zeros at the beginning of the number the document ended up in Tasmania! After many faxes to Mongolia Ireceivedthe paper by post three days before I left Sydney for Beijing! Mr Odonjil was unable to attend the Conference because of the election in Mongolia, which resulted in a new democratic government and many subsequent changes. Mrs Jayanti Rana, the Parliamentary Librarian of Nepal, responded promptly on 30 May to my letter and her paper was despatched to me on 14 July. We corresponded quite a lot by fax and I fully expectcd her to be at the Conference. It is a great pity that the necessary arrangements could apparently not be made. Mr N.M.C. Thilakarathne, the Parliamentary Librarian of Sri Lanka, e-mailed me his paper, which was wonderful for the purpose of editing. Later he e-mailed me that he would not be able to attend the Beijing Conference. Harry Besebcs, the Congressional Librarian of Palau, also responded promptly, faxing me his paper on 14 June. Bill Robinson had sent him the necessary invitation to enable Harry to get the approval of his Presiding Officers. Unfortunately, it appears that Harry's request to attend the Conference was turned down. Lily Tiki, the Papua New Guinea Parliamentary Librarian, responded by fax on 1 August that she would not be attending the Conference, because she had applied for voluntary retrenchment which would be effective end of September 1996. Lily was active both in APLAP and in APLA [Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Australasia] and she will certainly be missed at our various conferences. John Laugolo, the Serjeant-at-Arms and Librarian of the Solomon Islands National Parliament, wrote on 11 June that "due to financial difficulties" he would be unable to attend the IFLA Conference in Beijing. Finally, Paulson Panapa, who is now the Clerk of the Tuvalu Parliament, responded in a letter dated 11 June, but received by me on 3 July, that they could not send anyone to the IFLA Conference and had no Librarian at present to prepare a paper. What is clear from this is that many developing countries are very poor and are just not able to send their stalT, where they have them, to conferences like this. Yet, it is the Librarians in these places that perhaps have the greatest need for contact with their colleagues. Otherwise, the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" can only increase. It is hoped that by making these valuable papers available in printed form even the poorest parliaments will have access to them and will, hopefully, be able to profit from them. Naturally, the views expressed in the papers arc those of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of IFLA. It has been a great pleasure to work with my colleagues in Asia and the Pacific and with our hard-working Chairman, Bill Robinson, to make this Workshop a success despite the limited time available to prepare for it. I thank them all for their generous cooperation and for accepting so graciously my suggestions for mainly linguistic alterations. Finally, I thank our kind and generous hosts in Beijing who made this Conference such a memorable experience. Rob Brian Parliamentary Librarian Parliament of New South Wales, Australia 25 May 1997

Parliamentary

Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

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The National Library of China and Its Legislative Reference Service by Zhai Jianxiong ' Abstract: The paper provides information on China's legislative system and legislative status since China adopted the policy of reform and being open to the outside world. It covers the setting up of a special organization, selection of staff members, form of service. It shows the importance, necessity and possibility of the NLC to carry out legislative reference services to the National Legislature.

Unlike other countries in the world, there has not been a parliamentary library specially serving the National People's Congress in China. It is the National Library of China (NLC), that assumes the responsibility of offering documents reference services to the National Legislature. The NLC has been consistently taking the legislative reference work for the National Legislature as one of its important tasks, and has done a great deal of work in this respect. This paper will expound our legislative services in detail. In order to enable the reader to know something about the legal system of China, the paper will describe firstly China's legislative system and general conditions of legislation.

Part one: China's legislative system The legislative system of China is a multi-structural one. It is based on the premise that the highest organ of state power centrally exercises the National legislative power . It authorizes the highest organ of state administration, as well as the local organs of state power, namely the provinces, provincial capitals, relatively big cities (according to the State Council document, Tangshan, Datong, Baolou, Dalian, Anshan, Fushun, Jilin, Qiqihaer, Qingdao, Wuxi, Huainan, Luoyang, Chongqing were designated as "relatively big cities"). It also authorizes the organs of self-government of the national autonomous areas and grants them the right of enacting normative documents subordinate to the Constitution and law. According to the provisions of article 57 and 58 of the Constitution, The National People's Congress is the highest organ of state power, and The National People's Congress and its Standing Committee exercise the legislative power of the slate and have the right to enact laws. Meanwhile, the State Council, the highest organ of state administration, has the right to enact administrative rules and regulations according to the Constitution, laws and authorization given by the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee.

Zhai Jianxiong has a Bachelor of laws degree and is a law librarian. He is the Director of the Law and Policy Inquiry Section, Reference Department, the National Library of China.

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Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

Since China is a country wilh a vast territory, a large population, and is unbalanced in economy and culture in various places, the Constitution, and the Law of Regional National Autonomy, and the lxrw on Organization of I steal People's Congresses and Local People's Governments at Various levels and its amendments have stipulated that the people's congresses in the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government and their Standing committees can adopt regulations, which must not contravene the Constitution and the law and administrative rules and regulations, and they shall report such local regulations to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for the record. The people's congresses of capitals of provinces and autonomous regions and relatively big cities ratified by the State Council may adopt local regulations in the light of the current local situation and needs. The regulations shall be submitted to the standing committees of the people's congresses of the provinces or autonomous regions for approval before they go into effect. The people's congresses of the national autonomous areas have the power to enact regulations on the exercise of autonomy and other separate regulations in the light of the political, economic and cultural characteristics of the nationality or nationalities in the areas concerncd. The regulations on the exercise of autonomy and other separate regulations on autonomous regions shall be submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for approval before they go into effect. Those of autonomous prefectures and counties shall be submitted to the standing committees of the people's congresses of provinces or autonomous regions for approval before they go into cffect, and they shall be reported to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for record. The legislative bodies of special administrative regions in Hong Kong and Macao exercise the legislative powers prescribed by the Basic Law concerned. In a countr>: like China, which is populous and unbalanced in economic development, the above-mentioned multi-structural legislative system centrally led by the central organ of state power is in complete accord with the conditions of China, and has proved to be successful.

Part two: An outline of the current legislative status in China Since China has carried out the policy of reform and is open to the outside world, the Chinese people's mental attitude, values, social connections, as well as life style have changed a great deal. The new order of a socialist commercial economic system is taking shape step by step in the field of economy, and democracy and a legal system have been set up, which are developing steadily. The concept of administering the country according to law is becoming a common perception of the Chinese people as a whole. The Legislative work in our country has entered its golden age. and has gained unprecedented achievements and progress. During this period of time, the legislative bodies of our country have given priority to legislative work, and have enacted large quantities of laws concerning economy and culture, reform and openness to the outside world, while protecting social order and civil rights. For the establishment of the state organs and the state system, many laws were enacted or amended, such as: • • • • • »

Constitution Electoral Law of the National People's Congress and Local People's Congresses Organic Law of the National People's Congress Rule of Procedure of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Organic Law of State Council Organic Ixtw of the Local People's Congresses and the Local People's Governments

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

• • • • •

11

Organic I,aw of the People's Courts and the People's Procuratorates Law of Regional National Autonomy Organic Law of Villagers Committees Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Basic Law of the Macao Special Administrative Region.

In addition, many Laws relating to the administration of social life and the protection of social order have been enacted such as: • • • • • • • •

Penai Code Code of Criminal Procedure General Rules of Civil Law Code of Civil Procedure Law of Marriage Law of Succession Regulations on Maintenance of Public Order Law of Assembly and Demonstration, and so on.

On the aspects of protecting and safeguarding the civil rights: • • •

Law of Trade Union Law of Labor Law of State Compensation

•

('ode of Administrative

Procedure

have been enacted one after another. On economical and cultural matters: • Law of Economic Contract • I.aw of Trademarks • Law of Patents • Law of Corporations • Law of Statistics • Law of Accountancy • Law of Environmental Protection • L.aw of Cultural Relics Protection » Law of Copyright have been enacted respectively. Meanwhile, a lot of laws relating to international economic activities, such as the I-aw of the People's Republic of China on Sino-Foreign Joint Ventures, and the Law of Foreign Economic Contract, have been enacted. According to statistics for the period from 1979 to 1990, the National People's Congress has enacted and adopted more than 94 laws apart from the Constitution in effcct, passed 21 décisions concerning amendments and supplements to laws, and passed 52 decisions and resolutions relating to legal problems. In the same period, the State Council has formulated more than 500 administrative regulations; the local people's congresses and its standing committees have also drawn up about 2000 local statutes. During the period of the Eighth Five-Year Plan of National Economic and Social Development

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Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

just completed, the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee continued to give priority to the legislative work and drafted a five year legislative plan for the Standing Committee of Congress of the Eighth National People's Congress. As the plan indicates, "in order to meet the need to establish the socialist market economic system, priority should be given to economic legislation, and special attention should be paid to enacting laws in connection with the subject of the market economy: maintaining the market order, establishing macroscopic regulation, improving social security" and "striving for the formation of a legal framework for the socialist market economy during the term of office of this Congress, protecting and promoting the establishment of a socialist market economic system". From January I, 1991 to October 31,1995, the National People's Congress and its Standing Committee have deliberated and passed 109 laws and décisions concerning legal problems, which make up more than one third of the total quantity of legislation since 1979. On February 28, 1995, seven laws were passed during the twelfth session of the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress, more than in any session of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress since the founding of the P.R.C. Among the laws passed, about 32 arc concerned with the market economy, and there are some amendments to and repeals of laws that are unsuitable to the needs of the development of a socialist market economy, as well as some new laws. Meanwhile, the State Council has enacted 171 administrative regulations; the local people's congresses and its standing committees have also deliberated and passed some 2000 local statutes. Now we can say that a socialist legal system based on the Constitution has already been sel up in China. It is an important task and function for the National Library of China to provide an active legislative reference serv ice, to meet the needs of reform and open policy and active legislative activities. Meanwhile, the advantages of the quality of the personnel and the documentary resources of the National Library also make this service possible.

Part three: The legislative reference service in NLC In October 1991, Wang Hanbin, the vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress met Professor Ren Jiyu, the Director of NLC, and Jao Shuan, research librarian and Director of Reference Department of NLC. They exchanged opinions on the problems concerning the document inquiry service offered by NLC to the legislative work of Congress. Wang asked the NLC to set up a special department to offer legislative reference service to the National Congress, and expected NLC to take on two tasks at present: one is short term legislative inquiry; the other is middle- and long-term research of legislative problems. As a result, the Law and Policy Inquiry Section specially serving the National People's Congress was set up in the Reference Department of the NLC in November 1991. Soon after the Section was set up, a delegation of NLC composed of Tang Shaoming, Executive vice-Director of NLC, and Jao Shuan, Director of the Reference Department, visited Japan to observe the legislative services in the National Diet Library. After the delegation returned, many conferences were held, attended by the experts and the departments concerned, to discuss the nature of the task to be performed, staff selection and the work to be carried out in the early stages of the Section. On the basis of the experiences of reference services of the National (or parliamentary or Diet's) Libraries abroad and considering the situation in our country, the participants thought that it is a principal task for the Scction to offer document reference service to the National People's Congress. Meanwhile, the Section can also offer the same services to the National Administrative and Judicial Department and general readers. Its main tasks are as follows:

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1

To offer the document reference service to the National People's Congress, the State Council and ministries and commissions under the State Council as required in the coursc of passing legislation. The documents include laws and other background materials at home and abroad.

2

To carry out legislative research and other temporary research tasks in the light of the legislative plan.

3

To collect, process and compile bibliographies of primary and secondary legal materials of China and foreign countries; compile abstracts, special subject bibliographies and catalogues: and databases; carry out research on special subjects.

With regard to the internal structure of the Section, originally we planned to set up a reference room, and a reading room for members and deputies to the Congress, and several inquiry and research rooms. Because of the inadequate level of human and material resources, the Section can provide only the document reference service, and there is no reference and reading room and only one inquiry room at present. In this way, we do not have to do any selecting, cataloguing and reading or pay funds. The stack collection is our main resource. In the selection of staff members, we are more concerned about their level of knowledge in relation to the work of the Section. As a major component of the social sciences, legal science contains a good many branches and interdisciplinary subjects. In addition, some new subjects are springing up as a result of social development. We have to pay attention to their depth of subject knowledge during staff selection. Meanwhile, we give priority to selecting some staff members in special fields in a planned and focused way on the basis of the developmental trends of National politics and the economy and the requirements of legislation. For example, staff members who have knowledge in economics and foreign languages should be recruited as the legislation in the economic field is increasing day by day along with the extensive reform of the economic system in our country and the expansion of intercourse between China and other countries. At present, there are five librarians in our Section. Among them three specialize in law, others are in international politics, philosophy and library science respectively. Now we are considering the recruitment of more staff members in other fields so as to meet the needs of our work and make the s t a f f s range of subject knowledge more adequate. Individually, we lay emphasis on our staff members' personal knowledge and their ability to solve practical problems, and work is assigned accordingly. We think that as law librarians, in addition to possessing a relatively high level of professional knowledge and a foreign language, they should possess relatively ample knowledge concerning their work such as philosophy, politics, economics, history and even technology. Meanwhile, they should also have the ability to solve practical problems with a sound knowledge of librarianship and be able to use it skilfully. In the area of legal reference service, law librarians should know all kinds and forms of compilation and publication of primary and secondary materials of legal documents in China and foreign countries, and those collections in our library, and should also be able to use various reference books, such as bibliographies, indices, citatore, dictionaries, manuals and encyclopedias to find out materials. As King George ΙΠ of England put it, a lawyer could not be expectcd to know the law but only where to look it up. Perhaps we do not require that every law librarian knows law well, but it is important for them to know how to find out the materials readers require.

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Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

To achieve the above-mentioned aim, we have carried out various training sessions in a planned and focused way in the light of the characteristics of a legal reference service. They include the learning of law and legal documents, the use of computers, and so on. Now all of our staff members can solve inquiry problems proficiently after training and practice. In the legislative reference service, we have adopted mainly the following services: I:

Answering Inquiries

Référencé services in the library have been considered as a kind of passive inquiry for documents, but it is one of the important services in the legislative reference service, because it can offer direct services to readers. In the course of drafting laws, legal experts often need to use a library for looking up a wealth of data, but they frequently have no way of doing it in the face of the huge volume of materials. For they are not familiar with the collection of books and the finding tools and the method of retrieval. This all requires law librarians to offer some necessary help to them by means of answering questions, advising them in the use of reference books or finding tools, training them in the use of the library's collections so as to help them to find relevant materials more promptly and accurately. There are tlircc forms of inquiry in our legislative reference service, namely, telephone inquiries, written inquiries and face to face inquiries. Generally, oral inquiries are relatively simple or familiar because librarians can answer them immediately or on the same day. Written inquiries are relatively complicated or difficult, and can be answered within three days, or may even take a week. In practice, we need to know in detail, firstly, the aim, demand, scope, kind of language and document, and year of inquiry; secondly, we should analyse the nature and subject of the problem so as to determine the scope, kind, way of retrieval, and subject keywords to retrieve the document, and to select finding tools accordingly; thirdly, we have to look for materials and compile them into bibliographies and then offer them to readers for selection; fourthly, we need to locate the books and periodicals, and make photocopies as required by readers; finally, the inquiry is completed. Those materials which are not in our library collection or in other libraries in China, we can obtain through the interlibrary lending system. If the materials cannot be found in China, we usually ask the International Cooperation Division of our library to obtain them from the foreign embassies in China and Chinese embassies in foreign countries. For example, in our legislative inquiry on the draft of the Law of Administrative Supervision and the Law of Declaration of Personal Income, we got relevant materials from the embassies of the Republic of Korea, Egypt. Singapore, France, and Germany in China, and the Chinese embassy in Malay sia. II:

Compiling Bibliographies and Indices

One of the important services in the legislative reference service is the compilation of bibliographies and indices in a planned and focused way appropriate to the legislation to be enacted. Just like other research, legislative work also requires the collection of lots of data. By compiling bibliographies and indices, it may be easier to reveal and show the collection in our library, and provide the drafting department with reference tools for acquiring materials promptly and accurately. These bibliographies and indices are not general ones, but are special catalogues with an emphasis on certain legal subjects, in which they reveal and show the collection of books on special subjects as the result of our research. Up to the present time, our

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15

Section has compiled dozens of bibliographies and indices in special subjects such as Index on the Systems of Foreign Parliaments, Catalogue on the Law ofAntitrust, Catalogue on the IMW of Social Relief, and so on. according lo the requirements of the legislative bodies. These kinds of catalogues and indices on special subjects generally include several aspects as follows: firstly, a list of monographs; secondly, a list of articles; thirdly, a list of relevant laws and regulations at home and abroad. All catalogues mentioned above are both in Chinese and in foreign languages (mainly in English). Our experience in this sort of work has proved that this kind of work has played a positive role in improving the speed and quality of the legislative reference service and the utilization ratio of our collection, and reducing repetitious and unnecessary work. In recent years, traditional manual work has been changing quietly as we have been making greater use of computer technology in the library. In order to meet the needs of a changing society, we have also tried to use computers in compiling and managing bibliographies and indices. The advantages of doing it in this way are obvious, for they can save much trivial and boring manual work, save room, and facilitate their management, usage and preservation. Ill:

Special Subject Service

The special subjcct service is a kind of legislative reference service, in which a designated staff member is engaged in document inquiry serv ice from beginning to end. In this kind of service, we make full use of the collection of books in the library and retrieve information on books from a w ide range of sources, and do our best to locate materials, and then compile the materials retrieved into an index or catalogue or abstract on the special subject for the drafting department to select and use. Although the time this service lakes is relatively long and the materials are voluminous, its effecl is relatively good, because there is a staff member fully responsible for it. IV:

Research on Special Subject

It is far from sufficient for us to rely only on answering inquiries or compiling catalogues and indices in the legislative reference service. It is necessary for us to do more in-depth research, analysis, synthesis, and compilation of documents in the light of legislative requirements. In this respect, we designate some staff members to take charge of certain countries and regions according to their professional knowledge and foreign language, and to carry out some research on the legal documents of the countries and regions they are responsible for. We think that the law librarians should not only know legal documents, including their types, editions, publishers, design and development of publications, and main reference books, but also analyze, sort out the materials according to the requirements, and compile bibliographies and indices, and write essay s for the purpose of prov iding readers with information on documents systematically. In this respect, on the basis of research on the library laws of other countries, we started in 1995 a research project under the Ministry of Culture. The title of this project is "A Comparative Analysis of Library Laws at home and abroad". V:

Setting up databases

In the legislative reference service, we often meet the problems of a lack of legal data, and inadequate processing. It is an arduous task for us to search for relevant materials. In order to solve these problems, we have dccidcd to compile a bibliographic database that is simple and convenient to use. It can reflect the collection in our library. The name of the database is A database of the ml es of the laws and regulations of China and foreign countries in the

16

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

collection. We plan to complete it during the period of the Ninth Five-Year Plan for our libraiy. The creation of this database is the main work of our legislative reference service. We are in the early stages of working on the contents and the method of providing the service. There is a lot of work to be done to broaden and expand our legislative service. We shall reflect on what we have experienced in our work and learn from the good practices of national libraries of other countries, and thus strive to do better in our own legislative service.

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

17

The Hong Kong Legislative Council Library by Eva Liu 2 Brief History The Research and Library Services Division was created in the reorganization of the Secretariat of the Hong Kong Legislative Council in April 1993. With the appointment of the then Head of the Division in August 1994, recruitment was completed in December 1994 and service started in March 1995. The initial strength was one Head, one Librarian, two Research Officers and two support staff members. Service offered included parliamentary research service to the Council and committees on request and library service to individual Members on a first-comefirst-scrved and confidential basis. Demand in the initial period for research and library service from the Council and its 40 Committees prompted expansion, which began five months later, with the addition of three more Research Officers and one more Librarian, completed in May 1996. A new Head was appointed in April 1996 upon the early retirement of the previous one. Setting of the Library Concurrent with the development of the Research and Library Services Division, the Hong Kong Legislative Council also underwent a dramatic change. An election was held in September 1995, turning in a fully elected Legislative Council, unprecedented in Hong Kong's legislative history of 152 years. The majority party in the Council is the Democratic Party. The main functions of the Legislative Council are to pass laws, control public expenditure and monitor Government policies. It meets normally once a week on Wednesday from October to July, with breaks during major public holidays. Members carry out their work mainly through a system of committees and panels. The Legislative Council is unicameral, and operates on a semi-presidential system, with the government of the day being represented by officials who attend Legislative Council sittings and panel meetings as and when required by the Council to answer questions on its accountability and explain policies. There is no fusion of the Executive with the Legislature, but neither is the system fully presidential because the President of the Council is not directly elected by the electorate. The President of the Council is a non-Government elected Member, again elected amongst the 60 Members of the Council. These 60 Members are composed as follows: 20 of them are elected from geographical constituencies. 30 from functional constituencies, and 10 by an Election Committee. The electoral system is "first past the post". Election is held by universal suffrage, with voting age at 18 years. During this session from October 1995 to July 1996, the Council held 36 meetings. A total of 112 bills was introduced, and 43 motion debates held. Members raised 573 original questions

Eva Lju is the Head of the Research and Library Services Division of the Hong Kong Legislative Council Secretariat.

18

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

and 659 supplementary questions. For the third time in its history, the Legislative Council exercised its privileged powers to investigate an issue of significant public interest, namely, a landslip tragedy in which a whole building was buried by a slid slope. The Research and Library Services Division is a division within the Secretariat, and reports to the Secretan,' General of the Legislative Council. It provides a centralized research service to the Council and its committees. It also manages the Council Library which is open to Members and staff of the Secretariat. Members of the public are allowed access to records of open meetings of the Council and related papers at the Library. The Library is a member of IFLA while the Hong Kong Legislative Council is a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. The Library has an inter-library loan relationship with all major libraries in Hong Kong, including the Urban Council libraries and university libraries. Unfortunately, there is no national library in Hong Kong. Services and Product The Research and Library Services Division provides research and reference services to Members and stalTof the Legislative Council. The Division undertakes the following research studies on request from the Council and its committees: studies on public policy issues, assessment of strengths and weaknesses of policy options, and surveys. There are five Research Officers and a Head, with diverse background and training, including economics, journalism, political science and banking. Since its establishment in April 1995, 26 studies have been conducted and 9 are on-going. Policy areas reflect those of Members' concern: Internet, parliamentary privilege, university funding, housing, public transport monitoring mechanism, and so on. Ordinary library services are provided to individual Members and their assistants: access to library collections, reading room facilities, reference service on topics of interest to Members, and inter-library loans. Reference service is also available to committee clerks and other senior staff of the Legislative Council Secretariat. Members of the public are allowed to inspect records, papers and reports of Legislative Council sittings and open committee meetings, Members" Claims for General Expenses Allowance, and the Register of Members' Interest. The Library is staffed by two professional Librarians and two clerical support staff. Records of some Committee meetings have been uploaded onto the home page of the Legislative Council on the Internet since June 1996. This is a trial period and response has been very positive. The Legislative Council Secretariat now aims to upload all records since 1994 onto the Internet in the coming 12 to 24 months. Patronage of the Library has been quite high: with an average of 450 users per month, 290 book loans per month, 400 enquiries per month, and about 500 books processed per month. Computer usage has increased from 2 per month to 42 times per month. Library Collections and other resources Library holdings consist of the following: Legislative Council-related documents:

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

19

Hansard (from 1890 to present) records of committee meetings (1994/5 session onwards) Official publications: Gazette Government Briefing Notes to Legislative Council (on policy- proposals) annual departmental reports topical reports Books, newspapers and periodicals: books on political, economic and social issues (about 13,000 volumes), local and overseas newspapers (10) periodicals (23) publications on parliaments (3) CD-ROMs: seven databases Audiotapes: 2,400, comprising records of all committee and panel meetings in the 1994/5 and 1995/6 sessions. There is a simple reading room for Members. There are also three 486 computer stations for access to CD-ROM databases and the Internet; these are used mainly by Members' assistants. Developments in Automation The Hong Kong Legislative Council Secretariat has an internal electronic mail system to which the Library is connected. However, the three 486 computers in the Library are stand-alone stations and not networked. Hence, the Library databases cannot be accessed from this e-mail system. Users need to come to the Library physically to gain access to the CD-ROM databases and the Internet. The Library is in the process of choosing a bidder from open tender to design a computerized database for storage and retrieval of legislative reference materials as well as library holdings. A feasibility study will be done from September to December, 1996, with the aim of confirming user requirements. Implementation of recommendations will start in spring next year. The aim will be for the Library to be networked to other libraries, both local and international, through the Internet and for Members to gain access through the internal e-mail system. The Hong Kong Legislative Council Secretariat has engaged a consultant firm to design a pilot imaging scheme for records management purposes. Pilot tests will be conducted in October 1996. If this proves successful, archived material which is now deposited with the Government Public Records Office can be stored in the form of optical disks for future access. Important Developments in the Library In view of the exercise of Chinese sovereignty in Hong Kong starting in July 1997, the Library has started to cnhancc its China collection and acquire many more books about China so as to assist Members to know and understand more about China.

