Parliamentary Libraries and Research Services in Central and Eastern Europe: Building More Effective Legislatures 9783110954098, 9783598218132

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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 MexcAyHapoAHaR e.aepaunx En6;inoTeHHbw AccomtauxB h yHpe*neHHtt Federación Internacional de Asociaciones de Bibliotecarios y Bibliotecas

IFLA Publications 87

Parliamentary Libraries and Research Services in Central and Eastern Europe Building More Effective Legislatures Edited by William H. Robinson and Raymond Gastelum under the auspices of the Section of Library and Research Services for Parliaments

Κ · G · Saur

München 1998

I F L A Publications edited by Carol H e n r y

R e c o m m e n d e d catalogue entry: Parliamentary libraries and research services in Central and Eastern Europe : building m o r e effective legislatures / ed by William H. R o b i n s o n and R a v m o n d G a s t e l u m . - M ü n c h e n : Saur. 1998. Χ. 238 p. 2 1 c m ( I F L A publications : 87) ISBN 3-598-21813-3

Die Deutsche Bibliothek - C I P - E i n h c i t s a u f n a h m e Parliamentary libraries and research services in Central and Eastern Europe : building m o r e effective legislatures / ed by William H. R o b i n s o n and R a v m o n d G a s t e l u m . - M ü n c h e n : Saur. 1998 ( I F L A publications ; 87). ISBN 3-598-21813-3

Θ Printed on acid-free p a p e r T h e p a p e r used in this publication meets the m i n i m u m r e q u i r e m e n t s of American National Standard for I n f o r m a t i o n Sciences - P e r m a n e n c e of Paper for Printed Librarv Materials. A N S I Z39.48.1984. © 1998 by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, T h e H a g u e . T h e N e t h e r l a n d s Alle R e c h t e v o r b e h a l t e n / All Rights Strictly Reserved K. G. Saur Verlag G m b H & Co. K G . M ü n c h e n 1998 Part of R e e d Elsevier Printed in the Federal R e p u b l i c of G e r m a n y All rights reserved. N o part of this publication may be r e p r o d u c e d , 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 / B o u n d by Strauss O f f s e t d r u c k G m b H , M ö r l e n b a c h ISBN 3-598-21813-3 ISSN 0344-6891 ( I F L A Publications)

CONTENTS

Preface by Jennifer Tanfield Introduction by William Robinson

VI VIII

Legislatures and Information Capabilities in Emerging Democratic Nations: A Framework for Assessment by William Robinson and Janice Hyde

I

Albania by Zana Bufi 29 Belarus by Sophia Judo 35 Bulgaria by Dobrin Kanev and Margarita Angelova 39 Croatia by Bozena Bosnar 50 Czech Republic: Parliamentary Library by Karel Sosna 56 Parliamentary Institute by Hana Salterova 67 Estonia: The National Library of Estonia as a Parliamentary Library by Ene Loddes 70 The Department of Economic and Social Information by Aare Kasemets .. 83 Hungary by Katalin Haraszti, Czaba Nagy, and Eva Prohle (with assistance from Ivan Ronai) 93 Latvia by Anita Dudina 100 Lithuania by Renata Blagniene 108 Moldova by Lilia Cal an cea 114 Poland: Library of the Sejm by Barbara Karamac 121 Bureau of Research of the Sejm by Wieslaw Staskiewicz 140 Bureau of Research and Analysis of the Senat by Jacek Michalowski 149 Romania: Library of the Chamber of Deputies by Ioana Borocan 157 Library of the Senate by Raymond Gastelum 162 Russia by Irina Andreeva 166 Slovak Republic: Parliamentary Library and Information and Analysis Services by Eva Malackova and Danica Sivakova 177 Slovenia: The Documentation and Library Department by Majda Filipovska .... 194 Ukraine by Raymond Gastelum 208 Appendices Appendix A: Key Questions or Issues in Developing Information and Research Services for a Parliament by William H. Robinson Appendix B: Parliamentary Libraries and Research Services of Central and Eastern Europe by William H. Robinson (with assistance from Janice Hyde and Raymond Gastelum) Appendix C: Draft Chapter Outline and Questionnaire

V

217 218 224 237

PREFACE by Jennifer Tanfield Parliamentary Librarian House of Commons, U.K. Chair, IFLA Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments

The past decade has seen an extraordinary resurgence of the idea of democracy and of a revitalized role for legislatures. Nowhere is this trend more striking than in Central and Eastern Europe. As a consequence, there is a heightened level of activity in newly revitalized legislatures, as they seek to become more substantively involved in shaping the policies that will govern their nations Legislatures, in turn, were compelled to seek more information to guide their deliberations Parliamentary libraries and research services responded to the quickened pace and heightened responsibilities of their clients by increasing their own capacities and services This book is about the development process undergone by the legislatures of Central and Eastern Europe, with a special focus on their institutions for providing library and research services. It is published under the auspices of the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Almost from the beginning, this Section was engaged in providing encouragement and support for colleagues in Central and Eastern Europe. The IFLA meetings in Moscow in August 1991 were preceded by a Pre-Conference in Helsinki, where several presentations were made about the emerging library and research services in this region. The meetings in Moscow coincided with the abortive coup attempt by anti-democratic forces, with tanks positioned throughout key points of the city. Many of our Section members experienced the historic moment when Boris Yeltsin mounted the tank and galvanized supporters of democracy to challenge the coup. (My predecessor as Librarian of the House of Commons, Dermot Englefield, was one of those who witnessed these events). The coup failed quickly, and set in motion dramatic political changes in Russia itself and throughout the region. Such dramatic events further stimulated the interest of the Section and its members in helping colleagues in Central and Eastern Europe — and engaging in more active exchanges of information, technology, and the provision of aid and technical assistance. This book is an example of one of the mechanisms that the Section uses to share information and promote "technology transfer." These tools include: •

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

VI

•

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.

The origin of this volume goes back to meetings sponsored by the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments during the 61st IFLA Conference in Ankara, and Istanbul, Turkey in August, 1995. The manuscript was updated for major events at a conference in Poland in 1996 and again on a comprehensive basis in 1997. It has been revised almost continuously since then for major events. Most of the data on collection size, staffing, workload, and other variables that are slow to change are consistent with the latest data published (the Directory of National Parliamentary Libraries, published by the German Bundestag in 1996— reflecting data for 1995-96). Information on services, organization, and new directions are as current as 1997 and, in a few instances, as current as July 1998. The senior editor for this volume, Bill Robinson, is the former Chair of the Section. He was engaged in work with the parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe for seven years (1990-97) and made an outstanding contribution to the strengthening of the institutions of those legislatures. He is currently Senior Specialist in Public Policy at the Congressional Research Service of the U.S. Library of Congress.

VII

INTRODUCTION by William H. Robinson Senior Specialist in Public Policy Congressional Research Service U.S. Library of Congress This book represents far more than it could ever adequately convey. It is a labor of love and a statement of pride — made by and on behalf of all those who worked so hard to create meaningful library and research services for their newly democratic countries in Central and Eastern Europe. At the same time, it is intended as a tribute to those same bright, highly-motivated, truly admirable people whom I count as friends and colleagues in the pursuit of democratic institutions and societies. I have been a fortunate participant-observer in most of these efforts (through a unique opportunity described later). But nothing I have done in my thirty-six years of public service nor could expect to achieve in the future can compare with the joy and sense of accomplishment that I experienced while working on this grand endeavor. While I feel very fortunate to have had several of Maslow's "peak experiences" in working first in the Executive Office of the President and then for the U.S. Congress, this one has to be my personal summit — the one never to be surpassed. And that is fitting. The most momentous event in my lifetime was the fall of the Berlin Wall and the series of largely peaceful revolutions that liberated millions of people and many nations. To be even a small part of the effort to build new, more democratic societies was truly an opportunity of a lifetime. This book tells a small but important part of that story — the creation of parliamentary libraries and research services to help inform the fledgling legislatures in the region. It documents incredible progress, moving from peripheral rubber-stamp bodies to real legislatures capable of expressing the will of the people in the formation of laws that would govern them. But even more significantly, it traces the formation of impressive institutional resources — starting from virtually nothing in most cases — for assisting the legislature to become a more significant institution in societies transitioning from totalitarian to more pluralistic structures. Knowledge is power. For too long, and in too many places, knowledge has been the monopoly of authoritarian executive structures and the handmaiden of autarky. But with the growth of these new knowledge-based institutions for the legislature, power has been decentralized and diffused in a more healthy pattern for these new democratic nations. That is the source of pride being expressed subliminally by the authors of this volume — the pride that rightly flows from prodigious effort and personal courage — and the pride that comes from an important job well done (or at least well begun). Progress under conditions of adversity comes at great price. The struggle must seem never-ending against the attitudes of the past and the barriers of too few resources. Sometimes, the struggle is arduous and even dangerous — creating genuinely heroic possibilities, as in the case of Irina Andreeva of Russia who, though VIII

unauthorized to enter the building, walked up 11 flights of stairs in the burned-out White House in 1993 in order to rescue her remaining collections and PCs for the new Duma; or for Zana Bufi and Vjollca Hesenbegasi of Albania who braved streets marked by gunfire in Tirana in 1997 in order , to help the parliament carry on its important duties during a period of near anarchy in the development of this troubled nation. That is the spirit that lies beneath the surface of this book. Unfortunately, this little volume describing the library and research services of Central and Eastern Europe is an imperfect vehicle for carrying such a heavy substantive and emotional burden — and it does not, and cannot adequately meet those lofty expectations. Circumstances beyond our control worked against us. Already working very hard in active legislatures, we struggled with too little time to think great thoughts or write soaring verse, too many languages to sing in close harmony, and perhaps too prosaic a subject to offer many opportunities to attain what was perhaps beyond our reach in any event. (Perhaps another book will be written that can more fully satisfy those expectations). While totally absolving my colleagues for any of this book's inadequacies, I must bear the burden of any failures or weaknesses that could have been avoided. I was so distracted by other duties that this volume took far too long to bring to publication. Many of the drafts were first completed in 1995, and have had to be updated once or twice since that time. As a result, the data in the book are the most recent available, despite covering time periods that vary from 1995 to 1998. In some cases, editorial notes had to be injected where major events took place since the last formal update by the author of the chapter. I feel I must also explain what may be perceived as institutional self indulgence that appears in the form of expressions of gratitude to the "Frost Task Force" or the U.S. Congress in several places in the book. I have permitted these to remain (though sometimes greatly watered down) because of the desires of my European colleagues — whose gratitude is genuine and is often expressed in other public and private settings. I have also permitted it to remain because so much of the early progress was, in fact, facilitated or accelerated by the considerable resources made available from 1991-96 through the U.S. Congress. Both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate gave extraordinary, early support to the efforts of their legislative counterparts in Central and Eastern Europe. The Senate offered the "Gift of Democracy" to Poland (with about $2.25 million worth of computer equipment and a printing press) coming just weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Special Task Force on the Development of Parliamentary Institutions was created in the House of Representatives in 1990 (and was named after its first Chair, Congressman Martin Frost of Texas). The Task Force operated in 10 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, and used the Congressional Research Service as its administrative and technical assistance arm. With the approval of its oversight committee, the Joint Committee on the Library, CRS also conducted parliamentary cooperation programs with Russia and Ukraine. By the end of the Task Force in 1996, CRS had spent $28 million to help 12 legislatures in Central and Eastern Europe build stronger libraries, research capacities, and information capabilities. For reasons beyond the control of the Task Force, including armed conflict in the former republics of Yugoslavia, we were unable to reach all counties in the region before the program ended in December 1996. The countries that were covered by the program IX

included: Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Half the funds were used to create state-of-the-art networks of personal computers (the ultimate form of decentralized information power), with Internet connections later in the program. The rest was used to train staff and members, help build library collections (especially reference books, periodicals, newspapers, and CD-ROMs), and provide technical assistance This assistance was the first to go into the region; we were later joined by the European Union efforts known as PHARE and TACIS. I directed the CRS implementation of the program under Task Force and Joint Committee policy guidance, and made many trips into the region, both of a fact-finding and technical assistance nature. Hence, my own pride is also wrapped up in this noble venture of our East European colleagues. Having said all that, I must state that no progress would have been possible without the imagination, commitment, and energy of the East Europeans themselves. They knew all too well what needed to be done; they simply lacked the necessary resources. Thus, outside aid played a catalytic role in expanding the range of what was possible and greatly hastening its accomplishment I end this (overly long and personal) introduction with some sincere words of thanks. First, I want to thank my wife Nancy Pettis for her constant inspiration, encouragement, and belief in the importance of this effort. She is a real democrat, and believes in the basic competence of people to make their own informed decisions more fully than anyone I know. She loves Central and Eastern Europe, and works hard to help it become the happy home for her many friends in the region. Second, I want to thank my many collaborators from CRS, especially Francis Miko — with whom I shared responsibility for managing the entire CRS role in the project. Nancy Davenport managed the training programs (for librarians and others) and, as a professional librarian, took a special interest in the program for libraries. Special thanks are due to Mary Nell Bryant, Aletta Waterhouse, Eric Johnson, Felicia Kolp, Pam Dragovich, and Holly (Larsen) Hook, who were the people most directly involved in the CRS program for developing libraries in Central and Eastern Europe. I would also like to express my appreciation to two East European colleagues who, after receiving aid from the U.S., then spent considerable time and personal resources providing technical assistance and training to their East European neighbors. Many people in the region owe some share of their technical skills to time spent with Ivan Ronai of Hungary and Eva Nawrocka of Poland. More immediately, several colleagues were instrumental in getting this book done: Ray Gastelum and Janice Hyde, who helped write and/or edit large parts; and Karen Wirt, who edited the introduction and early versions of several of the chapters on her own time. But most importantly, I want to thank my Central and East European colleagues — for their work in writing and updating their chapters, for helping to build better societies for themselves and their children, and for being such good friends. They have affected my life, and the lives of my CRS colleagues who worked on this project, in ways far more profound and lasting than anything we could have imagined. This book is for them.

X

LEGISLATURES AND INFORMATION CAPABILITIES IN EMERGING DEMOCRATIC NATIONS: A FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSMENT by William Robinson and Janice Hyde1

We are living in an "Age of Parliaments," with a revitalization of legislatures that has made them stronger today than ever before in our history.2 This pattern is particularly striking for Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, which are emerging from relatively peaceful revolutions in the 1989-91 period when they were largely rubber stamp legislative bodies to today's more active, meaningful legislatures. Yet how can we chart the course of these democratizing legislatures or measure their progress? There are few objective measures of what constitutes movement toward democracy or more effective governance. This chapter offers a preliminary framework for assessing progress.

The central thesis is that the engine of democracy is an effective

legislature, freely chosen by and representative of its people. In tum, the fuel that keeps the entire democratic system running is the knowledge and information that permit the legislature to make wise decisions and to play its proper role in defining policies that will govern the

1 William H. Robinson is currently Senior Specialist in Public Policy at the U.S. Congressional Research Service, and former Chairman of the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). Janice Hyde is currently Program Officer for the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN Program) of the Law Library of Congress. At the time this chapter was written, Mr. Robinson was serving as Associate Director of CRS in charge of International Parliamentary Programs, and Ms. Hyde was a Parliamentary Development Specialist under contract to CRS. The ideas expressed here are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Congressional Research Service. 2 Copeland, Gary W. and Patterson, Samuel C., editors, Parliaments in the Modern World: Changing Institutions (Ann Albor, MI: The University of Michigan Press), 1994, pp. 1-11.

nation. The links between these ideas are strong and persistent, and constitute a compelling theme. The chapter begins with a brief recapitulation of the democratic revolutions that have swept the globe in the past two decades, and the ways in which these developments have enhanced the role of the legislature. Some possible general criteria are offered for gauging an effective democratic legislature as well as more specific criteria for measuring institutional progress within the legislature. The emphasis is on the ability of the legislature to get and use information from a wide variety of sources in making independent decisions. The chapter closes with a survey of the present research and information capacities of the parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. I. Introduction The "Third Wave of Democratic Revolutions," described by Samuel P. Huntington, advances the value of democratic institutions like legislatures.3 This "wave" began in 1974. It is characterized as a largely peaceful revolution that reached a crescendo with the metaphoric rending of the Iron Curtain and the actual physical destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989, with the resulting collapse of communism and the centrifugal dispersion of the former Soviet Union. Few events have captured popular imagination as much as the liberation of Central Europe and the Baltic nations following the changes in that region of the world in the winter of 1990 and the collapse of the Soviet Union after the abortive coup attempt in August 1991. Most generations born before World War II never expected to see the time when these nations would once again enjoy their freedom. Yet the euphoria of 1990-91 has given way

3

See Huntington, Samuel P., The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century (Norman, OK.: University of Oklahoma Press), 1991, for a compelling argument about the wave of democratic revolutions that began in 1974, reached a dramatic peak with the liberation of Eastern Europe and the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989, and continues.

2

to sober reflection on the difficulty of making the transition from authoritarian political systems and command economies to pluralistic democracies and market economies. A. Ibero-American Beginnings While this mega-drama in Central Europe has transfixed the world and its media, the longer-term worldwide movement toward more democratic systems is frequently lost. Few realize that the current wave of democratic revolutions actually began in Iberia over a decade and a half earlier on a much more poetic note. Huntington dates the beginning of this third wave of democratic revolutions with extraordinary specificity for such broad historical movements: The third wave of democratization in the modern world began, implausibly and unwittingly, at twenty-five minutes after midnight, Thursday, April 25, [1974] in Lisbon, Portugal, when a radio station played the song 'Orandola Vila Morena." That broadcast was the goahead signal for the military units in and around Lisbon to carry out the plans for a coup d'etat that had been carefully drawn up by the young officers leading the Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA). 4 Following this strange beginning (for coups normally spell the end o f democracy rather than herald its inception), the Caetano government, successor to the thirty-five-year-old Salazar regime, collapsed and was eventually succeeded by a democratic government after two years of strife that often verged uncomfortably on revolution. Also during 1974, the eight-year military junta in Greece was replaced by a democratic government— the first in this Mediterranean wave to do so by popular election. In 1975, Spain lost its dictator, Francisco Franco, and that nation began a smooth transition to democracy— thanks to the careful preparations o f Spanish Prime Minister Carlos Arias even before Franco's death and the rapid political development o f Prince (now King) Juan Carlos. According to Joshua Muravchik,

4 Huntington, Samuel P., op. cit., p. 3. Huntington dates the other two waves of democratic revolution as running from 1828-1926 (with 33 countries, including the U.S., Japan, Australia, Canada, U.K., Switzerland, and a number of other West European nations) and from 1943-62 (with 41 countries, including a sprinkling of countries in Asia, Latin America, as well as some countries that came back into the democratic column after a reversion to nondemociatic ways). (See page 16).

3

the winds of change blowing in Spain and Portugal in the mid-seventies were felt in Latin America as well: Perhaps influenced by events in Iberia, the states of Latin America in the late 1970s began to slough off military regimes and return to elected governments. This trend quickened in the 1980s, until almost all of the Western hemisphere became democratic.. ..5 Nor did the winds of change confine themselves to the West. Larry Diamond asserts the "democratic tide has begun to sweep through Asia, unraveling authoritarian regimes of long standing in the Philippines and South Korea, and bringing significant (and perhaps inadequately appreciated) democratic progress in Taiwan and Pakistan."6 Moreover, there have been significant democratic transitions in Africa— with the shift in ruling power in South Africa perhaps most striking. B. Forces Driving Democracy The linkages between events in Iberia and related activities in Latin America were not coincidental. These patterns of change stemmed from many of the same causes propelling democracy in the rest of the world, sometimes jointly but often independently. The forces promoting democracy included the liberalizing effects of Vatican Π in 1963-65 on the role of the Catholic Church— a shift from a previous policy of supporting prevailing regimes to a posture of opposition to authoritarianism; deepening legitimacy problems of authoritarian regimes in the face of military defeats (particularly for Portugal and Argentina) and economic failure (the latter coming in part from the oil shocks of 1973-74 and 1978-79); unprecedented global economic growth in the 1960s and early 1970s that extended the scope of the middle class— long seen as a prerequisite to democracy; and other external factors, such as expansion

5 Muravchik, Joshua, Exporting Democracy: Fulfilling America's Destiny (Washington, D.C.: The ΑΕΙ Press), 1992, p. 78. 6 Diamond, Lany, "Beyond Authoritarianism and Totalitarianism: Strategies for Democratization," in Λ Washington Quarterly Reader, edited by Brad Roberts (Cambridge, MA: The ΜΓΓ Press), 1990, p. 227.

4

of the European Community beginning in 1973, the Helsinki Process (with its focus on human rights) inaugurated with the signing of the Helsinki Final Act in August 1975, and the new shift in U.S. foreign policy in 1974 to emphasize human rights, among others.7 C. Strengthening Legislatures The central element of change in these revolutions or their most notable product is the creation (or recreation) of more meaningful legislatures. As a result, Gary W. Copeland and Samuel C. Patterson claim that we may be living in "an age of parliaments," characterized by a " remarkable reestablishment, reinvention, and transformation of parliaments around the globe. Parliamentary government— representative democracy— is on the wing again, as new parliaments are built in Europe and Asia, and old ones rebuilt in Latin America. Even in North America the bug of legislative reform is in the air, the stable U.S. Congress is the focus for renewed demands for organizational change, and Canadians are debating fundamental change of part of their Parliament, the Senate. Legislative change is, indeed, the order of the day."* Copeland and Patterson close their introductory comments by stating that "parliaments are stronger in the 1990s than ever before."9

7

Huntington, op. cit., pp. 45, 89.

' Copeland and Patterson, op. cit., pp. 1, 8. 9 Ibid., p. 11. As further indication of the rebirth of interest in legislatures, and a more selfconscious study of their comparative development around the globe, a new international journal has been launched. The Journal of Legislative Studies published its first issue in 1995. It is edited by Phillip Norton at the University of Hull, and the editorial board is made up of noted legislative scholars from many nations. The first editorial began: "Legislatures span the globe. Almost nine out of every ten countries have one. At a time of rapid institutional and political change, they have become even more significant There are radical changes taking place in central and eastern Europe, in the member states of the European Union, and in other continents as parliaments are transformed and take on new significance." [The Journal of Legislative Studies (Frank Cass and Company Limited: London), vol. 1, no. 1 (Spring, 1995), page 1.] The book review section reviews 7 books. Five of these are books on comparative legislative development— all written in 1994.