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Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

The Combination of Legislation and Information: Current Status of the Library and Information Service, Legislative Yuan, Taipei, Taiwan. by Karl Min Ku 3

Brief History of the Library & Information Service (LIS) The Foundation of LIS In accordancc with the official functions of the Legislative Yuan, the Department of the Compilation of the Legislative Yuan was founded in the Ning Jing period during the 1930's. In order to simplify the organizational structure of the Legislative Yuan the staff òf the Department of the Compilation was reduced and special working groups were formed after the government of the Republic of China moved to Taiwan in 1949.4 The Library & Information Service, namely, the LIS, is the said institute. The mission of the Library & Information Service (LIS), as stipulated in Article 4 of the Executive Regulations of the Secretariat, the Legislative Yuan, 1953, is to acquire and manage legal and legislative documents, with the objectives of providing the necessary resources for the legislature through analysis, research, and reference services, in support of the-legislators' representative and legislative functions. In the past decade, the LIS had been re-organized into four functional units, that is, the Library, the Law Information Center, the Computer Center and the Newspaper Clipping Center to support the research and law-making functions of legislators, and provide current information to conform to the modern trends of our society. In addition to strengthening the functions of the Library, the objectives of the LIS include developing L E G I S I S (the LEGISlative Information System) and the network system in the Legislative Yuan, as well as improving the quality of information retrieved to achieve high efficiency.

Karl Min Ku is the Director of the Secretariat of the Legislative Yuan. He also holds the position of President of the Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific.

Introduction to the Library & Information Service. Taipei, Legislative Yuan. February, 1996.

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

21

As society moves ahead, the transmission of information has become much more diversified. Starting in 1983, the LIS began offering information services ranging from printed matter to electronic media in various forms. The LEGISIS, which was developed by the LIS step by step, contains eight sub-systems, including the Legislative Electronic Bulletin Board System, the Legislators' Interpellation Information System, the Chinese Code Information System, the Chinese Code Amendment Information System, the Legislative Literature Information System, the Legislative News Information System, the Legislative Record Information System and the Legislative Yuan Library OPAC (On-line Public Access catalogue) System. In the use of the LEGISIS network, the LIS completed the network construction in the First and Second Buildings of legislators' offices and the Legislative Yuan through the dial-up method of connection to the host computer in March 1993. At the same time, LEGISIS became on-line and in servicc.^ Looking back over the past ten years, the beginning of the computerization project was in a "zero budget and zero staff situation. From planning, through designing to implementation, we have reachcd a point where the system is totally open for our users to use it freely, and our service is integrated. For a Chinese information application system, it sets a successful example which is highly visible.

Strategies for Development 6 In the year 1981, the legislators expressed their strong desire for a computer-based legislative information service. By 1984, LIS had formulated a concrete plan that was approved by former President Ni for the development of a computerized information service. In the meanwhile, a Committee on Computerized Information Management was organized. Former Director of LIS, Karl Min Ku, was the executive secretary of the Committee. Foreign computer information experts were invited to be the Committee's advisors. A domestic ad hoc working group for "the Development of Information and Research Services" was also set up in September 1985, and has been sponsored partially since then by the Asia Foundation. The present writer was appointed as the leader of this development project. The LIS has completed its primary goal with collaborations and efforts three years later. Dr. Sheldon R. Sevcringhaus in 1988 pointed out in his article, 'Legislative Reform in Taiwan', 7 "that the Legislative Yuan, through remarkable development of its library and information service, is now revolutionizing its legislative processes in the Republic of China". A cautious planning process had been accepted for setting up this nationwide accessible information system, as follows:

Karl Min Ku, "Current Status of LEGISIS Database and Network System", The Legislative Yuan Monthly, Vol 22 No 2, pp 25-32, February, 1994.

Karl Min Ku, "Developmental Strategies of Computerized Legislative Information Services". (Conference paper written for the IFLA General Conference, New Delhi, 1992).

Severinghaus, Sheldon R. "Legislative Reform In Taiwan", The Asia Foundation Quarterly. San Francisco, California, Fall 1988, pp.8-IO.

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Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

1

Confirmation of Information Requests - The staff of LIS communicated with potential users within the Legislative Yuan, including legislators, their aids and the staff of Legislative Yuan in order to understand their information needs.

2

Definition of the Project Scope - A "Draft for the Computerized Information Work Project" was prov ided in 1985 to clarify the scope of the project.

3

Determination of Project Priorities - The development of the Legislators' Interpellation Information System and the Chinese Code Information System were chosen as two pilot projects of the computerized legislative information system.

4

Recommendations from the legislators - In order to explain the purpose and progress of our project to legislators as well as to gather their opinions, LIS twice conducted special briefings for legislators in 1986 and 1988. Some valuable views were received for modifying the trend of development.

5

Increasing Budgetary Support - Initiated from a budget of NT$2 million (approximately US$72,727) in Fiscal 1986, LIS has increased annually its budget of business. The average budget of LIS for the last eight years (1990-1997) is about NT$76.126,000 (approximately US$2,768,218).

6

Recruiting Professional Personnel - Beginning in 1986, the Legislative Yuan has selected many qualified personnel for each technical position.

7

Promotion of Information Consumption - The Law Information Center of LIS was created in 1985 to incorporate an international information service, i.e., DIALOG, hoping that through the experience of a well-developed system, users might become accustomed to and appreciate computerized information searching.

8

Utilization of New Technology - knowing the importance of keeping pace with new technologies, employees of LIS arc encouraged to improve their professional expertise and knowledge by attending training courses held abroad or locally.

Steps to Establish LEG1SIS After careful planning and preparation the LEGISIS project began implementation in 1986. The work included the following stages: 1

Request for Proposals - In January 1986 the Legislative Yuan announced its computcri/cd information project to more than 100 computer vendors to invite their proposals on the development of this project; 20 vendors submitted the required proposals.

2

Establishment of a Pilot Project - In March 1986, the staff of LIS invited experts and scholars to examine and evaluate those proposals submitted by vendors. Since there was no single vendor who had sufficient previous experience on a similar system, five vendors were chosen. Those vendors then signed a contract for developing the pilot systems, and the Legislative Yuan provided each vendor a grant of NT$200,000 (approximately US$7,272) for their efforts. The purpose of this pilot project was to establish a prototype of LEGISIS within six months.

Parliamentary

Libraries

and Information

Services

of Asia and the

Pacific

23

3

Evaluation and Demonstration - During the period of developing the LEGISIS pilot systems, the staff of LIS assisted by confirming the functional requirements of the system and these sy stem requirements were then set as the criteria for evaluation to be held later on.

4

Installing the System - In October 1987 the host computer and its peripheral devices were installed. In January 1988 the technical transfer and staff training were completed. Meanwhile, the two application systems were developed and introduced for public access in LIS.

5

Environmental and Space Planning - While the pilot computerization project was in progress, new working spaces were arranged to house the electronic data processing and computer system.

6

Well-organized Computer Center - The Computer Center of the Legislative Yuan, created and well-organized in November 1987, was established to oversee all of the computer applications of the Legislative Yuan.

Setting of LIS Brief Description of the Legislative Yuan The parliament of the Republic of China is unicameral, and it is under the one house (one chamber) system. The Legislative Yuan is the highest legislative organ of the state, constituted of popularly clcctcd representatives who serve for three years and are eligible for re-election. The current Legislators were elected in December 1995. The number stands at 164, including the legislators from the Kuo-Ming Tang (Chinese Nationalist Party), the Democratic Progress Party and the Chinese New Party. In accordancc with the constitution, the Legislative Yuan has the following functions and powers:8 1

General legislative power;

2

Confirmation of emergency;

3

Hearing reports on administration and revision of government policy;

4

Examination of budgetary bills and audits;

5

Right of consent;

6

Amendment of the Constitution;

The Legislative Yuan holds two sessions cach year, and is now in its third tenure. While in session, the whole Yuan meets every Tuesday and Friday. There are twelve Standing Committees and five Special Committees. 8

The ROC Yearbook 1994. Taipei, the General Information Office, 1993.

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Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

The Location of LIS inside the Yuan Supervised by Che Secretary-General of Ihe Legislative Yuan, the Library & Information Service (LIS) is subordinate to the Secretariat. In accordance with Articles 18; 24 and 26 of the Organic Law of the Legislative Yuan, the Secretariat, Accounting Office, Personnel Office and Committee Offices make up the administrative system of the Legislative Yuan. The Secretariat is composed of the Conference Department; Documentation Center; General Affairs Department; Press Office; Library & Information System (LIS) and Stenography Office. The present Director of the Secretariat, Karl Min Ku, is the former Director of LIS. Founded in 1989, the Legislation Research Service is as independent research unit supervised directly by the Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General of the Legislative Yuan. The unit undertakes the study, analysis, evaluation of draft law bills, including budgetary bills, and research for answers to inquiries and translation of materials relating to legislation. 9 It is composed of the Draft Law Bills Section, the Budgetary Bills Section and the Translation Section. Ingenerai, the business activities of LIS arc associated with the Legislation Research Service including information transmission, document delivery, and other related matters.

Relationship with other Law Libraries / Information Sections in Taiwan Interlibrary cooperation is one of the objectives of LIS. A few years ago, LIS started to establish a cooperative relationship with other law libraries in Taiwan through the Chinese Law Information Association. Besides, the LEGISIS network has actively build up an extensive network through the dialing system with more than 100 user accounts from government agencies and research institutes around the island, such as, the Office of the President; the Ministry of National Defense; Taipei City Council; Information Section of the Mainland Affairs Council, the Executive Yuan; the Central Bank of China; Institute for Information Industry; Institute for National Policy Research, as well as the Law School Library of the National University of Taiwan, and so on. Resource sharing is formally in operation.

Organization and Staffing of LIS Organizational Structure Library & Information SERVICE (LIS) J

The Library (formerly the Department of Compilation)

V^

The Law Information Center (established in 1985) The Computer Center (operated in 1987)

V^

The Newspaper Clipping Center (started in 1989)

9

Legislative Yuan: Republic of China. Taipei, the Secretariat of Legislative Yuan. March, 1991.

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

25

Each Unit of LIS 1

The Library:

Functions:

(a) (b) (c) (d) (c)

2

The Law Information Center:

Functions:

(a) (b) (c) (d) (c)

3

maintenance and operation of LEGISIS. research and development of the legislative databases in Chinese and English. building research collections of social sciences mainly in the field of law. bibliographies and indexes indexing related reference materials, documentation of the publications related to LEGISIS.

The Computer Center:

Functions:

4

acquisition of books and subscriptions to periodicals, newspapers, microfilms, CD-ROMs and other AV materials. classification and cataloging of collections. management and binding of periodical publications. maintenance and operation of the library automation system, inventory control.

(a) (b) (c) (d)

system research and development of LEGISIS. management of the LEGISIS network. maintenance of the host computers and the peripheral equipment. promotion of office automation in the Legislative Yuan.

The Newspaper Clipping Center:

Functions:

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

daily news clipping services. maintenance and operation of the legislative news information system. documentation of the publications related to the newspaper clippings and related materials. microfilm production of the newspaper clippings. production of individual news file for each legislator.

Staffing and Computer Training As of 1996, the seventy-four staff members in LIS are classified into three groups: twenty-two are authorized by the organized law (among them, eight are technicians and five are office workers); fifty are employed by contract and two are part-time workers. For the sake of introducing computer knowledge and information technology in the Legislative Yuan, the Computer Center regularly conducts seminars on computer training to the staff members of the Legislative Yuan and legislators' aids. Besides, on-the-job training for the staff of LIS is focused on new information and communication fields.

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Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

Information and Primary Research Functions In the past few years, the LIS of the Legislative Yuan has developed the legislative information service to provide instant and up-to-date information on a wide range of activities to legislators. So far, the achievements of LIS include: to collect and distribute appropriate information to legislators in support of their legislative and representative functions, as well as to build a solid legislative information system in the Legislative Yuan. LIS conducts information and primary research functions, i.e., the system has been considered as the support unit for policy-making and legislation. The importance of legislative information is evident in an open society, since it is the means of communication between the government and the general public.

Library Collections and Other Resources Size of the Collection An important feature of LIS is that its collection is composed of many multimedia materials. Books on law and politics make up the core collection in conjunction with other related subject matter. Aside from the material listed below, the staff of LIS also gather AV materials, computer diskettes and newspaper clippings, and so on. All of the Chinese collections are classified according to the Chinese Classification Scheme; foreign collections arc classified according to the Dewey Decimal Classification. Item

Amount Chinese

Book

Periodical

Japanese/Korean

Chinese

479 titles 31 titles

English

191 titles

Chinese

74 titles

English

CD-ROM

2,602 vol. 19,074 vol.

Japanese/Korean

Microform

91,714 vol.

English

Japanese/Korean

Newspaper

Total

6 titles

113,390 vol.

701 titles

90 titles

10 titles

Microfiche

258 titles

Microfilm

33 titles

English

27 titles

Chinese

3 titles

291 titles

30 titles

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27

Major Characteristics of the Collection The following six characteristics of the collection demonstrate the major characteristics of LIS. 1

Specialized subject-oriented reference collections. This group contains statistics and graphic guidance. These collections contain references, such as encyclopedias, congressional reference materials, Who is Who, compilations, directories, yearbooks and statistics collections.

2

Newspaper dippings and related materials. Important Legislative headline news and editorials arc clipped from foreign and domestic newspapers, then classified, copied and filed to provide readers with-the most current news and commentary.

3

Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI). This involves selecting and compiling articles about timely topics and issues from many domestic newspapers and periodicals relating to public opinion, such as policy planning and political events.

4

Publications from political parties and non-government institutions, including public comments exchanged between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, reports about diplomacy, economics, society and women's situation in Taiwan, and so on.

5

Official gazettes and semi-official publications. LIS regularly displays official gazettes, proceedings and legislative agendas of the Legislative Yuan, as well as other official and semi-official publications from other government branches. It also collects other governmental publications from the United States of America, Japan, the European Community, and others.

6

Parliamentary publications. Parliamentary publications from many countries are collected through exchange and gift, such as Standing Rules, congressional records/proceedings, and congressional brochures, and so on. It helps legislators to understand legislative developments and trends from a global perspective.

Reading Areas LIS occupies 1,201 square meters in total. It is located in one of the parliamentary buildings (the Chun-Hsicn Building) with other departmental offices and committee offices. The location of LIS is within a short distance from the main parliamentary building, the Assembly Hall of the Legislative Yuan. The location of cach working unit is as follows: 1

The Library is located in the first basement of the Chun-Hsien Building where there is a large reading area.

2

The Law Information Center is located on the third floor of the Chun-Hsien Building where reference desks and the reference collection are located.

3

The Computer Center is located on the third floor of the Chun-Hsien Building. The computer equipment is installed in the computer room.

4

The Newspaper Clipping Center is located on the second floor of the Chun-Hsien Building where the open-shelved newspaper clippings are held.

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Services and Products Services and Products Offered by LIS 1

The Library:

(a)

(renerai Reading Services: To provide open shelf and photocopy services. Displaying books, periodicals and newspapers that are available to readers for browsing and reproduction.

(b)

Book Circulation Services ·. The circulation desk in the Library takes charge of the chccking out service for the entire library collection.

(c)

OPAC (On line public access catalogue): Readers may connect to the OPAC system of the Legislative Yuan Library for on-line retrieval of information through their own terminals.

(d)

New Hook Announcement Service: The new book catalogue regularly announces new book arrivals in the Library.

2

The Law Information Center:

(a)

Legislative Heading Service: To provide open-shelf services, reference services and photographic services to readers.

(b)

legislative Reference Inquiry Services: The full-time reference librarians of the Law Information Center are responsible for the information retrieval and document delivery services at the reference desk.

(c)

LEGISIS Retrieval Service: To provide access to domestic information systems and answer legal inquiries. A brief introduction to the eight sub-systems of LEGISIS follows: 1

LEGISIS - The Legislative Electronic Bulletin Board System (known as Bulletin).

To provide the most up-to-date information on the parliament, including Legislative Yuan meetings, important events in Taiwan, rules of silting in and observing Legislative Yuan meetings, visiting rules and service information, and so on. 2

LEGISIS - The Legislators' Interpellation Information System (known as Interpellation).

To offer computerized information retrieval to interpellations about administrative policy, general budget planning and execution with multiple access points. The system contains in its database updated records as well as retrospective records from 1984. The database, which has many access points, can be searched by date, subject, name, and so on. The upgraded version of the system was formally launched in 1995. This newest version provides up to 16 access points and can be combined for Boolean logic (AND, OR. NOT) searching.

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

3

29

LEGISIS - The Chinese Code Information System (known as Codes).

To input legislated laws (more than six hundred) ratified by the Legislative Yuan in the pasl years, and to constantly update the system. In addition, retrieval of related and alleged codes can give users a chance to make cross references. There is also a printed form of service, namely, statistics of codes enacted, amended or repealed. 4

LEGISIS - The Chinese Code Amendment Information System (known as Amendments).

To enable access to all laws amended by the Legislative Yuan since 1970, the year when the government promulgated the Central Codes Standard. The information in this system is organized according to the main reason for the amendment, the procedure of the amendment, and the text of the amended articles. This is the "sister system" of the Chinese Code Information System. 5

LEGISIS - The Legislative Literature Information System (known as Literature).

To establish a bibliographic database of articles from periodicals and research papers since 1986 in the fields of law, economics, finance, public administration, and so on. The system contains several access points, including categories, subjects, keywords, authors, journal titles, and so on. In addition, the reproduction of the retrieved paper is provided through compact discs. 6

LEG1SIS - The Legislative News Information System (known as

News).

To display die collection of clippings from IS local daily and evening papers. This system provides on-line retrieval of important political events, records of the legislature, development in the Legislative Yuan, administrative policies of the Executive Yuan, and current news. There are two retrieval mechanisms: "menu" and "command". "Menu" is used by beginners, while " command" is used by the staff of LIS. 7

LEGISIS - The Legislative Record Information System (known as Record).

To track the records of legislators during session meetings and committee meetings of the whole Yuan. The name of the legislator, the meeting and session number, date, subject, category, keyword, and so on, can be used as access points to find out the desired information. The system provides three modes of searching (menu, command and statistics) and may provide dozens of various reports. A PC version of this system is available. 8

LEGISIS - The Legislative Yuan Library OPAC (On-line Public Access Catalogue) System (known as OPAC).

To cover the entire library collections in the system featuring the new book announcement service, personal circulation records, on-line ordering and periodical records, and so on. Formally launched in 1995, it is the most recent online system among the LEGISIS.

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Parliamentary Librams and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

(d)

International Information Retrieval Service: To connect to DIALOG, LEXIS-NEXIS and INTERNET in order to obtain a wide variety of information for legislators.

(e)

CR-ROM Retrieval Services: The CD-ROMs which are available in the Law Information Center include LISA, PAIS, Dissertation Abstracts On-disc, Congressional Masterfile, Statistical Masterfile, InfoTrac, WILSONDISC, Federal Register, Multilingual Dictionary, Computer Select, Comp ton" s Multimedia Encyclopedia. Register of Chinese Business, and Directory of Chinese International and Business Regulations, Countries of the World, as well as Chinese Periodical Articles Index, and so on.

(f)

Legislative Microfilm Services: There are about 291 microfilm titles in this catalog, including newspapers, statistical reports, law reviews, GPO's Publications, official gazettes of the government, US CODE, US Statutes At Large, Congressional Records, and so on.

(g)

Current Awareness Services: It contains the indexes and abstracts of foreign legal periodicals, research papers, and so on, and lists the new books in the library.

(h)

Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) Services: It assembles data focusing on 'hot' social issues, bill amendments, and political events.

(i)

legislative Decision Support Services: It collects the legislative history, law reviews, index of debates and bibliographies related to a particular bill pending in the current session to provide information support to legislators.

(j)

Publication Exchange Services: To exchange the publications of LIS with other parliamentary libraries all over the world.

3

The Computer Center:

(a)

Network User Assistance Service: To offer technical support to the users of the LEGISIS and to maintain the security of the system.

(b)

Office Automation Assisted Development Service: To develop hardware and software standards for the office automation system in the Legislative Yuan according to the specific requirements of each office.

(c)

Computer Training and Promotion : To conduct computer seminars for users, such as, the usage of the COMWAVE fax data software through the fax-modem, INTERNET, WINDOWS, MS-DOS, the Chinese input method, applied software packages and word processing software, and so on.

4

The Newspaper Clipping Center:

(a)

Newspaper Clipping Reference Services: To compile legislative news extracted from 15 daily and evening newspapers. It can be divided into four categories: the background of enacted bills, administration reports, bill tracking information, and current events. Duplicated copies are available in the Center.

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

31

(b)

legislative News Information Retrieval Services: To provide timely and effective online news information services covering important political, parliamentary, and legal news to legislators.

(c)

Newspaper Clipping Microfilm Services: To distribute the legislative news publications, i.e., the Chinese Legislative News Review Index and the Chinese News Review Scries lo legislators, libraries, government bodies, and academic societies.

Research Services Sponsored by the Asia Foundation from 1986 to 1989, LIS had published almost 50 legislative research papers concerning debatable issues for a variety of bills, such as, capital punishment, inspection and elimination of slums, criminal law, basic labor standard, labor-management disputes, organ transplant law, wild life preservation law, environment protection law, fair trade law, consumer rights, public bank management law, trade law, artificial reproduction law, coastal ecological preservation, and the jurisdiction of occanic coastal states, local selfgovernment, public meetings and demonstration, information protection law, judicial law, factory management guidance and occupational hazard, labor contracts law, public calamities prevention and treatment, video taping law, standing rules for meetings, the Senate of France, the Korean governmental organization, the national security law of the US, the national retirement law of Singapore, and the articles of the period of communist rebellion, and so on.

The Publications of LIS The resources and publication chain provided by LIS consist of twenty different kinds of publications. These publications, which are distributed to legislators periodically, are the result of legislative analysis for tracking bills and of readers' interests. A summary of each publication follows: 1

Newsletter of Books and Documentation (quarterly): This Newsletter is an institutional publication announcing the information activities of LIS, including new scrviccs and policies, new collections, newly introduced foreign codes, statistics, and bibliographies of other document services, and so qn. (The latest issue : no.50. May 1996).

2

Chinese Legislative News Review Index (monthly): This index provides news items including the status and criticism of the bill, public opinion, and the statements of legislators, and so on. (The latest issue : vol. 10 no.6, July 1996).

3

Chinese Legislative News Review Series (irregular): This review collects all the news items, law reviews and special reports, and so on, under a current topic. (The latest issue: May, 1996).

4

Selective Dissemination of Information Series (bi-monthly): It assembles articles from chapters of monographs, proceedings and reports, which focus on 'hot' issues, bill amendments and political events. (The latest issue: May, 1996).

5

Legislative Decision Support Service (monthly): Each issue collects the legislative history, law review, index of debates and bibliographies related to a particular pending

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bill in the current session to provide information support to legislators. (The latest issue: no. 75 June, 1996). 6

Index lo Ilegal Periodicals (irregular): It collects summaries of legal periodicals, which have been briefly translated from English and Japanese law reviews.

7

Code Resource Pathfinder (bimonthly): This reading list maps out all the possible ways and available materials for those who are searching information about a particular code. (The latest issue: no.48, June 1996).

8

Index to Chinese Legislative Literature (bimonthly): It is a bibliographic list of Chinese periodical articles on finance, education, economics, and sociology, and so on, with annual bound editions. (The latest issue: vol.6, no.3, June 1996).

9

Code and Reference Book Catalog (irregular): It is a bibliographic list of reference materials and code collections within LIS. (The latest edition: 5th ed., February, 1993).

10

Gazette. Proceeding and Serial Catalog (irregular): It is a bibliographic list of all official gazettes, proceedings and serial collections within LIS. (The latest edition: 3rd ed.. 1990).

11

The legislative Yuan Library Catalog (irregular): This bibliographic list contains all the monographs, periodicals, codes and every kind of governmental gazette proceedings, and so on, in LIS. (The latest edition: 2nd ed., June 1993).

12

Introduction to Library and Information Services (irregular): This brochure describes how LIS operates and introduces the variety of services offered by LIS. such as the reference service, the reporting service, and the compilation service, and so on. (The latest edition: 1996 edition).

13

LEGISIS 'thesaurus (irregular): Printed in a Chinese-English bilingual edition, it is a comprehensive subject guide focusing on the social sciences, particularly law, economics, politics, and sociology, and so on. By using the LEGISIS Thesaurus as a reference guide, one may expect to achieve a higher precision rate in the outcome of searching for information and maximize performance in an information sharing system. (The latest edition: 4th ed., June, 1996).

14

Selective Abstracts of US Congressional Records (irregular): Categorized into eight broad subjects, it contains more than five hundred abstracts of Senate and House bills from the Congressional Records of the United States. (The latest edition: 2nd ed., 1994).

15

Subjects Guide to Chinese Code (irregular): Classified by many subjects, it provides the entire content of the ROC laws which were enacted by the Legislative Yuan and promulgated by the President. (The latest edition 1st ed., 1991).

16

\No entry]

17

Collection of Interpellation Records (irregular): It is the on-line edition of the legislators' individual interpellation records. Several kinds of statistical printouts are

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offered by the Legislators' Interpellation Information System. (The latest edition: 1st ed., the 1st Tenure Term 79th-84th Session, Feb. 1987-Jan. 1990). 18

Legislative Microfilm Catalog (irregular): This catalog lists the 291 microfilm titles in the collection. The bibliographic record of the item includes microfilm title, compiler, producer, coverage, and remarks, and so on. (The latest edition: 2nd ed., 1994).

19

Index of Legislative Record (triennial): It assembles the legislative records and the records of debate, including committee reports and indexes of legislative history. (The latest edition: the 2nd Tenure Term, lst-6th Session, April 1996).

20

User ν Guide to DIALOG and LEXIS-NEXIS (irregular): Based on DIALOG (KNIGHT-RIDDER) and LEXIS-NEXIS information services, it introduces the coverage of data bases, the searching method and the billing policy, and so on. (The latest edition: 2nd ed,. June 1996).

Statistics o f the Information Services I

2

Statistical Table of the Legislative Information Service: YEAR

The Number of Services Rendered

The Number of Users

1991

76,022

23,807

1992

31,306

23,722

1993

65,962

55,129

1994

65,632

53,636

1995

59,515

46,234

Statistical Table of the Uses of LEGISIS (through WAN and remote dial-up terminals). (i) Period: 1993/01/01-1993/12/31 System

Bulletin

Interpellation

Codes

Amendments

Total

Times of login

1,509

4,246

2,932

1,785

10,472

System

Literature

News

Record

OPAC

Total

Times of login

2,492

3.273

2,999

N/A

8,764 Total: 19,236

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(ii) Period: 1994/0 J /01 -1994/12/31 System

Bulletin

Interpellation

Codes

Amendments

Total

Times of login

1,052

3,573

2,819

1,819

9,263

System

Literature

News

Record

OPAC

Total

Times of login

2,642

3,526

3,014

N/A

9,183 Total: 18,446

(iii) Period: 1995/01/01-1995/12/31 System

Bulletin

Interpellation

Codes

Amendments

Total

Times of login

936

3,394

2,614

1,833

8,777

System

Literature

News

Record

OPAC

Total

Times of login

2,476

3,239

3,408

262

9,385 Total: 18,162

(iv) Period: 1996/01/01-1996/06/30 System

Bulletin

Interpellation

Codes

Amendments

Total

Times of login

486

1,619

1,412

900

4,417

System

Literature

News

Record

OPAC

Total

Times of login

I.4I4

2,035

1,245

918

5,612 Total: 10,029

3

Circulation Statistics in the Library: Book Loan

1994/07-1995/06

1995/07-1996/06

Books borrowed

11,421

10,102

Books returned

10,199

7,414

Users of the service

24,375

25,933

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Readers and General User Groups of LEGISIS ]

Legislators and their aids. At present there are 164 legislators. Each of them has six govcrnmcnt-paid aids. From their individual offices, they have on-line access to LEGISIS, and so do the offices of the three major parties, namely, the Kuo-Ming Tang, the Democratic Progress Party, and the Chinese New Party.

2

The staff of the legislative Yuan: To help with legislative procedures, the staff of the Legislative Yuan also use LEGISIS to retrieve information. In total, there are 88 ports connected to the host computer.

3

Users outside of the Legislative Yuan. Up to now, there are 83 institutes and more than 100 user accounts from government agencies, research foundations, universities, and members' constituencies. Through this connection, information sharing and exchange is more than a theory.

4

Information professionals·. In the Law Information Center, there are several information professionals who will provide information retrieval service on request. The people in this group were the first to use LEGISIS and are also responsible for its promotion and for training. Different groups of users have their own distinctive information consumption needs and habits. Therefore, their utilization of the database will not be the same. If we study the use of LEGISIS in each group, we can find out what their requests are and probably adjust our information development policy.

Developments in Automation Computer Hardware To fully exploit the benefits and convenience of combining legislation and information, LIS has actively focused on expanding the available computer hardware. 1

Computer mainframes: such as a VAX7630 mainframe, a VAX8530 mainframe and a back up mainframe.

2

PCs and workstations: more than 200 monitors and workstations have been installed in the legislators' offices.

3

Computer equipment for each legislator: IBM compatible PC 486SX-25, with 8MB RAM, 120 MB and 1.2 GB Hard Disk, 1.44 MB and 1.2 MB Disk Drive, a fax modem. Software: DOS 6.0; Chinese Windows; SPE (Word Processing Software). Printer: Fujitsu Dl 1150 dot matrix printer with color kit.

The Network System of the Legislative Yuan About 83 ports belonging to government agencies and the research institutes of this country connect to the host computer, for example:

36

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

Office of the President Bureau of Comprehensive Planning Government Information Office Council Labor Affairs, the Executive Yuan Council for Cultural Planning and Development, the Executive Yuan Management Information Center of the Ministry of Transportation and Communication Library of Providence University Academia Sinica Department of Information Systems Taiwan Power Company Yuantze Institute of Technology Research, Development and Evaluation Committee of the Executive Yuan Chinese New Party Headquarters National Chi Nan UniversityMing Chuan College Energy Committee, the Ministry of Economic Affairs Campaign Research Center, National Cheng Chi University National Central Library Taxation, the Ministry' of Finance Council for Economic Planning and Development, the Executive Yuan Congressional Observe Foundation The Administrative Section of the Public Television Station The Vocational Assistance Commission for Retired Servicemen, and legislators' constituencies around the island.

Computerized Information Activities 1

Information Policy of US: LIS planned its computerization in 1984, and prepared a budget in 1986. The host computer was installed in 1987 and formally began to operate in March 1988. Up to the present, eight large information systems have been completed and some others are planned. In the past few years, "centralized processing, centralized service" was the development policy of LIS. Its accomplishment under the policy was highly recognized by both domestic and foreign information specialists. Presently, the Computer Center has built up a wide area network (WAN) among legislators' offices by means of a dial-up system. And with the new policy of "centralized processing, distributed service", LIS is ready to expand its services.

2

Access to the Internet through TANct (Taiwan Academic Network) run by the Ministry of Education started in July 1994. The First and Second buildings of legislators' offices have recently been connected to the Internet through their modems.

3

Maintain the eight sub-systems of the LEGISIS, and expand the network system.

4

Continue developing connections with overseas information retrieval systems, such as DIALOG, LEX1S-NEXIS and the Internet, and others.

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Office Automation in the Legislative Yuan To develop hardware and software standards for the office automation system in the Legislative Yuan according to the specific requirements of each office. The following systems have been completed in the past few years: the Accounting System, the Official Vehicle Management System, the Assets Management System, the Personnel System, the Document Audit System, the Visitor's System, the Computer Equipment Management System, the Training Record System, the Mailing Label System, and the Statistics of Legislators' Attendance System, and so on.

Important Developments in LIS Recent Trends Generally speaking, each parliament in the world has established its unique organizational structure, the same as each parliamentary library in the countries around the world. The growth of parliamentary libraries nowadays depends heavily upon the influence of nations' democratization, the operation of its cabinet government and the perfection of Members' support system. Before 1990, legislators lacked their own office areas inside the Legislative Yuan, and did not have any assistants to help them. But things have changed only a few years later. Now the First and the Second Buildings of Legislators" Offices offer each legislator a research unit for their individual use. At least six government -paid aids help each legislator. So we could estimate that more than a thousand aids hired by the legislators as such form the basic user group of LIS's service and of the LEG1SIS network. The interactive relationship between users and the LIS staff provides the impetus for LIS to serve the legislators and their aids. Therefore, we should stress the importance of the interactive user-librarian relationship for the purpose of satisfying the information requests received from the legislators and their aids. This interaction could be regarded as a trend of LIS development and will expand from the Legislative Yuan through the network system to every network user to support their legislative work and, most important of all, to promote international cooperation among the parliamentary libraries of Asia and the Pacific region. The Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific (APLAP) has already become an organization for common legislative information development that is supported by a variety of legislatures of Asia and the Pacific region. The present writer currently serves as the President of APLAP.

New Products and Services The following two information systems are scheduled to be completed within a year: 1

The News Image Information System: To be upgraded from the Legislative News Information System, it will be designed for a multi-media database service with an image base. The input/output devices may include voice, image and graphic materials, and so on.

38

2

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

The Full-Text Gazettes Retrieval System: This will provide advanced retrieval to the full-text format of the Legislative Yuan Gazettes. The idea for this system originated from the legislative Record Information System.

As the network system of the Legislative Yuan, a concrete plan, which will be implemented in the next two or three years, can be outlined: To build an open network system based on the present WAN, i.e., an electronic inter-communication system through the telecommunication network. Ii will transmit BBS and E-Mail messages to remote users. The Yuan network and the Legislative Bulletin Board System will be two pilot systems for the development of this project.

Services to be Reinforced In view of the future, the services provided by LIS in the Legislative Yuan have to be oriented towards political trends, based on public opinion, that countries around the world are now actively emphasizing. Under such considerations, we should make sure that the six developmental information measures listed below are continuously and effectively exercised: 1

Actively collect all kinds of legislative data and resources.

2

Effectively improve information services and broaden their scope.

3

Improve the quality and contents of the report publications.

4

Promote computer-processing and telecommunication networks toward an integrated and environment-wide development including organizing a virtual-reality library.

5

Invite scholars and specialists to participate in research work.

6

Promote international information cooperation and communication.

The Legalization of the LIS Structure Considering the circumstances of LIS from a legal aspect, the main obstacle is that LIS does not have the status of a department in the organic law of the Legislative Yuan. It is a task of utmost importance to establish a responsible organ through legislation which would be in charge of library and information operations. Just as the other parliamentary libraries of the world, such as the Library of Congress in the US, the National Diet Library of Japan, and the National Assembly Library of the Republic of Korea, have demonstrated, a responsible organ is an indispensable part of information development. Only through such an organ can this information and research serv ice development program have authentic, systematic and historical meaning. The planning of relocation and reconstruction of the Legislative Yuan is in process. It is our duly to carry on the mission of LIS, and promote its computerized information activities. The present state of LIS certainly will be the foundation for the development of tomorrow. A brandnew look of LIS is under deliberation. The library and information environment in the Legislative Yuan has experienced an extremely critical period during the past ten years with its service, productivity, and system successfully improved and upgraded under the developmental program. Many new services, publications and

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39

systems have been introduced, published and created, all designed towards a wellconceptualized. integrated information and research service environment that will meet the political reform needs of the 1990's and beyond. As we have shown, from the many positive accomplishments the computerized information service has implemented so far, added by the increasing service statistics, it is clear that the program of information service has proved itself to be effective and farsighted and that it favors not only our short-term improvements but will also have a long-term influence over the entire information development of the Legislative Yuan and Taiwan as a whole. The positive responses from people, both here and throughout the international community, are also proof of the value of LIS's existence. Almost at the same time, people in Taiwan began to play a more active role in our nation's legislative work. This, in turn, has had great consequences in promoting the legislative role and its power. The Legislative Information Service of LIS came into existence as people increasingly became aware of the importance of the quality of legislation and its effectiveness. This has certainly had a positive influence on making legislation more suitable and favorable to the people of this society. And as the facts have shown the improvement of LIS has gained unanimous support from both the ruling party and the opposition parties, and has become an important blueprint for the development of our legislative information environment from now on. LIS has joined several prestigious library and information organizations, such as IFLA, ASIS and APLAP. By attending the annual conference, we come to understand the worldwide trend for the development of the library and information profession and thus enhance our standard of parliamentary librarianship. With the expanded information service which we provide and the ever-increasing number of users, we are dedicated to improving the legislative information system to provide a better quality service, as well as a more efficient service. We hope to support the legislators of the third tenure term with abundant legislative information and establish an ob jective and independent worldwide information supplying system to promote our national democracy to a higher level.

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Information Management in the Indian Parliament by John Joseph

10

The Origins The Parliament Library and Reference Research Documentation and Information Service (LARRD1S) has been established to meet the information requirements of the Members of both Houses ofParliament in India. Though the nomenclature (and the array of activities it signifies) is of recent vintage, the Parliament Library has a long history, beginning from 1921, during the days of the Central Legislative Assembly, when India was still under British rule. During the pre-indcpendcncc days the Library remained a very small establishment meeting the limited requirements of the Members of the Central Legislative Assembly. It was only after Independence in the year 1947 and after the Constituent Assembly commenced the work of drafting a new Constitution for free India, that the demands on the Library started multiplying. Too much dependence by Members only on governmental sources of information for policy-making as well as evaluation of policy, or even for critical appraisal of any governmental activity, we felt to be rather unsatisfactory. An independent and comprehensive Library service was, therefore, envisioned not merely as a repository of books, legislative debates and parliamentary papers, but to provide an up-to-date and objective storehouse of knowledge on which Members could draw with freedom and confidence. The year 1950, when India became a sovereign, democratic Republic, saw the beginning of a systematic expansion of the Parliament Library's collections, both quantitatively and qualitatively. A humble start was also made in setting up a Members' Reference Service within the newly established Research and Reference Branch which initially functioned independent of the Parliament Library. During the past four decades, the Library as well as research and reference services for M e m b e r s have gradually developed into what is now familiarly known as LARRDIS (the Library and Reference, Research. Documentation and Information Service). The present organisational structure and nomenclature of the integrated service is the result of a major functional re-organisation of the Secretariats of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha brought about during 1974-1975.

The Setting It may be mentioned here that the Constitution of India has adopted the parliamentary form of government and a federal set up. The national Legislature consists of two Houses - the House of the People (or Lok Sabha), and the Council of States (or Rajya Sabha). Direct elections to the House of the People are held every five years and the first past the post system is prevalent.

10

John Joseph is the Director of the Lok Sabha Library in New Delhi, India.

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The country is at present divided into 543 single member territorial constituencies for the purpose of elections to the Lok Sabha. The Members of the Council of States are elected by Members of die Legislative Assemblies of the States. Seats in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha are apportioned to different states in proportion to their population. With its sub-continental size and the huge population, it is only natural that the country's Parliament reflects a wide spectrum of cultures, languages, political preference, and so on. Members of Parliament, belonging as they do to diverse backgrounds, are in need of information and assistance on a wide range of subjects. The task before LARRDIS is, therefore, enormous as well as unique. This uniqueness of LARRDIS can be seen from another angle. The Constitution provides for a separate Secretariat for each House of Parliament under a Secretary-General who will report to the Speaker of the Lok Sabha or the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha as the case maybe. The LARRDIS is an integral part of the administrative structure of the Lok Sabha Secretariat and is under the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. Yet all the information needs of Members of both Houses arc attended to by this Service very much like the Congressional Research Service in the United States. Library Committee There is a Library Committee of Parliament consisting of six Members of the Lok Sabha, including the Deputy Speaker, and three Members of the Rajya Sabha nominated annually by the Speaker. The Deputy Speaker is the ex officio Chairman of the Committee. The role of the committee is to advise the Speaker on all matters concerning the development of the Parliament Library . The Committee keeps a watch on the quality and quantum of all acquisitions of the Library and gives comments and suggestions on the running and functioning of the Library and its ancillary services. The Parliament Library in India is distinct from the national library. Whereas access to the national library is open to all, the Parliament Library is intended mainly for Members of Parliament. Former Members of Parliament also are eligible to make use of the Library under certain conditions. Research scholars in specified cases and assistants of Members are also allowed access to consult the documents though not to borrow books and other publications. Organisation of LARRDIS LARRDIS is presently divided into the following functional Divisions: 1 2 3 4 5 6

The Research and Reference Divisions The Media and Research Division The Parliamentary Affairs Division The Library and Parliamentary Museum and Archives Division The Research and Documentation Division, and The Library Computerisation and Parliament Library Building Division.

The team of officers in each Division is led by a Joint Director. All the six Divisions are under the overall charge of a Director. Nomenclatures and the work allocated to these Divisions are subject to change, from time to time, depending upon the exigencies. At present we have a total of 154 research and library personnel working in the LARRDIS.

42

Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific

Parliament Library The Parliament Library has holdings of about 1 million volumes, including debates of the Indian Parliament, the State Legislatures of India, and Foreign Parliaments, reports of Central and State Governments and the United Nations and its allied agencies. Gazettes of Central and State Governments, and other documents. The Library receives nearly 200 newspapers from different parts of the country and from around the world. Of these. 181 newspapers are from India itself, which includes 33 newspapers in English, 40 in Hindi and 106 in the different regional languages of India. Foreign newspapers are received from United Kingdom, USA, Pakistan, China, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Indonesia. Afghanistan, Malaysia and Nepal. The Parliament Library also receives regularly 842 periodicals of which 263 are from abroad. Out of the 263 foreign periodicals, the UN and its agencies account for 59 titles and the rest are from different countries. Of the remaining 579 Indian periodicals, 403 arc in English, 94 in Hindi, and the remaining 82 are in various regional languages. Regional Languages Books Ours is a nation which abounds in diversity based on several factors, the main constant among them being the languages. Each one of our major languages is rich in its own way and in its distinctive literature. Together, these languages add to the richness of our Library heritage. Keeping this in mind, our Library has also laid emphasis on developing its Regional Languages collections. A separate wing, containing over 54,000 holdings on various Indian languages, has been carved out in the Library for the benefit of readers in regional languages. Gandhiana As a mark of respect to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Nation, and to make available all the works by and on the Mahatma at one place, there is a separate section called Gandhiana. This section contains about 1,700 books in Hindi, English and several other Indian regional languages. Similarly, the Parliament Library also has a separate section exclusively devoted to the first Prime Minister and architect of modern India, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Staff Library In order to enhance the reading habits of the employees of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha Secretariats and their wards, a separate "staff library" has been set up. Books are added to the StafTLibrary, from time to time, as per suggestions of the staff. The present holdings of the StafTLibrary are about 22,000 volumes. It also receives 22 newspapers and 59 periodicals regularly. Nearly 60 new books arc added to the Staff Library per month. Rare Books The Parliament Library has a fairly good collection of rare books. Books in this category number about 800. The oldest book available in the Library dates back to the year 1671.