5

D. Problems in Institutionalizing Democratic Change It would appear that there is a "global Zeitgeist for democracy."10 However, the record of periodic breakdowns in old democracies and the difficulty in consolidating new democracies present serious challenges to such a rosy view of the world This is true for the democracies in Eastern and Central Europe, but it holds with particular force for those newly independent states of the former Soviet Union— which have little democratic history or traditions. It will take time and careful attention to institution building to consolidate these democratic tendencies in order to ensure that they survive the hard times and challenges that will certainly confront them in the next few years. Π. Possible Criteria for Measuring an Effective Democratic Legislature While there is no universal agreement about what constitutes democracy or a democratic legislature, there are some basic concepts to which many people would subscribe. I offer a preliminary listing below, a contribution intended to build a shared set of standards that will permit dialogue on this important topic. From this higher level criteria set, one can derive some implicit notions of how parliamentary information and research services might promote this democratization process, as well as develop a set of suggested standards for effective parliamentary research services. The suggested criteria for an effective democratic legislature are stated in normative terms. While the section on "Protections" is broader than the legislature, and extends to all of society, the legislature should play its part in ensuring that these fundamental protections are sustained.

10

The term is Diamond's, op. cit., p. 227, although he argues against the idea.

6

A.

Elections The legislature should be elected directly by the people, with nearly universal suffrage of all competent adults. Representatives should have close ties with their constituents." •

B.

Elections should be competitive between individuals, groups, and especially parties, held at regular intervals, and exclude the use of force.

Protections The people should be protected in their civil and political liberties (free press; have freedom of expression, rights of association— to assemble in informal groups, and to form and join organizations; there should be pluralistic dispersion of power in society; a vigorous civil society12; absence of coercion and violence).

C.

•

Political leaders should share a mutual trust and confidence to ensure that "defeat will not mean elimination, that victory will be limited by accountability, and that power will be wielded responsibly. . . ,"13 This is essential in both permitting agreement and compromise in the legislative process, and in facilitating peaceful transitions to and from office.

•

Some measure of economic freedom should be provided, with at least a minimal social safety net and assurances of a reasonably fair distribution of income, so that all elements of society can perceive their government as just— thus sustaining broad-based continuing support that will enhance the stability of the regime.14

Legislative Process The legislative process should be transparent and open (with public hearings in committees and relatively free access of the public to plenary sessions). •

Decisions should be made by majority rule with respect for minority rights within the legislature. This means that legislative rules, procedures, and norms must encourage trust, fair treatment of the opposition, and agreement-building

11 The first three in this list correspond fairly closely to those suggested by Larry Diamond, a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution (Stanford University) in Diamond, op. cit., pp. 228229. His principal points focus on competition, participation, and civil and political liberties. 12 Diamond notes that: "Voluntary associations perform many functions in a democracy. They constitute, in addition to political parties, an alternative channel for articulating interests and making demands upon the government," op. cit., p. 234. 13

Diamond, op. cit., p. 230.

14

This was first suggested by the political economist Kenneth E. Boulding, Principles of Economic Policy (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall), 1958, p. 130. His ideas are reinforced by the experience of recent years— with the perceived primacy of successful economic change as a foundation for political stability in the transitions in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

7

within the legislature. (This is the legislative analogue to the second item under "Protections" above). D.

Legislative Performance Effective laws should be widely known and enforced (with sound bill drafting, careful attention paid to enforceability aspects of the law, and widespread distribution and knowledge of the laws). •

The legislature should be an effective participant in the policy process of the nation (with early consultations from the executive or cabinet about directions for policy choice, availability of choices, and widespread availability and use of information). The legislature should make effective use of experts and staff (both for members and committees), and rely on committees to refine the work of the legislature to make its products more effective and informed.15

III. A Framework and Possible Assessment Criteria Before listing the implications of these standards for parliamentary research and information capabilities, it would be useful to offer a theoretical framework that sets forth the unique role of the legislature in a democracy. A. A Continuum of Legislative Activity Nelson Polsby has identified the various levels of activity at which a parliament might function, with the most active level that of the transformative legislature.16

The

typology used in this analysis is somewhat different and has been adapted to the unique

15 Anthony King states: "It is scarcely too strong to say that any large body that does not do most of its work in committees is not a body that is doing serious work. Plenaiy sessions are not a suitable forum for detailed discussion, for close questioning, of for conducting negotiations; they tend to be great time wasters. Indeed, it is a useful rule of thumb that the more time a body like a legislature spends in plenary sessions, the less influential it is." Anthony King, "How to Strengthen Legislatures- Assuming That We Want To." in The Role of Legislatures in Western Democracies, edited by Norman J. Ornstein (Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research), 1981, p. 85. 16 Polsby, Nelson, "Legislatures," in Fred Greenstein and Nelson Polsby, eds., Governmental Institutions and Processes, Handbook of Political Science vol. 5 (Reading, MA.: Addison-Wesley), 1975, pp. 257-319.

8

circumstances of a post-communist world.17 The level of functioning will have an important bearing on its need for information and research.

At the lowest level in terms of required

Legislative R o l e s a n d Information N e e d s

information is the rubber Transformativa Legislature

stamp legislature, which Informed Legislature

is typified by the former Emerging Legislature

Soviet

Union

and

its Ri4>ber Stamp Legislature

erstwhile satellites. If the function of the legislature is to gather twice each year and vote unanimously in favor of the program of the party, then there is little need for information other than the time and place of the vote. Few such legislatures exist today following the democratic revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s." At the next level of activity, the emerging legislature has discovered that it needs information to participate effectively in the legislative process. It creates or augments a parliamentary library (and perhaps even a research service). The services include reference

17 This typology in a slightly different form is traced in Robinson, William H., "Building a Parliamentary Research Capability," IFLA Journal (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions), vol. 17 (1991), no. 4, pp. 379-88.

18 The Congressional Research Service conducted a program of cooperation and exchange with the emerging democratic legislatures in Central and Eastern Europe during the years 1990-97. The following legislatures in the region were engaged in developing their information and research services: Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The program involved funding of approximately $28 million to purchase computer networks, books, and library materials for the parliamentary libraries; train staff to conduct research and reference tasks; train members to both expect and use information in the legislative process; and provide specialized technical assistance to create a research and analysis capability, etc.

9

materials on current issues and clipping services on fast-moving topics of interest to the legislature. The legislature may also provide some permanent staff for legislative committees, after relying on private volunteers or contractors for a time. On a higher tier (in terms of information requirements and desired role in the policy process) is the informed legislature. This body has been in existence for some time and already has a small cadre of personal staff, professional committee staff, and a parliamentary library (and/or research service), which provides active reference services, produces reports on selected legislative issues, offers a clipping service that is distributed pro-actively to all members on pressing issues, and may track the progress of key legislation. At this level, the parliamentary library is providing a relatively full array of services and products and is distinguished from the next level only by scale of resources and the fact that it stops short of providing substantial research and analysis services that identify policy options and their impacts. In Nelson Polsby's terms, these are "arena" type legislatures that are noted more for debate than for policy initiatives. The legislature does succeed in amending some bills introduced by the government and in enacting some of its own bills. The transformative legislature has the capability to alter proposals offered by the government and to develop policy options of its own. It may take the initiative in introducing fully developed proposals and enact them. The U.S. Congress is one such legislature. The German Bundestag may also be part of this small group.

The required resources are

considerable by traditional legislative standards. Such legislatures are characterized by a generous allotment of personal staff, strong and well-staffed committees, research and analysis at the party level (especially in the case of the Bundestag), and large central research groups that are capable of developing policy options. Each legislature must decide what level is most appropriate for its purposes, based on governance structure, political traditions, values and goals, and economic realities. 10

Β. Unique Role of the Legislature in the Policy Process Whatever the level of its participation in the policy process, the legislature plays a unique role. It is widely held that the simple participation of the legislature in establishing laws to govern the people is itself sufficient to bestow a democratic meaning on the result. This is the case described by David Olson's "90 percent rule": In most democratic legislatures, the practice approaches a "90 percent rule": the cabinet proposes at least 90 percent of the legislative agenda, and at least 90 percent of what it proposes is adopted. . . . The actual practice often begins with 60 percent as the minimum of government bills introduced, with at least 80 percent of them adopted. . . . " However, the viewpoint espoused here is more demanding. To obtain the full benefit of the unique contribution that only the legislature can make to the policy process, the parliament must take a more active role than is implied in mere participation. To fulfill this role it needs sources of independent information. This is equally true of governmental systems that are parliamentary in design. The argument starts with a description of the relationship between the executive branch (in presidential systems) and/or the executive side of the parliament in relation to its legislative counterpart.20 Throughout the world today, the executive agencies of government enjoy overwhelming superiority in terms of access to information and number of experts on their staff. Ideally, governmental ministries are staffed by some of the most knowledgeable people

19 Olson, David M. Democratic Legislative Institutions: A Comparative View (Armonk, New York: M E . Shaipe), 1994, {φ. 84, 134. Olson does not advocate this position as an ideal state. He describes it as the existent state, and accepts the democratic label attached to it. 20 While much of this argument must be impressionistic, it has some empirical grounding. It is based on the author's personal experience in the U.S. system of government (10 years in the executive branch and 26 years in the legislative branch); on in-depth exposure to roughly a dozen other legislatures with which the author has served as a consultant as part of a legislature-tolegislature cooperation and exchange program (Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Egypt, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Albania, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia); active participation as both member, officer, and then Chairman of the Parliamentary Libraries Section of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA); and brief discussions with others through dozens of briefings for visiting parliamentarians from a score or more of other parliaments over the past four years.

11

in the country in their respective fields. The ministries and their experts look upon the legislature as relatively uninformed on most issues in their ken, and not likely to comprehend the more complex matters. There is a powerful incentive to share only good news with the legislators and not burden them with too many technical nuances or qualifications. Moreover, the executive agencies and/or their collective expression in the cabinet have a strong interest in providing only that information that will support the carefully developed and integrated policy proposals of the ruling body.21 The potential for managed information is clear, and is something that every legislature must be prepared to counter through using its own independent expertise to ascertain the full picture. In a recent study Kent Weaver and Bert Rockman trace the implications of this imbalance as it interacts with party discipline in most parliamentary systems by noting: "In parliamentary systems, party discipline can turn the legislature into a rubber stamp for executive actions."22 They conclude: "Parliamentary institutions, ironically, tend to diminish the power of legislatures and concentrate it in the cabinet."23 It is presumably for this reason that Anthony King, a British scholar, suggests that one way to strengthen legislatures is to break down party discipline and permit members to vote against the government (or threaten to do so) on occasion in order to ensure that the government and the party pay sufficient attention to their views.24 21 This is not to suggest that information is consciously withheld or that the executive agency would lie to the legislature. However, the agency will usually wait for a direct inquiry before providing information of a potentially damaging nature. To ask the right question in order to liberate the information is the challenge, and often requires some specialized knowledge of the field to ferret it out. 22 Weaver and Rockman, Do Institutions Matter7 Government Capabilities in the United States and A broad (Washington, D C : The Brookings Institution), 1993, p. 14. The reference to "rubber stamp" is symbolic, in light of the feet that is the precise descriptor of the vestigial legislatures in the former Soviet Union and its erstwhile satellites in Central and Eastern Europe. 23

Weaver and Rockman, op. cit., p. 26.

24

Anthony King, "How to Strengthen Legislatures- Assuming That We Want To," in The Role of Legislatures in Western Democracies, edited by Norman J. Omstein (Washington, D.C.:

(continued...) 12

One way for the legislature to respond to the potential for managed information is to hire specialized staff of its own to keep the ministries honest. Olson claims that the "key question for legislatures concerns their independence from the executive."25 He goes on to note the importance of staff and research facilities for an independent legislature.

26

The

existence of legislative expertise is also a way to demonstrate a serious intent to understand the policies proposed for enactment and, if successful, may lead to changing the nature of the dialogue that occurs between the legislature and the ministries. A legislature that can and does ask potentially embarrassing questions is a body to be consulted in advance to avoid public embarrassment. But it is also an entity with a unique body of expertise that should be consulted for its input in making better public policy. The ministries and the executive strive to create a single, integrated vision of what is best for society. It is a top-down, expert-driven, largely conceptual approach. The legislature, on the other hand, generally represents a collection of more particularistic, practical views of what is good, what is possible, and what is acceptable. The general policy proposals of the executive need to be passed through the fine-grained screen of the legislative perspective to ensure that regions, groups, and interests that are affected will have an opportunity to adjust the policy to refine it and to make it more acceptable— thus adding to its stability. This is not a call for more active participation of the legislature in order to enhance its democratic content (although it will certainly do that), but rather greater

24

(... continued)

American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research), 1981, pp. 77-89. In his list of necessary activities for strengthening the legislature, King suggests the following— closing with the thought of weakening party discipline: — Better quality members with longer experience — More effective use of information and staff — Greater reliance on legislative committees to refine legislation and conduct hearings — More independent votes by members (less party discipline). 25

Olson, op. cit., p. 74.

26

Ibid , p. 141. 13

participation to improve the substantive content of policy and its quality. This line of argument is not traditional, but is far more compelling in today's environment of public skepticism about the efficacy of public policy. C. The Role of Information Brokers — the Vital Center Legislative information providers play a key role as transmitter, interpreter, and synthesizer of information for a parliament or legislature. In an ideal setting, the search for information to guide the parliament is wide-ranging— involving experts in the ministries, academia, non-governmental think tanks, state and/or regional bodies, and international sources. Since most members suffer not from a lack of information but from "information overload," what is needed is the right information, presented in an easily accessible form, and provided in a timely manner for immediate use in the legislature. The role of the parliamentary library or research center is to search for the right information, integrate it with other materials, synthesize it into a digestible length, translate it into terms that non-experts can comprehend, and then disseminate it widely in the parliament in a form that is non-partisan and as objective as possible— so that all may use it with a high degree of confidence.27 In some cases, the library or research service will contribute some additional value by offering options not espoused elsewhere in the system based on its own understanding and expertise in the field. The process might be likened to two funnels pushed together with their narrow openings joined, and the bell-shaped funnels facing out in either direction. The left-hand side of this funnel captures a broad range of information for use in the legislature. The right-hand side symbolizes broad distribution in

27 The importance of providing a synthesis of unbiased information is made persuasively in Englefield, Dermot, ed.. Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services: A Directory of the Member Legislatures of the European Communities and the Council of Europe (Rome: Camera dei Deputati), 1990. "In the first place although the flow of information to Parliamentarians is almost at saturation point, almost all of it is partial and argued to persuade them to a particular policy.... In the face of this onslaught of information the fundamental role of these Parliamentary services is to be the lone purveyor of an unbiased information service" (page 7).

14

a democratic setting. The narrow segment in between is the critical juncture occupied by the parliamentary librarian, researcher, or other information broker— whose responsibility is to shape the information to make it readily accessible for use in the legislative process.

Information Flow & Analysis in a Democratic Legislature

Without the vital center, the system would simply drown in facts and information, while still not obtaining the needed knowledge or wisdom. D. The Roles of Information in a Legislature There are many ways in which information contributes to the legislative process, some manifest, and others only latent. The obvious one is to provide the grounds for better decisionmaking. But there are other important purposes that are not so clear, as shown in the chart below (see page 16). At its most basic (or micro-policy) level, the purpose of information for the legislature is to create the grounds for more informed decisions and more effective public policy. At the next level, institutional dynamics, a commonly accepted body of facts provided by the parliamentary library or research service can facilitate political agreement by

15

narrowing the range of debate to differences in values, rather than disagreement over the facts of the case.

Functions of Legislative Information

Level of Analysis

Function of Information

Micro-policy

Make more informed decisions Result in better public policy

Institutional dynamics

Facilitate consensus building

Politicai

Enhance Legitimacy of legislature

Constitutional

Strengthen roie of legislature in policy process

At a political level the use of high-quality information by the legislature can add to the perceived legitimacy of its actions in an increasingly technocratic era. This may be thought of as the latent function of information, it can also be manifest. To the extent to which better information actually contributes to better public policy, the use of information and analysis can lead to higher levels of support for both the policies adopted and their continuity, and to support for the legislature itself Finally, at the level of macro-politics or constitutional issues, a sufficiently strong base of independent facts and analysis can enhance the role of the legislature in the overall policy process of the nation— enabling the legislature to act more independently by offering amendments or wholly new options for consideration in the policy debate. The existence of such a body of information and analytical resources is what supports the role of the United States Congress as a transformative legislature in the sense described in Nelson Polsby's

16

classic analysis of legislatures

As noted by Polsby, a legislature operating at this level

transcends the more typical vision of a legislature as an arena for debate and discussion only.28

E. Criteria and Performance Characteristics To provide the information needed by the legislature to carry out its important role in the policy process of the nation, there are three basic resources required: •

Trained staff for committees, central research group, parliamentary library, and political party groups (and, perhaps as resources permit, for individual members as well).

•

Automation and telecommunication capabilities to facilitate access to, use of, and rapid distribution of information (networked PCs), plus access to Internet (for transparency and efficiency and wide access to information). Information sources (books, library materials, CD-ROM, databases, Internet access to other sources around the world, personal networks of specialists). However, these resource criteria are not sufficient nor explicit enough to be useful

in evaluating the progress or current capabilities of research and information providers in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. It would be far more helpful to specify desired roles and set them against the necessary performance characteristics. The next section sets forth, in some detail, some suggested roles and associated performance and resource standards. There are at least two key needs for information in the legislative process: (1) to provide individual members with information to understand the policy issues on which they will be voting; and (2) to provide the in-depth information and analysis needed by committees in helping the legislature to assert its role in the policy process and to have choices available to exercise its prerogatives. These roles are outlined below in terms of normative statements of desired perfomance.

28

Polsby, op.cit., pp. 257-319. 17

1. Timely Background Information for Members a.

Goals Provide quick access to current information on major legislative issues on which the member will vote.

b.

•

Offer brief and timely information on all legislative issues.

•

Inform members on all issues or matters of interest to the legislature (whether legislative or not— e.g., foreign policy, foreign visitors, etc ).

•

Assist members in providing services and information to his or her constituents (as the legislator's role in meeting the needs of constituents, but also in building democracy).

Attributes of Good Capacity To Meet Need Maintain good current reference information on legislation and current policy issues (books, periodicals, serials, CD-ROMs, databases, international publications, journals, newspapers).

c.

•

Provide automation and telecommunication capabilities to obtain and transmit information quickly (networked PCs, Internet).

•

Offer competent staff (sufficient numbers to provide backup and some specialization; training for researchers and librarians, librarians with subject specialization, and entry-level researchers; and skills, including the ability to find information quickly, and good judgment in selection for both balance and relevance).

•

Provide a good supply of timely, prepared products to meet information needs of highest demand quickly.

Performance Criteria Maintain a strong commitment to serve the needs of the legislature and its members, and try to be helpful at all times. •

Answer requests for most information within one week.

•

Provide materials that are balanced, brief, and rei e ν tint Seek to provide proactive work (including selective dissemination of information, clipping services, background reports). Advertise the availability of assistance (service brochures, new acquisitions lists, finding aids or annotated bibliographies of information on hot topics, etc.).

18

•

Seek regular feedback from the legislature on the quality and utility of current services, and solicit suggestions for improved services from members and leadership.

2. Analytical Information and Research for Committees a.

Goals •

Provide timely information and analysis on major policy issues to committees and legislatively active members. Help committees to understand and deal with complex problems and proposals. Prepare analyses of major government proposals and develop additional choices for legislative committees and the legislature as a body. Define issues, identify causes of the problem, and develop alternative solutions for major policy issues under committee jurisdiction on an anticipatory basis.

•

b.

Create choices for the legislature in an attempt to "change the nature of the dialogue" with executive agencies.

Attributes of Good Capacity to Meet Need •

Maintain sufficient staff size to have backup, specialization, and coverage to support all major committees in at least one simultaneous major project. Offer sufficient expertise to be respected by experts in the ministries and in academia and think tanks. Provide helpful research materials on major policy issues (latest government reports, academic research, and other "gray literature," solid data sources and databases on issue areas of interest). Sustain a base of good research technology (networked PCs and Internet) to conduct analysis (statistical packages, spreadsheets, databases, and simulation models where appropriate), permit materials to be shared with other researchers, communicate with counterparts around the world, and produce publication-quality reports for the legislature.

c.

Performance Criteria Serve in the role of "broker" or "intermediary" between the world of ideas and the world of action, with a distinctly practical bias— never letting academic training and erudite colleagues get in the way of producing understandable and timely reports for the legislature. 19

Focus on the legislative agenda and what is important to the legislature in deciding on which topics to concentrate limited analytical resources. •

Maintain a stock of up-to-date analytical reports on major issues of interest to the committees and the legislature. Meet deadlines of committees for reports and information Stay in regular contact with the committee to ensure that all necessary services are provided on legislative issues of importance to the committee, and to maintain continuing relevance and timeliness of work in progress. Develop options and trace their effects for the committee to facilitate informed decisionmaking. Anticipate issues and prepare committee in advance to deal with matters of importance in a noncrisis environment.

There are also difficult trade-offs to be made for those legislatures that choose to strengthen their research services to meet the goals and standards articulated above. Some of these choices are discussed in Appendix A of this book. Finally, the extent to which various legislatures and their information staffs are meeting these criteria is a matter of judgment and values. The following section outlines the current situation for most of the major parliamentary research and information services in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. IV. Parliamentary Libraries and Information Services of Central and Eastern Europe: Results of a Survey Of the twenty-seven countries that make up Eastern Europe and the Republics of the former Soviet Union, sixteen responded to a survey requesting information about their parliamentary libraries and information services for parliaments for a response rate of about 60%. (A tabular summary of the information can be found at Appendix B, pages 224-236. The questionnaire itself appears in Appendix C of this volume). Almost all Eastern European countries responded, although of the former Yugoslavian countries, responses were received only from Slovenia and Croatia. Seven of the fifteen Republics of the former Soviet Union

20

responded to the survey (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and the three independent Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania). A.