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Acquisition and Processing The function of informing the Members about the new additions to the Library is primarily performed through our monthly publication Parliament Library Bulletin. Latest arrivals are also put on display on the "New Arrivals Counters". From time to time, book exhibitions are organised on various themes to mark specific occasions. Addition of books to the Library is made through purchase, gifts and exchange. We have exchange arrangements with 50 countries, 74 foreign institutions/Universities and 129 semi-government organisations in India. As mentioned earlier the Parliament Library is a depository of all UN publications. In all, we add 7,000 to 7.500 books and other publications to the Library every year. Of these 4,000 to 4,500 publications are purchased directly from the local booksellers. The acquisition procedure for books, particularly the initiation of titles for ordering, approval process, placing orders, accessioning, payments, acquisition order follow-up and on-line queries by readers, is now being carried out using the computer software package called LIBSYS. We classify books according to the 20th edition of the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme and catalogue cards arc prepared as per the 2nd edition of the Anglo-American Cataloguing Rules. We are using the Library of Congress List of Subject Headings (12th edition) for assigning search key words. Catalogue cards are arranged according to their class numbers as well as by author and subject in alphabetical dictionary order. For our card catalogue we follow word by word arrangement. Press Clipping Service We have a Press Clipping Service which helps in the speedy disposal of references from Members of Parliament on current subjects. All important news and views, which include editorial comments and articles from 19 English and 8 Hindi dailies published in different States of India, are clipped and maintained in separate subject folders. Moreover, Press Information Bureau (PIB) releases, features of the Indian News and Feature Alliance (INFA) and other daily digests of news and views on matters if topical interest are scrutinised for being retained in the folders. These folders have been found very useful by Members and other researchers who arc always asking for them. We are also planning to have the clippings microfilmed. Reprography Service A reprography service has also been set up to meet the urgent requirements of Members for photocopying important press clippings, parliamentary questions and answers, articles from periodicals and newspapers and extracts from books and other documents. We have four photocopying machines at present and Members of Parliament and accredited press correspondents can get free copies of the documents connected with parliamentary proceedings. Documentation Service One of the principal adjuncts of our Library is its Documentation Service. It indexes and prepares annotations of important books, reports and articles appearing in newspapers and periodicals received in the Parliament Library . These indexes and annotations are classified and published in a fortnightly indexing periodical tilled Parliamentary Documentation. They are

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also fed into the computer to facilitate searches. The service has now become an invaluable aid for research and référencé activity. It also enables preparation of select documentation lists for the use of Members. Microfilming Service The Parliament Library has a large collection of old debates, magazines, reports, rare files, and other documents which are required to be preserved for reference over long periods. We have started to preserve these documents in the form of microfilm rolls. Our microfilming service is now equipped with microfilmers, cameras, processors, duplicators, and microfilm reader-cumprinters. There is also a Computer Aided Retrieval (CAR) system for retrieving information form the microfilmed documents. Research and Information Service The Research and Information Division of the LARRDIS regularly brings out books, monographs, brochures, background notes, and so on, on matters of parliamentary interest, including prospective legislative measures which arc likely to generate demands from Members. Research notes arc also prepared by this Service for use at Seminars, Conferences and Symposia and for the parliamentary delegations going abroad. Our Research and Information Service brings out the following periodicals: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Journal of Parliamentary Information (Quarterly) Digest of Central Acts (Quarterly) Digest of Legislative and Constitutional Cases (Quarterly) Abstracts of Books. Reports and Articles (Quarterly) Diary of Political Events (Monthly) Science and Technology - News Digest (Monthly) IPG News Letter (Quarterly)

8

Public Undertakings - Digest of News and Views (Monthly)

Members' Reference Service The Members' Reference Service is perhaps the one service which is the most sought after by Members especially during Session days. It collects and supplies, on demand, factual and objective information to Members of Parliament, Presiding Officers and Committees. The Members' Reference Service also undertakes anticipatory referencing work and brings out Information Bulletins, Background Notes, and prepares Study Boxes on topical issues. For this, the requirement of Members is assessed well in advance and relevant material is kept handy. During the course of an average year the number of references received, and disposed of would come to about 5,000. Computerised Information Service The Parliament Library has introduced a computcr-aided information system know as PARLIS. The database is created by the Library's Computer Centre with the help of the National Informatics Centre (NIC). Our Computer Centre is presently linked with the NIC's satellitebased network known as NICNET. It is possible to interact with various

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Departments/Ministries of the Central and the State Governments and other organisations with the help of NICNET. In addition the network links State Capitals and all the District Headquarters in India. The Parliament Library is thus able to exchange messages and other information with the State Legislatures and District Headquarters. NICNET is also connected with major international networks like INTERNET, SPRININET, UUNET. TELNET, TYMNET, DATAPAK, and so on. Therefore, it is possible to inter-change information with foreign Legislatures too. Members of Parliament can have access to computerised information/database available in the Computer Centre from their residences through their personal computers. The ultimate aim is to offer speedy and efficient service to Legislators through a well-articulated and versatile Library and Information Network. Parliament of India WEB Page The Parliament of India home page at the world wide web site of the INTERNET became active on 15th March 1996. The information contained in the documents of the Indian Parliament, which until now existed in printed form, is now available to people across political and geographical barriers. The Constitution of India, Constituent Assembly Debates, Rules of Procedure and ( induct of Business in Lok Sabha, Directions by the Speaker ofLok Sabha, Decisions from the Chair, Parliamentary Debates from November, 1995, and bio-data of Members of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha constitute the major components of the parliamentary information now available on the Internet. A comprehensive introduction to the constitution and functioning of the Parliament and facilities provided to the Members and to visitors is also given. The Internet address of the Site is: http://alfa.nic.in. Audio-Visual Service Computers, films, videos, and so on, have become normal elements of our Library culture and their products contribute to our knowledge and general world-view. Video News Magazines covering important national and international events in different areas of politics, economics, law, and so on, brought out regularly by various organisations and agencies, are of immense use to Members. Moreover, the archival value of recordings of parliamentary proceedings is also increasingly felt. Our Audio-Visual Service is maintaining a complete set of all the recordings of parliamentary proceedings from the time video recordings started in 1989. There is a proposal to acquire video copies of the proceedings of the Parliaments of other countries, too, in exchange for the cassettes produced by us. Language learning courses also form an integral part of the Audio-Visual Service. Media Relations LARRD1S caters to the needs of the press and other mass media, including television, radio, films, and so on. and provides all possible facilities to enable them to cover the day-to-day proceedings of the Lok Sabha. For this a separate Wing has been set up within the LARRDIS. It establishes liaison with the parliamentary press correspondents and the various government publicity organisations and communications media for the proper publicity of parliamentary and other activities of the Lok Sabha.

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Il displays on llie closcd circuit Television (CCTV) system, information pertaining to on-going business in both the Houses of Parliament. Important news items received through teleprinter machines arc regularly collcclcd. edited and displayed on news display boards at regular intervals throughout the day during session period for the information of Members. Parliamentary Museum and Archives (PMA) The Parliament Library has also set up the Parliamentary Museum and Archives (PMA) which has a section of photographs and films to preserve an authentic, comprehensive, complete and up-to-date pictorial record of the history of the institution of Parliament, its activities and personalities. The PMA has a Museum Section which contains models, charts, objects and photographs depicting the evolution and functioning of parliamentary institutions in India and elsewhere. A separate Parliamentary Archives Section within PMA has also been carved out. It plans to acquire and preserve the records connected with the framing of India's Constitution, the growth and work of parliamentary institutions and private papers of parliamentarians, irrespective of their political affiliations. These records are open to scholars, private as well as official, for consultation to promote scholarly ventures in the sphere of parliamentary and democratic traditions, practices and institutions. From time to time, the PMA organises exhibitions on varying themes mostly connected with the functioning and achievements of Parliament. All photographs, records, books, and archival documents arc accessioned and their indexes are computerised for facilitating reference and research work. Future Plans As mentioned earlier, the Parliament Library which had a modest beginning in the early twenties, started growing with the attainment of independence by the country in 1947. Now it has a staff strength of more than 150. The collections of the Library, too, have grown rapidly and have crosscd the million mark. For some time now, we have been finding it too difficult to manage with the existing accommodation both for books and for staff. At last a solution is in sight. A new Parliament Library Building is coming next to the Parliament House. The project is due for completion in 1998. The new Library Building with all modern facilities will help us in improving the information services, and creature comforts, too, available the users of the Library.

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The Legislative Support Services of The National Diet Library by Hisae Umeda

11

Introduction The National Diet Library, as a whole, primarily serves the Diet, or the Parliament, in assisting the Diet Members to perform their duties. At the same time, it has a mission to provide library services for the executive and judicial branches of the national government and for the general public. In other words, the National Diet Library is a large comprehensive library with a combined function of providing research services for the Diet. It seems that the most striking changes in terms of the legislative support services o f the National Diet Library arc now under way. One of them is the wave of automation rushing into the office. While the wave reaches everywhere in the Library, it has apparently a larger impact on the legislative research realm. Not only the process, but the products o f research activities, are changing by the adoption of a variety of machines and electronic tools. The other major change currently going on might be called social and political. A younger, more educated and more well-informed cohort has been growing in the Diet. Requests for research from the Diet members vary much more widely in topics and materials than ever before. They are more competitive and demanding for information in a period of political realignment in Japan and economic and cultural globalization. Along with these trends, the Diet itself lately has been seeking a way to reinforce its legislative function with stronger legislative research support. Easier public access to information about the Diet is also emphasised in this context. The library, specifically its Research and Legislative Reference Bureau, now faces a critical need to review the services it provides, recalling the starting point.

Brief History of the Library The National Diet Library was founded in 1948. Prior to the founding of the Library, the people o f Japan had a new Constitution in 1946, which established the democratic parliamentary system as the highest state power of Japan. Following this came the recognition that the establishment ofa parliamentary library with an effective research function would be absolutelyessential to the system. The National Diet Library Law, under which the Library was founded, explicitly declared the ideal o f its establishment as follows: "The National Diet Library is hereby established as a

II

Ms Hisae Umeda works in the Overseas Information Division, Research and Legislative Reference Bureau, National Diet Library, Japan.

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result of the fimi conv iction that 'truth makes us free' and with the object of contributing to international pcacc and the démocratisation of Japan as promised in out Constitution". The library has two origins: the libraries of both houses of the Imperial Diet under the Meiji Constitution, and the Imperial Library under the Ministry of Education. Most of the 1 million volumes of the Imperial Library collection were taken over by the present National Diet Library. The National Diet Library went through its first major developmental period during the 1960's, when the size of the library collections and staff was dramatically expanded, and construction of the main building of the library was completed. The mid 1980's was another remarkable period, when the annex building was founded with enormous book stack space to cope with the rapid increase of materials beyond expectations. In terms of the legislative research services, most of the basic resources were put in order during the 1%0's, and they were rearranged to improve services in the mid-1980's.

Setting of the Library The Legislature The Legislative system of Japan is bicameral. In the parliamentary system of government, the Diet designates the prime minister from among its members by a vote. Members of both houses of the Diet, the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors, are elected directly by popular vote. With regard to the House of Representatives, a new electoral system is being adopted in the next general election expected to be held within the next few months. While the current members of the House of Representatives have been elected from the "medium sized" three or more seat constituencies, the new system is a combination of the first-past-the-post and the proportional representation [PR] systems; out of the 500 members of the House of Representatives, 300 are to be elected from the single-seat "small" constituencies, and 200 by a regional PR system. The House of Councillors has another combined electoral system: while 100 out of the 252 members of the House of Councillors are elected under a nationwide PR system, the rest of the members are elected from 47 prefcclural electoral districts, each with 2 to 8 seats. The Status of the Library in the Diet The National Diet Library is an integral part of the Diet, along with both houses. Though the Library is independent of the Secretariats of both Houses, it is under the control of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the House of Councillors. More specifically, it comes under the supervision of the Standing Committees on Rules and Administration of both houses, which examine and approve the rules and regulations for the administration of the Library. The two presiding officers jointly appoint the Librarian, who is required to report to them annually the managerial and financial state of the Library.

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Relationship with other branches of the government The National Diet Library keeps close contact with the executive and judicial offices of the government, especially through its thirty-five branch libraries in the ministries, agencies and the Supreme Court. The Library provides library services to the agencies to support them in performing their duties. Arranging interlibrary loans, delivering materials including foreign government publications, and cooperating in research services are among the services provided. On the other hand, each branch library with its speciality provides information services to the Library. Stronger networking between the Library and the branch libraries is under way.

Organization and staffing of the Parliamentary Library Organization of the National Diet Library Librarian Deputy Librarian Administrative Department Research and Legislative Refercncc Bureau Acquisitions Department Books Department Serials Department Special Materials Department Library Cooperation Department Detachcd Library in the Diet Ueno Library Toyo Bunko (Oriental Library) 35 branch libraries in the executive and judicial agencies of the government. Research and Legislative Reference Bureau While the National Diet Library in general serves the Diet, as mentioned above, it has a special department through which the Diet members can seek research or information services. The department, the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau, has 14 divisions with an expert staff of over 150 persons. They arc engaged in a variety of research activities, from collecting data to analyzing bills and evaluating arguments on issues, making the best use of the whole Library collection. Occasionally, they draft a bill at the request of a member or a committee of cither House. Besides doing research work on demand, the Bureau conducts anticipatory studies on its own initiative, taking up issues likely to be debated in the Diet. Most of the results of such studies are provided to the Diet members through publication.

Organization of the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau A simplified organization chart of the Bureau:

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Director Deputy Director General Affairs Division Legislative Reference and Co-ordinating Division Research Materials Division - Research Materials Room Statutes and Parliamentary Documents Division Statutes and Parliamentary Documents Room Politics and Parliamentary Affairs Division Public Administration and Judicial Affairs Division Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division Finance Division Trade, Industry and Technology Division Agriculture. Forestry and Environment Division Land Development and Communications Division Education and Culture Division Social Welfare and Labor Division Overseas Information Division Out of the 14 divisions of the Bureau in the chart above, 10 divisions from the Politics and Parliamentary Affairs Division onwards are mainly engaged in direct research work. They are organized accordingly to subjects, so that inquiries can be undertaken most efficiently. Statutes and Parliamentary Documents Room One of the other four di visions, administrative or supportive, holds a special library of laws and parliamentary documents from all over the world. The library, housed in the Statutes and Parliamentary Documents Room, comprises 340,000 volumes of materials, including parliamentary minutes of 30 national assemblies of the world. The collection is an extremely valuable resource for research activities. The materials in the Room are available to the general public as well as to the staff of the Bureau. Research Materials The Bureau also has its own library to support its research activities. It includes about 200,000 books and 3,000 periodical titles. While the major resource for the research services of the Bureau is the materials stored in the huge stacks of the National Diet Library, the collection of working materials is essential for the more frequent and immediate use of the Bureau. These 'research materials' are maintained separately from the general materials of the Library. Staff of the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau The Bureau has 16 senior specialists and 5 associate senior specialists among its 153 staff workers as of August 1, 1996. Some of the staffhave doctoral or master's degrees, mainly in political science, law and economics. Most of the staff, however, are recruited through competitive and open examinations held once a year. They are often assigned to various sections in the Library other than the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau in the early years of their careers. They are trained as researchers through day-to-day research activities or special training sessions inside and outside the Bureau.

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Detached Library in the Diet Some library services for the Diet members and their staff are provided in the Detached Library in the Diet Building The Detached Library, with its own 73,000 books and 600 periodicals, serves mainly for their immediate needs. Occasionally requests for further inquiry from the Diet members are passed on lo appropriate divisions of the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau. Organizationally, the Detached Library in the Diet is independent of the Bureau.

Library Collections and Other Resources Size of Collections As the sole deposit library in Japan, the National Diet Library receives one copy of every private publication throughout the country and up to 30 copies of government publications. In addition, the Library has been increasing its collection by acquiring materials, domestic and foreign, by purchase, exchange, or gifl. As of May 1996. the National Diet Library holds 6,400,000 volumes of books and 150,000 titles of serial publications, including 8.000 newspapers. Various types of non-book materials are also collected, including 220,000 reels of microfilms, 5,800,000 microfiche, and 400,000 discs. The number of CD-ROMs is not big so far, counting 1,400 as of March 1996. Reading Rooms for the Diet Members The National Diet Library has various types of special reading rooms reserved exclusively for the Diet members' use: one reading room, 20 individual study rooms, a browsing room, a seminar room and three meeting rooms. These rooms are managed by the Research and Legislative Refercncc Bureau. They are located on the top floor of the Main Building of the Library, across the road from the Diet Building. The Detached Library in the Diet Building also has a reading room for the Diet members and their staff. It is situated in the very center of the Main Diet Building at an equal distance from each Chamber.

Services and Products Services offered by the Library The services offered to the Diet members through the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau range widely from a simple data finding to a highly complex inquiry depending on the request. The form of the Bureau's answers, therefore, also varies. A good many requests are satisfied with materials: books loaned from the library collections, or photocopies of journal articles. This type of answer, however, very often requires more knowledge and labor than would seem. In order to render better services, each of the research staff has to collect and maintain data which might help the quick response to the request, constantly browsing and checking materials in his or her major area of subject responsibility. In other cases, the Bureau provides its own reports on issues. On 'hot' topics, for example, reform of the government, deregulation and decentralization, or control of cult groups, the staff produce many research papers either in response to requests, or as preparatory work.

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Subject specialists of the Bureau are often asked to provide briefings either at a Member's office or at policy study meetings. As mentioned above (under 'Research and Legislative Reference Bureau'), bill drafting is one of assignments of the Bureau. During 1995, the Bureau provided 23 draft bills. This kind of service, however, is more often rendered by the Legislative Bureaus of both Houses. Publications Most of the results of preparatory research work are published in the Bureau's periodicals, including Reference (monthly), Foreign Legislation (bi-monthly), and Overseas News Guide (bi-weekly), or in ad hoc publications such as Issue Brief and Research MateriaI Series. Some 40 new titles of the Issue Brief arc prepared by the staff of the Bureau every year. Each Issue Brief is designed to provide the Diet members with essential information in a concise manner. Besides these publications, the Bureau compiles and publishes General Index to the Debates in the Diet for every session, and Index to Japanese Laws and Regulations in Force annually. Workload of the Legislative Research Services The work load of the Bureau has increased more and more over the years. The total number of answers to requests exceeded 20.000 each year in 1994 and 1995, jumping from some 8,000 in 1980. Clients Other than the Diet Members While legislative research services by the Bureau are addressed primarily to the Diet members, it often acccpts research requests from the headquarters of political parties and from the Secretaríais of both Houses. Sometimes the Bureau answers requests from national and local government offices, academics, researchers and the private sector, including the press, to the extent that services for the Diet members are not undermined.

Developments in Automation Office Automation in the Research and Legislative Reference Bureau The Bureau has 38 personal computers, as of August 1, for its staff of 153. Another 11 PCs are to be installed in this summer. Each staff member connected with the Diet will have a PC by the end of the 1997 financial year. Within the Library , the personal computers are connected to the LAN [Local Area Network], Through the machines most of the staff make use of the databases including the Library's NOREN (National Diet Library Online Information Retrieval Network) system which involves the catalogues of the Library collections, the Periodical Articles ' Index, the General Index to the Debates in the Diet, and commercial databases such as DIALOG, NEXIS, TEXTLINE and LEGI-SLATE. These databases help the staff search for materials and information more quickly and efficiently.

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Full Text base System of the Minutes The Research and Legislative Reference Bureau now developing two major plans for automation. One of them is the construction of a full text data base for the Debates of the Diet [Hansard], According to the plan, the full text of all debates is to be digitalized at the early stage of compilation of the debates, so that users will be able to retrieve the text completely and with less time lag. While the General Index to the Debates has long been available online, and an optical disk filing system for the text o f Debates has been started, mainly for retrospective research, the full text of the Debates has still to be connected to the online system. The Secretariats of both Houses and the Library are jointly in charge of developing the new system, which is to be accessible firstly to the Diet members via the LAN, and then to the public by 1999. It means that the full text data base will be opened soon to nationwide and worldwide personal computer networks, through which any person will be able to search the Debates of the Diet. Total Management System for Legislative Research Services The other major automation plan of the Bureau is a total management system of research activities and materials. The Bureau has just started the construction of such a system as a 3 year plan. In the system, records of answers to requests, the text of anticipatory research papers and any other information helpful to the services are to be digitalized and stored online with a special tracking device.

Important Developments in the Library As mentioned in the Introduction, the legislative research services in the National Diet Library are faced by critical problems. At the same time, the need for better research services is growing. The Library as a whole has started the plan to build a new library in the western part of the country in an effort to cope with the needs of a digital age. While it is not clear how far the new library, temporarily called Kansai-Kan, and expected to be opened in 2002, may be able to display the planned function from the very beginning, facilities and devices of the new library could lead to widening the potential of the legislative research services. Consequently, there are more pressing needs for the staff engaged in the legislative research services to be trained to make the best use of more sophisticated tools, and to be able to evaluate both their merits and demerits, in order to provide better services.

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National Assembly Library of the Republic of Korea by

Hyun Koo Lee 12

Brief History of the Library The Foundation of NAL The National Assembly Library (NAL) was founded to meet the information needs of the Members on February 20, 1952, in Pusan, the provisional capital of the nation in the midst of the 1950-1953 Korean War. The establishment of the National Assembly Library was initiated in the Moo-duck Hall of the Kyungnam Provincial Office that was used as the temporary assembly hall with the proclamation of a "Resolution for the creation of a national assembly library" by sixteen Members including Tack-joong Yoon on July 26, 1951. The purpose of their resolution was to establish a reading room, even with only a few collections of domestic and foreign newspapers and reading materials, in the hope that it would help them to carry out their legislative roles, although the nation was at war. Thus, with a very modest collection of only 3,604 books and a staff of four, the National Assembly Library of the Republic of Korea was bom. O n November 26. 1963, the National Assembly Library Law was enacted, proclaiming the birth of the National Assembly Library as an independent institute of the parliament. But after this declaration, due to the swirl of political changes, the Library's status was changed and its law was abolished, making it necessary to become a unit or supporting unit of the Secretariat until the National Assembly Library Law was reenacted in 1988.

Major developmental periods Since the foundation of the Library, over the past four decades, the library has grown steadily in both function and organization. But it was in the 1980s when it marked an epoch in development, particularly when the Library moved into a new granite-stone building with a total floor spacc of approximately 26,000 square meters. This was the first time the Library had its own independent building and embarked on a sweeping computer project for the automation of both parliamentary affairs and library management. On December 29, 1988. the National Assembly Library Law was reenacted and the Library was reborn as an independent unit of the National Assembly.

12

Hyun Koo Lee is the Director of the National Assembly Library in Seoul, Korea.

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Setting of the Library Korean Legislature The present lypc of government is a presidential system in which the President is directly elected by the people for a single five-year term. The National Assembly is unicameral with a mixed system of electing indiv idual members as well as having a proportional system. The total number of Members of the present Constituent Assembly is 299, with 46 Members choscn through the proportional system. Location of NAL in the Parliamentary Structure The director of the NAL is appointed by the Speaker of the National Assembly with the advice and consent of the House Steering Committee according to the National Assembly Law. Although the Library is an independent unit of the legislature, the director must report to the House Steering Committee for the inspection and approval of its budget. Sharing Arrangements Relationships with other institutions or libraries are mostly carried out through the regular meetings of the Korean Library Association. And although not active, an Interlibrary loan service is available for users nationwide. Recently, the Library has established a research sharing agreement along with interlibrary loans with the Supreme Court Library.

Organization and Staffing Organization Chart Sec Attachment Principal Units The NAL is comprised of the following: the Legislative Information Research and Analysis Department, the Acquisition and Processing Bureau, the Information Technology Management Bureau, the Office of Planning, Budgeting and Auditing, and the General Affairs Division. The Legislative Research and Analysis Department is divided into six groups. The divisions are: Political and Diplomatic Affairs, Judicial and Public Administration, Education and Science, Finance and Economy. Industry and Trade, and Welfare and Environment, each headed by a division chief The department is staffed with 23 professional researchers who have a minimum qualification of a doctoral degree in their respective areas. Grouped into six divisions, as mentioned above, each consists of three to five researchers. The Acquisition and Processing Bureau comprises the Acquisition Division, the Cataloging Division, and the Inter-Library Cooperation Division, where the tasks of material collecting and cataloging along with domestic and international cooperation take place. The Reference Service Bureau provides collected and categorized materials to users and takes charge of maintaining the reading rooms and collections of the Library. It includes the

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Circulation Division, the Non-Book Materials Division, the Parliamentary and Legal Documents Division and the Information Service Division. At the Information Technology Management Bureau, the automation plan of the Library is established and analyzed and various forms of database are produced, maintained and preserved. This bureau has three offices: the Automated System Division, the System Analysis Office, and the Database Production Division. Staff The N A L has 276 permanent staff members. Over half of the staff consists of librarians who have majored in Library Science: 98 librarians and 47 assistant librarians. With the director included, there are 45 administrative staff members. The other staff consist of 21 persons working within the computer management/programming area, 23 researchers, and 42 clerical/technical staff. Training To keep up with the fast developing society and the globalization of the world, the Library has language programs for interested staff members. W c also promote and plan overseas language/intern programs. An obligatory training program at the Library is the on-the-job training at the Civil Servant Central Training Institute. The Library also has several computer education sessions and seminars on the ethics of civil servants.

Library Collections and other resources Collection Size The total collection of the library is almost 1.100.000 volumes including over 160,000 bound periodicals and over 300,000 master's and doctoral degree dissertations. In addition, bound newspapers, microform material, audio and video tapes, and CD-ROM are also available. The number of domestic and foreign periodicals is approximately 13,300 titles, and the number of newspaper subscriptions is nearly 770. And the Social Sciences Index/Fulltext, ABI/Inform, GPO, EconLit, PAIS International, and so on, make up the 35 different kinds of commercial C D - R O M in our library. The library also has in store over 1,600 maps and almost 600 individual art objects. The general book collection of N A L can be classified into the following: Units: Volumes (As of December 1995) Classification Monographs

Bindings

Theses

Total

%

Social Science

355,754

73,487

100,159

529,400

49.08

Humanities

164,023

56,497

82,608

303,128

28.10

71,293

28,038

146,827

246,158

22.82

591,070

158,022

329,594

1,078,686

100.00

54.80

14.65

30.55

100.00

Natural Science Total %

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Collection classified by language: Units: Volumes (As of December 1995) Classification Monographs Bindings

Korean

English

Japanese

Chinese

Others

Total

328,447

112,576

110,737

110,737

25,750

591,070

77,106

36,744

29,171

6,102

8,899

158,022

Theses

329,594

Total

735,147

149,320

139,908

19,662

34,649

1,078,686

68.15

13.84

12.97

1.82

3.21

100

%

329,594

Collection policy Most of the Library's collection of domestic materials is dependent upon legal deposit from government agencies, research institutions, and publishers' associations according to the National Assembly Library Law. However, most foreign materials are purchased through book jobbers. Liaison officers of the NAL stationed in the US, Japan, France, and China collect and inform the Library of local materials and information. Another method of acquisition is the use of exchange arrangements made with 254 institutions of 64 countries. As the Library is a legal depository library for all UN materials, those and related materials are being effectively collected. Reading rooms There is a total of 15 reading rooms at the National Assembly Library including the Reference Room, the Members' Reading room, the Newspaper Reading Room, the Periodical Reading Room, and many more. The closest reading room available to the Members is the mini reading room which is open inside the plenary session hall in the National Assembly Building during the plenary sessions. There is also a Members' Reading Room next to the main entrance of the National Assembly Members' Building open regularly. The Library itself is less than five minutes away from the Assembly Building by foot.

Services and Products As the mission of the Library is lo support the legislative activities of Members and their staff, a few of the library services provided are specialized and limited to them only. These services are the following: Research and Analysis Service Research and analysis of information services for the legislative activities and examinations of state affairs of the Members are provided by 23 researchers at the Legislative Analysis and Research Department. Indirect services are also provided through the publication of legislative information. The researchers research and analyze current and developing issues in their own areas of expertise which are then published into materials such as Issue Brief, Info-Brief, Analysis of International Issues, and Analysis of Legislative Research.

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Bibliographic reference service for the inspection of bills Bibliographic rcfcrencc service of domestic and foreign journals, monographs, dissertations, newspaper, and commercial databases are provided for the study of bills or specific issues. Translation/Interpretation Duties Five specialists, specializing in English, Japanese, French, Russian, and Chinese, provide translations on legislative information and current issues of interest upon the request of the Members. They also provide interpretation in their specialised languages when needed. Summarized translations of articles, editorials and analysis reports related to legislation, law and Korea of 10 major international newspapers, including the Washington Post, Le Monde, Yomiuri, and so on, are available on email via the local area network within the National Assembly grounds. Multimedia and database service Information on the Internet and various forms of databases including CD-ROMs of bibliographic information and imaged full-texts of journals and papers is collected and provided upon request. List of New Arrivals A list of newly received books, video tapes compact discs, and so on, of value for the legislative activities of the Members, is provided weekly on the electronic bulletin board via the local area network. Free photocopying service The Library provides free photocopying services exclusively for Members and their staff only. As the NAL plays the role of a national library as well as a parliamentary library, other major services provided by the Library arc the following: Publication and distribution of national bibliographic information The publication of national bibliographic indexes of domestic materials for nationwide distribution is provided at the Library. Approximately 1,500 copies are printed for cach publication and arc distributed free of charge. Particularly, the Index to Korean Periodical Articles has been published by the NAL since 1964 for the effective use of serial publications. Another bibliographic index is the Index to Korean Master's and Doctoral Theses which has been provided by the Library since 1969. Digitalization of national bibliographic information Today, as the Library is working on digitalizing the national bibliographies on CD-ROMs and producing a database to promote on-line access to this service, users can retrieve bibliographic information through either Chollian, a commercial network or the National Administrative

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Total Information System (NATIS). The digitalization of this data is an ongoing project, into the future. Advertisement of services For the effective use of the above mentioned services, the services are advertised to the Members and their staff through the National Assembly Broadcasting Network and various booklet and pamphlets distributed to the offices of the Members and their staff. These materials arc also handed out to them during the introductory education programs provided for the Members and their s t a f f a i the beginning of a new session. The workload and services provided by the Library in the year 1995 can be summarized into the following: Acquisition The total number of monographs collected in 1995 through deposits, purchases, exchanges and self-publications amounts to 65,760 volumes of monographs, 56,590 volumes of periodicals, 486 newspaper titles, 23 kinds of CD-ROMs, 448 video tapes, 52 CDs, 214 cassette tapes, 304 rolls of microfilm, 7,766 pieces of microfiche, and 61 maps. Cataloging Since 1990, the Library's collections (primarily the social science collections) have been and still are being digitalized. As of October 1995, the Library has been cataloging occidental titles by using the CAT CD-450 of OCLC. Quick Reference Service The importance of this service of providing researched and analyzed information on various subjects upon the requests of the Members is emphasized at the NAL and the number of requests have accelerated yearly and the total number of requests made during 1995 was 443. Circulation The circulation of materials increased by 19.5% in 1995. And the number of users has increased by approximately 14% compared to the previous year. Other information services Bibliographic information relating to the bills being introduced in the Assembly is provided to the Standing Committee Members and their staff. This information is collected and analyzed from newspaper articles, periodicals, theses, and monographs. The total number of requests made for this service was 74, creating 3,554 volumes of indexes. The workload of the five language specialists for 1995 amounted to 107 research/translations. And 1,466 translations of summaries of newspaper clippings were provided on email via the local area network.

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The number of reference requests made to the reference librarians to retrieve materials for specific subjects last year amounted to 172,081 requests from 33,946 persons. Main users As the primary function of the library is to serve the National Assembly, naturally the main clients are Members, their staff and officials working with the Secretariat. Also the government ministries and agencies, scholars, teachers, graduate students, members of the press and the staff of foreign embassies are entitled to use the library. In addition, the library is now issuing an increasing number of regular membership cards and temporary permission cards to the general public in an effort to further promote utilization of the Library's materials.

Developments in Automation The automation and database system of the National Assembly is being promoted to provide accurate and timely information to support the legislative activities and reviewing of policy-making of the Members. Within the National Assembly grounds, there are approximately 600 terminals connecting the library. Secretariat, parliamentary committees and the offices of Members via one single network. The National Assembly network system enables access to an electronic bulletin board, E-Mail, state of introduced bills, committee schedules, the National Assembly Online System (NOLIS), and the public network. In March 1996, NOLIS was fitted with a menu system to make it easier for beginners. Library Databases The N A L databases, still under development, can be divided into three categories; bibliographic, legislative, and administrative information. This digitalization process has been underway since the 1980s and will continue into the future. The bibliographic information files consist of the following: monographic catalog ( M O N O ) , Serial Publication Catalog (SERL), Index to Periodical Articles (KPA), Index to Korean Master's and Doctoral Theses (CTMD), Non-book Material Catalog (XXMF), Pamphlet Catalog (PAMF), Newspaper Catalog(NPMF), and the UN Material Catalog (UN Materials). The legislative information available is the following: Full-text Database of National Assembly Records (FULL TEXT DB), National Assembly Record Index (NARI), Index to the Record of Inspection of State Affairs and Government Reports (AUDIT), Bill Information Retrieval System (BIRES), Inter-Parliamentary Affairs System (IPAS), Legislative Terminology (TERM), and the Bill Status Tracking System. Particularly, the full-text system of the National Assembly's Inspection of State Affairs and Government Reports consists of information collected from the Executive and other organizations to be used for inspections and legislative activities by the Members which are databased and available in full-text. The Reference Information Service System manages the reference questions made by the Members mainly to the Legislative Information Research and Analysis Department. It permits online management of reference questions and answers, retrieval of information available in full-text, authority file, statistics and overall management of these tasks. In addition, this system will be developed into a multi-tasking system.

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And lastly, administration information available includes the following: the circulation system, gift and exchange system, electronic bulletin board, E-Mail, payroll file, telephone directory, and personnel record file. GLIN Project With respect to digitalizing printed materials, the NAL is digitalizing information on Korean legislation as a participant of the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN). This network prov ides a database of national laws from more than 35 participating countries around the world accessed from a World Wide Web server of the U.S. Library of Congress. Through this database, users may access legal abstracts in English and come full texts of laws in the language of the contributing country. As a representative of this project in Korea, the NAL will continue to actively contribute Korean legislative information on this network. Multimedia Center At the Multimedia Center within the library, there is a CD-ROM Room, Optical File Room, and a Audio-Visual Room. In the CD-ROM Room, bibliographic information and imaged data on CD-ROM are retrieved cither using the Stand-alone disc form or the network. To digitali«: collected documents in the library, they are image-scanned at the center and can be retrieved, printed and faxed in the Optical File Room.

Important Developments in the Library To adapt to the ever increasing requests of legislative information from the Members, the NAL has taken and continue to plan several steps to support the Members and their staff more promptly and efficiently. Organization Chart As the collection of books acccleratcd, the need for the Library to have a building of its own was called for. It was in 1987 when the Library could finally move into an independent building. And as the request of information needed to support the legislative activities of the Members and staff increased yearly, the organization chart of the Library changed accordingly. Originally part of the Secretariat, the Legislative Information Research and Analysis Department was joined into the Library chart in March 1989and was strengthened with outstanding researchers as an independent department of its own for the first time. Digital Library Project The N A L is promoting a digital library project to follow the mainstream of the rapidly changing information environment and to efficiently provide information to the National Assembly Members and their staff. The most important and recent trend of the NAL would

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be the installation and testing of the full-text database system of the National Assembly Records which was planned with the government's fund for the promotion of the information superhighway network. This system provides vernacular recordings of the Members, proceeding schedules, introduced and referred bills, committee reports, written question and answers and so on in full text which can be sorted and retrieved according to the name of the speaker, the bill's name and number, the organization being inspected, the subject, and key words. Although the system is operating, it is being tested this year and will be available to the public in 1997 via information superhighway networks. Future of the NAL There is no doubt that the development of an institute requires continuous planning and revision to effectively adapt to the changes in this modern age of today. Research and participation in a project as immense and dynamic as the promotion of a digital library must be supported with a stable and ongoing fund. In our case, since the Library is being supported by the government to participate in the national information superhighway network, the fund needed to keep the project going is somewhat being provided. And as tlic Members of the present 15th Constituent Assembly are more enthusiastic than ever about the legislative information provided by the Library, the future of the Library is bright. Because it is the acknowledgments from these primary users that motivates the development of a library and encourages the staff to strive in all positions to achieve their best in supporting the parliamentary . Lastly, as the N A L is a national library being run by the tax of Korean citizens, the N A L carrics the responsibility of continuously providing library service to them, not to mention users worldwide in today's global community.

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and Information

Services

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The Library of the State Great Hural of Mongolia by Banzragch Odonjil 13

Brief history of the Library Until 1990 there was one-party rule in Mongolia, namely, the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party, which exercised state power and defined state policy. After the break of the 1990 democratic revolution a new democratic constitution was adopted in 1992, which fundamentally changed the political structure of Mongolia and Mongolia was proclaimed a country with parliamentary rule. Since the institutionalization of the permanently functioning parliament in Mongolia an urgent need arose to establish a Parliamentary Library. Thus in 1992 the State Great Hural's Library was founded on the basis of the former Social Sciences Institute Library attached to the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party in the past.

Setting of the Library Parliament in Mongolia The new Constitution adopted in 1992 stipulates "Mongolia is a Republic with Parliamentary rule". Mongolia has a one chamber Parliament and the supreme legislative body is the State Great Hural. It consists of 76 members elected for a term of four years by citizens qualified to vote, on the basis of universal, free and direct suffrage by secret ballot. Pursuant to the State Great Hural election law (adopted in 1992 and amended in 1996) parliamentary elections are held in 76 electoral districts with one representative each (majority election system). A candidate having received a majority of votes in Che election is considered to have won and is elected a member to the State Great Hural. The mandate of a Member of the State Great Hural begins with an oath taken before the State Emblem and expires when newly elected members of the State Great Hural are sworn in. Structure of the Parliament The State Great Hural exercises its powers through its sessions, and/or through standing, special committees, sub-committees, party groups and other organizational forms. A basic form of the procedure is a session.

13

Banzragch Odonjil is in charge of the Library of the State Great Hural of Mongolia.

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The Stale Great Hural will adopt laws or make other decisions only at its sessional meetings. The President convokes constituent sessions of the State Great Hural within 30 days following elections. After the newly elected members are sworn in, the Slate Great Hural will debate and make decisions on the election o f its Chairman and Vice-Chairman, on the establishment o f Standing Committees and election o f their members and bureau and on the nomination of the Prime Minister and other members o f the Government. Pending the election of a Chairman of the State Great Hural an elder member of the Parliament will chair the first meeting of the constituent session. The Chairman of the State Great Hural is nominated and elected from among the Members o f the State Great Hural by a secret ballot and has the following powers: 1

to announce sessions of the State Great Hural and ensure preparations for a session;

2

to propose an agenda and an order of business for a session;

3

to chair meetings of a session and discussion o f draft laws and other business;

4

to conduct foreign relations of the State Great Hural and exercise other duties provided for by law.

The basic structure for the organization and conduct of business in the State Great Hural are the Standing Committees. A Standing Committee prepares and works out items to be included on the agenda, holds preliminary discussions on them and makes conclusions and recommendations as well as monitoring compliance on issues under its competence. The State Great Hural establishes Standing Committees according to its areas o f competence. The present Parliament has the following six Standing Committees: 1

Social Policy Standing Committee

2

State Structure Standing Committee

3

Budget, Finance, Monetary and Loan Policy Standing Committee

4

Legal Affairs Standing Committee

5

Rural Policy and Environment Standing Committee

6

Economic Policy Standing Committee

The Chairman of each Standing Committee is elected from among the members of the Parliament for a term of one year and can be re-elected. If it deems it necessary, the State Great Hural may set up a Sub-Committee within the Standing Committee. The Sub-Committee is attached to a given Standing Committee and discharges supporting

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functions in the areas of its competencc. The present Parliament has the following two Sub-Coiiimitlces: 1

Human Rights Sub-Committee

2

Corruption Combat Sub-Committee

Location in the Parliamentary Structure The Library forms part of the Information and Legislative Reference Services. The Library comes under the guidance of the Speaker of the Parliament and is directly dependent on the Secretary General of the Secretariat. The Library is connected to Mongolia's general library network and cooperates with all other libraries.

Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Library Organization chart Librarian - making an entry -

systematization of materials classification indexing (subjeel and alphabetical) cataloguing bibliographical reference service information guide scrvice using computer program

Library Holdings Manager -

acquisition of books organization of library holdings book preservation loans domestic periodicals registration foreign and domestic periodicals subscriptions binding of most important periodicals by year

Reading Room Manager -

reading room organization foreign periodicals registration cutting and indexing most important domestic periodicals exchange photocopying service bibliographical scrvice reading room collection service

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Staff The Library of the State Great Hural has a staff of three persons. They are university graduates and educated librarians.

Library Collection and other resources Collections One of the central tasks of the Library is to maintain coverage of Mongolian and foreign legal, economic, statistical and sociopolitical literature. A proportion of the acquisitions is received gratis through deposit or exchange agreements. The Library has about 40,000 volumes and 3,000 bound periodicals (since 1941 ), and receives 56 foreign and 67 domestic periodicals per year. During these four years the funds have been enriched with books on law, social, political, economic and historical sciences, as well as the documents of European, American, Asian and other parliamentary institutions. Other holdings 1

Videotapes

2

Microfiche and microfilm

Location The Library is located on the third and fourth floors in the right wing of the State House. The Library consists of a reading hall, three book stacks and a working room. The equipment of all these rooms was given to the Library as a gift from DANIDA.

Services and Products The primary task of the Library is to provide the Members of Parliament and their staff with all the information they need for their parliamentary work. T h e Library carries out for Members of Parliament any bibliographical research using its resources. The Library's main catalogues are the alphabetical catalogue and the subject catalogue. M o s t important Mongolian newspapers arc analysed, indexed, cut out daily and articles of interest for the work of the Parliament are filed under relevant topics and under the names of Members when articles concern them. They are cut and collected for quick access and information services. The Library has a photocopying machine. It borrows rare materials from other libraries and produces photocopies.

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The Library issues over 8,000 loans a year. The Library published a list of new acquisitions and reference bibliographies for Members. The Library's users include Members of Parliament, staff of the Secretariat of the Parliament, Government and Office of President, government research institutions, political parties and the press.

Development in Automation The Library has two personal computers. It uses library computer software - CDS/ISIS donated by the Danish Government. The Library is going to adopt an integrated system of automation. This system will be connected to the network of the Parliament.

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Parliamentary Library and Information Services of Nepal by Jayanti Rana

14

Abstract The beginning of the present day Parliamentary Lihraty can he traced hack to 1953 when it stoned as a Record Keeping Section. In I960, it was changed to Advisory Assembly Libran' and till 1990 it was known as Rastriya Panchayat Lihraty. After the restoration of multi-parly democracy, with the establishment of the parliament, the lihraty was designated as Research and Library Section, opening doors to different access to research in lihraty operation and information sharing technology. The present lihraty at the parliament is accessible to all members of parliament, secretariat officials, officials from various other ministries and researchers that look for references in different fields of studies. Books, documents and important information have been computerised since 1991. With the aid of a computer on-line-seivice management system, the lihraty has been providing quick and qualitative seivices to the users since then. The CDS/ISIS database documentation system developed hy UNESCO has been in use in the libraiy automation system. The lihraty looks forward to an information sharing system among the libraries information centres within Nepal, once a net-work is established in the countty. Further, it is planning to share the legislative information among the SAARC countries with access to hooking up to the information sharing systems developed/used within the SAAR( ' countries.

Brief History The beginning of the present day Parliamentary Library can be traced back to 1953 when it started as a Record Keeping Section. In 1960, it was changed to Advisory Assembly Library and till 1990 it was known as Rastriya Panchayat Library. It was located on the floor above the present Lower House (House of Representatives) auditorium. After the restoration of multi-party democracy, with the establishment of the parliament, the library was designated as Research and Library Section, opening doors to different access to research in library operation and information sharing technology. At present the library, as a separate section, is located on the second floor of the Parliament Secretariat building, occupying eleven rooms. Since its founding, the library has been expanded with an increase in the number of staff members, books and other reference materials. This section at present has adopted, as its future plan, the idea to start research programmes.

14

Mrs Jayanti Rana is the Chief, Library and Research, Parliament Library, Parliament Secretariat, Parliament House, Kathmandu, Nepal.

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Staffing of the Library In parliamentary- affairs, the secretariat of the parliament is commonly known as the main supporting organization which is established under the constitution of the country. In order to accomplish successfully the important parliamentary tasks, including the operation of legislative procedure, orienting new legislators, providing advice, setting frameworks for debates, interpreting and transmitting the opinion of the executive to the members, the secretariat plays a significant role. In addition to this, the Parliament Secretariat is responsible for facilitating the imminent needs of the members through its staffing in a competent manner. In the above context the bicameral Parliament of Nepal possesses a common secretariat to provide all possible legislative, administrative, legal and information services. The secretariat is a permanent institution established under Article 66 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal, 1990, and the Parliamentary Service Rules, 1991. The Parliament Secretariat is headed by a Secretary-General who is assisted by the Secretaries of the two Houses (The House of Representatives, HOR, and the National Assembly, Ν A) of Parliament as well as many other staff members working in various functional divisions and subdivisions. The present organization structure of the Secretariat is shown in the Annex below. The Secretary-General of Parliament is appointed by His Majesty the King on the joint consultation of the Speaker of HOR and the Chairman of NA. Similarly the Secretaries of both Houses arc appointed by His Majesty on the recommendation of the presiding officers of the respective Houses. The recruitment and conditions of services of other employees are governed by the Rules of the Public Service Commission and the Civil Service Act. At present the secretariat functions through 32 sections under the direct supervision of eight different divisional heads in which 312 staff members serve with complete political impartiality. They arc involved in varied works and provide support services for the procedural matters of the Houses, Security, Housekeeping, Information, Accounting, Reporting and many other works in the Chamber and in the Committees. Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Library All the permanent stafi" members of both Houses of parliament belong to a single organization called the Parliament Secretariat. Some of the mid-level and lower level staff are working on secondment to the secretariat coming from different departments of the government ministries. The entire staff is allocated to the various divisions and sections of the secretariat. From the perspective of the functional relationships the working divisions are placed in eight groups (as outlined below) in which different sections are classified according to the workload of the divisions concerned. While maintaining the chain of command between the sections and divisions they arc categorized and linked with the similar nature of work. The working divisions which are directly related to each House and its respective subsidiary bodies fall under the authority of the secretary of the respective House. Similarly those which are established for joint purposes fall under the direct supervision of the Secretary General.

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Organization Structure 1

Legislative Division, HOR: 1 Table Section 2 Question Section 3 Verbatim Section

2

Committee Division, HOR: 1 Finance Committee Section 2 Public Accounts Committee Section 3 Foreign Relations and Human Rights Committee Section 4 Natural Resources and Means and Environment Committee Section 5 Population and Social Committee Section 6 Interior Committee Section 7 Development and Communication Committee Section

3

Legislative Division, NA: 1 Table Section 2 Question Section 3 Verbatim Section

4

Committee Division, NA: 1 Remote Area Committee Section 2 Delegated Legislation and Government Assurances Committee Section 3 Special Committee Section

5

Parliamentary Information Division (Common Service): 1 Press and Public Relations Section 2 Foreign Relations Section 3 Printing and Publication Section 4 Research and Library Section 5 Computer Section

6

Administrative Division (Common Service): 1 Personnel Administration Section 2 Accounts Section 3 Parliamentary· Service Management Section 4 Parliamentary Study and Training Section 5 Internal Administration Section 6 Technical Section (Electrical) 7 Technical Section (Electronics)

7

Law Division (Common Service): 1 Legal Advisory Section 2 Bill Section

8

Sergeant At-Arms Section (Common Service): 1 General Security Section 2 House Keeping Section

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Library Staff The Parliament Library is supported by a total of seven permanent staff. Two are university graduates, two arc library management trained staff and the remaining three include two senior clerks and an attendant. Research and Library Section Research and library components are combined together in one section with a view to making the functionary unit more integrated and coordinated. Hence, provisionally on the basis of urgency a chief research officer's post and a chief librarian's post were created to cater for the services from one unit. Currently these two different units of one section are providing the basic information to the members. Apart from providing the basic information the section is responsible: 1

To provide consultations for members and committees of parliament with regard to their information needs.

2

To prepare comprehensive analytical reports dealing with policy matters of the government upon the request of the individual members and the committees.

3

To provide current and accurate information as required by members and committees.

4

To maintain liaison with the national parliamentary research and library services and expand cooperation with similar organizations at the national and international level.

5

To share and exchange experiences and knowledge through participation in meetings and conferences organized at national, regional and international level in the field of parliamentary research and library services.

6

To identify and collect appropriate materials and produce briefing notes and fact sheets relevant to the parliament's debates.

7

To prepare background papers for the general use of all members as preparation for upcoming debates.

S

To produce specific research papers as requested by committees and individual members.

9

To prepare legislative histories and analytical summaries of the bills introduced in the parliament.

10

To select relevant articles, reports and documents for inclusion in the automated information system.

11

To provide specialized reference and reader assistance to the members.

12

To provide tailored briefing for members. Committees and visiting parliamentarians in their specific subject area.

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To develop, maintain and preserve the library collections and specialized files including acquisition and acccssioning of all library materials.

14

To maintain the library's automated acquisition, cataloguing/indexing and circulation system.

15

To produce periodical bibliographies, print catalogues and make lists of new library accessions.

16

To provide assistance to users in reading rooms and reference services to the chambers and committees during sessions.

17

To provide interlibrary services to other Nepalese libraries and to other parliamentary libraries.

18

To produce narrative and statistical reports on the library's activities.

19

To identify, procure, organize and index the collection of public policy studies, special reports, statistical compilations, publications of His Majesty's Government and of major regional and international organizations and other relevant documents on significant national issues.

20

To produce and reproduce the pertinent materials in the document collection on "hot" topics of legislative concern and assemble them into packets for ready distribution to members and committees on request.