Parliamentary Libraries In the post-communist period major changes occurred in the structure of

parliaments and institutions that support them.

The survey sought to determine the

organization of parliamentary libraries and research services and where they fit in the administrative structure of the parliament. All the countries surveyed had a parliamentary library

In five countries (31 percent of the respondents), the Parliamentary Library functions

as a separate department or unit within the parliament (Czech Republic, Hungary, Polish Sejm Library, Russia, and Ukraine) Two national libraries are functioning as the Parliamentary Library (Estonia and Lithuania), and one Presidential Library serves as the Parliamentary Library (Belarus). In the other eight countries (50 per cent of the cases), the library forms part of a larger "information" or "documentation" department: Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. B.

Research and Analysis

1.

Provision of Research and Analysis Research and analysis services are provided to 13 legislative chambers in ten

countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland (Sejm and Senat), Romania (Chamber of Deputies), Russia (Duma and Federation Council), Slovak Republic, and Ukraine. There are three additional units that provide limited research services, but have plans to expand them or create full research capacities. (Hungary, the Romanian Senate, and Slovenia). Counting Hungary and Slovenia — which now have some limited research services and plan to expand in the near future, fully 75% of the countries that responded to the survey either now or will soon provide full research and analysis services to parliament.

21

There are four remaining countries where research and analysis is currently limited or not available. According to responses to the survey, there are two countries with no research services but with a desire to start them (Albania and Latvia), and two countries with limited research services provided through the library (Belarus and Moldova). 2.

Structure of Research and Analysis Units In 7 instances, research and analysis for parliament is provided by a separate unit

or department within the parliament: Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Polish Sejm and Senate, Russian Duma, and Ukraine.

In five cases, the research and analysis service is

integrated with other related services (like library, documentation services, and automation) In fact, the creation of larger, more integrated information services may be seen as a recent trend. Since 1996, separate research services were combined into these larger aggregations in 4 cases (Bulgaria, Romania— both the Chamber of Deputies existing research service and the new research service of the Senate, the Analytical Center of the Russian Federation Council, and Slovakia). C.

Staff The number of staff in parliamentary libraries ranges from three in Albania to

ninety-four staff with various specialties in the Parliamentary Library of Hungary. Other large libraries include Poland and Russia. The median number of library staff is nine. The number of specialists who provide research and analysis ranges from two in Bulgaria to 107 for the Russian Federation Council. The Polish Sejm has almost seventy fulltime positions at the Bureau of Research. Where parliamentary research organizations exist, they tend to be larger than their library counterparts — with a median number of research staff at about 26. The two most common areas of specialization for those who provide research and analysis are law and economics. Additional subject specialties that are found among the staff in various research and analysis units include political science, sociology, foreign policy,

22

domestic policy, education, science, foreign languages, psychology, social welfare, and archeology. The librarians who serve parliamentary libraries and who provide library services to research and analysis groups also tend to have wide-ranging subject specialties. D.

Library Collections The size of library collections ranges from a modest 3,000 volumes in the Reading

Room of the Latvian Saeima and 11,400 volumes in the parliamentary library of Moldova to the vast collections of several national libraries that serve as parliamentary libraries (Belarus with 1.5 million volumes, Estonia with 1.9 million volumes, and Ukraine with 2.6 million volumes). The median number of volumes is 60,000.

Moldova also houses the smallest

number of periodical titles, 43, while the parliamentary library of Hungary has 2,500 periodical titles. The median number of periodicals found in these parliamentary libraries is 234. Of the eight libraries that reported numbers of newspapers separately from periodicals, Latvia currently has subscriptions to 30 newspapers while the Slovak Republic reports 230 newspaper titles (the highest number).

The median number of newspaper

subscriptions is approximately 100. Seven parliamentary libraries report having CD-ROM titles in their collections. The median number of titles is 15-20, represented by the Czech Republic and Lithuania. Most separate research and analysis services draw upon the collections of the parliamentary library, but nearly all also have their own relatively small reference collections. In Poland, the Research and Analysis Office of the Sejm has a reference collection of 3,619 volumes, 186 serial subscriptions, 9 newspaper subscriptions, and 8 CD-ROM titles. Its counterpart for the Polish Senat has 2,860 volumes, 160 serials, and 30 newspapers.

The

Parliamentaiy Institute of the Czech Republic also subscribes to about 30 newspapers, while maintaining a small reference collection for research purposes.

23

E.

Services and Products

1.

Parliamentary Libraries Of the parliamentary libraries surveyed, the majority provide the three most

"traditional" library services: lending services, reference services, and the preparation of bibliographies. The development of databases is also becoming a frequently offered service. Generally, these databases include a catalogue of books and periodicals housed in the library, and articles from selected periodicals of interest to the legislature. Several libraries also prepared some kind of "info pack" and/or daily news digest to assist members of parliament. Other services offered include selective dissemination of information (SDI), newspaper clipping services, and translation services. In a few cases, several interesting services were offered beyond those mentioned above, including seminars for Members of Parliament (Albania), development of CD-ROM databases for use in the legislature and for sale (Hungary), a video library (Poland), and an extensive series of bibliographies on legislative topics (Ukraine). 2.

Research and analysis units The work done by research groups is related to their specialized skills and the way

in which research work is organized in the legislature. For example, some research groups have integrated various disciplines (lawyers, economists, foreign policy specialists, etc.) into a single organization — as in the cases of Poland and Slovakia. Others have chosen to focus legal analysis in one department and other research skills in another — as in Ukraine, Estonia, and Romania. Whatever the organizational pattern, the legislature most often looks to the research group to provide research, studies, and analytical information on issues that have been presented to the legislature for resolution. In the early stages of an issue, research groups

24

often provide information describing the problem, including its scale, relative urgency, and trends. In a few of the larger services, alternative solutions might be outlined. Where legislation has been introduced, researchers will summarize the bill (or bills) and what it does. Frequently, the bill will be compared to current law and the Constitution, to determine its compatibility with existing law. The more sophisticated legal research services will assess the legality and technical adequacy of the drafting of the propose law. Similarly, a few of the larger services will try to assess the impact of the bill on society — including social and economic effects (e.g., the Research and Analysis Bureau of the Polish Sejm)

Many will provide comparative information on the law and practices in other

countries on a specific subject. (This may also be done by the library). Nearly all research groups are called upon to provide information on issues and laws in other countries for legislative delegations from their own parliament going abroad, or for the legislature about visiting delegations from other nations. This will often include profiles about key personalities in the country of interest. Finally, most research groups will sponsor seminars or workshops for the legislature on issues of concern. Some will also offer translations of foreign materials. A few examples will illustrate the range of services provided: Bulgaria now focuses its small research group (two staff) on the harmonization of Bulgarian law with that of the European Union (EU) — in preparation for future membership. The Czech Parliamentary Institute maintains a database on studies done by the Institute and other providers of research for use by the legislature. The Estonian Department of Economic and Social Information (DESI) provides economic and social analyses of bills coming before the legislature, but also conducts surveys and opinion polls. The Polish Sejm and Senat offer opinions of outside experts (under contract) on bills before the parliament. The Sejm Research and Analysis Bureau also analyzes public attitudes toward the Sejm, conducts environmental impact

25

studies, and provides a separate group of specialists to analyze the state budget. Although much smaller in scale, the Sloakian Parliamentary Institute also undertakes budget analysis. F.

Number of Services/Requests Parliamentary libraries use various measures to gauge workload or number of

services provided, including annual number of visitors, number of reference requests, and numbers of books circulated. There is sufficient information to analyze only the number of loans and reference requests. For eleven countries which responded to the questionnaire on the number of loans, the number ranged from 500 in Latvia to 70,000 in Russia — with the median number being 12,700 (Slovakia). Twelve of the libraries provided information on the number of reference requests they receive annually. The range is from 70 reference requests for the three librarians in Albania to 38,000 reference requests handled by the parliamentary library of Russia. The median number of reference requests was 7,900. While there is insufficient information to address the workload of research services with any authority, it might be useful to highlight the work of one of the busiest research services. During the 43-month period from October 1993 to May 1997, the Research and Analysis Bureau of the Polish Sejm provided 6,223 expert opinions, responded to 8,000 requests, produced 628 publications (including 32 books), and offered 25 seminars. G.

Future Goals/Plans The results of the survey show that the parliamentary libraries and information

services place a high priority on upgrading automation capabilities. About two-thirds of all the libraries and research services surveyed mentioned plans to enhance automation capabilities in the future. The Parliamentary Library of the Czech Republic appears to be embracing the concept of the electronic or virtual library and is exploring a variety of means of electronic data transfer, storage and retrieval. Approximately one-third of the libraries

26

surveyed plan to implement an automated integrated library system. One-third of the respondents also indicated a pressing need for more staff. Over one-fifth of the respondents indicated interest in the following improvements in their services: strengthening links to other libraries and institutions, enhancing analytical work, and spending more effort to integrate country laws with those of the EU. A smaller percentage indicated plans to create a research unit for the parliament. A few also mentioned the desire to increase the number of translations for the legislature, to spend additional resources on staff training, and to acquire more space for their information resources. H.

Survey Results: Criteria and Performance Characteristics If one reviews the survey results in light of the criteria and performance

characteristics that appear above, there is reason to be optimistic about the future of research and information services to the parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe. In countries where research and analysis capabilities already exist, examples indicate that good efforts are being made to meet key needs for information in the legislative process. The Research and Analysis Office of the Polish Senate, for example, handled nearly 30 percent of the requests they received in 1995-1996 on a rush basis, i.e., within one hour. To improve and promote their services, the Information and Analysis Department in Lithuania conducted a survey of members of parliament. Where research and analysis capabilities are not yet developed, many parliamentary libraries are nonetheless offering services beyond traditional—and important—lending and reference services that help meet the information needs of legislators such as news digests, databases, clipping files, and SDI services.

While this chapter has argued the merits of

research and analysis capabilities in support of legislatures and the democratic process, the decision to develop or strengthen research services is a difficult one, and the costs of diversifying collections, enhancing automation and telecommunications capabilities, and

27

increasing numbers of specialized staff may be high. Such decisions will be made by the legislatures, but responses to the survey seem to indicate that, on the whole, the parliamentary libraries and information services of the region are poised to assume a greater role in providing research and analysis in support of legislatures.

28

Republic of Albania The Parliamentary Library of the Albanian People's Assembly by Zana Bufi1 I.

Brief History of the Parliament and the Library The origins of the Albanian Parliament date back to Lushnja's Congress, which elected

a National Council of thirty-seven persons on January 28, 1920. During that year, this Congress performed the functions of Parliament. The first real Parliament was assembled on April 21, 1921 in Tirana.

This Parliament consisted of seventy-eight members who

represented two main political groups: the Popular Party and the Progressive Party. Between 1925 and 1928, the Albanian Parliament consisted of two chambers: a Deputies Chamber which was comprised of fifty-seven elected members, and a Senate which was comprised of eighteen elected members. In 1928, a unicameral structure was adopted as a replacement for this two-chamber system. From 1928 to 1939, the Parliament remained a single chamber legislature consisting of fifty-seven members. During World War Π, Albania was subject to foreign occupation. At the end of World War II, the Constituent Assembly that resulted from the election of December 12, 1945 proclaimed Albania a People's Republic; approved a new Constitution, and in January 1946 renamed the Parliament the "People's Assembly. " With these actions, the foundation was laid for the transformation of Albania into a totalitarian communist state. The period of communist rule lasted nearly five decades until events in 1990 resulted in the re-emergence of political pluralism. The first pluralistic elections resulted in the selection of 250 deputies for the People's Assembly from Albania's two political parties: the Labor Party, which constituted the majority, and the Democratic Party, which formed the opposition. After one year, new parliamentary elections were held on March 22, 1992, with

1

Zana Bufi is the Librarian of the Library of the People's Assembly of the Republic of Albania.

29

the Democratic Party winning a majority of the vote and the control of Parliament. The last Parliamentary elections were held in June and July, 1997, with the Socialist Party of Albania (PSS) winning an absolute majority of the vote and the control of Parliament (winning 101 of the now 155 seats). Among the new democratic institutions recently established in Albania, a special place is held by the Parliament as the nation's supreme legislative body. Yet among Albania's other newly established institutions, the Parliamentary Library also is worthy of attention. Founded in January 1992, the Albanian Parliamentary Library was created to help meet the research needs of the People's Assembly, and began with a total collection of 3,000 books and periodicals. In 1993, this collection was expanded with the addition of materials from the former Central Committee of the Labor Party. From 1993 to 1996, the Library's collection was further increased and enriched in areas of interest to the Parliament as a result of the work of the Special Task Force on the Development of Parliamentary Institutions in Eastern Europe sponsored by the U.S. Congress. This Special Task Force was also instrumental in helping to bring computer equipment and other automation to the Library. II.

Setting of the Library The Parliamentary Library is currently one of five departments that is directly responsible

to the Secretary General of the People's Assembly. As presently constituted, the People's Assembly remains a unicameral parliament composed of 155 members who are elected once every four years. The electoral system is a mixed system, with 115 seats being elected from single-member districts, and 40 seats by proportional representation. The Parliamentary Library is part of the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD), and it has close relations with the National Library of Albania, which is the premier public library in Albania. Periodically, the Library sends its official 30

journal to the Library of Congress, and to the Polish Parliament which, in turn, forwards information concerning Polish legislation. This same exchange relationship also has been established with the Library of the Hungarian Parliament. At present, the Library is working to establish similar exchange relationships with the parliamentary libraries of other countries. III. Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Library The Library has a staff of three who are in charge of all materials; they maintain catalogues; conduct research into literary sources; and provide information services, book lending, and collections management.

The three staff members are university educated

graduates in library science. As part of their continuing education program, these librarians participate in various training programs, including attendance at seminars and conferences. They also have organized and conducted working visits for various foreign parliamentary librarians and related groups, such as the staff members from the Congressional Research Service of the United States Library of Congress. Research and analysis services are not provided by the Library at this time. IV. Library Collections and Other Resources The national document holdings o f the Albanian Parliamentary Library date back to the first Albanian Parliament in the 1920's. At present, the collection of the Library contains approximately 37,000 volumes; fifty-five titles of foreign periodicals, and twenty titles of domestic periodicals. These collections are enriched with serials and CD-ROMs in areas of special parliamentary interest. Over the past four years, the Library's total collection has been expanded to include books on law, politics, economics, history, and the social sciences, as well as materials from European, American and other parliamentary institutions.

Reference books occupy a

particularly important place in the Library, although as of this writing, the Library does not have audiotapes, videotapes, or other similar information formats.

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The Library is physically located in the Building of the Presidency of the People's Assembly. It has two reading rooms and functions with open collections. Its distance from the building where the parliament's plenary sessions are held is approximately 1,000 meters. Currently, the Library has no reading room in the parliamentary building. V.

Services and Products

A.

Library and Reference Services The primary task of the Library is to provide the members of the People's Assembly and

their staff with the information they need for legislative work Books are classified according to specific subjects and are catalogued by author and subject. Catalogues that are alphabetized by authors' names and by subject assist those doing bibliographic research. The Library carries out its own bibliographic research in response to requests from parliamentary members using these resources. Upon request, members also can be provided with selective bibliographies. B.

Documentation and Indexing Services An index of daily newspapers is maintained at the Library. Approximately ten of the

most important Albanian newspapers are reviewed and indexed daily. Articles of interest to the work of members of parliament are clipped and filed according to subject content, thus providing a quick, ready reference resource. In addition, articles are filed under the names of particular members when the news article is about them. C.

Special Services Every month the Library publishes a list of new books and a bibliography of selected

articles from domestic periodicals, and each year the Library publishes a bibliography of laws and decrees. Recently, the Library expanded its special services to include the preparation of information packets ("Info-Packs") which cover specific topics of interest to Parliament.

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The Library also publishes a bibliography o f governmental resolutions and regulations approved by the Council o f Ministers (1991-1996) and the decisions o f the Constitutional Court. The Library has t w o photocopy machines available for use by parliamentary members, and the Library's staff also produces copies of requested materials. D.

Advertising Services Among the primary objectives o f the Library is to make the parliamentary deputies and

their staff aware o f its services and facilities, and to encourage library use. T o meet this objective, the Library, in conjunction with the Standing Commission o f the People's Assembly, periodically organizes and presents a seminar entitled "Library and Parliamentary Information. " A s this name implies, the purpose o f this seminar is to brief parliamentary members about various Library resources and services, including new and pending developments that will better assist members in their work. In the absence o f a reading room directly in the parliament building, the Library staff continually works to advertise the Library's services and to improve the distribution o f publications to the deputies. In keeping with this purpose, the Library stays in contact with the deputies through the staff o f the Standing Commission. £.

Workload T o date, the Library has not conducted a formal, quantitative evaluation and analytic

assessment o f the level and volume o f all its member services. The Library does maintain, however, orderly records o f all requests, thus allowing for a review o f completed work. F.

Clientele The Library has as its mission meeting the information service needs o f the members and

staff o f the Albania parliament. With permission, however, the Library may also provide

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assistance to representatives of either non-parliamentary government ministries or scientific institutions. VL Developments in Automation The Parliamentary Library has three personal computers available for member use. These personal computers are networked and connected to the global Internet. Databases that have been created and are maintained by the Library include: PROLIGJ, PROGAZ, PROLIB, and PROSP. Together, these databases provide background and analysis on Albanian legislation; information on important articles from the principal Albanian newspapers, and a catalogue of the books available in the Library. In the near future, the Library is planning to computerize selected information on the parliament's plenary sessions. In December 1996, the Parliamentary Library installed the TINLIB integrated library software program. VII. Important Developments in the Library A first clear trend in Library development is the increased use of automation to collect, store, and analyze key parliamentary information on: Albanian legislation, including the plenary sessions of the People's Assembly; legislation of the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe; and additional books and periodicals. The Library is working to build a common Thesaurus consistent with other European institutions, called EUROVOC. The purpose is to put such increased information more quickly into the hands of parliamentary deputies and their staff; the preferred means to achieve this purpose is through the expanded use of computer technology. A second definite trend is the continued expansion into other areas of enhanced Library services, such as the production and publication of Library information packets, as well as the development of other, specialized research services.

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Republic of Belarus Presidential Library by Sophia Judo 1 I. Brief History of the Library The Presidential Library of the Republic of Belarus was established on September 10, 1933, when the offices of the Government, including the small Ministry libraries, moved into the Government House. These various small libraries were organized into a single, larger unit. From its inception in 1933 up until 1941, the Library experienced significant growth, and ranked among the largest libraries of Byelorussia However, this period of prosperity ended during World War II and the years 1941 to 1945 were disastrous for the library. It was completely destroyed and many books were plundered, some taken to Germany. A period of reconstruction followed the end of the War, from 1946 to 1950, and the Library has experienced steady growth since that time. Π. Setting of the Librai^ Since its creation, the Library has been oriented to fulfilling Parliamentary library functions and serving the Supreme Soviet. The Library is accountable to the Presidential Administration, however, and not the Supreme Soviet. The Supreme Soviet is a unicameral legislature, which is elected on the basis of proportional representation. The Library maintains close contact with the National Library of Belarus, and with the Parliamentary Libraries of Russia, Kazakhstan and Lithuania.

1

Sophia Judo is the Deputy Director of the Presidential Library of the Republic of Belarus.

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HL Organization and Staffing of The Parliamentary Library All work conducted by the Library is regulated by its Statute. There are ten divisions in the Library, and 101 staff members. A total of 86 staff members have received higher education, and an additional 1S have technical training. One of the principal units of the Library is the Research Division. The main aim of this division is to undertake studies and to give recommendations to readers. There are three reading rooms in the Library, which are located near the Supreme Soviet. These reading rooms have seating for approximately 80 people IV. Library Collections and Other Resources The Library collection consists of 1.5 million items, and it has annual accessions of approximately 20,000. It receives 418 current periodicals, and 152 current newspapers annually. It maintains 5 current bibliographies and 2 subject bibliographies. In addition, parliamentary papers are indexed. The annual budget of the Library is 4.2 billion BYR or about $155,000 US. There is still no opportunity to use CD-ROM, but as automation progresses in the library, there are plans to develop this capacity. V. Services and Products The Library provides bibliographic information, and library services in general, to the chairman, vice chairman, deputies and other officers of the Parliament, as well as to the Constitutional Court, and ministers. It also serves local authorities at all levels. Moreover, the Library is open to the general public, and there is an inter-library loan system available to anyone who might be interested. The Library processes about 500,000 loans and 33,000 reference requests annually. In addition to analysis and research, it undertakes external database searches for clients. It is a depository for World Bank publications, and it houses a rare book collection

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Since the Library works in close contact with the Parliament, there is no need to advertise its products and services. The Library studies Parliamentary inquiries, and their clients are familiar with the services and products which are available. Services for the Parliament, its permanent commissions and individual People's Deputies are provided within the framework of the "Deputy System", which assesses needs and provides information. A survey was carried out on the information needs of deputies which showed great interest in the legislative documents of the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) and foreign parliaments, as well as books on economics, particularly those relating to the period of Lenin's "New Economic Policy" (NEP). Surveys of other client groups have also been carried out to determine their interests, and information is sent to them tailored to their needs and interests. Thus, for example, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers receives bibliographic and other information on his list of items, including the governance of the Republic, problems of a market economy, forms of property and a number of other issues important to the national economy. Services include both copying material and delivering it to the offices of ministries and departments. VI. Developments in Automation There is a local automated system with 30 computers, as well as one stand-alone computer. The Library does not yet have a network connection to the Parliament, although there is a preliminary agreement to establish such a communication. All technological processes, except servicing, have been automated.

The Library

provides bibliographies online. Electronic mail and Fax technology are currently used, and there are plans to acquire additional technical equipment for the Library, and further increase the level of automation.

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VIL Important Developments in the Library The Presidential Library is seen as the Information and Analysis center for the Parliament, the Presidential Administration and the other governmental bodies of the Republic of Belarus. The Library wishes to maintain and extend its contacts with other foreign libraries, information centers and automated networks. Moreover, the Library is eager to become a full member of the International Federation of Library Association and Institutions (IFLA) and some of its committees.

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The Republic of Bulgaria Parliamentary Library and Research Department by Dr. Dobrin Kanev and Margarita Angelova1 I.