21

To prepare and circulate the list of newly accessioned documents and information packets and arrange the timely delivery of packets and/or photocopies of desired documents as requested by members.

22

To provide ready reference services to members, answer telephone queries for statistical, biographical and other primary data.

23

To follow the rules and regulations of operation of the library and research section.

24

To produce and compile the press clippings from editorial comments, articles and important news items from selected newspapers both in English and Nepali as an aid to reference and research work.

Library Collections and Other Resources 1

Books: In general there are about 10,000 books in Nepali, English, Hindi and other languages in the library. These books mainly cover a wide array of subjects like Political Science, History, Geography, Constitutions, Laws. Besides these, the collection also contains books on other general subjects. Books have been shelved subject-wise by following the Dewey Decimal System. New books acquired by the library are regularly on display for a period of one week in the library . During this period the new books are not issued.

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In addition there is a collection of reference books in a separate room in the library. The reference collection includes volumes of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Who is Who, Directories, Almanacs, Dictionaries, Constitutions of different countries, Law books, Statistical Fact Year books, and others. Rcfercncc books and other reference materials, such as maps and atlases, cannot be taken out of the library. Similarly, current periodicals and journals may be consulted only in the library. 2

Documents: A collection of documents containing records of questions raised in the various sessions and likewise various proposals moved during various sessions of the parliament has been kept in a separate document repository room. Other documents, such as the records of the proceedings of sessions, daily business notices, copies of bills and other official documents published by the Parliament Secretariat, comprise the document collections. Various other documents published by ministries, departments and other institutions have been included in the collection. There is a voluminous collection of documents containing collections of acts, rules and regulations published by the Law Ministry. Moreover, this document section contains official documents of parliaments of various countries. Documents published by INGOs and NGOs are also in the holdings.

3

Periodicals/Papers/Magazines: As for periodicals and journals there are about seventy titles inclusive of both national and international publications. The library has subscriptions to more than sixty-five monthly, fortnightly, weekly, and daily papers and magazines. These peiiodical holdings includes both national and international publications published in English, Nepali and Hindi vernaculars.

Reading Room Facility For the members who need to study in privacy a separate reading room with reading desks with panel partitions is available in the library.

Services and Products 1

General Reference Service Under general reference service the library provides access to the following types of information: a b c d e f

Quotations Encyclopaedias Comparative Statistics Geographical Information Current Affairs Information Preparation of Reference Notes, Background Papers

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2

Book Issuing/Loan Service The library allows the users to borrow books available in the library. When the users of the library require books or any other documents which are not available in the library they are made available by borrowing them from other libraries. To make the service of the library as efficient as possible books are purchased regularly as and when required. The book lending policy adopted by the library for the users is as follows: a

Members of Parliament: Members can borrow three books at a time for a period of fifteen days.

b

Secretariat Personnel: The personnel of the Secretariat can borrow two books at a time for a period of fifteen days.

During the session of the houses, the borrowing period is only one week. 3

Photocopy Service The Library, having its own photocopying machine, provides photocopy services to the members of parliament only. Photocopy services of books and documents as and when required by the users arc provided.

Library Publications 1

Bibliography The library publishes at regular intervals bibliographies of its collections. The bibliographical publications arc primarily as follows: a

New Books in the Library (in English): The bibliography is published in three categories: by author's name, by the title of the book, and by subject. For the books in Nepali and Hindi it is published only by the author's name.

b

Library Report: A report on various activities of the library is published regularly by the library.

c

Paper Clippings: The library regularly develops a file of paper cuttings and clippings on various topics from the various papers and other publications received by the library.

d

Directory of Members: A directory of the members has been published by the library.

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Developments in Automation The Parliament Library has been computerized since 1991. With the aid of a computer on-line-service management system the library has been providing quick and high quality services to the users. The CDS/SIS database documentation system developed by UNESCO has been implemented in the library automation system. This computer program in the library provides primarily two major types of database services, namely: 1

Lib Cat (Library Cataloguing), which includes the book collection and bibliographic data, and

2

Pcracc (Periodica! Accession), which includes records of journals and newspapers data.

Apart from the application of the computer in the computerized documentation service it has been applied in other general tasks of the library such as screen printing for writing notices/information, sorting of units of bibliography, categorizing of the books, catalogue card development of books, developing and printing of registers for the recording of books, magazines, periodicals and other publications. Important Developments in the Library The library looks forward to an information sharing system among the libraries/information centres within Nepal, once a network is established in the country. Further, it is planning to share legislative information among the S A ARC countries with access to hooking up to information sharing systems developed/used within the SAARC countries. The library looks forward to strengthening its Research Activities by making a separate unit for the purpose. Professional staff are planned to be recruited in the unit making them responsible for the purpose of research only.

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The Congressional Library of the House of Representatives, Congress of the Philippines by Maria Fe S. Abeleda-Robles 15

Brief History On July 27, 1987. Ihe first congress established under the 1987 Philippine Constitution convened in the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City. The Congress was officially denominated as the Eighth Congress to signify the continuity of the Seventh Congress which martial law ended in 1972. To support the new Congress in the exercise of its powers, each of its chambers formed its respective Secretariat. In the House of Representatives, the Secretariat was composed of two departments each with three bureaus. The Administration Department was composed of the Administrative Support, Finance and Management, and Engineering and Physical Facilities. The Operations Department was composed of Committee Affairs, Plenary Affairs, and Reference and Research. The Congressional Library together with other offices and divisions were placed under the office of the Secretary General. The Congressional Library (CL) traces its origin to the libraries of the legislative institution in the pre war period: the Philippine Legislatures (1907-1934) and the Commonwealth National Assembly (1935-1945); and the post war period: First to Seventh Congress of the Philippine Republic ( 1946-1972), the pseudo parliament under Marcos (1978-1986), and the new Congress under the 1987 Constitution. CL's earliest printed materials which can be found in its Legislative Archives, consist of a selective collection of documents, legal treatises and 19th Century classics. These are preserved to provide a gauge of the wealth of information available to the earliest Philippine legislators. Remnants of the collection which belonged to the Commonwealth National Assembly can still be found in the Legislative Library.

IS María Fe S. Abeleda-Robles is Director, Congressional Library of the House of Representatives, Congress of the Philippines.

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Parts of the library and archival collections of the Philippine congresses dispersed after the imposition of Martial Law in 197216 that were retrieved from various sources became the initial collections of the Batasang Pambansa when the latter convened in 1978.17 The collections built during the Batasan years,18 which were used as the library and archives of the 1986 constitutional Commission19 served as the foundation for the present collections of the Congressional Library. These enabled services to be rendered when the new Congress convened in 1987. Since 1987, the Congressional Library has developed its collections through the two divisions which constitute it. It served the Eighth Congress under Speaker Ramon V. Mitra, served the Ninth Congress under Speaker Jose C. dc Venecia, Jr, the present 10th Congress under Speaker de Vcnccia. Jr. and cxpecls to maintain if not better its position in future Congresses. Hopefully the results of the 1988 national elections will contribute more favorably to a faster growth and development of the Congressional library. Setting of the Library The Philippines is a democratic and republican state with three co-equal bodies exercising their respective constitutional mandates. Legislative power is lodged in Congress, executive power in the President, and judicial power in the Supreme Court and lower courts.20

On September 21, 1972, President Ferdinand E. Marcos through Proclamation No. 1081 declared the Philippines in a state of marital law.

Seven years after the declaration of marital law Mr Marcos convened the interim Batasang Pambansa (IBP) on June 12,1978 by virtue ofthe 1976 amendments to the 1973 Constitutions which was proclaimed "in full force and effect" through Proclamation No. 1595 dated October 16,1976. The IBP dropped its "interim" character to become a "regular" Batasang Pambansa through the 1981 amendments which were proclaimed through Proclamation No. 2077 on April 11, 1981.

In February 1986, historic events took place at EDSA now known as the "EDSA Resolution". The revolution ended twenty years of one-man rule by Mr. Marcos, installed President Corazon C. Aquino as the rightful winner ofthe "snap" Presidential Elections. On March 25, 1996 Mrs Aquino through Proclamation No. 3 declared the adoption of a provisional Freedom Constitution which abolished the Batasang Pambansa and provided for a commission that would draft a new Constitution. The Batasang Pambansa was abolished on March 31, 1986. On April 23, 1986 Mrs Aquino issued Proclamation No. 9: the law governing the Constitutional Commission of 1986. The 1986 Constitutional Commission existed from June 2 to October 15, 1986. The constitution adopted was ratified by a majority of votes cast in plebiscite held on February 7, 1987, and announced by President Corazon C. Aquino under Proclamation No. 58 on February 11,1987. The 1987 Constitution mandates legislative power to Congress (Art. VI, Sec 1 ): executive power to the President ofthe Philippines (Art. VII, Sec.1) and judicial power to the Supreme Court and lower courts (Art. VIII, Sec 1).

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Two chambers - (he Señale and the House of Representatives - make up Congress. The former is composed of twenty-four (24) members and the latter, two hundred and two (202) members and seventeen ( 17) sectoral representatives.-' Senators are elected nationwide and the Congressmen are elected by legislative districts, which have been apportioned among the provinces, cities and the Metropolitan Manila area, on the basis of uniform and progressional population ratio.22 The administrative head of the Secretariat of the House of Representatives is the Speaker of the House. Subject to the Speaker's supervision and control, the Secretary General is the immediate Chief of House personnel responsible for the faithful and proper performance of official duties. Administration, Finance and Legislative Operations, the Congressional Economic Planning and Budget Office (CPBO), the Office of Legal AfTairs (OLA), the Planning and Management Division, the Electronic Data Processing Division and the Congressional Library constitute the Secretariat of the House. Responsible directly to the Secretary General are the Deputy Secretary General of cach department, the Chiefs of the respective divisions under the Office of the Secretary General, the Director General of CPBO, the Directors of the OLA and the Congressional Library. The directors of the bureaus under each department are responsible to their respective Deputy Secretaries General. The Congressional Library performs a three pronged mission to serve as: •

the central/principal source of information for the members of the House of Representatives and its Secretarial;

•

the conservator of the permanent records of the Philippine constitutional bodies and the legislative institutions: and

•

an agency of'last resort'" where evidence that would decide issues of constitutionality and legality can be found.

Due to the nature of its functions and the significant support it provides Congress, the Congressional Library's collection and services have been developed independently of the National Library and other agencies. It maintains its network with librarians and libraries of key government agencies, i.e.. Supreme court. Department of Justice, Court of Appeals and Office of the Solicitor General. In 1980, arrangements for exchange of legislative documents between the Parliamentary Library Service of the Batasang Pambansa and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library of Australia were established. That linkage was revived in 1987 and remains valid to this day. The exchange arrangement with the National Assembly Library of Korea established in 1987 21 Terms of office of Senators are provided for in the Constitution, (Art. Vi, Sec 4) and of Members (Art. Vi, Sec 5). The section also provides the manner of election and provision for "a party-list systems of registered national, regional, and sectoral parties of organizations". 22

Art VI, Sec. 5 (2) of the Philippine Constitution states "party-list representatives shall constitute twenty per centum of the total number of representatives including those under the party-list".

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and strengthened in 1989 continues to exist. The exchange of documents with the US Library of Congress also continues. Organisation and Staffing The Congressional Library is headed by a Director who is responsible directly to the Secretary General. Her responsibility revolves around the formulation, integration and implementation of the general plans and programs of the bureau. It is made up of the Office of the Director which serves as the administrative back-up of the Director; the Legislative Library which is charged with the acquisition, processing, organization of materials on the subject concerns of Congress and its Secretariat, and the Legislative Archives which is charged with the preservation of official documentary evidence of the Philippine constitutional and legislative institutions. Each division, which is organised along functional lines, is headed by a Chief of Division. The Legislative Library is made up of four sections: Acquisitions takes charge of all activities involving the selection, evaluation and acquisition of materials that would enhance the library's capability to meet the reference and research requirements of the House and its Secretariat. Processing takes charge of all activities involving the proper organisation and maintenance of materials in respective collections and the preparation of the necessary tools for retrieval and delivery of information and services. Clientele Services takes charge of all activities involving provision of information, reference and research assistance to the Members of Congress, the Secretariat, other government officials and offices, and the general public. Automation Services takes charge of all activities involving the preparation of necessary program applications, and maintenance of computer hardware, software and databases. The Legislative Archives is also made up of four sections: Acquisitions takes charge of all activities involving the transfer of custody of papers, records and other documentary evidence of the constitutional and legislative institutions, the evaluation of their archival value, and periodic inventory of collections. Processing takes charge of all activities involving the technical processing and intellectual organisation of archived documents, and the preparation of finding aids to ensure the effective and efficient retrieval and delivery of information or source document when the need arises. Conservation takes charge of all activities involving preservation of archived documents in conformity with preservation standards. Services takes chargc of all activities involving reference and research use, exhibit and display of archived collections.

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The Congressional Library has a total staff complement of 34 who are assigned as follows: four (4) to the Office of the Director, fifteen (15) to the Legislative Library and fifteen (15) to the Legislative Archives. Of the total five (5) are licensed professional librarians.23 Training of the Congressional Library Staff Training comes in three forms: participation in conferences, seminars and workshops sponsored by professional groups or associations; in-house seminars/workshops prepared in coordination with or initiated by the Human Resources Development Services of the House Secretariat's Personnel Division (HRDS); and the Congressional Library's Libraries, Archives and Museums Tour Program (LAMTP). To date more than thirty training courses have been provided for the staff dealing with library management, marketing, total quality service, automation, archived collections conservation and management. Special in-house training courses on indexing, thesaurus preparation, and materials conservation were initiated and completed in coordination with the House Secretariat's HRDS. The bureau's LAMTP, introduced in 1994, has provided the staff with opportunities to study conditions in the libraries, archives and museums within Metropolitan Manila, the nearby provinces, and the llocos Region. The exposure to these institutions has broadened perspectives and contributed to a deeper appreciation and greater knowledge of library and archival work. Research and analysis are activities integral to library and archival work and undertaken to prepare information packs on national issues or problems confronting Congress and provide other information services to the Members. These constitute vital inputs to a member who may have to defend his position during committee meetings or hearings, and fioor deliberations. The Congressional Library provides research and analysis short of actual writing of the research papers. In the House Secretariat, the Congressional Economic Planning and Budget Office (CPBO) undertakes activities relevant to economic matters while other concerns are covered by the Reference and Research Bureau. Collections To date the Congressional Library has in its Legislative Library a total collection of 53,319 foreign and locally published materials. This comprises 30,227 books and monographs and 26,755 documents. Subscriptions for 1996 total 92 titles excluding the eleven titles of local news dailies and two foreign newspapers. In addition, to its printed collections, the Congressional Library has subscriptions to two CDROM titles: PHIL JURIS and LEX LIBRIS. PHIL JURIS system produced by Gigabytes Research Systems, Inc., contains the full text of over 50,000 decisions and resolutions promulgated by the Supreme Court of the Philippines

On September 19, 1990, Republic Act No. 6966 was signed into law, regulating the practice of librarianship in the Philippines. The law makes illegal the practice of librarianship by unlicensed individuals and provides for penal sanctions.

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from 1901 to 1996 in three compact discs. Basic search is be done by subject, case title, G.R. No., date or name of opinion writer. Advanced research is done through a combination of subjects; of subjcct and case title; of subject, case title and date; or of subject, date and name of opinion writer. LEX LIBR1S produced by CD Technologies, Asia. LL has volumes on Taxation and Laws. Taxation Philippine Edition includes texts of all the laws, presidential issuances, court decisions. Department of Finance opinions and circulars, Bureau of Internal Revenue rulings, orders and circulars, and international tax treaties. Laws Philippine Edition, contains the constitutions, laws presidential issuances, and Supreme Court circulars and other issuances. The total holdings of Legislative Archives arc approximately 56,802 documents which is the equivalent of some 3,788 linear feet using the archival unit of measure. These are composed of bills and resolutions in various stages of passage on the floor, originals of resolutions simple, concurrent, joint and resolutions of both houses in joint session, republic acts signed or vetoed by the President, committcc reports, transcripts of stenographic notes of committee meetings or hearings, plenary sessions proceedings and congressional records. Likewise in its custody are 4,044 rolls of microfilm, 3,622 tapes and ten archival boxes (15" χ 12" χ 10") of photographs taken between 1945 and 1992. The House of Representatives occupies the building which in a record speed of three months was constructed in lime for the opening of the Batasang Pambansa. The outer structure remains as originally built; its interiors were renovated in 1987 to accommodate the Members of the new Congress. The Library was among those affected by these renovations. It was relocated from the second floor North Wing :l to the South Wing basement and its area was reduced from 1,000 sq metres to 730 sq metres. The new location, however, provides better accessibility to its clientele. Archives remains where it was originally located in the North Wing basement. The change of layout greatly improved working conditions. The Legislative Archives located in the North Wing basement occupies an area of 896 sq metres. The area is divided into a legislative gallery, depository, staff area, audio visual room, microfilm room, information center, and a research area which is provided with nine study carrels. The Legislative Library is located in the South Wing basement and shares its 730 sq metres with the Office of the Director. It includes an acquisition area, processing, clientele services area, open shelves and book stack areas and a computer room. LL's Clientele Services area includes spaces for circulation, periodicals, members' study, and readers' area which has 28 study carrels. The officers and staff of both divisions are strategically and visibly located where they can best provide control over collections and assist researchers.

24

The Batasan Pambansa library was initially given space in the South Wing basement and moved from area to area. After seven movements it was finally given a proper location on the second floor of the South Wing where it remained for the eight years of Batasan's existence. It served the Con-Com in 1986. After which is was transferred to its present location one month before the new congress convened in 1987.

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and Information

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The separale locations of the divisions do not provide the most suitable conditions for the bureau but one can only count one's blessings. Services and Products Services of the Congressional Library are availed of directly from the Legislative Library, the Legislative Archives or indirectly through the office of the Director, Congressional Library. Services range from simple to complete requests which are all given due attention. A

Clientele Need Services A. 1

Phoned-in-requests

Requests made by telephone usually require facts and figures, or bits of information, and do not require more than a quick check into reference tools. A.2

Request for materials

Requests for materials prc-identified as to title, author or number or by other simple identifiable coding system. A.3

Requests for Research Assistance

These requests require consolidation of pertinent and/or relevant materials on a given subject which necessitates a lengthy process of research. Β

Prc-need Services

Preparation of special files of high information value can readily be made available when called for. Β. 1

Subject compilation of Philippine Laws (SCPL)

The service puts together in compilations all laws enacted and all issuances of the President on a wide range of subjects. B.2

Vertical File (VF)

The service puts together in files all studies, reports and other materials from varied sources on a problem, question or issue which Congress would likely be called upon to address. Thus, substantial information sources can be made readily available. B.3

Info Pack Service

The Info Pack Service takes either of two forms: those which members request to be prepared and those which arc prepared in anticipation of a Member's request. Services offered are basically the same and differ only in the nature of materials each division handles. In LL. the majority of materials are in printed form: books and

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monographs, documents, serials/journals, newspapers and magazines. Printed, computerised data bases and other special files are also available. The material resources include the constitutions of nations, the laws of the Philippines, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries as well as the laws of some states of the United States: California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas; and the United Nations documents. In the LA, the legal documentation of constitutional and legislative institutions are kept in custody and preserved. These include original bills, laws and resolutions together with the documentation of committee action and deliberations in plenary sessions. Its collections are comprised of documents of the constitutional institutions of 1971 and 1986, martial law period institutions, Batasang Bayan and interim Balasang Pambansa and Regular Batasang Pambansa, legislative institutions from First to Ninth Congress; Electoral Tribunals: House, Senate, Presidential and Constitutional Convention; and reports on Members' participation in international and regional conferences or meetings. Apart from those mentioned above, no other research services are provided. The Congressional Library Bulletin comes out on a quarterly basis. The Bulletin provides the bibliographic data on the materials acquired during the earlier period as well as the list of documents archived. Statistical records are kept of the accomplishments of each section of each division of the Congressional Library. Total services rendered for 1995 numbered 23,199 with 18,556 attributable to the LL and 4,643 to LA. Archives registered 20,935 reproduction of copies and 27 compilations of legislative histories. For the same year the total services by clientele type were: 3,590 to Members and their staff, 5,564 to Secretariat Officials and employees, and 2,773 outsiders. The Congressional Library is intended to serve exclusively the House of Representatives' Members, Committee Staffs, and Secretariat officials and employees. Services are extended to the Senate, the Office of the President, the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Office of the Solicitor-General and other government institutions. Under certain conditions, services arc also made available to the general public such as researchers and scholars. Developments in Automation The legislative Library operates on a limited local area network linking acquisition and processing. The network is operated through four PCs with one unit for Acquisition and three for Processing. It has one stand alone unit for use of CD-ROMs. LA has five PCs with two units connected to the House Secretariat's Electronic Data Processing (EDP) Division. These are used for the institution's Bills Information System (BIS). It has one unit for Acquisition and Processing and another for general use. The EDP is currently doing a study on the House link-up with Internet.

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Storing on compact discs of Philippine laws and other resources is likewise being considered while scouting for the best company which could provide the conversion services. The Congressional Library envisions a larger and better positioned office in the organisation that would prepare for the eventual merging of the Senate Library with the House Congressional Library when the Senate and the House become permanently housed in one building, as the Congress of the Philippines. It proposes the elevation of the bureau into a department which would in turn upgrade the Legislative Library and the Legislative Archives divisions into bureaus and its sections into divisions. It proposes the creation of additional divisions: a Public Affairs Division which would undertake the formulation and implementation of an outreach program, undertake exhibits and other activities for the general public; and, an Automation Division which would undertake the formulation and implementation of an automation program, prepare and implement computer program applications, improve/upgrade and maintain its software, hardware and databases. It envisions the establishment of a bureau-wide network that can become a institution-wide network that would allow access from offices of Members and their staffs and the Secretariat officials and employees. It envisions the storage on compact discs of the Philippine Laws and legislative documents that would allow wider dissemination of and faster access to information. Finally, it envisions a Congressional Library that can access and be accessed instantly by any parliamentary library in the region or anywhere in the world.

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Parliament Library of Sri Lanka by N.M.C. Thilakarathne 25 Today, the multifarious role played by the Members of the Legislatures of Democratic Establishments requires multifacctcd information in their day to day performances as legislators. This was so, even during the good old days, though the demand was not so complex as it is today. Hence the bond between legislature and its library is not a novel concept. The ease of Sri Lanka seems to be more positive when one eyes the annals of the Parliament Library of Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, from ancient times, certain democratic political institutions have existed. Evidence has been found in early Chronicles and State inscriptions about demarcation of village boundaries,26 the idea which is closely associated with the concept of "Gam Sabha", village councils or Assemblies27 where chieftains and noble men of the village gathered to discuss the day to day affairs and to take decisions amicably. Likewise references can be found in the same Chronicles regarding well established libraries2", which thrived during ancient times. However, the present concepts of democratic institutions and libraries are rather different from that of the past and by and large closely associated with Western culture/philosophy as seen herein later. Sri Lanka, Ceylon as it was called then, had been in the grip of three Colonial powers since 1505 up to 1947. The Portuguese who came first and occupied some places along the coastal line from 1505 remained in power till 1658 when they were ousted by the Dutch who came subsequently to the East for the same purpose. Dutch power prevailed over the areas which were under the Portuguese from 1658 to 1796. The British who came last overthrew the Dutch administration and occupied first the maritime provinces in 1796. From there on they expanded their power gradually to other parts of the country and by 1815, after the fall of the Kandyan Kingdom, the whole country became a Crown Colony. Establishment of the Legislative Council in 1833, as recommended by the Colebrooke Commission, which had been appointed to examine and report on the necessary reforms of the system, indicated the tendency of the colonial masters to administer the new colony in a more liberal manner. Undergoing several changes from time to lime the Legislative Council existed till the next radical change which look place in 1931. During the last stages of the Legislative

Mr N.M.C. Thilakarathne is the Parliamentary Librarian in the Parliament of Sri Lanka. 26

Mahavamsa, Wilhelm Geiger's translation, verse 103 (page 75), Colombo: Ceylon Government Information Department, 1950. 27

Epigraphia Zeylanica; 1.6.250 - London: Oxford University Press, 1928. Ancient Land Tenure and Revenue in Ceylon, page 4, H.W. Codrington - Colombo: Ceylon Government Press, 1938. 28

Culavamsa - Part I, Wilhelm Geiger's translation - verse 243 (page 26), London: Pall Text Society, 1929.