Introduction At the end of the twentieth century, the old Chinese dictum, "Knowledge is power",

continues to ring true. If the parliament wants to play an active and significant political role, it needs more knowledge and information, i.e. it needs its own information resources.2 The first parliamentary information-brokers were librarians: in fact about 20 percent of the currently existing parliamentary libraries were established during the nineteenth century. Today, many of the parliaments in the world have not only libraries but also their own research units. II.

Libraries and Research Services of the Parliaments in the New Democracies in Central and Eastern Europe: The Problem of Improving Information Capabilities What holds true for parliaments in general, is especially valid for the parliaments in the

new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe, due to the particular importance of the legislatures during the transition to democracy and democratic consolidation. Most of the "patterns of transition" and forms of government adopted in the Central and Eastern European countries rely on the parliament as a key factor in the process of democratization. At the same time, there is an intrinsic paradox: the parliament emerges not only as the most important but also as one of the most unpopular institutions. The level of trust in it has plummeted dramatically since the early days when it was seen as the embodiment of

1 Dr. Dobrin Kanev was the head of the Research Department of the Bulgarian National Assembly until its transformation to a smaller Research and Analysis Bureau in 1997. Margarita Angelova is the head of the Parliamentary Library of the Bulgarian National Assembly. 2 Robinson, William H. and Clay H. Wellbome (editors), Knowledge Power and the Congress, Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, Congressional Quarterly inc. Washington, D C. 1991, p.ix.

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democracy. The existence of such a contradiction can be explained in different ways.3 One of the explanations consists in the contradiction between the central role of the parliament and its weak potential to meet the requirements of this role and to perform effectively Here the term "potential" denotes all the research, information and expert activities as well as the technical equipment that is needed to assist the legislators in their work. It is not a surprise that in the last few years there have been significant changes in the parliamentary administrations of East European countries, which to a great extent have affected precisely this area of activity. In the past five or six years of parliamentary evolution in Central and Eastern Europe, different nations have chosen different approaches to enlarge their information potential. III. A Case Study: The Research Department and Library in the Bulgarian National Assembly Bulgaria is a good case study for an assessment of these changes. Following major constitutional and structural changes, the Bulgarian National Assembly found itself with limited abilities to obtain and process effectively accurate information and research. The accumulated expert knowledge (to the extent that it existed at all) was dispersed or was not viewed by all MPs as reliable and impartial.

After a visit by a delegation from the

Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, it was recommended that a permanent analytical body be created within the parliament of Bulgaria to raise the level of research and analytical expertise. Through the improvement of the Parliamentary Library's activities and the establishment of the Research Department, a long-felt need was met and parliamentary research and information capabilities were strengthened.

3 Agh, Attilla, The Experiences of the First Democratic Parliaments in East Central Europe, IPSA. XVI World Congress, Berlin, 1994.

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IV. The Setting Bulgaria has a unicameral legislature with 240 members elected from 31 multi-member districts by proportional representation. There is a 4% threshold which must be met to achieve representation. The last election was in March 1997. Members hold office for four years. The Library and Research and Analysis Bureau are part of the larger Department of Information Services, which reports to the Secretary General of the Parliament. V.

The Library — Collections and Staffing The current collections of the Library of the Bulgarian National Assembly are wide-

ranging in theme, with a total of about 102,000 volumes. The annual acquisitions are about 1,000 volumes. Currently there are about 240 periodicals (journals and newspapers). The main subject areas for the collections are law, legislation, public administration, economics, politics, international affairs, and history. The library collections include books, periodicals, documents of the National Assembly (published and unpublished), Bulgarian official publications, documents of Bulgarian political parties and organizations, publications of foreign parliaments and international organizations, and papers from conferences and seminars. The library provides various information services: bibliographic, reference, and full-text information about Members of Parliament, legislative activities, Bulgarian laws, foreign laws and legal acts of international organizations, activities of foreign parliaments, socio-political events in the country and abroad, biographical information, statistical information, and information packages on specific topics (Info Packs). The library also indexes periodicals and other sources and enters the information into computer data bases. The library also produces its own publications. It uses different data bases: those created in the Library, in other departments of the parliament, and those drawn from other 41

institutions; some of these data bases are full-text systems. The library data bases are maintained on Micro CDS/ISIS systems. There are about 60,000 documents in 17 data bases in the library. Everyone in the computer network of the parliament has free access to them. The library is also beginning to build an integrated library system by means of TINLBB. Its computerized catalog is in operation. The Library for the National Assembly is one of the first in Bulgaria to use CDROM technology. There are eight staff members in the Library. Seven have university degrees in different fields and qualifications in library science, information services, and the eighth staff member has a college education in library science. VI. The Research Department The establishment of a research department in the Bulgarian National Assembly was first discussed at the Round Table Talks (January - May 1990). But for different reasons the accomplishment of that task was delayed. Finally, in early 1995, the research department of the Bulgarian National Assembly was established. In February 1995 the general concept for the functions of a research department and its organizational structure were approved, and the head of the department was appointed. The research department began to operate in late Spring 1995. The conceptual design of the research department was created on the basis of the regulations and practices of research units in the legislatures of the established democracies, but at the same time consideration was given to Bulgaria's unique political situation. Rather than choose to be part of a larger information service structure (which includes all research, library, and reference services), the Bulgarian National Assembly decided to have a separate, independent research unit similar in nature to that of the parliaments of the United States, Sweden, and Poland. That choice ensures the opportunity to form an autonomous 42

unit with specific functions and to work on major problems related to the current and future activities of the parliament. In order to fulfill its mission a research department must have a sufficient number of staff and especially an adequate research staff. The number of researchers in the most developed parliamentary research units is as follows: the United States has 440 (754 total staff); Brazil, 180; Argentina, 100; Germany, 96 (total staff, 400), Poland, more than 90; Canada, more than 60; Australia, 55; European Parliament, 35-40, United Kingdom, 35. Some experts argue that, the minimum number of researchers needed by any parliamentary service is about 50.

Having sufficient staff is important for effective

performance of a wide variety of research and reference activities. For example, according to initial planning by the Research Bureau of the Polish Sejm it was supposed to have about 20 employees, but even during the initial stage of its establishment the staff number reached 80.

When choosing the size of its research department, the Bulgarian National Assembly opted for gradual development (not for a "massive start" as in the Polish case). One year after its formation the department staff numbered five individuals. The nature of the research department (especially when it has a limited number of staff) presupposes much higher requirements for the qualifications of its personnel (e.g., indisputable reputation as experts in their own scientific field o f expertise; interdisciplinary skills; an expanding circle o f professional contacts through which needed information can be acquired; fluency in more than one foreign language). Thus one of the most crucial decisions that has to be made by the research department with regard to its effective functioning is the qualifications of its personnel, as well as the balanced recruitment of experts in different subject fields. Another important decision that was made initially, was the internal organizational structure of the department. There were two options available: organization by subject matter

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or according to function.

From its inception the Bulgarian Parliamentary Research

Department decided to follow a "mixed" organizational pattern, combining both approaches The department has a simple internal structure with a minimum number of hierarchical levels, which allows opportunities for future development: a) a governing body, b) four subject groups (political systems, law, economics, and European studies), and c) a documentation service. The separate "subject analysis" groups are formed by specialists in different fields; they either develop the final product or direct and coordinate projects needed by the deputies at the request of the head of the department. The current structure serves as a core pattern for the expansion of the department. Another choice to be made is the specification of the products of the research department.

It offers the following types of written products: information packages,

analytical reports, world reports, international practices (comparative analysis of countries), analytical information, documents, expert opinions, discussion forums, reviews, and references. Within a relatively short period of its inception (April 1995-April 1996) a large number of surveys were prepared by the department.

The department prepared six

information packages and thirty-five reports and other products. [Editor's Note: After the elections in April 1997, the old democratic coalition (the Union of Democratic Forces or UDF) replaced the Bulgarian Socialist Party as the governing party and re-established control of the Parliament.

The governing coalition then

combined the Library, the Research Department, and a Publishing Center into a broader Department of Information Services. Dobrin Kane ν left the Parliament and the 5-person Research Department was replaced by a 2-person Research and Analysis unit that focuses on the harmonization of Bulgarian laws with those of the European Union. This discussion was left as originally presented because it documents the development of a new research

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unit, and discusses in an insightful manner the issues involved in creating such a service — and relating it to other information providers for the parliament. Finally, it illustrates the difficulty of establishing the necessary threshold ofpolitical trust that is necessary for such a new unit to survive a changeover in Parliamentary leadership.

While the Research

Department got off to a good start, there was insufficient time before the new elections to demonstrate its utility and non-partisan nature. Moreover, the political atmosphere of the Parliament

at the time of the leadership change was so polarized, that any action of the

previous leadership was viewed with suspicion. The editor worked with both major parties during the period from 1992-1995 and kept up with subsequent developments, making a private trip to Bulgaria in 1996. In fact, both major parties were publically (and privately) committed to the creation of a Research Department. It was the UDF that first launched the effort to create such a unit, but it was the BSP that actually created it and appointed the first Director and staff. Under the circumstances, it never really had a chance to build the trust necessary to ensure its continuance. J VII. The Parliamentary Library and the Parliamentary Research Department: Problems with Cooperation and Coordination The library and research department are both essential to the process of providing information to the parliament. These two institutions have the same objectives and are part of the same process. However, the library and the research department differ in the type of information that they provide and in their different functions and tasks. If the information suppliers (librarians and researchers) are to be effective in providing timely, non-partisan, objective and relevant information, there has to be coordination between them. The research department works on projects that have a central role in the legislation; as a rule these are more or less medium-term projects. The emphasis is on the accumulation of well-organized information and a broad-based knowledge (including detailed case studies) that can be provided to the deputies. 45

Often parliamentary research starts in the library. While the activities of the research department often concern current or future legislative work, the library also has its traditional responsibilities and duties.

One of the tasks of the library is to ensure that relevant

information on current parliamentary activities will be available in years to come — just as current information is accessible about the founding session of the National Assembly and its activities. In order to guarantee productive cooperation, functional interrelations, and coordination links, the responsibilities of each department has to be clearly defined.

The Bulgarian

National Assembly adopted an Algorithm of Legislative Activity, whereby the tasks of the library and the research department were specifically stated and defined. When a deputy wants to submit a draft bill, he or she begins by reviewing the old Bulgarian legislation, foreign legislation, and available commentaries on them. If the bill is submitted by the Council of Ministers the relevant parliamentary committees need additional information The library usually provides "primary" information ~ texts and documents, the research department provides analytical reports. A preliminary legislative program is needed in order to provide useful and timely information, as it enables the preparatory search of relevant information. The Bulgarian National Assembly does not have the practice of adopting a long-term legislative program. However, an information-research program is developed for every legislative session on the basis of the Legislative Initiative Program of the Council of Ministers. According to current practice, several forms of cooperation exist between the library and the research department.

They are as follows. (1) collection of the library's "primary"

information by the research department (the library has collected current relevant information, much on data bases, especially information concerning foreign legislation); (2) information products are jointly produced (for example, information packages or Info Packs on local self46

government and civil service legislation); (3) all new information products by the research department are advertised in the library's bulletin and new information products are disseminated by the library; and (4) both departments cooperate on work concerning international activities. Furthermore, the research department, in cooperation with the library, organizes seminars and workshops on topics related to different aspects of the functioning of the National Assembly. A comprehensive review of the international activities of the research department and the library also include vital, everyday cooperation with the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation

Through these contacts both units maintain their

relationship not only with different European institutions, but also with the research departments in all EC member-countries. There is also contact with the Congressional Research Service of the Library of the U.S. Congress, whose representatives have had a continuous interest in the development of library and research activities, and with the research and reference service of the German Bundestag, which donated electronic equipment to the Bulgarian research department. Similar cooperation has begun with some Eastern European research services, especially with the Polish Sejm and Senate. An Example: Cooperation and Coordination for Adjustment of Bulgarian Legislation to European Standards VILI.

The obligation to make Bulgarian law more or less consistent with the laws of the European Union is part of the European Agreement.

Legal standards are needed for

commercial, economic, industrial, political, social, and cultural cooperation. In general the harmonization of law should be carried out on two parallel levels: to ensure accordance with the European law of new legal acts and to change the law already in existence in order to adapt it to European standards. The first of the above mentioned points implies preliminary verification of drafts prepared by whichever entity is authorized to propose new legislation, as well as control of 47

the final wording of a particular statute at the end of the legislative process. The second point requires three steps: (a) in-depth studies on the European law in force, (b) strict definition of the areas of inconsistency between the Bulgarian and the European law, and (c) preparation of legislative proposals ensuring the harmonization of these two legal systems. Obviously the whole process of making laws consistent needs effective information and analytical support. Questions related to different aspects of European integration and the consistency of laws can be directed to both the library and to the research department. These units that serve the National Assembly have had to discover their appropriate roles in performing parliamentary tasks for the adjustment of the Bulgarian legal system to that of the European one. Keeping in mind that the process of legislative adjustment goes beyond merely legal and technical changes, the research department in addition to areas of research is considering focusing its efforts on political and legislative challenges in the application of EC legislation in the different social spheres and on analysis of legislative adjustment experienced by other associated countries or of those that have recently joined the EC. The library thus provides basic information on the content of all relevant European acts. The basic source is provided by the data base CELEX on CD-ROMs, used since 1992. The research department also brings information on European policies to the attention of Bulgarian Members of Parliament by preparing analytical papers on the development of the integration process. In fact almost every product produced by the research department includes comments on European legal and political experience; in addition, the processes of European integration are directly analyzed and researched, including the development processes of associated countries. IX. Conclusions and Directions for the Future Until recently, the Bulgarian National Assembly was a legislature that had an old and well-developed library but that functioned without a research department. The situation in 48

Bulgaria, is a typical case in the evolution and restructuring o f parliamentary research and information capabilities in a legislature. The establishment of sections within a parliament that can provide it with analytical, information, and research capabilities has definite advantages: an autonomous research and information source available to a parliament can be relied on for timely and appropriate assistance in the performance o f day-to-day legislative tasks. Thus, the legislature has expanded its opportunities both for access to information and for the opportunity to exchange analysis and information with foreign legislatures and international institutions. Only the long-term outcomes of the information and research service model that has been adopted will show whether it is an appropriate and efficient model or if a different model should be introduced The mere establishment o f a research department has not solved the problem o f a sufficient amount o f research and analysis that can be provided to a parliament.

The

department must also work hard to increase its utility in the parliament and establish a reputation for excellence so that deputies can rely on it for their legislative work and at the same time the department must strive to increase its effectiveness and efficiency. Another challenge is to optimize the coordination and cooperation between the library and the research department. In this regard, the possible directions for the future might be summed up as follows: there must be early coordination at the planning stages between the library and the research department, both departments should make it a regular practice to produce joint products, and common operational data bases and indexes must be established.

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Republic of Croatia Information and Documentation Center - Library and Information Center of the Parliament of Croatia by Bozena Bosnar1 L Brief History of the Library Historically, the Croatian nation has experienced various forms of government

The

earliest assembly (diet, or Sabor) of the Kingdom of Slavonia was held in Zagreb in 1273 The earliest recorded diet of the Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia was held in 1351 During the fifteenth century, the diets of the estates developed gradually to become the supreme legislative, administrative, electoral, and juridical body of the Kingdom of Croatia. In 1527 the Croatian Sabor elected a king from the Habsburg dynasty. After 1558, the diet was called "The Sabor of the Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia," and from 1681, "The Sabor of the Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia." Developments in Austria during the Napoleonic wars, and the absolutism of Francis I until 1825, left the Croatian Sabor without the importance it had previously acquired. During the 1848 revolution, the Croatian Sabor acquired the characteristics of a representative body. With the end of absolutism, the Croatian Sabor assembled again on April 15, 1861 with the purpose of putting forward a proposal to define the legal status of Croatia and Slavonia within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. It is thought that the Library of the Croatian Sabor was founded in 1861, based on the fact that The Chronicles of the Diet have been kept since the session held on April 15, 1861. Today, the formal name for Croatia's parliamentary library is the Information and Documentation Service - Library and Information Center of the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia

1 Ms. Bozena Bosnar is a senior advisor in the Parliament of the Republic of Croatia and Secretary of the Committee on Constitution, Rules of Procedure, and Political System.

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The current collections of the Library contain parliamentary documents, the most important of which are the verbatim records of Parliamentary sessions. The collection dates from 1861 to 1980, with a gap from 1918 to 1941 when Parliament did not meet. The Library's collection also contains the legislative acts and regulations for Croatia and Slavonia from 1863 to 1926, as well as legislative acts from 1920 to 1943 and from 1945 to the present. The Library also has a valuable collection of books on Croatian history. The Library's first catalogue was printed in 1905, and was entitled the "Catalogue of Books of the Library o f the Diet of the Kingdom of Croatia, Dalmatia and Slavonia." Π. Setting of the Library The bicameral Parliament of Croatia, the Sabor, is comprised of the House of Representatives and the House of Zupanijas (Counties). The House of Representatives is composed of 127 elected members, nineteen of whom are members who represent ethnic and national communities or minorities. The House of Zupanijas has sixty-eight members: sixtythree elected (three from each of the Republic's twenty-one counties), and five appointed by the Head o f State. All members of Parliament serve four-year terms of office. All Croatian citizens of at least eighteen years of age are entitled to vote and to be candidates for election to become members of the House of Representatives. Representatives are directly elected according to a mixed system under which twenty-eight are chosen by simple majority in single-member constituencies, and eighty are chosen from closed party lists, by proportional representation and the d'Hondt method, with the country as a whole forming one constituency. In the latter case, any list receiving less than five percent of the vote is excluded from the distribution of seats. Members of ethnic and national communities or minorities, whose share of the country's population exceeds eight percent, are also entitled to be represented in proportion to their number. Their representatives are chosen from party lists.

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Members of the House of Zupanijas are elected from Croatia's twenty-one counties: three per county, by proportional representation and the dHondt method

County lists

receiving less than five percent of the votes are excluded from this distribution of seats. Parliamentary seats that fall vacant between general elections are filled by substitutes elected at the same time as titular members. This semi-presidential system derives from Articles 95, 98 and 111 of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia. These are the provisions that stipulate the organization of government. As a part of Croatia's parliamentary structure, the Library reports to the Secretary General of the parliament. A Library Committee participates in selecting the titles of books to be acquired. The Library is a member of the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD).

The Library has exchange arrangements with Croatia's

National and University Library. The Library has some contact with other parliamentary libraries in the region. III. Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Library The Library is part of a Department which consists of the Information and Documentation Service and the Library and Information Center. This Department, together with other departments, is part of the Parliament's professional staff managed by the Secretary General of the Parliament. The Library staff consists of three librarians with university degrees and two assistant librarians with high school educations. Two librarians deal chiefly with the development of the collection, and the selection and acquisition of titles and cataloguing, but the librarians also answer the more complex reference inquiries from parliament. One librarian locates and collects data and documents at the request of Members of Parliament. The librarian, through the use of the Internet and other technologies, is able to evaluate, analyze, organize and present the information to Members and staff of Parliament.

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IV. Library Collections and Other Resources Today the library's collection contains about 30,000 books, 50,000 periodicals, and 30 titles of daily newspapers. The reference collection consists of encyclopedias, bibliographies, dictionaries, catalogues, official Croatian publications, and the verbatim records of Parliament sessions. Main subject areas covered by the Library's collection include law, legislation, administration, politics, international relations, sociology, history, economics, agriculture, environment, education, and fundamental works in the arts and philosophy. As of August 1996, a new service was introduced to Members of Parliament — the services of the Library Center. Located near the main reading room, the Library Center consists of the Information Center and a reading room with a collection of daily newspapers and magazines. A small collection of reference materials is being developed for use by the reference librarian who works in the Center The role of the Information Center is to provide a range of information. The Information Center selects, evaluates and provides information from Library materials and from external sources. The Center is equipped with one PC which has a CD-ROM unit and is connected to a printer. The PC also has access to the Internet. The Center offers online searching of the library catalogue and CD-ROM searches, however the formation of a CD-ROM collection is in progress. It is possible to do a search of the National Library and the University Library through the online catalogue. V. Services and Products The Library compiles and issues a "Bulletin of New Acquisitions." This publication contains a description of bibliographic items, a subject index, and a list of the periodicals to

53

which the Library subscribes. Each edition of the Bulletin is sent to members and staff of the Parliament. Both chambers of the Parliament are served by the Library and the Information Center. Users of the Library's services are the members and staff of Parliament, the secretaries of the committees of Parliament, the members of the executive branch of the government, and the Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia. A small group of non-parliamentary researchers is also allowed to use the Library The number of units of service provided by the Library in 1995-96 were as follows: (1) 1,137 books loaned, (2) 2,820 periodical volumes loaned; (3) 9,959 requests for information; and (4) 1,120 other reference services provided. Users may borrow books and periodicals.

Upon request, the Library provides

information and bibliographic data on specific items. It also prepares exhibitions on new book acquisitions and other specific topics.

Such exhibitions are displayed in the parliament

building. VI. Developments in Automation The computerization of the Library is a top priority according to a February 1992 project report by the Bureau of Computerization of the State Administration. In 1994, the Library was allocated one personal computer (PC) with a printer for text processing. This PC is used by the Library's staff to prepare the Bulletin of New Acquisitions, and for on-line searches of the collections of the National and University Libraries. Since 1995, the Library has started to develop its own database for books. VII. Important Developments in the Library The future development of the Library is linked to the reorganization of its work, and to the computerization of the Library and other Departments within the Parliament, which handle collections, services, staff, and technical equipment. The goal is to provide for the

54

development of the administrative structure of the Library and Information Center; arrange for space to accommodate further growth; and to employ new librarians to staff the Library and Information Center. The realization of these goals is necessary for the successful planning and implementation of the telecommunications-information network of the Library with other Departments within the parliament.

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Czech Republic Parliamentary Library of the Czech Republic by Dr Karel Sosna 1 I. Brief History of the Library The origins of the Parliamentary Library lie in the year 1857 when the Library of the National Administrative Committee for the Czech Lands was created. After the collapse of despotism, which was a reaction to the revolutionary events of 1848 in the Austrian monarchy, the Czech regional assembly was revived in 1861 and the library began to serve its needs as well.