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Council voices were aired conccrning the need for a library for the Members of the Council. On 20th July 1922 a motion was moved on the floor of the council by Hon. E.R. Tambimuttu, Member representing the Eastern Province, for the establishment of a library for the convenience of Members of the Council. The motion was seconded by Hon. W. Duraisamy, Member representing the Northern Province. On behalf of the government the then Acting Colonial Secretary Hon. B. Horsburgh explained that though the government was quite alive to the desirability of providing a library for the Council it was not possible to do so at that time due to non availability of funds and space, and that provision had been made for same in the proposed plan of the new council chamber which was coming up.29 Although the acting Colonial Secretary indicated the prospect of establishing a library for the Council after the completion of a new chamber, the Members were lucky to have their long felt need fulfilled before that. The existing library records show that the Library for the Members of the Council was set up in 1927. By evaluating the sources and clues from the past, which are still available among the old stock of the Library, it is reasonable to conclude that the resources of the Unofficial Members Library, which seemed to have been some kind of a private library or a book club meant for the use of unofficial members, and some of those of the Colonial Office were used for the formation of the Library initially. It was designated as Legislative Council Members' Library and was in that form till 1931. Glimpses of representative government could be seen in the political reforms introduced in 193 1 on the recommendations of the Donoughmore Royal Commission. By this the State Council was established in place of the Legislative Council. A majority of the members of the council was elected under Universal Suffrage from territorial constituencies. Sri Lanka was the first colony (other than the white settlement colonies) to enjoy this privilege. Along with the Slate Council replacing the Legislative Council as the legislature of the country, it inherited the Library of the Legislative Council and continued in that position till 1947. Another Royal Commission, with Lord Soulbury at the helm, came into the country in 1946 to recommend the constitutional reforms demanded by the people. The main recommendation of the Commission was that dominion status be granted to Ceylon. Accordingly, on 4th February 1948, Ceylon became an independent country. The constitution which came into effect was based on none other than the Soulbury recommendations with consequential changes. The legislature introduced by the constitution of 1948 was a bicameral Parliament consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Library which was serving the State Council became the Library of the House of Representatives and a separate library was set up in the Senate building for the use of Senators. Subsequently most of the resources of the Senate Library were added to the House of Representatives Library in 1971 when the Senate was abolished by a constitutional amendment. This move helped to strengthen the collection of the Library to a certain extent. A new constitution was adopted on 22nd May 1972 by which the country became a republic. The country which was known as Ceylon changed into Sri Lanka and the legislature, the Parliament, became the National State Assembly which was unicameral and was the supreme instrument of State power. The Library of the legislature was also known as National State Assembly Library. Yet another change of constitution occurred in 1978. The second Republican constitution changed the name of the legislature again into Parliament and thereby

29

Debates of the Legislative Council of Ceylon, 1922, pages 250-51.

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the Library also changcd ils name as Parliament Library. The significant features of the new constitution which camc into operation on 7th September 1978 were the Executive Presidential System and the Proportional Representation System. However, the executive presidency camc into existence prior to the inauguration of the new constitution as a result of an amendment to the First Republican Constitution. The Parliament which was housed in the magnificent building built in 1931 bccame congested due to the increase in the number of Members of the legislature from time to time and the expansion of its various services. The idea for the construction of a spacious new building for the legislature was a long conccived one. However in 1982 it became a reality. Away from the busy capital, Colombo, a scenic place at Kotte, which was the Capital of the country during the reign of King Parakramabahu the VI, was selected as the location for the new building of the legislature. The new Parliamentary Complex surrounded by the historic Diyawanna Oya was declared open on 29th April 1982 with enough spaces for its various auxiliary services. In the new complex spacious accommodation has been allocated for the Library in the south wing of the main building. The Library occupies 9800 square feet on the first floor and 8500 square feet on the ground floor. This is about eightfold the space the Library had in the old building. Thus one of the constraints in enhancing the Library collection to keep pace with the increasing output of new materials has been removed. At present the reference, lending and newspaper reading sections arc housed in the first floor of the Library, along with the working area of the staff. Hansards of the House of Commons and Lords and of other foreign legislatures, literature pertaining to Statutory Bodies like Government Corporations, Boards, and so on, arc located on the ground floor with a vast area for leisure reading and studies. The Research div ision of the Library is also housed on the same floor. Sri Lanka is a democratic Socialist Republic as outlined in the constitution promulgated in 1978. The legislative power of the people is enshrined in Parliament which is unicameral in nature. Members of Parliament are elected for a period of six years by the people through universal franchise under a proportional system in which the whole island is divided into 24 electoral districts. Total membership of Parliament is 225. There are 196 members elected on a district basis on the proportional representation system. Under this system the political parties obtain a share of seats in the legislature in proportion to the votes they poll. There are 29 "National List" scats loo. These seals arc allocated to the political parties and the independent groups contesting the general election in proportion to the votes polled by them at the national level. For this purpose, the political parties and independent groups have to submit lists of persons to the Commissioner of Elections within the prescribed nomination period. These names arc published in the Government Gazette. Executive power of the people is vested in the President who is elected at a separate election called the presidential election. The President is the head of the State and also the head of the executive. Parliament and the President become the supreme instruments of state power. Parliament is a separate and an independent institution in the context of its nature and administration. The traditional Head of the institution is the Hon. Speaker but as the Office of the Speaker is not continuous (as in the case of India) the Secretary General of Parliament who is appointed by the President plays an important role as the Head of the Parliamentary Staff Staff of the Secretary General is appointed by him subject to the approval of the Hon. Speaker. The Secretary General and his staff function as a separate service which is regulated by an Act of Parliament called Parliamentary Staffs Act. To deal with the matters pertaining

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to the Parliamentary Staff there is a Committee of Parliament called the "Staff Advisory Committee". For the convenience of administration the staff of Parliament is categorised into several departments Administration, Seijcant-At-Arms, Hansard, Catering and House Keeping and Co-ordinating Engineers are the main departments of the Parliament. The Library is a section which comes under the department of administration and the librarian's place in the hierarchy is next to the Director, Administration, who is the head of the department. Thus the librarian is answerable to the Secretary General through the Director, Administration, in all his activities. So far the Parliamentary Library has been unable to break through its structural barriers to be linked up with the National Library System. Somewhere in the 1990s there was a proposal to establish a Parliamentary Research Service [PRS], a scheme to cooperate and have linkages with other major libraries and databanks of the country with Parliament Library as its focal point. Unfortunately, this proposal did not materialise. Despite this drawback experienced locally, the Library is maintaining cordial relationships with other parliamentary libraries in the region. The LARRDIS in the Indian Parliament Library sends copies of its regular publications including the English version of the Hansard of the "Lok Sabha" to the Library. Parliament Library is a founder member of the Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific which was formed in 1990. Representatives of the Library participated in the inaugural conference of S ARC parliamentary libraries and research services which aimed to establish a regional association within the South Asian countries. This conference was held in Islamabad, Pakistan, on 3rd and 4th of March 1996. Thus, the Library is earnestly taking part in cooperative activities. The Parliament Library is an integral part of the Parliamentary Secretariat. Though it comes under the administrative department, it functions as a separate unit due to the professional skill required in the operation of its activities. The Librarian is the head of the section in whose hands lies the responsibility of the general administration and maintenance of other professional services expected of the section. Below the Librarian are the assistant librarians and research officers who share equal status. They are responsible for the staffing of the main divisions of the Library. Junior assistant librarians, who help the assistant librarians, are placed next to them. The library assistants are deployed in every division to shoulder the work load with the superiors. Below them are placed the messengers who look after the heavy and tidying up work. According to the nature of services rendered by the Library the recognizable main units are the reference division, lending division and research division. The latter was recently established and is, therefore, in its experimental stage. It is appropriate to mention here that there is no hard and fast divisional margin when it comes to serve the Members, as most of the time the whole staff has to devote their skill in all the spheres that matter. The reference section caters for the day to day reference requirements of the Members be it a quick reference or a long range reference need. Members are at liberty to approach any member of the staff for their requirements or even send a note mentioning the particulars needed if the member concerned is engaged in the Chamber. They can convey the message by telephone, too, and will be assisted promptly. The nature of the reference requirements has

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been rccognizcd and gauged by the experience gained over the period of service and, accordingly, a rich reference collection has been built up to meet the requirements. The collection consists of general reference materials such as encyclopaedias, dictionaries, directories, year books, statistical reports, and reports of various government departments and statutory bodies, and so on, and special reference materials such as Hansards, Minutes, Order Papers, Questions and Answers, Documents tabled in the House, and so on. These are shelved separately for the convenience of Members who sometimes have direct access to these documents for their various needs. The lending service is for the Members who prefer leisure reading and independent fact finding according to their own choice. This section is strengthened with almost every subject in the field of knowledge with special emphasis on subjects such as religion, political science, economics, law, public administration, social welfare, education, history, geography, and so on. Advanced scientific and technological materials are generally excluded from the collection as a policy, taking into consideration the nature of the clientele of the Library. The recently established research division undertakes the analysis and research demanded by the Members on particular occasions and in special cases. At present this type of demand received by the section is very limited. Apart from that, parliamentary practice and procedure is a main area concentrated on by the research division. The Hon. Speaker and his deputies, Members of Parliament, and the Secretary General and his deputies very often consult this division for the requirements of Inter-Parliamentary Union and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association activities. Therefore special attention is being paid to this field by the research division. The entire staffof the Library at present consists of 14 members as follows: Librarian: Assistant Librarians: Research Officers: Junior Assistant Librarians: Library Assistants: Parliamentary Services Assistants:

1 2 2 2 4 3

Except for the third and last categories mentioned above, the other members of the staffare professionally qualified at various levels in the field of Library and Information Science. Research officers arc selected for their subject knowledge in various disciplines as required by the legislature taking into consideration their research experience. Naturally, after absorption into the Library service they tend to cultivate a familiarity with the profession mainly through their service and through in-service training. Library assistants, possessing lesser qualifications, are very keen to complete their professional examinations for the betterment of their future. With regard to other higher posts certain professional qualifications are required at the recruitment level. The stock held by the Library includes books and periodicals of a general nature and reference materials on subject areas such as social, political, economic, environmental and legal matters. The monograph collection of the Library numbers nearly 12,000 volumes. The Library subscribes to about 26 periodicals, both local and foreign, and receives well over IS more titles free of charge, specially from countries such as Korea, Australia, and Japan. The Library

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subscribes to 18 newspapers: 16 local and 2 foreign, and receives about the same number of papers free of charge. A few newspapers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are received from the High Commission offices concerned. In addition, the collection contains Legal Enactments and Parliamentary Debates of both Sri Lanka and Britain, Government Gazettes, Administrative Reports of Government Departments, Sessional and Parliamentary Series, Annual Reports and Accounts of State Controlled Boards and Corporations, publications of the Department of Census and Statistics and of the Central Bank, and the Electoral Registers. The British Hansard is available from 1861; the Sri Lankan Hansard from 1873; Minutes of the Legislature from 1931; Parliamentary Scries from 1947; Sessional Papers from 1872; Administration Reports from 1867; Government Gazettes from 1932; several leading local newspapers from the 1920s. The Library also has a good collection of very valuable and rare books on Sri Lanka. Thus the overall collection of the Library consists of about 34,000 volumes. The major part of it is in English. The Sinhala and Tamil collections are currently being strengthened in earnest. The books arc classified using the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme and a classified card catalogue is being maintained. The annual allocation for the acquisition of new books is Rs. 3,500,000 (US$ 6380 approx.) and for the periodicals it is Rs. 1,00,000 (US$ 1823 approx.). Quite a spacious reading room arranged in a corner of the 1 st floor of the Library is available for the convcnicncc of Members who wish to use the resources of the Library on their own. A similar facility is available on the ground floor, too, and both reading rooms are a few minutes walking distance from the Chamber of Parliament. As mentioned already, the services offered by the Library to its members include reference, lending and research. The most popular service among the Members is the reference service. On a day when Parliament is in session the Library has to meet well over a hundred requests of a reference nature. The work involved in meeting these requests may range from turning over a few pages of a reference book to thorough searches taking considerable time. The current awareness service maintained of cuttings from local newspapers and a few selected foreign periodicals is a very useful tool in this regard. The research service, however, is not well-equipped to make research reports and background papers available to the Members on a regular basis. Such material is provided only to a Member making a request. A popular feature of the lending section is its collection of fiction. It was started sometime not so long ago with the idea of encouraging Members to make more use of the Library. Nevertheless, the experience is that it meets an essential need of Members as a good means of relaxation. The Library is open from 8.30 a.m. - 4.15 p.m. on non-sitting days. When the House or its Committees sit, it is open from 8.30 a.m. until the rising of the House/Committee. It is closed on Saturdays and Sundays and on all public holidays. The Parliament Library is exclusively for the use of Members of Parliament. They can make use of the Library by themselves or they can employ their personal research staff to use the Library on their behalf. However, Members who wish to employ their personal staff are required to obtain the prior approval of the Secretary General of Parliament outlining the requirement fully in writing. The academics who pursue genuine research and who are unable

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to find relevant materials elsewhere other than the Parliament Library may also be allowed in for their limited purposes. For this, too, they have to obtain the approval of the Secretary General. The staff of the Parliament can use the Library in connection with their routine duties. So the members of staff working in Committee offices, Table office and Bills office, and so on, often consult the Library in their day to day duties. In this regard they are even allowed to borrow relevant materials subjcct to the condition that these are not to be taken outside the premises of the Parliament. The Secretary General and his deputies have the privilege of using the Library as Members do. Apart from these, Ministries , Government Departments and Statutory Bodies often seek the assistance of the Library for their various information requirements. In most cases their requests are made by telephone and occasionally in writing seeking detailed information. All these inquiries are met promptly by the Library as a routine matter. In short, nobody who seeks information with genuine interest from the Parliament Library is denied access. It is now more than five years that activities towards the automation of the Library and its services started. The concept became a reality mainly due to the far seeing attitude of the office of the Secretary General. It has recognized that the application of computer technology not only in the Library but also in the whole oSice of the Parliamentary Secretariat would increase the productivity of its services. The computerisation of the Parliament Secretariat was, therefore, started on the basis of a well drawn up plan and phased in over several years. It was first started with about 15 personal computers installed in various strategic sections of the Secretariat including the Library. At the second stage a Local Area Network (LAN) was created using a file server with 1 gigabyte capacity installed in the Library. At present 30 work stations covering the main offices of the Parliament, viz. Bills, Committees, Finance, Table, Library, Hansard arc inter connected through the file server to the network. To its credit the Library has created several databases to be used in the network. Legislators from 1931 to date is very popular and useful, and frequently used by other offices such as Finance, Table, and so on. For the informational use of the Secretariat, the creation of other databases such as Bills and Acts of Parliament, Members of Cabinet, and Questions in Parliament, is also in progress. For the routing functions of the Library it uses the UNESCO package for libraries, CDS/ISIS. Part of the catalogue of the Library is computerised using this package. Lack of training facilities and funds required arc slowing the progress of this unit, but the enthusiasm of the staff and encouragement from the higher officers are gradually taking the lead. Due to the earnestness of the present Speaker, Hon. K.B. Ratnayake, and the present Secretary General of Parliament Mr. B.S.B. Tittawclla, the Library was able to be connected to the INTERNET through Sri Lanka Telecom very recently. Along with this, an electronic mail (email) facility was also established. These newest facilities are intended to make most of the services rendered by the Library more sophisticated by creating more databases as and when required. The Library is also pleased to join the National Information Centre proposed to be established in the National Library in the near future to provide a competent and successful service for Members of Parliament. It has been observed that the ever increasing responsibilities of Members of Parliament have compelled them to concentrate upon information more than ever before. Today Parliament has bccome a multifunctional institution. Apart from its conventional role of law making, so many other functions arc performed by it at present. The analysis of time consumed by Parliament on various activities proves this fact clearly. The emphasis has shifted to discussions on the accountability of the Executive, as the Executive is responsible to the Parliament for its

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performance. So question time, debates on policy statements and activities of Ministries, Departments and other Government Institutions have attracted the attention of Members more. As a participatory body of these debates, Members have to play a major role in these discussions. Secondly, the obligations towards the voters, whom they represent, and being alive to their collective needs, problems and wishes is a matter of paramount importance. The new election system, with its proportional representation, has increased the burden on the Members in this regard. Under this system, they have to concentrate on a wider area and on more people, because the basis of this system is a larger electoral district, when compared with the small constituencies of the earlier system. Apart from this, the recent trends in world politics, such as regional cooperation, international relations, and so on, have widened the horizon of even smaller and poorer countries. They are no longer isolated nations as they were in the past. So accurate and up-to-date information in connection with one's own country, as well as the global situation, has become essential armour for survival in the political arena. Thus Members tend to use the Library and its services more and more. The Parliament Library of Sri Lanka has identified this trend and it is now preparing for action in line with this new development. A detailed plan for the improvement of the Library and its services has been submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Committee of the Parliament appointed by the Secretary General of Parliament last year. A distinct feature among these proposals is the call for the rearrangement of the Library mainly under three sections, i.e. the Reader Services and Reference Section, the Technical Services Section, and the Research Section. The duties and functions of these sections have been clearly underlined and the staff required is also indicated. The logic of the inadequacy of the present cadre of staff, when compared with the number of Members to be served, is shown clearly and it has been proposed to increase the cadre from the present number of 14 to 32 for the extension of satisfactory service to Members. Viable proposals to elevate the use of computer technology in the Library were also presented. As it was highlighted by IFLA once, "Parliamentary Librarianship is a distinctive form of information work" and this concept has been clearly recognized by the authorities of the Parliament Library. So efforts are being geared to modernize the Library to meet the challenges of the future and to serve its members more productively.

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Palau Congress Library Information Paper by Harry Besebes 30

Brief history of the Library The Palau Congress Library was founded and established on August 18, 1981. A copy of its enactment is attached at the end of this paper. Our Constitutional Government was newly installed on January I. 1981, and this prompted the idea to create and establish our Congress Library. I do not know if this will be seen as the major developmental period in the short history of our library, bul we have been able to develop and maintain all the Public Laws committee reports, journals and legislative history on all Public Laws enacted by the Palau National Congress. Setting of the Library The Palau Legislature consists of two houses: the Senate and the House of Delegates. Fourteen (14) Senators are clcctcd by reapportionment based on population and sixteen (16) Delegates are elected each representing one of the sixteen States established by our National Constitution. Our Congress is structured under a Presidential system. In the Senate, we have the Senate President, the Senate Vice President, the Senate Floor Leader and the Chairman of each standing committee established by the Rules of Procedure of the Senate. In the House of Delegates, we have the Speaker of the House of Delegates, the Vice Speaker of the House of Delegates, the Floor Leader of the House of Delegates and the Chairman of each standing committcc based on the Rules of Procedure of the House of Delegates. In each House the position of Presiding Officer is gained by forming coalitions to gain a majority of elected members. A coalition must have at least two thirds (%) of the elected members to win the leadership of each house. The Congress Library is organized as one of the Joint Programs under the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Delegates. All reports and other matters pertaining to the Congress Library have to be approved by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Delegates. Besides our Congress Library, there is also a National Court Library. We do have some arrangement of sharing information with each other. There is no special relationship with other Parliamentary Libraries in the region, but we do provide information from time to time upon their request. Organization and staffing of the Congress Library

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Harry Besebes is the Congressional Librarian of the Fourth Oibiil Era Kelulau (Palau National Congress)

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There is no organizational chart of the Congress Library, but you can get some ideas from the copy of the cnacted Law that created the Congress Library which is attached to this paper. Actually our Congress Library is small and there are only two units. One unit is where we maintain all the hard cover US statutes, regulations and other legal materials that still have some force and authority over our governmental system. The other unit is where we maintain all the local Laws that arc passed by our Congress and approved by our President to become our Public Laws. We have only two staff in the Congress Library to administer its operation. We do not have any training in the Congress Library. We do not have any lawyers or economists in the Congress Library. The two Congress Library staff do the research and analysis. Library collections and other resources Our Congress Library is very small compared to an average Congress Library. At the present, we have about 5,000 volumes. We do not have subscriptions to the major newspapers, but we would like to start subscribing in the near future. We have no audiotapes, videotapes and other forms of information, but we may consider acquiring these in the future. There are two reading rooms in the Congress building. One is located in the Senate Chamber and the other one is located in the House of Delegates Chamber. The closest reading room to the Chamber is about thirty feet away. Services and products Our services in the Congress Library consist of maintaining its materials and up-dating the collection and doing all the legal researches and analysis requested by the members of the Congress. We conduct research on particular proposed Laws that may be introduced at the first reading on the floor of either House. Due to the relatively small size of our islands, people generally know our line of service so they can call us or stop by to obtain information and other services they need. We do not measure our workload, but we generally feel that it is an average workload for the service we provide to the members of our Congress and the general public. As a bicameral Congress, we serve all the members and the general staff of both Houses, but we only report directly to both the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Delegates.

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Developments in Automation PCs are not available in our Library. Our Congress Library is not connected to any networking system. Wc are in the process of purchasing CD-ROMs. It is much more convenient. We are at the planning stage of automating all the services in the Congress Library. Important development in the Library There arc no recent trends in our Congress Library to report on. Wc have no new products or services in the Library. We still maintain our usual management structure. At this time, we have no other items οΓ interest. Wc might have in the future, but not at this time. We would like to expand our interest toward other parts of Asia to establish a good working relationship in sharing information.

FIRST OLBIIL ERA KELULAU Third Regular Session, July 1981

RPPL NO. /-8 (Introduced as SE No. 10, SDI)

A BILL FOR AN ACT To establish the National Congress Library, and for other purposes. THE PEOPLE OF PALAU REPRESENTED IN THE OLBIIL ERA KELULAU DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: Section 1

Congress Library created. There is hereby established a National Congress Library, herein referred to as the "Library".

Section 2

Purpose of Library. The Library shall provide a comprehensive research and reference service on legislative problems and shall secure reports of various officers, ministers, bureaus, and agencies of the national and state governments of the Republic of Palau whenever necessary and of other countries and nations and such other materials, periodicals or books as will furnish the fullest information practicable upon matters pertaining to current or proposed legislation and to legislative and administrative problems.

Section 3

Title to Library property. The title to any and all library property shall be in the National Government of the Republic of Palau.

Section 4

Use of the Library. The Library shall be available for the use of citizens of the Republic of Palau in accordance with the rules and regulations set forth by the Librarian with the approval of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates.

Section 5

Congress Librarian. The Librarian of the Library shall be appointed by the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates, solely on the basis of merit and fitness to perform the duties of the office. The Librarian shall be responsible to the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House

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Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Asia and the Pacific of Delegates for the administration and operation of the Library, its organization, property, and personnel. The Librarian, with the approval of the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates, shall prepare rules and regulations for the governing of the Library and its departments. The Librarian shall make an annual report to both Houses of the Olbiil Era Kclulau at the end of each year, with respect to the activities, financial status, conditions of the Library, and recommendations as to future operations.