The Constitution of the Austrian monarchy of February 26, 1861,

established a bicameral imperial council as a parliamentary body with the seat in Vienna. The Constitution also introduced to the assemblies of particular countries, regional institutions with election ordinances valid until the end of the monarchy

The Czech regional assembly

in Prague consisted of 241 deputies and was served by the Library of the National Administrative Committee for the Czech Lands.

After the independent Czechoslovak

Republic was established in 1918, this library with its 13,000 volumes became the core of the Library of the National Assembly. Since the creation of the Czechoslovak Federation in 1968 until its division in 1992, it was the Federal Assembly Library. With the creation of the independent Czech Republic it became the Parliamentary Library of the Parliament of the Czech Republic. During the years 1918-1939 the library was recognized as one of the most important information, cultural, and political institutions of the state. In addition to its usual library activities, it was accredited as the Czechoslovak center for international book exchange. The so-called international information parliamentary service also worked within its framework. After each session, that service issued the total list of legislative works of the National

1

Dr. Karel Sosna is director of the Parliamentary Library of the Czech Republic.

56

Assembly of the Czechoslovak Republic in French for foreign parliaments, and six times a year it issued the survey of foreign legislative activities called From the Foreign to the Czech Parliament.

Parliaments

Its director, Z.V. Tobolka, was recognized as a well-known

international library personality. In 1927, for example, he was involved in the creation of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) in Edinburgh, Scotland. The library collections increased from the former 13,000 volumes in the year 1918 to 123,000 volumes in the year 1939 by means of purchase, donations, book exchange and, beginning in 1935, copyright deposit. The care of these collections and the operation of library services were ensured at the time by twelve employees.

During the German

occupation (1939-1945), the library was under the control of the Regional and University Library in Prague, and during World War II the library's collections were safely deposited in the convent Golden Crown (Zlatá Koruna) near the town of Cesky Krumlov. In 1948, after the library's short operation in the post-war years, a slow reversal process occurred. With the oppression and abolition of democratic principles, both the acceptance of professional information specialization and high quality of library services were limited and decreased. The end of pluralistic democracy, which meant that the parliament became a body that automatically approved the decisions of the Centrili Committee of the Communist Party, stigmatized the status of its library as well. The library slowly lost its former significance until it eventually became totally insulated from the professional library world. In the 1960s and early 1970s the library was considered non-existent. In 1974 the need for the library was revived. Another significant period of development followed the "velvet revolution" in 1989. By 1990 a group of experts had created the concept of a modern parliamentary library for the 1990s. This concept was reviewed at Charles University. At the same time, libraries that were members of the Parliamentary Libraries Section of IFLA were consulted. The basic

57

postulates of the development plan are being accomplished step-by-step so that the library can be transformed from a mere depository of books and periodicals into a modem and efficient information center. II. Setting of the Library The political system of the Czech Republic is based on its free and voluntary origins and on the competition of political parties that respect basic democratic principles and reject coercion as a means of implementing their interests. Political decisions flow from the will of the majority expressed through the ballot box Decisions of the majority respect minority rights.

The Czech Republic is bound by the declaration and ratification of international

treaties on human rights and basic freedoms; they are immediately effective and have precedence over the law. Legislative power in the Czech Republic resides in Parliament. The parliament is divided into two chambers: the Assembly of Deputies and the Senate. The Assembly of Deputies has 200 members who are elected at four-year intervals. The Senate has 81 members who are elected every six years, one-third of them every two years. Parliamentary elections are conducted by secret ballot and voting is universal, equal, and direct. Members are elected to the Assembly of Deputies under the proportional system, and to the Senate under the majority system. Every citizen of the Czech Republic who has reached the age of 21 may stand for election to the Assembly of Deputies, while it is necessary to be at least 40 to stand for a position in the Senate. The parliamentary library serves both the Chambers of the Czech Parliament. However, administratively it is a part of the Office of the Assembly of Deputies. According to the new organization manual of the Office of the Assembly of Deputies the library is an independent department which is under the control of the General Secretary of the Office. The library takes an active part in activities of the European Center for Parliamentary Research and

58

Documentation (ECPRD). In 1995 under the umbrella of its professional activities, the ECPRD held a course in Prague for parliaments of central and southeastern Europe to train them in the use of EUROVOC, the thesaurus of the European Parliament. The head of the library is a correspondent of ECPRD for the Parliament of the Czech Republic. Greatly contributing to the professionalism of the library is its institutional membership in the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments of IFLA

The Section

encourages exchange of materials, information, and experiences with a great number of parliamentary libraries of the world. The closest working contacts for solving the library's specific problems, especially those related to automated information processing include the U.S. Library of Congress, the European Parliament, and the Slovak, Polish, Hungarian and other European parliamentary libraries The head of the library is serving a second term as a member of the Standing Committee of the EFLA Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments. m . Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Library The library has fourteen employees, eight with university education, four with college education, and two with professional qualifications and rich library experience. Six staffers are devoted to the traditional library tasks (purchase and acquisition, descriptive cataloguing, loan register, supervising reading and study rooms, and preservation). Another seven work as information specialists. Their professional specializations allow them to cover the subjects of particular parliamentary committees and commissions (constitutional law and legislation, economy and finance, foreign policy, defense and security policy, environment, social policy, education, science and culture, etc.). Their objective is to supply to their assigned committee, and to individual deputies, the information requested as quickly and efficiently as possible. Nearly all library employees take part in training courses, both domestic and foreign, that are related to their areas of specialization. The knowledge and experience they gain are then

59

shared in internal courses with their co-workers, since in a small library the ability- to substitute for co-workers is necessary. Courses given by experts from foreign parliamentary libraries and from the European Parliament held on site at the Czech library are very effective. An example is the workshop held in Prague in May 1995 by the U.S. Library of Congress for parliamentary libraries of Central and Eastern European countries.

Simultaneous

interpretation was provided to cover the range of language spoken in plenary sessions. The library provides no scientific research or analyses. That is the objective of the Parliamentary Institute, which closely cooperates with the Parliamentary Library

The

Parliamentary Institute is, like the Library, an independent department of the Office of the Assembly of Deputies under the control of the General Secretary. IV. Library Collections and Other Resources During its existence the library has collected nearly 200,000 volumes. The library collections cover law and legislation, politics, contemporary history, economy, and other social sciences, but they also include materials related to nearly the entire subject range of problems that deputies must face both in the parliament and in their political work. Since the beginning, the relative completeness of collections has been emphasized so that the information needs of the parliament were met from internal sources as much as possible. The library's historical collections dating from the fifteenth until the end of the nineteenth century, are covered by the Law Gazette and Book of Awards, which define the legal order of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, including hereditary historic lands of the Czech Crown dating from the year 1348. In this sense it may be said that the Library represents the documentary memory of the history of Czech parliamentarianism. The core of the modern collection is formed by Czech and Czechoslovak parliamentary publications (stenographic reports, parliamentary prints, lists of deputies, etc.) and the complete Legal Code from the year 1918 to the present. The library also comprises fairly

60

complete collections of parliamentary publications and laws of fifteen countries, e.g., Germany, Russia, United Kingdom, France, Austria, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Italy, Estonia, Belgium and the United States. The library also functions as a United Nations depository library, as well as having in its collections selected publications of different international organizations (Interparliamentary Union, International Law Court, Council of Europe, and others). As a foundation for harmonizing Czech laws with the law of the European Union, the library is currently building the Parliamentary Center for European Union law in cooperation with the Czech Parliamentary Institute (with assistance from the European Parliament's PHARE program). In addition to other publications, the Center includes European Union legislation and the legislation of some of its member states, both in printed form (Official Journal) and in electronic form on CD-ROM (Justis-Celex). With the help of the U.S. Congress, and under the auspices of the Special Task Force on the Development of Parliamentary Institutions in Eastern Europe, the library now holds one of the best-equipped collections of reference literature related to aspects of law, politics, and modern history in the entire republic. The library subscribes to 40 titles of domestic and foreign daily newspapers and more then 300 titles of domestic and foreign periodicals. It also subscribes to fifteen CD-ROMs. The periodical and nonperiodical literature are regularly enhanced as a result of a law requiring mandatory deposit of these materials. Three reading rooms and study rooms and a reference library are available. There are twenty-five seats for users in the reading rooms and study rooms; all are situated on the premises of the parliament building. The closest reading room is only 160 paces from the chamber. V. Services and Products The library offers the following services to its users: A.

Lending services

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•

Lending within Library study rooms.

•

Restricted document loan on the premises of the parliament building. Borrowing privileges (material can be taken home by Members and employees of parliament only).

• B.

Interlibrary loans.

Photocopying services •

Express service while one waits. Individual service upon request.

C.

Reference Services •

Consulting service concerning classical catalogues, book collections, and using library services.

•

Instructions for users on the automated library system, TINLEB, and training to search internal databases. Information on locating external book collections and access to electronic information resources.

•

Compilation of manuals and guides to databases.

•

Bibliographic information service and reference research.

•

Consulting service in legislative and parliamentary areas of interest and legislative activity.

•

Current contents service on request.

•

Selective dissemination of information (SDI) on request.

The library also issues Information Sheets of the Parliamentary Library, News of the Parliamentary Library, and Survey of the Czech Republic Parliament Legislative

Activity

which is also issued in English. The library does not serve the public. It provides its services only to Members of the Chamber of Deputies, Senators, their assistants, and parliamentary 62

staff. In exceptional cases, it provides service to users from the central bodies of state administration, universities, and research and other institutions. Library services are free. All products of the library and its services are distributed to the users and advertised both in written and electronic form. The following statistics describe the scope of library activities over a recent period . The average annual number of acquisitions was 1,500 volumes; the average annual circulation was 4,000, the average annual number of reference questions was 2,000, and average annual reader or user visits totaled 6,000. The statistics for the period of January-May 1995 alone reveal that 1,000 new acquisitions were processed, 109 materials were circulated, 949 reference questions answered and 1,923 users requested library services. For the first time in the history of the library the number of reference questions was higher than the number of publications circulated. This shows that the library is progressing from a library that merely circulates materials into a true information center that is more frequently using nontraditional sources of information and modern information technology. VI. Developments in Automation Since 1993 the Library has been operating the integrated library system, TINLIB, using the UNIX operating system. All basic modules have been already put into operation — namely acquisition, cataloguing, serials control, circulation, system administration, and Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC). After transfer to automated processing, description of publications is offered in the adapted Czech version of the EUROVOC thesaurus. At present, the library is finishing the Czech adaptation of EUROVOC. The list of 126 thematic areas of EUROVOC serves as the organizing framework for this adaptation. The local area network (LAN) of the library computer system consists of fifteen personal computers and one computer server, and is part of the integrated information system of the entire parliament. This means that members of the parliament or employees of the Office of

63

the Parliament have an on-line access through theft· personal computer to all reference and full-text databases created by the library. The library also has two CD-ROM players, which allow access to fifteen databases. At present the library makes wide use of the possibilities offered by the LAN and its connection to the integrated network of the parliament (Word Perfect, databases of Czech legislation, electronic mail, gopher, Internet, etc.). Numerous possibilities have been opened to the library for satisfying the information needs of Members of Parliament by connection to the Internet. Through the Internet the library uses the integrated information network of the Parliament to offer a database of the Czech National Bibliography—articles in Czech periodicals—updated daily, in cooperation with the Czech Republic National Library. The library cooperates in a similar manner with the Czech Republic National Information Center and other Czech libraries and information centers. As for foreign institutions, the databases of NATO, WHO, World Bank, U.S. Library of Congress, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, and others are accessible through Internet.

Using the specially prepared

"gopher" and World Wide Web Homepage of the Parliament of the Czech Republic, Members can find basic information on the Library's history and contemporary status, services offered, and periodical subscriptions (both newspapers and journals). The Survey of the Czech Republic Parliament Legislative Activity is currently being made accessible through the gopher and World Wide Web server, and the on-line library catalog has been made available as well. VII. Important Developments in the Parliamentary Library The library must also be adapted to the contemporary worldwide trend of moving away from traditional libraries and traditional information services to electronic libraries and electronic information services. The traditional library is well known. In an electronic library, classical library services (cataloguing and loans) lose their meaning. The trend toward an 64

electronic library is going to be more important as libraries move from offering bibliographic and short, factual information to full text information; and commercial document exchange takes place immediately between the firm that created the document and the final user (which means greater competition for libraries) The main characteristics of an electronic library are (1) the library is user-oriented, i.e., its main objective is to satisfy the information needs of its users, (2) book collections satisfy only limited requests, therefore the library has less need for huge outdated collections and can discard many useless publications, (3) the library relies to a large degree on external information sources, especially on-line databases, (4) use of publication intermediate services, on-line databases of full-text material and interlibrary loans means that access to publications is more important than their possession; (5) bibliographic descriptive cataloging is superseded by factual cataloguing and document indexing; and (6) the library offers a wide range of information services including electronic information sources and accompanying services. The library offers the following services in the area of electronic information: introduction of the Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC), training in retrieval methods in databases, compilation of manuals and guides to databases and other information materials both in printed and electronic form, support for request formulation and help in finding adequate retrieval methods, support for creating personal bibliographic databases, i.e., teaching the user to create his or her own bibliography. Other services include retrieval from on-line databases and other bibliographies, factual information, and full-text information, introducing the databases offered in the library to different, targeted groups of users, assistance with E-mail, individual information services, training on Internet, and creation of a meta-information system that may enable a user in a conversational mode to obtain relevant information regardless of where it is stored or the medium of storage (library collections, databases, etc.). The system is not able to provide the requested document or information

65

directly, it is obliged to provide sufficient references to another information system or direct the user to the person who may assist in locating the primary document or information. The creation of a meta-information system with the above mentioned parameters is a new service being prepared for the Members of the Czech Republic Parliament by the library in cooperation with the Department of Informatics. Another component of electronic library services is the already approved electronic library project "Czech Parliament." The project will result in a CD-ROM that should comprise full texts of parliamentary prints, debates, and other parliamentary publications covering activities of the Czechoslovak and Czech Parliament from their origins until the present. The entire CD-ROM will be regularly updated and distributed to the public. Due to the efforts of the U.S. Congress, the library was able to catch up, within a relatively short span of five years, with the apparently insurmountable technology gap of forty years, which set the library apart from Western parliamentary libraries. Without the help of the Special Task Force and the U.S. Library of Congress, the Czech library would have taken much more time to reach its present state.

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Czech Republic Parliamentary Institute of the Parliament of the Czech Republic by Hana Salterova1 I. Brief History of the Parliamentary Institute A department of research and analysis was established in January 1, 1991, as a result of the resolution of the Presidium of the Czech Federal Assembly dated November 6, 1990. On January 29, 1991, the Parliamentary Institute was confirmed as the information, research, and advisory institution of the Federal Assembly, with its own statutes.

The

Institute is the result of changes in the political system and the continued democratization of Czech society after the first free elections in the summer of 1990. These elections and the institution of a more vigorous legislature required deputies to take a new approach to their functions. The major developments that have occurred since its founding include the split of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic into the separate Czech and Slovak Republics, the extinction of the old Federal Assembly, and the transformation of the Czech National Council into the new Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic. Since March 1993 the Parliamentary Institute has been part of the Chancellery of the Chamber of Deputies. In 1996, the new Senate was brought into existence following elections. The Parliamentary Institute serves both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Π. Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Institute In 1993 the Parliamentary Institute was incorporated into the Department of Information Systems. In accordance with the new law on Rules of Procedure, adopted in April 1995, the Parliamentary Institute became a separate department on September 1995.

1 Hana Salterova is assistant to the director of the Parliamentary Institute of the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

67

The staff of the Institute consists of six research specialists (lawyers, political scientists, and economists); two environmental specialists; and four assistants. III. Resources The Parliamentary Institute is located in the building of the former Federal Assembly about 20 minutes from the Chamber of Deputies in Prague

A small reference library is

located in this building. The Institute has a subscription to about 30 newspapers and journals. IV. Services and Products There are no limitations on the topics of information covered by staffers of the Institute Some materials are issued regularly (e.g., monthly Monitoring of the Economy), some upon request of deputies and committees. These include research studies and informative data. The most important materials are put into a separate part of the information database of the chamber ("PARLINST"). The information database "INFO" on the network of the Chamber is available to all Members of Parliament and officials working in the Chamber of Deputies. New materials are advertised on the bulletin board and are available on the network and in the Parliamentary Library. Once a year a list of all of the Institute's materials is issued and sent to all the deputies. The Institute answers approximately 100 requests a year. About 10 percent of these requests are prepared by external experts working under contract. The Parliamentary Institute serves committees, individual deputies and senators, and, on occasion, also the party clubs of deputies and the officials of the Chancellery of the Chamber of Deputies. It also organizes seminars and training for deputies and other officials. V. Important Developments Eleven PC's have been put on the network by the Institute. It uses CD-ROMs, FAX machines, electronic mail, and Internet. In addition, the operation of the Parliamentary Institute was improved by connecting to the network of the Chamber of Deputies.

68

staff of the Institute intends to concentrate on the following topics: Comparative law. Harmonization of the Czech Legal System with the legal system of the European Community. Research and analysis on the social service system, including the health care system and the pension system. Developments in macroeconomics

69

Republic of Estonia The National Library of Estonia as a Parliamentary Library by Ene Loddes 1 I. History On December 21, 1918, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Estonia created a State Library.

The library's initial task was to collect legal materials necessary for

lawmaking and governing.

Members of the State Assembly (Parliament) and other

government institutions were the first users. Toompea Castle

Originally the library was situated in the

Mandatory Deposit Collection of Estonian and Baltic Publications dates

back to 1935. By that time, the circle of users had widened to include prominent figures in the cultural, educational, and social life of the country. Acquisitions focused mainly on the social sciences, and the library became the main research source for different government institutions. As a result of the Soviet occupation, the library was renamed in 1944

It was then

known as the State Public Library of the Estonian SSR. It had to be run in conformity with existing Soviet public library regulations. All links with foreign libraries were severed, and Russian publications gained predominance. The majority of these were mandatory copies. Most Estonian publications were placed in restricted access collections. From 1948 to 1950, many books in Estonian libraries all over the country were destroyed In 1953 the library was named after F R. Kreutzwald, the compiler of the Estonian national epic, Kalevipoeg.

A new mandatory copy law was established in 1965 with the aim

of collecting the latest Estonian publications and complementing the collection with materials that could be obtained that had been published in earlier years.

1 Ene Loddes is head of the Reference and Information Analysis Center of the National Library of Estonia.

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Since 1988 the library has had the status of a national library. A year later, in 1989, the library was assigned the tasks of a parliamentary library. In 1994 Parliament enacted the Law of the National Library which regulates the role and tasks of the library in present-day Estonia. Functioning both as a national and parliamentary library, the National Library of Estonia is an information center where Estonian national printed matter is collected and preserved, national bibliographies compiled, and foreign books and periodicals gathered. Also, the centers of ISSN and ISBN have found a shelter in this library, as well as Estonia's largest collection of art, literature, music books, and collections of cartography and old books Acting as a parliamentary library and a depository library for international organizations, the National Library of Estonia plays an important role in the development of the country. Π. Setting of the Library The Parliament of the Republic of Estonia, the State Assembly, is a unicameral legislative body of 101 members who are elected for four years in direct general elections. Voting is secret. Elections are held in multi-member districts, based on proportional representation. The president is elected by the parliament and has a representational function. The National Library of Estonia is an independent organization. Its activities are guided by the Council of the National Library. Members of the Council are the parliamentarians and representatives of the largest information institutions of Estonia. Decisions of the Council are binding on the library. The Council decides on the library's statutes, budget, audit, reporting, and scheme of operation. Also, the Director of the National Library is appointed by the Council. The Council hears the reports of both the library as a whole and as a parliamentary service, and approves its activities. The National Library of Estonia is a member of various international organizations, such as the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD),

71

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), International Association of Law Libraries (IALL), and European Information Association (EIA). Close connections have been developed with the parliamentary libraries of the Nordic countries, particularly those of Sweden and Finland. The library also works in collaboration with the Lithuanian and Latvian libraries. III. Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Library In July 1993 the Reference and Information Analysis Center was established in the National Library of Estonia. Currently there are 42 people on the staff. The purpose of establishing the center was to merge all fields connected with parliamentary service under joint management. The Reference and Information Analysis Center consists of five sections: Reference International Organizations •

Law Literature

•

Publications

•

Collection

The archives of the State Assembly are kept by the Archives Section. The Reference and Information Analysis Center is not an isolated unit, but rather functions in close cooperation with other departments of the library which all make their contributions to the successful service of the Parliament. Serving the parliament requires staff to have specific knowledge and skills that are not applicable in an ordinary library. Although the staff has higher education primarily in the field of bibliography, the character of the job requires in-depth knowledge of other fields also. Several members of the staff, who have not had professional education, are currently studying. Two people are preparing for their Master's degrees.

72

It is important to be able to navigate in different legal systems. Since 1995 librarians of the Law Literature Section have had an opportunity to attend lectures at the Legal Institute. This year a project will be initiated in cooperation with the Legal Department of Tartu University and the Lawyers' Training Center to organize relevant lectures for library employees. Also the prospects for additional training are widening with participation in IALL. A special training program is being created for the librarians who deal with the documents of international organizations. A program of self-improvement includes learning computer science and foreign languages. One day each week is reserved for the introduction of various bibliographic and information sources. One of the goals of the self-improvement program is for each employee to work regularly in another section in order to get to know the work of the Center as a whole. In one month an employee becomes acquainted with the details, reference books, and databases of another section. As a result of such rotation, the librarians are able to survey the resources of the center and the library as a whole. Cooperation between different sections has improved significantly and the employees are able to replace one other, as needed. IV. Library Collections and Other Resources As of January 1, 1997, the size of the collection of the National Library of Estonia was 3,465,779 volumes. Among these are: Books

1,952,249 volumes

Periodicals

254,575 sets a year

Newspaper

16,715 sets a year

Magazines

109,865 sets a year

Cartographic publications

12,271 copies

Music books

110,824 copies

Graphics

147,703 copies

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Manuscripts

139 volumes

Audio and video recordings

24,863 copies.

In 1996, the library subscribed toi,559 titles of foreign periodicals, including 132 newspapers. There are 68 CD-ROMs available for use. In the collections and reading rooms of the Reference and Analysis Center there are 43,815 books, 839 periodicals (among them, 115 Estonian magazines and 56 Estonian newspapers, and 608 foreign magazines and 60 foreign newspapers). The Center also has a collection of 151 audio and video recordings of pre-electoral radio and television programs Literature subscriptions for the Reference and Information Analysis Center are the responsibility of the Collections Section, which works in cooperation with the Foreign Exchange Department. The goal is to form a representative collection of legal, political, historical, and economic literature that can meet the requirements of the legislative body Because the library budget is limited and does not cover the expenses of valuable literature and scientific magazines, library administrators have explored the possibilities offered by various foundations and aid programs. The largest partner of recent years has been the U.S. Library of Congress.

A special aid program of the U.S. Congress for the support of

parliaments of Eastern and Central Europe (also known as the Special Task Force on the Development of Parliamentary Institutions in Eastern Europe or Frost Task Force), has enabled Estonian collections to grow by more than 800 reference books, publications, and CD-ROMs on legal, political, and economic issues, including 39 periodicals. The Reference and Information Analysis Center has three reading rooms. Those for reference and law literature are situated in the main building. By the reading room for law literature there are 22 individual carrels reserved for the Members of Parliament and employees of the Parliamentary Chancellery. In the building of the Parliament (Toompea Castle) a small reading room provides quick reference assistance. 74

V. Services and Products The Reference and Information Analysis Center offers its readers a combination of traditional and new services. Rich files, reflecting the contents of the press of both Estonia and the former Soviet Union, and databases help readers to find their way in the flood of information. Compiling bibliographies has been a long-standing tradition of the center, while working with documents of international organizations and answering inquiries about legal issues requires totally new skills and different knowledge from the staff. In 1993 the library stopped compiling card files and began to amass data files using PCs. We have created and are updating seven bibliographic databases: •

SEADUS - legislative acts of the Republic of Estonia in foreign languages

•

ÖIGUS - articles on legal issues

•

RVO - publications concerning international organizations

•

MAJPOL - articles on political and economic issues

•

EMOR - market, opinion, media, and household research

•

VARIA - articles on various issues; biographies

•

LITTERA - belles-letters and the science of literature

To update the databases, the employees of the center look through the majority of Estonian periodicals (approximately 170 titles of newspapers and magazines) and volumes. Data are entered the same day and copied into the computers of all three reading rooms. At the end of 1996 there were 306,062 entries in the database. All entries have annotations; databases have subject indexes. The subject index, which includes approximately 3,500 entry words and is updated continuously, was developed by Estonian librarians on the basis of the relevant subject index of the Finnish Parliamentary Library. Databases are unique in Estonia and have gained popularity quickly.

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In addition to these databases the library has agreements with several organizations to use their databases. For example, the library used a full-text database of Estonian legal acts, ESTLEX, that is compiled and is updated twice a month by the State Computing Center, and a filli text database of Russian legal acts - ICONSUL, TANT PLUS, Databases of the Tallinn address book and the Estonian Enterprises' Register are also available there.

CD-ROM

databases searches have increased the library's ability to find information in articles published in foreign periodicals. Since 1991 full access to Internet has been available and is very actively used for information searches. Unfortunately, because of a limited budget, the library cannot use commercial on-line databases. Inquiries are answered in reading rooms as well as by telephone and mail. The number of inquiries is growing steadily, and the growth has been extremely rapid since Estonia regained its independence. In 1996, 21,359 inquiries were answered in the Reference and Information Analysis Center (a growth of 32 percent from 1995). The majority of the inquiries concern legal issues.

Requests about the economy, politics, and international

organizations are the next most frequently requested areas of inquiry. Most inquiries (86 percent) are answered in the reading rooms of the main building. Subject "info packs" are compiled, some commissioned by clients and others developed on the library's initiative. Info packs contain bibliographies, copies of articles, abstracts from reference books, and unpublished materials. The service is relatively new but has already gained popularity among readers. Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) services also are offered. In 1996 it was used by four Parliament Commissions and five Members of Parliament and covered a total of 13 subjects. In the reading room in Toompea Castle exhibitions are displayed of new additions to the collections in order to introduce new books that have arrived in the reading rooms and

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collections of the main building. Members of Parliament can request these books. The exhibition is renewed weekly. In 1996 more than 1100 publications were displayed. Once a month bibliographies of new literature are dispatched to the Commissions of the Parliament, ministries, and President's Chancellery.

These bibliographies embrace three

subjects: law, politics, and the economy. Readers merely mark the appropriate book on the list to receive the books listed in the bibliographies

Since 1996 bibliographies have been

annotated. In addition to planned bibliographies, the library compiles ad hoc bibliographies commissioned by clients on various subjects For example, in 1994, 23 ad hoc bibliographies, personal bibliographies of Lennart Meri (the President of the Republic of Estonia), and Mart Laar (the Prime Minister at the time), among others, were compiled in the Reference and Information Analysis Center. The library has a collection of audio and video recordings of radio and television programs concerning the general elections. Members of the Parliament have access to these recordings. In past years, as the need for specialization has grown, three sections were created in the Center: Reference, International Organizations, and Law Literature. The National Library of Estonia is a depository library for ten international organizations such as UNESCO (since 1984), ELO (1992), IBRD (1992), European Union (1992), United Nations (1993), GATT (1993), IMO (1993), WHO (1993), F AO (1993), ICAO (1993). In addition, we receive books and other printed materials from IMF, WIPO, OECD, NATO, EFTA, OSCE, Nordic Council, IPU, etc.

The International Organizations section is

responsible for filing printed matter received from these organizations and making the information available. The number of inquiries concerning international organizations and their documentation (conventions, agreements, legal acts, etc.), particularly those of the

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European Union, is growing rapidly. In the near future EU Information Point will be established so that it can assist the Estonian Parliament with additional information. The employees of the section compile publications and write articles introducing these materials. Materials of the European Council were moved to a new Information Center of the European Council that was opened for readers on May 26, 1995. The Center is an independent unit, the administration of which is separate from the Reference and Information Analysis Center; however, the two centers work in close cooperation. On January 1, 1995, the Law Literature section was established. The activities of this entity are focused on answering inquiries concerning legal issues, filing legal literature, and updating relevant databases. One of the most important facets of the work of the different library sections is the compilation of bibliographies Although this work has a long tradition in the library, significant changes have occurred in this field also. First, bibliographies are compiled with the help of computers. Second, the lists of so-called recommended literature requested during the Soviet period are no longer compiled. materials with lasting value.

Instead, attention is focused on publishing

In the past few years staff has compiled the collective

bibliographies of the articles published in "Tulimuld" and "Mana," two Estonian magazines published abroad. There also is a series of bibliographies of book translations (Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, English, French and Icelandic literature), and staff has begun compiling a bibliography of literature translated from German into Estonian. In 1994 "Bibliographia Iuridica Estonica" was prepared, a listing of legal literature issued in 1918-1940. This bibliography, which contains 4,130 entries, is highly valued both by lawyers and Members of Parliament. It was awarded an annual prize by the Estonian Cultural Foundation. The bibliography can be used as a database (using ProCite software). Each entry also has the pressmark of the library collection and subject index. In 1994, the ÖIGUS

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database began to be compiled as a basis for annual legal bibliographies. In 1997 another comprehensive retrospective bibliography was published, covering the years 1988-1993. The responsibilities of the Reference and Information Analysis Center also include keeping a register of Estonian official publications. The library compiles a bibliography, "Official Publications of Estonia," which is published annually. This is in keeping with the "Law on the National Library of Estonia" and the decision of the Government of December 29, 1993, "about the regulation of registering and exchanging official publications of the Republic of Estonia and documents of the Government of the Republic of Estonia." In cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the library is working on agreements regulating the exchange of governmental documents and other official publications with various foreign countries. At the moment, such an agreement has been reached between the governments of the United States and Estonia. Besides traditional library publications, in 1993 staff started compiling and publishing completely different materials. The first of these was "Riigjkogu (Republic of Estonia Parliament) Directory." The directory of the first Parliament elected after Soviet occupation was published in 1993 and updated in 1994. In March 1995 a new Parliament was elected, and the new directory came out in June 1995. The directory consists of personal data on Members of Parliament together with their photographs, the staffs of Parliament commissions and factions, and the phone numbers of different departments of the Parliament Chancellery. Since 1994 the Chronicle of the Parliament has been compiled in the library. The first part of the chronicle provides a survey of the activities of the Parliament, its composition and structure, factions and commissions, and any changes during the course of sessions. Detailed information is presented in the second part about the legislative activities of the Parliament —from introducing a bill in Parliament to enacting a law. The third part focuses on the Parliament's foreign relations. The publication is provided with a name index so that readers

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can be informed about the activities of each parliamentary member as a representative of people. So far, four such chronicles have been published, for the years 1992-1993, 19931994, 1994-1995 and 1995-96. The register of people who have participated in the Estonian legislative body and the government is in the final stage. Based on comprehensive research covering several years, the register consists of data about Members of Parliament and the Government, as well as their years of birth and death. The people who were executed during the repressive Soviet regimes are marked separately. In addition to the pre-war period (1918-1940), the register includes the data on the participants in the work of the Estonian exile government during the Soviet occupation. Booklets also have been prepared on the library's information sources, such as the Guide to the Library's Card Files and Data Bases, the Guide to the Materials of International Organizations, a booklet introducing the Reference and Information Analysis Center, and a booklet on the Parliament of Estonia. The priority of the Reference and Information Analysis Center is to provide information services to legal institutions such as parliament, the parliamentary chancellery, government, the state chancellery, ministries, state officials, and the president's chancellery. Because the National Library of Estonia is a public library, two reading rooms of the center are open to the public (in the main building). The facilities are actively used, particularly by students. For Members of Parliament and the staff of the Parliamentary Chancellery, all services are free. Other readers are charged for services such as photocopying, computer printouts, compilation of bibliographies, document searching, searching foreign databases, and library publications. In 1996, 11 percent of all inquiries were made by Members of Parliament and Members of Parliamentary Commissions, 5 percent by the government and ministries and 2 percent by the President's Chancellery.

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VI. Developments in Automation As compared to other departments of the National Library of Estonia, the Reference and Information Analysis Center is relatively well provided with computer technology

However,

the technology is out of date and does not meet all requirements. Equipment includes 13 PCs, five terminals, and ten printers In 1995, installation of a network was begun, linking nine PCs The network considerably improves the efficiency of work — with no need to copy new data into all PCs separately

Terminals and three PCs allow staff full access to Internet.

Other enhancements are electronic mail, a five-disk reader for CD-ROMs and five one-disk readers, two FAX machines, three photocopying machines, and a microform reader/printer. In 1997, the staff planned to create a CD network. The library is continuously searching for means to develop a modern information system. The Reference and Information Analysis Center is developing separately from other departments of the library, due largely to its connections with the Parliament. However, the goal is an integrated library system. The staff of the library has tested several software packages from different companies in search of a system that meets the needed requirements. An integrated information system INNOPAC has been selected. The automation of library work has advanced more slowly than staff would have liked, not because of a reluctance to organize work in a new way, but primarily due to a lack of sufficient funding. VII. Conclusions Acquiring, preserving, and processing information necessary for those ruling a state has been one of the priorities of the National Library of Estonia since the beginning of the reestablishment of the independence of Estonia. The tasks of the library as a parliamentary library are set forth in the Law on the National Library.

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Bringing together the activities of the national and parliamentary libraries and joining traditional library work with processing information allow staff to use the capabilities of modern information technology and integration of information. Such tendencies can be observed throughout the world, and applying the model to Estonia has proved to be successful. In a relatively short period and despite limited finances, the staff has succeeded in creating a database of legal literature and has built connections to international information structures. The Reference and Information Analysis Center was established in 1993 as a consequence of developing a library infrastructure based on complex technological processes and improving cooperation both between different structures of the library and with other institutions. Together with the objective of improving reader services in the main building of the library, other objectives have been to widen the capabilities of the service center in the parliament building, and to make all the library's information resources available to the people working in the Toompea Castle through modern information technology. The development of Estonia as an independent state is greatly dependent upon such cooperation. Tasks to be undertaken include the need for many more translations and reports, modelling of information, scientific research, development of complex programs embracing different fields, and rendering a variety of other information services. In addition to what has already been achieved, many legal and technological problems remain concerning intellectual property—issues regarding standardization, preservation, and the sale and protection of information.

Solving these problems would expedite the

development of Estonia's information systems. Information as a resource should be used in the most effective way both in legislation and in the development of society as a whole.

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Republic of Estonia Department of Economic and Social Information and Research and Information Services to the Estonian Riigikogu by Aare Kasemets1

I. Brief History Estonia regained its sovereignty in 1991 after five decades of Soviet domination. The Estonian parliament, the Riigikogu, regained its position as the highest legislative body in the country. Estonian society has experienced tremendous changes since the restoration of its independence. The parliament of Estonia has also had to adjust its practices to that of a legislative body serving a democratic republic. The current structure of the parliament's support system was established following the elections of the seventh Riigikogu in October, 1992, with the creation of the Chancellory. All departments of the Chancellery are to some extent involved in providing the parliament with research and information services.

In December 1992 the following departments were

established to provide support services for the first post-war Riigikogu: the Legal Department, Documentation Department, Information Systems and Technology Department, Press Department, Foreign Relations Department, Elections Department, Personnel Department, and the Administrative Office. In addition to these department, the building of the Riigikogu since 1989 also houses the parliamentary branch of the National Library. The establishment of the Department of Economic and Social Information (DESI) in May 1995 was an important step in Estonia's ongoing transformation to parliamentary democracy and to a system based on separation of powers. The Department was established primarily to provide the parliament with economic and social data, research, and analysis that

1 Aare Kasemets is the head of the Economic and Social Information Department of the Estonian Riigikogu.

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will permit it to make informed decision and to operate more independently. It is designed to serve as a bridge between social science information on the one hand, and parliament's dayto-day political and legislative activity on the other. DESI is the newest unit within the Chancellery. In 1996 and 1997 the Chancellery implemented a series of principles and procedures to promote internal coordination and integration of the various departments within the Chancellory. The aim was to integrate research and information activities so that the separate units would work as a team. Π. Setting The Estonian Parliament, the Riigikogu, is a unicameral legislature consisting of 101 members. Members are elected for four-year terms by direct general elections. The first elections in conformity with Estonia's post-Soviet Constitution took place in September 1992. Estonia's second parliamentary elections took place in March 1995. The current configuration of the Riigikogu has ten factions represented in the legislature, with the largest groups being the Coalition Party/Rural Union (41 seats), the Estonian Reform Party (19 seats), and the Center Party (16 seats) The Riigikogu has ten standing committees. The Riigikogu's agenda runs from the middle of September to the middle of June. The current Riigikogu, the eighth, has passed 300 laws and 67 resolutions since March 1995. The Government has prepared 61 percent of the bills that have been passed. The Riigikogu has prepared 39 percent of the bills enacted. Several Estonian politicians have expressed the opinion that virtually all the basic laws needed for the normal functioning of the Estonian state and society have been adopted. Now, at the threshold of a new century, the stage has been set for the perfection of existing laws and other regulations.

This will require the expansion of social and economic research

activities, and the other requirements for enacting more effective laws.

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ΠΙ. Development Issues in the Riigikogu Some of the shortcomings in previous Estonian legislation was thought to be related to weaknesses in the Riigikogu's support system. The legislative support system should include a body of experts that provides elected members of parliament with impartial information and material. With this in mind, the Riigikogu has undertaken reform measures to correct the mistakes of the past.

The goal is to empower the legislature by giving it access to

information. It is well known that "knowledge is power". The Riigikogu and its supportive department — the Chancellery — have identified nine main development areas. It plans to: •

Modernize working arrangements and management styles to more effectively integrate the operations of the Chancellery

•

Establish the Council of Elders' as a leadership body, which will improve the management of the Riigikogu — and also improve relationships between elected politicians and career civil servants.

•

Enhance the Riigikogu's information network, by improving Internet connections and augmenting other on-line connections.

•

Provide legal, economic, and social analysis of draft bills.

•

Provide additional training to employees of the Chancellory. (The first systematic testing (or certification) for public employment will begin in Fall 1998).

•

Improve public education about Riigikogu legislative activities. (The number of Estonian citizens visiting the Riigikogu had doubled since the Fall of 1996. The official stenographic record of Riigikogu sessions and most draft laws have been made available on the parliament's home page since early 1997).

•

Define and develop the Riigikogu's participation in the European integration process.

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•

Promote co-operation on research projects with Estonian universities. Since June 1997 nine joint projects have begun, from a total of 35 proposed to five Estonian universities.

•

Provide parliamentary services in processing the state budget (including the Riigikogu's budget and its internal auditing system).

IV. Research Units in the Chancellory of the Riigikogu The Chancellory of the Riigikogu of Estonia has two departments whose primary mission is to provide expert analysis on legislative issues before the parliament. They are the Legal Department and the Department of Economic and Social Information. The Legal Department has nine employees and is responsible for supplying the parliamentary committees, members of parliament, and the Chancellery with expert legal advice. The Department of Economic and Social Information (DESI) has eight employees and its primary responsibilities are to provide social and economic data, analysis and forecasts.

Both

Departments have undertaken analytical and research projects either by request from parliamentary committees, political factions, members of parliament or the Chancellery or on their own initiative. Several other Departments within the Chancellery of the Riigikogu also have undertaken research projects for the parliament. For example, the Department of Elections conducted a study entitled Elections and Referendums in Estonia 1985-1995.

The Department of

Documentation has conducted statistical surveys on legislative activities. The Press and Information Department has produced several analytical articles which were published in the press about the Riigikogu. The Personnel Department in co-operation with DESI, has studied procedures and principles related to the scale of salaries of employees, attestations, and training programs.

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Standing committees, political factions, members of parliament, and other units within the parliament also utilize the services of the National Library of Estonia through its parliamentary branch which is located on the premises of the parliamentary building. Since the main library lacks electronic catalogs, access to existing information is hindered. The National Library of Estonia has a Reference and Information Analysis Center which was established in 1993, which answers reference requests. However, it does not conduct analysis of legislation. V. Automation in the Riigikogu The work of the staff of the Riigikogu's Chancellory and its departments is complemented by the Riigikogu's automation and information network. The staff members of all the departments of the Chancellory, standing committees, and political factions of the Riigikogu are equipped with personal computers. Through a client-server network (with about 200 PCs) the staff of the Riigikogu has access to the complete texts of parliamentary motions and stenographic records of plenary sessions, as well as access to a database on Estonian law (Estlex). On-line links to external databases are mainly through Internet, because existing data in Estonian is seldom organized into databases. Several units within the parliament have been connected to the World Wide Web, and to an Internet-based E-mail communications network since 1994. The Information Systems and Technology Department and the Press and Information Department have been connected to Internet since 1995. DESI has been connected to the Internet since October 1996. These departments have also been involved in creating the Riigikogu's homepage on the Internet. (See http://www.rk.ee/rkogu). In cooperation with the Finnish information and technology corporation, the Tieto Group, the Riigikogu has undertaken improvements in its information capabilities. The first stage in this project will involve all records of the parliamentary business process, and should be ready by 1997. By 1998 the Riigikogu's information system on the Internet will be

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equipped with search functions and other up-to date facilities. The staff members of the various departments, standing committees and political factions are participating in this development program. In 1997 the parliament began the transition to a Windows NT environment for all PCs in use. This will enable staff to use the full services of the Riigikogu's automation and information network (including powerful software tools like Word, Excel, SPSS, etc ) VI. Department of Economic and Social Information (DESI) In keeping with the Riigikogu's efforts to increase its efficiency, the Department of Economic and Social Information (DESI) was established in June 1995. DESI is a separate unit within the Chancellery of the Riigikogu. It is also the newest unit within the Chancellery The activities of the Department are governed by the internal rules of the Chancellery. DESI, however, is still in the process of developing its structure. DESI currently has a staff of eight persons, including the head of the Department, six counselors, and one consultant. Three counselors provide expert advice, research and analysis on economic issues; two counselors work on social issues; and one consultant provides library and information services. The main aim of DESI is to supply the members of the Riigikogu and standing committees with economic and social information, analysis, and forecasts.

It is also

responsible for helping the parliament understand the economic and social processes of the nation, and the impact of laws passed by the parliament on the economy and society. DESI supports members of parliament and standing committees by providing background information and analysis necessary for their ongoing political decision-making, including offering policy alternatives and tracing their consequences. In addition, the analysts in the Department try to transform the ideological issues dealt with by members of parliament into objective, unbiased, practical issues.

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Members of

parliament need research and analysis to help them translate their values and interests into the outcomes they desire. DESI has taken a leading role in this process. In this area, DESI sometimes uses reports and overviews from other parliaments, the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD) and the InterParliamentary Union (IPU) which have been made available to the Department.

The

Department has been primarily influenced by material on information and analysis by the parliaments of the United States Congress, German Bundestag, Finnish Eduskunda, Swedish Rikstag, and the Polish Sejm. The Department is only able to develop its research and information services on a small scale and is not able to match the parliamentary support services of larger states. VII. Primary Functions of the Department of Economic and Social Information (DESI) In fulfilling its principal tasks DESI has identified five primary functions which will govern its further development. They are: •

To accumulate and maintain information, and supply this information when requested by the Rigikogu.

•

To act as an information channel for various information sources, research groups, interest groups, and NGOs.

•

To coordinate the flow of information from the research units of other parliaments and the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD).

•

To be the repository of expert opinion, and to conduct analysis, and produce reports relating to draft laws.

•

To act as "an investor of information" in the legislative process of the Riigikogu — focusing on the right issues for analysis and the proper timing of presentation.

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V i l i . Activities of the Department of Economic and Social Information (DESI) DESI answers requests from parliament in the form of reports, expert opinions, information sheets, or materials and documents. Most responses, however, are in written form.