Section 6

Donations to L i b r a r y . The Librarian is hereby authorized to accept on behalf and in the name of the Library, from any government, agency, individual, or any other source, advisory services, grants-in-aid, gifts and donations of money and other property for the benefit of the Library; provided that any grant in aid, donation, or other form of assistance involving an obligation on the part of the Library shall require the approval of the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Delegates.

Section 7

L i b r a r y building. The President of the Republic of Palau, upon prior consultation with the President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates, is empowered and authorized to set aside a parcel of public lands upon which to build a permanent building for the Library. The President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Delegates shall approve the final design for the construction of the Library building.

Section 8

Authorization of funds. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated from the National Treasury such sums as shall be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act.

Section 9

Effective date. This Act shall take effect upon its approval by the President of the Republic, or upon its becoming law without such approval, except as otherwise provided by law.

Approved this 18 day of August, 1981

Haruo I. Rcmeliik President Republic of Palau

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The Parliamentary Library of New Zealand by Pleasance Purser 31

Brief History of the Library The General Assembly of New Zealand first met in Auckland in 1854. The first money to buy books to establish a library was voted in 1856. In 1858 the Clerk of the House of Representatives was also named the first librarian. When Parliament moved from Auckland to Wellington after the session of 1864 the library moved also and was installed in its own adapted building. The stock was somewhat reduced by the loss in an earlier transfer of a case of books in a shipwreck, along with many Parliamentary papers and records. Despite the loss the library soon outgrew its accommodation, but it was not until 1897 that plans for a new library building were approved. The General Assembly Library building was finally occupicd in 1901. It was built in a distinctive neo-gothic style with some grand public rooms. In 1907 fire destroyed the rest of the wooden Parliament Buildings, but the library was saved by its brick construction and a fire door. In its early years the library's main functions were to collect books and periodicals relevant to MPs' needs and to make them available for use and borrowing. In his summary of the first hundred years of the library in 1958, the then Chief Librarian, J.O. Wilson, refers to the growth in requests for information and the attempts being made to meet the changing demand. Collecting New Zealand publications was boosted by the passage in 1903 of the General Assembly Library Act which required publishers to deposit two copies of their publications with the Library. Exchange agreements with other Commonwealth countries and the United States were instituted. In the absence of a National Library the Library's collections had some of the character of a national collection. When the creation of a National Library was being discussed this made the General Assembly Library seem an important potential component. In 1965 the National Library Act established the National Library of New Zealand, made up of the National Library Service, the Alexander Turnbull Library and the General Assembly Library. The union lasted until 1985 when the former Legislative Department which had served Parliament was replaced by the Parliamentary Service and the now renamed Parliamentary Library became a part of this. In 1987, as a conséquence, the Library's legal deposit function was passed to the National Library as it was felt to be a national function. The Library, however, still receives one of the three legal deposit copies now required. During the later 20th century concern had grown over the safety of the Parliament Buildings built aller the 1907 fire and the General Assembly Library building in the event of a serious earthquake. At the end of 1990 the Library moved, with much of the rest of Parliament, into temporary accommodation in a nearby office block. The two buildings were strengthened to

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Pleasance Purser is the Database Manager in the Parliamentary Library of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand.

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be 'earthquake proof and extended with much rebuilding to accommodate an enlarged Parliament. Five years and two more fires later the elaborately refurbished buildings were reoccupicd early in 1996.

Setting of the Library Since 1951, when the Legislative Council was abolished, the New Zealand Parliament has consisted of a single House of Representatives. MPs have been elected from geographical electorates, the number of which has grown with the population to a current figure of 99. The Parliamentary term is three years; elections can be called before the end of a term, but in practice rarely arc. The government has been formed from the party with a majority of seats, with the Prime Minister the leader of that party in Parliament. Coalition and minority governments have been rare and often only the two major parties of the day have had MPs in Parliament. Four scats have been reserved for Maori MPs elected by voters on the Maori electoral roll. Elections have been conducted according to 'first past the post' rules. Many years of growing dissatisfaction with aspects of this system expressed itself in referenda held in 1992 and 1993. Voters opted for the introduction of a form of mixed member proportional representation, commonly referred to as MMP. The first election to be conduced under the new sy stem will be held on October 12 this year. The number of MPs will increase to at least 120: 60 elected from electorates from the general roll, 5 from the Maori roll and the remainder selected from party lists according to the percentages of the party vote. The Parliamentary Service is administered by the Parliamentary Service Commission, comprising seven MPs, and chaired by the Speaker. The Parliamentary Librarian reports to the General Manager, who is the chief executive of the Parliamentary Service. There is a Library Committee of five MPs, also chaired by the Speaker, which advises the Parliamentary Service Commission. While the Parliamentary Library is no longer part of the National Library, it maintains good working relations with it and takes advantage of its close physical proximity for intcrloan borrowing. The day to day working of the legal deposit arrangement also necessitates close co-operation.

Organisation and Staffing The Parliamentary Library is divided into four sections: Reference, Database, Serials/Acquisitions and International Documents which together cover the major part of its work. The heads of these sections, together with the Development Manager, Legislative Analyst and PA/Office Manager report to the Parliamentary Librarian. The Development Manager is responsible for special projects, especially research on strategic issues and the development of new systems, and the Legislative Analyst for producing the Bills Digest. The Reference Section provides all the Library 's reference and research services to Parliament. All requests for information are directed to it. The Section has eleven librarians, with extra help when the House is silting, a statistician, an economist, one library assistant and the circulation assistant. The increasing workload and a recent increase in the number of librarians to meet it have caused the organisation of the Section to be looked at. A possible reorganisation is currently being worked out. The Database Section produces the Library's newspaper index and catalogue. It also runs the Profile service, a current information service for MPs. The Section has five and a half

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librarians and six and a half library assistants. Each service has a senior librarian in charge. The assistants work across all three services equally. The grouping of these three services together takes advantage of the similar approach required by them and the use of a single thesaurus and unified authority control. Also attached to the Section is the Library 's bindery, with two binders and an assistant. The Serials /Acquisitions Section is responsible for most of the Library's acquisitions, including those items received via legal deposit. It also acquires the library's serials, and is responsible for controlling the loose copies before binding. It controls and catalogues those serials which are held for a limited period only. The Section has two librarians and five library assistants. The International Documents Section, unlike the other three sections, has a dual focus. Its resources of knowledge and stock support the Reference Section in its service to Parliament. At the same time the International Documents Collection is available to everyone in the country and use is cncouragcd. The Collection is a depository collection for many international agencies and receives parliamentary material on exchange. The greater part of the collection is uncatalogucd and controlled by the Section. The Section has two librarians and two library assistants. All librarians in the Library have library qualifications, and all but one or two are graduates. Librarians arc recruited with varying amounts of experience. Retention varies from a year to decades, with many staying about two to five years. There is scope for promotion within the Library but it is Parliamentary Service policy that all positions be publicly advertised and appointment is competitive. Librarians are encouraged to keep up to date with brief courses, but study leave is not usually granted. Library assistants arc also all graduates, frequently, but not always, recruited straight from university. Applicants for the Master of Library and Information Studies course are expected to have already worked in a library and it is from the pool of prospective applicants that the Library commonly hires. It is expected that library assistants will stay for a year or two before moving on. The high turnover is compensated for by a continuing stream of new keen quick learners.

Library Collections and Other Resources The Library's two recent moves have been used as opportunities to weed the book and serial stock substantially. As a result of this and the increased storage space available in the refurbished library building, the Library now has all its stock housed on the premises for the first time in decades. As at June 1995 the Library held 315,976 monograph volumes and 190,485 bound volumes of serials. The uncatalogued International Documents Collection, which is measured rather than counted, filled 1,846 metres of shelving. The Library held almost 14,000 microfilms, mostly newspapers, and over 300,000 microfiche, mostly part of the International Documents Collection. Small numbers of video and audio cassettes are held, and several hundred CD-ROMS and diskettes. At the same date the Library receives 244 newspaper titles and 7,565 serials titles. The majority of these titles are received under the legal deposit provision, with subscriptions only for overseas titles and extra copies of New Zealand titles. The Library is constantly reviewing the balance between its print collections and access to on-line services.

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The Library has two small specialist collections which are important resources for the Reference service. The Library holds copies of press statements issued by ministers and MPs. Deposit is voluntary, but the Library actively encourages it. The statements are very heavily used. At present they arc held in hard copy and bound annually, but it is hoped to convert them to an automated database. The second collection is the submissions to select committees. Public submissions are invited for almost all bills when they are being considered by select committees; similarly for some petitions and occasional inquiries. Once the committee has reported to the House, one set of submissions must be deposited in the Library, which makes them available to anyone who wishes to see them. In its refurbished building the Library's reading room for MPs and Parliamentary staff is a recreation of the old Parliamentary lobby, destroyed in the 1907 fire. It has displays of newspapers and periodicals and is adjacent to the Reference Section. The original main reading room now houses the International Documents Section. It incorporates space for users ofthat collection and has external as well as internal access. The Library maintains a room supplied with library materials close to the chamber. The Library is, in fact, only a couple of minutes walk from the Chamber but its location at one end of the spread of Parliamentary buildings means it does not lie on anyone's direct route. This situation is not altered by the fact that the Library shares its building with the Press Gallery. In the past when Parliament was more compact, and the Library shared its building with MPs and staff, they were frequent visitors. Now visits have largely been replaced by communication via telephone, fax and e-mail.

Services and Products The Library's main service is that offered by the Reference Section. In the year to June 1995 the Section answered 14,717 reference questions. Over half of these were quick queries which could be answered in fewer than fifteen minutes. 12% of queries required more than an hour's work to fulfil. Each librarian has areas of specialisation, but is expected to be able to deal with whatever comes in as required. There arc two non-librarian specialists in the Section, the statistician and the economist. Both answer the more complex queries in their fields, but also offer extra services. The statistician will offer advice on the validity and use of statistics. The economist provides advice on economics, trade and industry and produces occasional background papers. The Reference Section is also responsible for taping selected current affairs and news programmes from radio and television. These can be viewed on request in the Library, or replayed in MPs" offices through Parliament's sound and vision system. Approximately fifty programmes per week are taped, and the tapes are held for one month before being recycled. A weekly list of programmes recorded, called Replay, is circulated to MPs. In 1993 the Library introduced a Bills Digest service. The digests are compiled by the Legislative Analyst, a lawyer, and put out shortly after the bill's introduction in the House. Each Digest contains the purpose of the bill, background information and comments on the main provisions. It may also include notes on issues and implications and views of interested parlies. The intention of the Digest is to help MPs inform themselves as the bill goes before

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a select committee and is debated in the House. In 1995 the Legislative Analyst produced 71 digests. Almost all MPs arc members of the Profile Service, the current information service run by the Database Section. Approximately 1400 serials titles, together with the library's monograph and International Documents Collection intake, are scanned for items likely to be of interest to MPs. A brief descriptive abstract is written for selected items and subject headings assigned from a list of 100 terms, grouped under thirteen broad subject areas. MPs choose their areas of interest from the same list, selecting any mixture of individual terms or the broad subject areas. Once a week an automatic match is run between MPs' profiles and the terms on that week's abstracts. Each MP receives a personal bulletin of abstracts matched with the individual terms in their profile and also any broad subject bulletins they have requested. Once a month the Service produces a general bulletin, containing a selection of the month's abstracts, which is circulated to all MPs and Parliamentary staff. All recipients of bulletins may request the hard copy of any item abstracted. Photocopies of articles are despatched within 24 hours and books lent. In the year to June 1995 the Profile Service wrote 1,557 abstracts and responded to 7,816 requests. The Profile Service abstracts arc maintained in a database which serves as a useful resource for Reference staff. The Library's other two major in-house databases are the catalogue and the newspaper index. The Library has maintained a newspaper index since 1949; originally on cards and sincc late 1989 automated. Database Section staff index five major daily papers and one Sunday paper. Items arc selected for their relevance to MPs and indexed with the same focus. Index entries for most papers arc available on-line the day after publication. In the year to June 1995 the Section indexed a total of43,999 articles from 1,552 newspapers. The Library seeks actively to promote its services. New MPs are introduced to the Library and its services as part of their orientation. This is followed with individual contact by the Parliamentary Librarian, the Profile service Librarian and others as opportunity provides. New parliamentary staff receive individual or group orientation from Reference staff. Social occasions such as morning teas hosted by Reference are used to promote services and contacts. To mark the move back to its refurbished building the Library organised a series of evenings both for MPs and for other librarians. As well as the background papers, digests and bulletins produced as part of its services the Library produces a number of guides which it updates periodically. The Guide to Services is a general overview of what the Library can offer MPs and staff and how they can get access to it. There is a similar brief guide to the International Documents Collection. Newspapers Currently Received lists all the newspapers currently received by the Library. The Library serves all 99 MPs and parliamentary staff, currently numbering around 600. Parliamentary staff include the staff in ministers' offices, which arc situated at Parliament, and electorate secretaries. Accredited members of the Press Gallery have limited borrowing rights as do former MPs and the children and partners of sitting MPs. Special permission may be given for researchers to use the Library. The Governor -General and officers of Parliament, e.g. the ombudsmen, are also served.

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Developments in Automation In 1995 the Library's minicomputer was upgraded to a PC LAN running Novell network operating software and linked via a fibre optic backbone. The network currently has about forty PCs attached to it, but the number is expanding. Similar LANs exist in all the other parts of Parliament. A single core backbone links all the LANs and supports all shared applications. Since 1989 Parliament has had an arrangement with GP Print, the privatised former Government Printing Office, to have databases derived from the printing of Hansard, bills, and so on. These databases are hosted on VAX computers at GP Print, along with three of the Library's databases: the newspaper index, catalogue and current information service. The data for the Library's three databases is created on the Library PCs and transported via a fibre optic gateway to GP Print for overnight updating. Access to the databases is via the same gateway. The software presently used for the Library databases is BASIS K. This is now unsupported and hence at the end of its useful life. Library staff use a wide range of external databases in their work. Access to most external databases is by dial-up modems. Selected users have LAN gateways to the Internet. The Library has a telnet connection to the National Library's New Zealand Bibliographic Network (NZBN) and Kiwinct. a suite of New Zealand databases which it hosts. Kiwinet includes the Parliamentary Library's own newspaper index and Bills Digest, which are made publicly available in this way. The urgent need to replace the BASIS Κ software has prompted the Library to embark on a m a j o r automation project. It is planned to purchase an integrated library system which will retain the benefits of current database création, management and searching strengths, while allowing the automation of other library functions. At present circulation and serials control are still done manually. An acquisitions system has been set up, but as a stand alone system. The new system will also enable the Library to make its databases available on PCs throughout Parliament for the first time. For a variety of reasons this has not been feasible previously but the demand has been voiced and the Library sees it as an important aspect of maintaining service and a visible presence across the whole of Parliament.

Important Developments in the Library The election of a new government in 1984 has become a reference point in New Zealand for dating the beginning of changes across the economic, social and political spectrum. The environment in which the Library works has naturally been affected by these and the Library, and Parliament, are continuing to adjust along with everyone else. An important feature of the last ten years has been the growth of awareness of New Zealand's multicultural makeup. While Pacific Islanders have been making an increasing impact on New Zealand society, it is the return to prominence of Maori concerns which has dominated this awareness. Treaty of Waitangi issues are central to many areas of public interest, and the Maori language is now one of New Zealand's two official languages. Fluent Maori speakers are relatively scarce and in demand. In recent years the Library has often had at least one or two staff of Maori descent, but not fluent Maori speakers. In 1996 for the first time the Library offered a Maori scholarship to a Maori graduate of Maori descent, able to speak Maori. The intention is that they spend one year in the Library as an assistant, gaining the necessary

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experience to apply for the Master o f Library and Information Studies. The Library will assist with their fees for the course and in return they will be bonded to work for another year in the Library after qualifying. The scholarship enables the Library to strengthen its Maori resources while also encouraging Maori into librarianship. In the very near future the Library faces a challenge quite as big as any other it has faced: the election o f a Parliament under M M P rules. The Library has no greater insight than anyone else about what the effects o f this will be, so is in part trying to plan for the unknown. But one immediate cffcct has been the proliferation o f political parties both within and without Parliament. Each new Parliamentary party setting itself up demands its party's share o f Parliamentary Service resources and services and frequently makes a greater call on the Library's resources than the previous sum o f its individual M P s ' requests. T h e second obvious effect that will be felt in October is the 20% increase in the number o f MPs. The M P s themselves, with their secretaries and research staff, can be expected to have a proportionate cffcct on demand for orientation and ongoing training, and for the full range o f Library services. For the first time, also, half o f the M P s will be party list M P s , without the local responsibilities o f the traditional electorate MPs. Whether or not this will have an effect on the type and amount o f demand is still a matter for conjecture. The Library finds itself, at the end o f the 20th century, building on the strengths o f its past and adapting as effectively as it can to changes both in the Parliament it exists to serve and in the world o f information which it brings to the M P s . In an increasingly competitive environment it must promote its services with as much impact as it can achieve. Promotion must be supported by continuing high quality and innovative service to an increasing number o f clients across an expanding Parliamentary complex, and potentially to the M P s ' local bases as well. Continuing developments in automation arc seen as integral to achieving these aims. The Library is fortunate that it is in a position where it can anticipate that it will be able to meet the demands placed upon it and contribute to the changing environment o f Parliament.

References Report o f the Chief Librarian, General Assembly Library for the year ended 31 March 1958 (special centennial issue). (Appendix to the Journals H.32). Report o f the Parliamentary Service Commission and statement o f accounts for the year ended 30 June 1995. (Appendix to the Journals A.2). Matheson D. Ian. Unpublished draft o f paper on the Parliamentary Library. MacEachcrn, Ruth. Library automation feasibility study : a report prepared for the Parliamentary Librarian. June 1996.

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The Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific: Constraints, Challenges, but Very Good Cooperation Among Its Members by Aurora Simandjuntak 32 The Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific [APLAP] was founded in Seoul in 1990. It was initiated and guided by Ms Jane Anne Lindley from the Asia Foundation, a former staff member of the Congressional Reference Service [CRS] in Washington. DC. The founding fathers and mothers numbered about 24 from 17 countries. The first President was Mr Joo Bong Kim from Korea, who is now attached to the Library of Congress in charge of the Korean collection. The members of APLAP meet every two years, normally in May, at its biennial conference. Three biennial conferences have been held in a very warm and friendly atmosphere: the first in Seoul in 1990; the second in Islamabad in 1992; the third in Bangkok in 1994. The fourth APLAP conférence will be held in Canberra, Australia, but because of the general election .which resulted in a change of Government, it has had to be postponed till October. Invitations have now gone out from the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Canberra to the Presiding Officers of member libraries to the Fourth APLAP Conference to be held 20-24 October 1996. At present, there arc 24 member countries of APLAP, namely: Turkey, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Thailand, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia. Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tuvalu, Western Samoa, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Federated States of Micronesia, Commonwealth of Australia and New South Wales. APLAP is now a well-established regional organisation of parliamentary libraries. I want to speak now about the constraints and challenges that face APLAP, but also about the very good cooperation that exists among the members of APLAP. Constraints Most of the countries in the Asia Pacific region do not live on the same wave-length, because the standards of education differ so much, nor do they have the same affluence to conduct business as it ought to be done. I refer to the chronic shortage of the necessary funds.

Vice President for Asia of APLAP

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Most of the librarians or subject specialists working in Parliamentary Libraries (if they have any) are the privileged few who were lucky enough to enjoy a good education, way above others in their respective countries, but this creates other constraints, as values and standards differ so much in our societies. The adage that "information is power" has not yet penetrated most of our clientele, namely the Honourable Members of Parliament. So, libraries, be they run manually or electronically, are still far from being a priority issue. They are considered to be more of a luxury, rather than an urgent necessity. In most of the APLAP countries, noi many people are proficient in English, the accepted first global language for the social sciences, especially politics. So, whenever a member of staff has gained an adequate grasp of the English language, especially when working in the Parliamentary Library, he or she will be whisked away and transferred immediately to a "more urgent" job, like the Secretariat of the IPU, APO, AIPO, and so on, within the Parliament. Or the person will be bombarded with work and become overloaded with a totally unreasonable work-load, that will nevertheless be very difficult to refuse or avoid. In this very high-tech age, the flow of information in developing countries, especially in Parliamentary Libraries, is still very poor, if it exists at all. As the result not only of a lack of funds, but also an inability to understand and recognise that they, the Members of Parliament, need speedy, correct and reliable information in order to be able to do their jobs well, especially in this era of the global network of information and consequent challenges. Sound management in almost all fields is still at a very low level. Most of us are still a far cry from the merit system; the personal favourite system is still rife. And then people cannot understand why things do not run as smoothly as they would in the hands of able and trained managers, be they professional librarians or specialists in other subjects, but who understand the need of supplying and serving Mps with speedy, confidential and correct information - and how to do that with inadequate or very limited funds. The shortage of funds is a real headache for most APLAP members. It is difficult enough to have to stretch the budget for essential things in the library, let alone to cover fares to attend conferences or seminars, where we can exchange views and learn from each other how to solve problems and, of course, to derive a wee little joy out of meeting friends and see new places. People think we arc mad. So sponsors are the only way out, but it is not easy to get one though. If lop managers do not understand or try to find out how a good library should be run (let alone a modern one), then one will come across some "amusing " decisions, as, for example: it is enough to have an acquisitions and a lending department. All the work and processing must be divided there. Challenges Most of the Asia Pacific countries know the legend of the very clever, smart and wonderful deer-mouse, but at the same time, this very small animal has no weapons to protect itself, and solve the challenges it faces, except its wits. Well, one can say the same about the Parliamentary Librarians or Subject Specialists working in our Parliamentary Libraries. They

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have to use their wits and sense of humour to improve things, to maintain and develop the services as well as the good staff in the Parliamentary Library. The clientele, the MPs, are mostly political personalities, or leaders in their respective communities. But again, one has to remember that most of them do not have the required good education demanded to serve the Nation well in this very fast moving and hard world. So it is up to the Librarians or Library Directors to find ways of encouraging them to ask for information, if not come to the Library, if it is a manual or simple Library. If they are already at the stage of using databases or the Internet, they have to learn how to work their computers to obtain the information they seek. But again, how many MPs can "surf' the Internet to gain useful information? How many of the APLAP countries are even linked to the Internet? In Indonesia, to help our MPs, language classes were given. Some organised seminars or invited experts to talk, but, except for the language courses, only a few attended those talks or seminars. So the road is uphill and long. Due to the lack of understanding of the business of libraries, funds are very rarely increased to support the needs of the Library . Therefore, a Librarian has to have social contacts, must be willing to knock on the doors of foreign institutions for donations of books or to provide training for staff But, as I said before, any well trained staff will usually be transferred to "more important" parts of Parliamentary activities. The challenge is: how do we out-wit them to let trained staff stay in the Library? The most crucial challenge we face is to try and make our top management understand the necessity of having good managers and staff in the Library. Very good cooperation This must be said about APLAP. We have very good cooperation and understanding among our members, perhaps because most of us face the same problems and challenges. These constraints have turned out to be a very strong tie that binds us together. It does not matter whether the call for help comes from a very needy country or from an affluent one: we always help each other. It may be that in the Oriental and the Pacific countries courtesy is very highly regarded. Snootincss and arrogance is abhorred. So this is an asset we have which will help us to move ahead. As far as rules are concerned, exceptions to them arc quite normal. But so far, cooperation and courtesy form the basis for communication in APLAP; for example, if we have to send messages or if important opportunities arise, we divide the task, so that one country will be responsible for relaying the message to four others, and so on. Thus the burden will not be shouldered solely by one of the Executive Committee members. This is a very pleasing tradition, and hopefully we shall continue to do so, in order to achieve more and help each other more. Thank you.