Not taking into account oral consultations, short requests for information, and

development projects conducted on behalf of the Chancellory, DESI has answered over 250 requests from October 1995 to June 1997. Included in this total were 12 academic-style reports, 24 requests answered through the provision of materials and documents, and the rest were answered by providing general background information, notations, and proposals. DESI has also organized six seminars. Two of these seminars were on macroeconomic issues: Inflation in Estonia: Analysis and Forecasts (December 1995), and Estonian Foreign Trade: Analysis and Forecast (January 1996). The remaining seminars were conducted in collaboration with partners, including: a seminar on sociological research in legislation (April 1996), in cooperation with the Estonian Academic Association of Sociologists, one seminar on the draft law on energy (May 1996), in cooperation with the Technical University of Tallinn; one seminar on the relationship between environment, economics, and legislation (October 1996), in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment; and one seminar on the use of demographic legislation (May 1997), in cooperation with UNDP, the World Bank, and the Estonian Inter-university Population Research Center. DESI has also supervised sociological surveys conducted by social and market research firms. Three public opinion surveys have thus far been supervised by DESI in 1996 and 1997 These were requested by parliamentary committees because they wanted to find out how the public of Estonia felt about laws that had been passed in the areas of social policy, economics, taxes, civil liberties, and democracy. For example, two surveys assessed the extent of public knowledge on important social and political issues. In 1996 DESI, in cooperation with social scientists and legal scholars from Tartu University, conducted a sociological survey of

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members of parliament, faction advisors, civil servants from the Riigikogu and government, and experts from universities and NGOs on using social information in legislation. Recently, DESI has undertaken for the Riigikogu such projects as analysis of the parliamentary budget, analysis of the competitiveness of wages of the staff of the Chancellery, and analyses of pension law, labor law, advertising law, alternative income tax models, customs duties, and deposit insurance. The Department has also conducted several projects analyzing government programs, the state budget, and the implementation of laws and international agreements and conventions. Soon after it was created, DESI found that one of the main problems it encountered was making members of parliament aware of its services. Nevertheless, the Department has seen a gradual increase in parliamentary requests since its inception. It has made a tremendous effort in establishing contacts and cooperative relations with other institutions engaged in collecting and analyzing data and information. DESI has established relationships with other government agencies, universities, and various professional associations, and has received needed information from these institutions in a short period of time. The cultivation of relationships with other bodies in Estonia by DESI has been invaluable because there are shortcomings in the electronic communications network for gathering external information and because of inherited limitations in the exchange of internal information at the institutional level. IX. Future Plans DESI plans to undertake the following actions in the future: •

Place more stress on analysis of economic and social consequences of proposed laws and laws already passed.

•

Prepare public opinion polls and sociological studies related to the work of the Riigikogu. 91

Conduct more seminars dealing with current legislative issues for members and staff of parliament. Improve information management and the work environment. Cooperate with government agencies, universities, and

non-governmental

organizations engaged in analysis. Provide training courses for employees in the use of computer software, methods for analyzing draft laws, and foreign languages. Improve access to the Internet and government databases, as well as mapping other possible information sources. Continue the cooperation with the State Statistics Board to integrate Estonian economic data and analytical models (including models for foreign trade and for taxation). Establish a special statistical and sociological database, the Estonian statistical portrait, on the Riigikogu's computer network Elaborate, in cooperation with the Legal Department of the Chancellory and the State Audit Office, the internal auditing system of the Riigikogu and its Chancellery. Improve the exchange of information with ECPRD and IPU, including making contributions about Estonia to the ECPRD News.

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Hungarian Republic Library of the Hungarian Parliament by Katalin Haraszti1, Dr Czaba Nagy2, and Eva Prohle3 (Ivan Ronai 4 assisted in the gathering of information for this report) I. Brief History of the Library There are various dates for the founding of the Library of the Hungarian Parliament, but the generally accepted date is 1870, the year when the Library first began to function. Until 1951 the Library was supervised by the Library Committee of the Parliament, and was exclusively for the use of the parliament. During this period, it was closed to the public and outsiders, and university professors and others could use it only with special permission. In 1952 the Library was separated from the parliament and put under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture, however, it retained its original name and remained in the parliament building. With this change in supervision, the Library became a member of the Hungarian scientific library system specializing in administrative and legal sciences, contemporary history, and politics. It was opened to the public and anyone over the age of eighteen could use it. As a result of these changes, the composition of the Library's users changed also; most of its readers now were researchers, university professors, and students. In 1991 the status of the Library was changed again, and it was reintegrated within the organization of the parliament. With this change, the Library returned to the primary purpose of serving the parliament, however, it also retained its previous function of serving the public as well.

1

Katalin Haiaszti is head of Information Services for the Library of the Hungarian Parliament. 2

Dr. Csaba Nagy is head of the Legal Documentation Department of the Library of the Hungarian Parliament. 3

Ms. Eva Prohle is the director of the Library of the Hungarian Parliament.

4

Ivan Ronai was the former director of information for the Hungarian Parliament (1991-1996).

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II. Setting of the Library The Hungarian Parliament has a unicameral structure. The 386 members of parliament are elected by universal and direct suffrage. Of these, 176 are elected from single-member districts, while 152 are chosen by proportional representation from among candidates on a list from metropolitan and county electoral wards or regional constituencies. The votes which do not result in a mandate either in individual electoral wards or in regional constituencies are totaled from throughout the country, and an additional fifty-eight compensation mandates are distributed among candidates of the parties. The Library is an independent unit within the office of the parliament and the Librarian reports to the Speaker of the Parliament. The Library is a member of the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD), the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and International Association of Law Librarians (IALL). The National Széchényi Library handles international exchanges according to the Brussels Agreement, so a certain number of parliamentary documents arrive through the National Library. The Library of Parliament has exchange contacts with most other parliamentary libraries in the region and with approximately 60 other institutions from all over the world. III. Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Library The organizational structure that follows provides an overview of the current functional structure of the Library.

The subunits described below are

supervision of the Librarian of the Parliamentary Library. THE LIBRARIAN OF THE PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARY •

Information Technology Unit

•

Department for Legal Documentation

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under the direction and

LIBRARY DIVISION •

Acquisition, Cataloging & Indexing

•

Readers' Services

•

UN Collections

•

Collection of Foreign Parliamentary Documents

•

Inventory

INFORMATION DIVISION •

Information Services for Members of Parliament

•

Collection of HP documents

•

Documentation & Information Services

The current Library staff consists of 94 persons. The staff includes university graduates in library science, history, law, economics, and foreign languages. The Library provides research services for parliament on a limited scale only, based on resources in its various databases. IV. Library Collections and Other Resources The collection of the Library consists of more than 700,000 books, about sixty percent in foreign languages. The Library also has a collection of about 2,500 current periodicals, with about 500 of these periodicals focused on the social sciences. The Library has three special collections: (1) the documents of the Hungarian Parliament from the end of the sixteenth century; (2) the documents of foreign parliaments including: Austria,Australia, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, India, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, United States of America and;

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(3) the documents of the League of Nations and the United Nations. The Libraiy acts as a full depository library for United Nations (UN) documents. This collection includes materials from various UN agencies, such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the International Labor Office (ILO), and from other international organizations, such as those involved in negotiations on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT-WTO) The Library has the following CD-ROM subscriptions: (1) CompLEX - CD-JOGTAR (a full-text database of Hungarian legal rules in force, supplemented with a shorter version of the bibliography of Hungarian legal literature supplied by the Library), (2) Justis-Celex; (3) Justis References; (4) JUSTIS-Official Journal "C"; (5) Index to Legal Periodicals; (6) PAIS; (7) Index to UN Documents. The Library's large reading room is in the main parliament building. Two separate reading rooms are for the exclusive use of members of parliament: the first is in the main building (it is the reading room that contains collections of Hungarian Parliamentary documents), and the second reading room is a legislative reference library.5 This reading room is 600 meters from the main building, and is specifically geared for use by Members who are conducting research on legislation. V.

Services and Products The Library currently serves Members of Parliament and their staff, committees, staff

members of public administrations and research institutions, and the general public. The Library also advertises the availability of its various products and services in professional journals.

5 This reference center was established in 1991 with the assistance of the Frost Task Force on the Development of Parliamentary Institutions in Eastern Europe. This center is managed jointly by the Librarian and by the Secretary General of the Hungarian Parliament.

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The Library maintains a number of computerized databases. The database of "Hungarian legal literature" contains materials starting from 1990. It is updated weekly. In 1996 records covering the period 1974-1989 were added. The database contains references to law books and articles of legal periodicals that were published in Hungary. The information in the records contains the name of the author, title, source data of the book or article, and keywords. By March 1997, there were 46,000 records in this database. A CD-ROM version of selected materials from this database starting from 1990, will be published by a commercial firm The "Selective database of foreign legal literature" began with a record of materials from 1988. This database is updated monthly The records covering the years 1980-87 have since been added and are now continually added to the database. This database contains references to articles from foreign legal periodicals. The information in the record contains the name of the author, title, Hungarian translation of title, source data of the article, and a brief description of the material in Hungarian, keywords, and subject codes. By March 1997, the database contained 26,700 records. Records from the period 1976 through 1979 are available in paper form. The database "Corpus Iuris" contains the titles of all Hungarian legal acts during the years 1901 to 1946. This database was created in 1996. It contains 8,400 entries. The " VPI - selective dissemination of foreign political literature" database was started in 1974. It contains records of foreign periodicals collected by the Library. The records provide information on the author, title, Hungarian translation of title, source data of the article, and a brief description of the content in Hungarian, keywords, and subject codes. By the end of 1996, this database held 20,500 articles and studies. The database is updated monthly with em average of about 200 new entries.

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The "PRESSDOCK - Documentation of Hungarian newspapers" database was created in 1989. By the end of 1996, this database contained 448,000 entries All the material in the database is available on computer. Each month, approximately 7,000 new entries are added to the database. The "HUNDOK - Documentation of foreign newspaper articles on Hungary and Eastern and Central Europe" database was begun in 1991. By the end of 1996, it contained 48,000 records. All the materials in this database are also available on computer. 800 new entries are added to the database monthly. The Library has published PRESSDOK and HUNDOCK databases in CD-ROM version These databases on CD-ROM are updated twice a year The "T Haz - Documentation of Hungarian parliamentary materials" database was created in 1990. This database contains references to the activities of committee and plenary sessions. Records date from 1985 to the present. This database is updated on a regular basis The "Documentation of selected foreign parliamentary materials" database was created in 1991. By the end of 1996 the database contained 1033 items. Every three months an index is published for this database Individuals can conduct research using any of the outlined databases. VL Developments in Automation The Library has a Novell 3.11 network comprised of 60 personal computers (PCs). The Library also has a CD-ROM server capable of serving five users simultaneously. The Library is connected to the network of the parliament, which runs under the "Novell Intranetware" network operating system. From all the stations of the Library's network, full Internet connection is available, and domestic and foreign databases are accessible. Users outside the Library can log into its network using public telephone lines and a modem.

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Almost all library activities are

automated. There are plans to purchase an integrated library management software system in the near future. VII. Important Developments in the Library Recent trends in the Library include the establishment of the Information and Documentation Center of Swiss Law with the support of the Swiss Ministry of Justice. A collection of European Union law also has been established with the assistance of the European Union's PHARE program. The Parliamentary Library recently launched a new program entitled BRIDGE (Background Information and Documents). This program provides an alternate method of informing Members of Parliament on legislative activities. BRIDGE has issued the following booklets: •

Media-Mass Communications ( 1994)

•

Public Procurement ( 1995)

•

History of Public Education. National Basic Curriculum Studies (1995)

•

Transparency and Members' Interests

•

Sylvaculture and Game Culture (1996)

•

Legal Status of Soldiers

•

Sports (1996)

•

Parliament and International Agreements (1996)

•

The Role of the Parliaments in Shaping Community Law to National Law — the Characteristics and Problems of the Accession Process (1996)

•

The Protection of Monuments and Historical Sites (1996)

•

The Protection of Children ( 1997)

The following booklets are currently prepared by the Library: The C.E.F. T.A. - Central European Free Trade Agreement, Privatization, and Reform of the Pension System.

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The Republic of Latvia Parliamentary Information Department of the Latvian Saeima by Anita Dudina1

I. Brief History of the Information Department After nearly fifty years of Communist leadership, free parliamentary elections in March 1990 resulted in a decisive victory for the Popular Front of Latvia, a political organization whose primary goal was to re-establish the Nation's independence. On May 4, 1990, the newly elected Parliament enacted the "Declaration on the Renewal of the Independence of the Republic of Latvia. " As a result of this and related actions, the functions of the Latvian Parliament changed dramatically from an organization whose authority was mainly a formality, to an active, functional legislative institution This change in Parliament's role also made it clear that the newly elected members of Parliament and their staff were in need of more objective and comprehensive information as background for their legislative work. In order to respond to these emerging new needs, the administrative structure of the Parliament was reorganized, and new staff recruited. As a part of this re-structuring process, the decision was made in December 1990 to establish a new Parliamentary Information Department composed of two divisions: a Library Information and Reference Division, and a Computer Division. The Library Information and Reference Division began operations in January 1991 with a total staff of one person. One of the first tasks of this Division was to begin the restoration of the Parliamentary Library, thus reviving an informational resource of the pre-World War II Latvian Parliament (the Saeima). During the war years and afterwards during the period

1

Anita Dudina is the head of the Information Department of the Saeima of Latvia.

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of Communist rule, this Parliamentary library had ceased to operate, with nearly all of the existing book collection subsequently damaged, stolen, or distributed among other libraries in the Nation. Thus, the newly reconstituted Parliamentary Library had literally to start all over again: to arrange for a location; to obtain furniture, bookshelves, and other materials and to acquire books and periodicals. In rebuilding this collection, the focus was primarily on reference materials, including books on law, parliamentary procedures, the social sciences, and contemporary history, especially by Latvian authors from the West

By March 1992, a

Library reading room was opened in the main building where plenary meetings take place, for the research use of Parliamentary members and their staff In the Spring of 1992, the Library also began to receive assistance in building and developing its informational services from the United States Library of Congress through a special Task Force on the Development of Parliamentary Institutions in Eastern Europe. In addition to providing consultant and advisory services, this assistance also provided valuable books and periodicals that enabled some of the Library's empty shelves to be filled ~ as well as automation equipment to facilitate more efficient access to information. II. Setting of the Information Department Latvia is a parliamentary republic.

As determined by the State Constitution (the

"Satversme") and constitutional law on the national status of the Republic of Latvia, the highest elective body in the Nation is the unicameral Saeima, or Parliament. The Saeima currently consists of one hundred deputies who are elected based on the principle of proportional representation where seats are filled from 5 regional party lists. In order to gain seats in Parliament, the parties with which deputies are affiliated must receive at least five percent of the total national vote. Once elected, deputies serve terms that are three years in length.

The head of State in Latvia is the President, who is chosen by the Saeima for a term 101

of three years. Executive power is wielded by the Prime Minister, who is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Saeima. In the sixth Saeima, which was elected in October 1995, there are a total of twelve political parties represented. These twelve parties form nine different political factions In accordance with its rules of order, members of the Saeima work in sixteen standing committees. The main administrative unit of the Saeima is the Chancellory, which oversees the work of the Information Department. The director of the Information Department is directly responsible to the director of the Chancellory, the Secretary General. The heads of the Library Information and Reference Division and of the Computer Division are, in turn, responsible to the Director of the Information Department. Because it is a new organization with rather limited resources of its own, the Parliamentary Library pays attention to establishing and maintaining good relations with different organizations outside of the Saeima. The closest cooperation with such outside groups is with the National Library of Latvia, where a Department of Parliamentary Services was established in May 1991. III. Organization and Staffing of the Information Department The Presidium of the Saeima, that is, the Speaker of the Saeima, two Deputy Speakers, the Secretary, and the Deputy Secretary, is the supreme authority on parliamentary affairs. At the staff level, the highest authority is the Director of the Chancellery. The Chancellery is responsible for supporting parliamentary activities, including housing, finance, and other related matters. The Information Department, with its two-divisions, is one of nine departments of the Saeima. The primary task of the Information Department is to provide information to the members of the Saeima, its committees, and its administration. 102

The primary task o f the Library Information and Reference Division is to maintain the Library of the Saeima, including the provision of comprehensive information and reference services in a nonpartisan manner, and the acquisition and exchange of books, periodicals, newspapers, CD-ROMs and other databases.

The Library Information and Reference

Division has a staff of seven persons, four of whom are professional librarians with university degrees while the remaining three are university graduates with different fields of specialization. The principal task of the Computer Division is to create, implement, and maintain computer-based information retrieval systems for Saeima committees and deputies, and their respective staffs. With overall responsibility for personal computer use in the Saeima, the specialists within the Computer Division provide training for members and their staffs, including assistance on the use of hardware and software, help with the establishment and use o f special database applications, and guidance to the use of the Internet and other external data sources. The Computer Division employs nine university graduate specialists in computer programming and engineering.

To help Division staff keep current in their areas of

specialization, the administration of the Saeima sends them to special courses, such as, new information technologies, advanced software, and systems administration. The growth o f staff in both divisions of the Information Department, as well as the growth of the reference collections in the Library, have been affected by the general shortage of space within the Parliament buildings and by constraints in the State budget. The idea of establishing a separate Research and Analysis Section within the Library has been discussed, but this has not yet occurred. Some of the functions of such a separate Section, however, currently are being provided by specialists within the Library Information and Reference Division.

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IV. Library Collections and Other Resources The Library has a collection of approximately 3,000 books in its reading room. The focus of this collection is general reference works, encyclopedias, politics, law, economics, social sciences, human rights, administration, and biographies of politicians. About one hundred books date from the pre-war Saeima. Approximately twenty percent of the Library's collection is in Latvian, while about seventy percent is in English, with Russian, German, and French as the other main languages represented The number of current periodicals, including newspapers, is just over 130, about eighty percent of which are domestic sources Library collections are accessible through an electronic catalog, both in the Library's reading room and in the offices of the Saeima's standing committees and factions. Since 1992 one of the halls on the ground floor of the main building where the Saeima's plenary sessions take place has served as the reading room. It is a central location and is designed with bookshelves and work space for up to twenty-four readers at one time. The reading room remains open as long as the Saeima is in session. V. Services and Products The Library provides three categories of services: (1) librarian and documentation services; (2) bibliographic services, and (3) reference and informational services Books are classified according to subject, and are also cataloged by author and title. Users of the reading room have free access to the collection New books and periodicals are displayed in the reading room as soon as they arrive. A photocopy machine also is available to allow readers to make copies from particular articles. For Parliament members and senior staff, book and periodical loans are available not only from the Library's collection, but also from other libraries and information centers. Approximately twenty of Latvia's most important newspapers are analyzed and clipped daily, and articles of interest to the Saeima's work are filed under the names of members or 104

special topics. Each week, a similar analysis is done of eight foreign newspapers, thirty Latvian regional news sources, and fifteen periodicals. Each day, the digest of current newspapers, which highlight important articles with short annotations, is available to readers in both paper and electronic form. Twice a week, this digest is supplemented by a survey of the foreign press which is received from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under a special agreement. Information about new acquisitions of the Library is also published regularly in the digest. Reference services usually are provided by the staff of the Library Information and Reference Division. If an inquiry requires a specialized response, or needs more extensive sources of information or in-depth research, it is transmitted to the Department of Parliamentary Services within the Latvian National Library or to an appropriate corresponding institution. Upon written request, selected dissemination of information from the Division can be provided to members. Both members of the Saeima and senior staff also can be provided with specialized bibliographies.

Except for bibliographic and documentary search services,

however, Library Division staff do not provide other research services, such as the preparation of substantive reports or the compilation of materials. To advertise their various services and products, both the Library Information and Reference Division and the Computer Division prepare and distribute leaflets about their operations, structure, and services.

These leaflets are distributed to Saeima members,

standing committees, and selected institutions outside of the Parliament. In addition, informal contacts between information specialists and Library users are facilitated by the location of the reading room. The main priority of the Parliamentary Information Department is service to the members of the Saeima, to its standing committees, to the various Latvian party factions, and to

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journalists who are accredited by the Saeima Although the Parliament buildings are closed to the general public, the Library's staff tries to assist other governmental institutions and individuals, scientists, university students, researchers, and others who can demonstrate a legitimate need to use the Library's collection. VI. Developments in Automation The information system of the Saeima is a PC-based network with seven servers and about 120 personal computers. All three Parliament buildings are linked in order that users from each standing committee, political faction, or administrative office can have access to information available in the Saeima, including external data sources. Users can work with this information, add new data if permitted by their access rights, or communicate and cooperate with other users both inside and outside the Saeima. One of the servers with Novell Netware 3.11 software maintains the Library Information and Reference Division computers. The Library has direct access to the Internet as well as to all in-house data bases, including the full-text of legislation database, the legislative initiative database, the plenary session record and agenda database, and sources such as "The Saeima News. " The Library Information and Reference Division currently operates an integrated library system, called "ALISE," which is a database on newspaper information, and text files such as the press digest and foreign press digest. As with other database sources, this information is available on-line through the Saeima's network. During recent years, electronic mail also has become a popular tool for facilitating information exchanges and cooperation between different institutions and parliamentary libraries around the world. The Library's long-range goals include providing greater interactive access to its databases, as well as providing additional high-quality research services to users. The crucial 106

point is to find and to process —quickly and accurately—information no matter where it is kept: whether in classical libraries, in government ministries, in statistical sources, or in foreign countries. Currently, it is easier to obtain information in electronic form concerning foreign countries than it is to find information about the economy of Latvia, for example. Thus, the need remains for Latvia to develop and encourage new providers of necessary information about the nation.

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Republic of Lithuania The Information Analysis Department of the Lithuanian Seimas by Renata Blagniene1 L Brief History of the Information Analysis Department The Library of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania was established in 1921. During the decades of Soviet occupation, however, the original collection was lost

After the

restoration of independence in 1990, there was a small information department, a reference library, and a press bureau in the Lithuanian parliament. In December 1991, the parliament information service was re-created as the Information Analysis Center. After the reorganization of the Seimas Chancellery in 1993, the Information Analysis Center was divided into two independent departments:

the Information and Analysis

Department and the Press and Public Relations Department.

The Information Analysis

Department gathers, analyzes, and distributes information to the parliament; the Press and Public Relations Department provides information about the parliament to the public and the mass media. Π. Setting of the Information Analysis Department In Lithuania, State power is exercised by the Seimas, the President and the Executive branch, and the Court. The Seimas is the legislative body of the Republic of Lithuania and is unicameral. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania, there are 141 members of the Seimas. A mixed electoral system has been established by electoral law: 71 members are elected from single-member districts, and 70 members are elected by proportional representation from nationwide party lists .

Each member of the Seimas is

elected to serve a four-year term.

1

Renata Blagniene is head of the Information Analysis Department of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania.

108

The Information Analysis Department is a division of the Seimas Chancellery and answers to the Chief of the Chancellery of the Seimas. The Department is a member of the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD). The Information Analysis Department closely cooperates with the National Martynas Mazvydas Library (the National Library). In November 1991, the National Library was assigned to provide services to the parliament. For this purpose, a Government Information Department was set up in the National Library to provide bibliographical information to the Seimas and to the Executive branch. III. Organization and Staffing of the Information Analysis Department The Information Analysis Department is comprised of four divisions: two Foreign Information Analysis Groups (Group A-Eastem, Group B-Western), a Domestic Information Analysis Group, and the Seimas Reference Library. There are a total of twenty-nine staff members in the entire Information Analysis Department. All staff members have university degrees, and most have attended courses for information specialists and librarians. These courses have included ( 1 ) those sponsored by the U.S. Congress, and organized by the Congressional Research Service, (2) those offered by the European Parliament, and (3) those provided by a Swedish International organization. In addition to the provision of library services, including reference and factual information, the staff of the Department also provides analytical information on subjects of interest as requested by members of parliament. IV. Library Collections and Other Resources The Seimas Reference Library has a collection of approximately 9,000 books, 380 periodical titles, and twenty-one CD-ROM titles. Both the U.S. Congress and the German Bundestag have made significant contributions of materials to enhance this collection.

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The Reference Library also contains all materials prepared by the Information Analysis Department, including press clippings on current issues and other information. The Information Analysis divisions within the Department receive computerized news reports from the Lithuanian media, and from foreign news agencies, such as, the Baltic News Service (BNS), Reuters, DPA, BelaPan, ITAR-TASS, and INTERFAX

The Department

also maintains for a short time audio and video tapes of current news events and political programs. The Information Analysis divisions and the Reference Library are conveniently located in the main building of the Seimas, close to the legislative chamber. The Department does suffer, however, from a shortage of office space. As a result, there is space for only 12 readers at one time. The Department makes extensive use of the collection and the database of the National Library. This Library is located in close proximity to the Seimas. V. Services and Products The main task of the Information Analysis divisions are to provide information to the parliament's leadership, standing committees, members and their staff, and to delegations that travel to international meetings. These divisions also provide information to the President's Office. The Information Analysis divisions provide factual and analytical services that are timely, objective, nonpartisan, and confidential. The work of these divisions can be divided into two parts: (1) information processing, including its prompt distribution to users; and (2) research, including information assembly, classification, analysis, and distribution to users.

These

divisions conduct research activities either in response to a request, or as a result of their own initiative in anticipation of future interest and requests.

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The Information and Analysis divisions of the Department prepare and promptly distribute to users daily summaries, in Lithuanian, of the main national and international news of the day, together with reports from foreign news agencies in their original languages. Reviews of news reports from Lithuanian news agencies, the BNS, and other news agencies also are prepared and released twice a day. Reviews of the main Lithuanian dailies and weeklies as well as summaries of the main news and political programming from Lithuanian television and radio are prepared on a daily basis. Either audio or video recordings of these reviews and summaries can be borrowed from the Department.

The Department also publishes a daily bulletin, "The Press and

Television about the Seimas," and a weekly publication, "News," which contains a review of articles on current topics printed in foreign magazines. When each session of the Seimas adjourns, the Department also prepares and issues a legislative summary, "The Review of the Results of the Seimas Session. " The Information Analysis divisions of the Department create databases of Lithuanian and world news, as well as on visits by Lithuanian heads of State and by dignitaries of foreign countries. These data bases are accessible to network users. In addition, the staff of the Reference Library division prepares an electronic catalogue of all the publications received in the Seimas. Among the most important services rendered by the Department is the preparation of material in response to specific requests. In 1996, LAD responded to 7,200 "short" reference requests. Generally, about 10% of all requests require specially prepared information and analytical material, either in the form of reports, memorandums, statistical analyses, or information packages. These Info Packs are used to respond to multiple requests on the same topic, and are, therefore, useful workload managers.

Ill

Within the overall structure of the Information and Analysis Department, the Seimas Reference Library provides traditional library services. Readers may borrow books and periodicals not only from the collections of this library, but also from the National Library. The staff of the Reference Library also answers bibliographical and factual requests, collects press-cuttings on current topics, and searches for information in databases and electronic catalogs. In order to better know the information needs of members of parliament, and to promote responsive services, the Department carries out user surveys of members of parliament

The

conclusions from this survey are currently being used as guidelines for the activities of the Department. As part of its promotion effort, the Department also has published brochures — "The Information Services of the Seimas" and "The Information Services of the State Institutions" — both of which advertize the purposes, functions and services of these respective institutions. VI. Developments in Automation The three Information and Analysis divisions of the Department currently have twentythree personal computers (PCs) that are connected to the Seimas computer network. The Reference Library has an additional three computers.

The Seimas is also linked to the

National Library by a fiber optic cable. This enables both institutions to use each other's databases and electronic catalogs. Furthermore, the Department has two CD-ROM readers, a FAX machine, Internet connections, and an electronic mail system. The Seimas joined the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN) project of the Law Library of the U.S. Library of Congress. For the Information Analysis Department, this will be an invaluable new source of legal information.

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VII. Important Developments in the Information Analysis Department In the future, the Department will concentrate on improving its analytical work, particularly on such important issues as cooperation among the Baltic states, problems of integration into the European Union, and the linkage of Lithuania with various international organizations. The Department is also planning expansion of the Domestic Information Analysis Group. At present, this group receives a heavy volume of time-sensitive information that requires immediate attention, thus leaving it too short-staffed to respond adequately to a growing number of requests for analytical work. The Reference Library of the Department has already prepared a trial issue of "Current Contents" to investigate user demand. In the future, it is anticipated that this project will be expanded. The electronic book catalogue prepared by the Reference Library staff is based on the decimal classification system. However, the Library is planning to adopt a new subject heading classification that is based on the EUROVOC Thesaurus. This Lithuanian version of the EUROVOC Thesaurus is expected to be produced and in use in the near future. Finally, the staff of the Information Analysis Department remains optimistic that, in the near future, the Department will be given more office space, thus enabling it to serve its users more efficiently.

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Republic of Moldova Parliamentary Library and Parliamentary Information Center by Lilia Calancea1

L Brief History of the Library Legislative power in Moldova is exercised by a unicameral parliament. Between sessions of parliament, legislative authority is vested in its Permanent Bureau. Parliament is the supreme representative body and has full legislative authority Members of parliament are elected to four-year terms by proportional representation (with a threshold of 4% necessary to achieve representation). The last elections were held in June 1998 and resulted in a coalition government consisting of three parties. Parliamentarians are organized in parliamentary factions (representing at least 5 MPs) on the basis of parties, social-political organizations, and electoral blocks. Parliament is composed of 10 permanent standing committees to undertake the work of the legislature. Executive power is exercised by the president and senior members of the government, who are recommended by the president and confirmed by the parliament. The parliamentary library is a component of the Parliamentary Information Center, which provides information and documentation to the parliament. It is managed by a universitytrained librarian. The library primarily provides basic, factual information. It coordinates and cooperates with all information centers of the country. There are about 11,400 books in the library's collection, but because many of them are already outdated from the perspective of political, historical, and current values, a good part of the collection can no longer be used. The library subscribes to 43 magazines and 71 newspapers, both domestic and from Russia and Romania.

1

Lilia Calancea is chief of the Parliamentary Information Center

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The parliamentary library has a reading room in the parliament building. The National Library's Department of Informational and Documentary Assistance for the Parliament also operates a reading room for Members of Parliament. The National Library is situated about 500-600 meters from the Parliament Building. According to its rules, the library has the following responsibilities: •

Management of the collections (books, periodicals, and unpublished materials).

•

Loans to users of the library from its collections for use in the reading room, offices, or at home.

•

Bibliographic processing of all the publications in conformity with contemporary library standards.

•

Bibliographic description and classification of all the documentation from the library's collection.

•

Management of duplicates; verification and classification of publications.

•

Maintenance of statistics on the number of individual readers and the materials consulted.

The parliamentary library currently does not have any PCs. The parliament itself does not have an automated information network, although it is hoped that such a network will be created soon. capability.

The Moldovan government recently decided to install electronic mail

An automated information base for the library will be created soon.

Π. General Provisions The authority and efficiency of the work of politicians is determined finally not by their oratory but by their competence in solving the domestic and foreign problems of the country. Above all, competence means being informed, i.e., having an authoritative and adequate knowledge of problems as well as factual data about them, and having an understanding of the situation of current problems, and various options for solutions, including potential

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advantages and disadvantages.

T o obtain this information requires the help of a body

specially created to collect and process it for effective use by the legislature. In the end, the effectiveness of policy-makers from different state authorities and finally o f the state itself depends in a decisive way on the level of information assistance.

The

structure, aims, and work methods of the parliament's information assistance system are determined by the unique needs of the legislature. The problems of different territories, the existence o f numerous political parties, the competitive interests o f different social groups and political groups, and democratic procedures all make parliament a complex organization to keep informed compared to other organizations, including the executive branch, which has a more well-defined hierarchy The parliament's information assistance system also has to be powerful and flexible enough to meet the needs o f the individual parliamentarians and party groups, as well as the collective needs of the legislature The predominant feature of the center is an information system that places at the parliament's disposal thorough, effective, and objective information in all fields connected with the exercising of parliament's professional obligations. Π I. Basic Principles The Parliamentary Information Center is a subdivision of the apparatus o f the Parliament o f the Republic o f Moldova and is administratively subordinate to it. The Center carries out its activities on the basis of political neutrality, and adheres to the principle o f absolute objectivity without bias toward groups, political parties, or viewpoints. The nature of parliament's work requires two types of information: reference and analytical. Both can be provided by request, as well as at the center's own initiative. IV. Information Objectives The Parliamentary Information Center has the following basic objectives:

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Create an automated system that includes the database of the library, a.s well as databases created by the information assistance division. Develop Internet and electronic mail capabilities in order to assure accessibility to foreign databases. Provide information in different fields of knowledge at the request of deputies, counsellors, and consultants. Offer a regular supply of information on popular themes and problems through a system of Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) and offer targeted assistance to the legislative leadership. Prepare analytical bibliographic information. Refine information tools for meeting the documentary requests of clients and for carrying out documentation services by request. This process requires a welldeveloped technical information base to ensure accessibility to both domestic and foreign databases. Establish a comparative international database recording information on legislation, executive actions, judicial decisions, as well as information on economic, social, and cultural matters.

V. The Development Strategy of the Parliamentary Information Center The development strategy of the Center presupposes: •

Synchronization of the information system of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova with comparable foreign systems and the creative assimilation of information and technologies from abroad, keeping in mind the country's level of development.

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•

Large-scale promotion of international collaboration in the field of information and documentation, with the aim of intensifying the exchange of publications and information, including full use of automated networks of international data and information.

•

Putting to good use sources of parliamentary information on the basis of single points of access for multiple users and purposes.

•

Establishment of data banks and databases in fields of interest for legislation, and other specific activities of the parliament, and the creation of conditions for satisfying current demands for information products and services.

•

Conducting an "evaluation of the needs of beneficiaries," to provide a basis for the accumulation and analysis of information about the concrete needs of parliamentary clients. This program plans to use inquiry, interviews, and a study of statistical data on the activity of the center. As a result, recommendations will be drawn up concerning the improvement of the entire range of the center's information services.

VI. Structure of the Parliamentary Information Center The Parliamentary Information Center includes three groups or functions: (A) information assistance, (B) the archives of the parliament, and (C) the library. A. Information Assistance Information assistance is the primary task of the center. It includes a system of branches specialized in tracking down, selecting, and disseminating information in law, economics, education, science, social assistance, foreign policy and national security, domestic policy and governmental assistance. The fundamental objectives of information assistance are to ensure the information support necessary to respond to client demands and the acquisition and efficient use of information sources. 118

The information assistance section has the following responsibilities: •

Undertake, upon request, bibliographic and documentary research in all fields — together with other information institutions in Moldova.

•

Ensure access to information on documentary research activities undertaken by other information institutions in Moldova.

•

Compile a digest of daily newspapers for the leadership of the parliament.

•

Study the information requests and needs of deputies in order to prepare analytical abstracts and the Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) service.

•

Select materials and documents and make them available to the parliamentary leadership.

•

Provide targeted and general thematic information to the parliamentary leadership and to committee chairmen.

•

Establish data banks and databases.

B. The Archives The parliamentary archives section maintains the documents emanating from the activities of the parliament, the permanent bureau, permanent committees, the apparatus of the parliament, and the central electoral commission, which constitute an integral part of the archival fund of the Republic of Moldova. The archives section has the following responsibilities: •

Ensure the selection, preservation, processing, and use of the documents of the state archive fund and the transfer of these documents to the state.

•

Provide for the accounting, preservation, processing, and organization of documents kept in the archives; inform the parliamentary leadership of the contents of documents maintained in the archives; and to deliver, in an appropriate manner, copies of documents and archived information.

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C. The Library The Library has the following tasks: •

Maintain the current and retrospective collection of books, periodicals, unpublished material, graphics documents, and audiovisual materials.

•

Provide clients with access to the collections it holds for consultation in the reading room or for lending to the office or home.

•

Process the library's collections, including primary and individual cataloging of all publications entered in the Library's collections, in conformity with technical library standards.

•

Provide bibliographic description and maintain classification of all documents in the library's collections on an up-to-date basis

•

Ensure the effective maintenance of library duplicates, periodic verification of the collections, and efficient use of publications.

•

Provide documentary accounting of readers, frequency of use, and volumes consulted, and maintain statistics on these indicators, as well as an inventory of the collections once every three years.

VII. Mode of Management and Functioning of the Parliamentary Information Center The evaluation criteria which govern the activities of the center are established by the parliamentary leadership. The Parliamentary Information Center is led by a department manager appointed by the President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. The manager conducts the planning activities of the center, approves job descriptions and responsibilities, oversees the quality of work, and fulfills various missions established by superior authorities.

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Republic of Poland Library of the Polish Sejm by Barbara Karamac 1 I. Brief history of the Sejm Library The Sejm Library (Biblioteka Sejmowa) is one of the oldest agencies of the Sejm administration. It was founded in February 1919 at the initiative of the Deputies of the Legislative Sejm (Sejm Ustawodawczy)

The latter was the first Polish parliament elected

after over 120 years of Polish partition (1795-1918), when the country was deprived of independent statehood and sovereign state institutions.2

After several changes in its

organization the Library became the Library and Archives of the Sejm and Senate, and until 1939 it reported directly to the Speakers of both chambers. During the period of the Second Republic (1919-1939) the Library's services were modernized. It provided, among other things, information services and supported the actual work on bills, acting to some extent as a predecessor to several of today's units within the Chancellory of the Sejm, such as the Bureau of Research and the Legislative Bureau. It was considered one of the best run libraries in Warsaw, and also an important information and research institution in the country. 3 During the war and Nazi occupation (1939-1945) the Sejm Library experienced proportionally the biggest losses of all Polish research libraries.

Its collections, which

numbered about 78,000 volumes of books and periodicals in 1939, were partly burnt, but a

1

Barbara Karamac is the Deputy Librarian of the Sejm Library.

2

The history of the Polish parliamentary system dates back to 1493; see also e.g. A. Rosner, M. Wqsowicz Sejm polski 1493-1993 (Polish Sejm, 1493-1993). Warszawa 1995. 3 Z. Szymanowska Dzia/alnosé Biblioteki Sejmowej w latach ¡919-1939 (The Diet Library, 1919-1939). "Rocznik Biblioteki Narodowej", 16 (1980), pp. 241-250.

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greater part was transported to Berlin where it was almost entirely lost in circumstances that remain unknown. In 1946 only about 7 percent of those collections came back to Poland. 4 After World War II the Library and its collections were reconstructed practically from scratch. As a library of what was then a unicameral parliament, it received a name that has been used up to the present time: the Sejm Library. Currently this name reflects its location in the parliamentary structure rather than its scope of activities — which includes serving not only the Sejm, but also the current Senate which was reestablished in 1989. Throughout most of the last fifty years the Sejm Library has performed typical library functions. However, up to 1991, due to the Chancellory's lack of research capabilities, the Library was commissioned for a time to prepare analytical studies similar to present studies and services now provided by the Bureau of Research. In the 1970s, the Sejm Library initiated and began work on building a legislative information system which was to support activities of the Sejm and its Chancellory. However, the Automation Services Unit of the Library, established in 1975, became independent in 1983 and was transformed to the Computer Center of the Chancellory of the Sejm. During the period 1991-94, the Sejm Library undertook a much broader scope of activities which can be seen as a continuation of pre-war traditions. This was accomplished by incorporating several units of the Chancellory of the Sejm into the Sejm Library — including the Sejm Museum, Sejm Archives, a team in charge of preparation of press information, and the Microfilms Unit. At the end of 1996 a new task was imposed on the library: to perform the functions of a parliamentary center for NATO documentation and information. To fulfill this task, the Library has had to enrich its collection of relevant literature and information sources, as well as to broaden its publishing activities.

4 A. Mçzyriski Okupacyjne dzieje ksiçgozbioru Biblioteki Sejmowej (The Occupational History of Books Collection of the Sejm Library). "Przcglqd Sejraowy", R. 2,4 (1994) pp. 188-200

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In 1991 the Sejm Library took over the library collection (about 145,000 volumes) of the former Central Archives of the Polish Left. It greatly changed the proportions of the library's collections, and turned it into one of Poland's medium-sized research libraries. The majority of the library's present collection consists of works on history from the mid-19th century up to the present, although the main area of interest of library users, and also the basic area of collection development, is law and legal-related issues. At the end of 1991 a Media Resource Center was opened at the Sejm Library, thus extending the range of materials offered to include video recordings. The above changes are reflected both in the new organizational structure granted to the Library in 1993, and in detailed specified tasks delegated to individual units that are still subject to constant change, mainly as a result of the automation of most of the library's operations. The developments in automation, the use of databases in machine-readable format as well as the services of the Media Resource Center, has made the Sejm Library one of the most modem libraries in Poland. Many of these successful changes can be attributed to the ideas (both direct and indirect) as well as material and technical assistance granted to the Sejm Library by the Frost Task Force on the Development of Parliamentary Institutions in Eastern Europe of the U.S. Congress. This aid included training courses and numerous international contacts, hardware, and library materials, including the first databases on CD-ROM for the Sejm Library. Various other forms of assistance were also provided in the past few years by institutions and foundations from several Western countries as well as by the European Parliament. A fairly large effort to improve conditions in the Library was also made by the Chancellory of the Sejm. Such improvements include the purchase of an integrated library system and adaptation of the library's physical premises to the work done in the automated 123

library. The Chancellory itself underwent a dramatic transformation in the past few years with the aim of establishing efficient and nonpartisan services for the new, democratic parliament. Among these services is a separate, analytical and research arm that was established for the Sejm — the Bureau of Research. Thanks to all these efforts, the library has managed to completely change its image and methods of work. It now has the capacity to provide good quality service for the Sejm, its agencies, and research divisions. Π. Setting of the Library Since 1989 the legislative power in the Republic of Poland has been vested in the Sejm (460 Deputies) and Senate (100 Senators).

The government can be described as a

combination of parliamentary and presidential systems. The President of the Republic, chosen directly by the people in general elections, may be held accountable by the Parliament for an infringement of the laws. However, the Sejm and Senate may be dissolved by the President for causes specified in the Constitution. The Sejm is chosen through direct general elections, using a system of proportional representation. However, there is a minimum threshold that only grants representation to political panties that have gained at least 5 percent of the votes cast (party coalitions have to meet an 8 percent threshold). Parties may also obtain mandates from the so-called national lists in accordance with the number of votes gained. The electoral system reduces the number of parties that can be represented in the Sejm to those political groups that have the greatest support of the voters. The Senate is chosen in majority elections (two Senators for each voivodship for 47 voivodships, three Senators from the capítol, and three Senators from Katowice). According to the "Statutes of the Chancellory of the Sejm" the Sejm Library is one of the 19 principal units of the Chancellory and it is financed from its budget. Library staff 124

report to the Chief of the Chancellory of the Sejm (a post equivalent to secretary general) who is appointed by the Marshall (i.e., Speaker) of the Sejm. Regardless of the reporting lines, since 1989 the Sejm Library has practically been the library of both chambers of parliament. The same rules that are applied to Members of the Sejm are applied to the Senators, as well as members of the Constitutional Tribunal and the Tribunal of State. Moreover, the same access to the Library is also granted to the administrations of the above mentioned bodies as to the staff of the Chancellory of the Sejm. Some information services for the Senators are provided by the Quick Reference Unit, which is a part of the Bureau of Research of the Chancellory of the Senate. (While the Sejm and Senate use one library they each have their own separate Research Bureaus). The Library is distinct from other units of the Chancellory of the Sejm. Its legal situation and organization, as well as detailed rules and methods of operation, are defined not only by the regulations of the Chancellory of the Sejm, but it is also subject to binding legal regulations regarding Polish libraries, i.e. the Act on Libraries and various executive regulations applying to this Act. According to these regulations, the Sejm Library is defined as a special research library. Under the national plan designating specialization of such libraries and resource sharing, the Sejm Library was assigned the function of the Central Legislative Library — obliging it to acquire and process, and also make available Polish and foreign materials on legislation, court decisions, and related literature.

Other generally binding regulations also apply to the

operations of the Sejm Archives and the former Sejm Museum, which are now part of the Sejm Library. The natural counterparts of the Sejm Library are mainly law libraries, information centers, and archives with similar profiles ~ particularly foreign parliamentary libraries and archives.

Both bilateral cooperation with those partners, as well as the Sejm Library's 125

presence at various national and international meetings and participation in a number of projects plays a prominent role in the work of the Library. The Library is a member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and of its two sections — the Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments and the Section on Government Information and Official Publications

The

Sejm Library is also a member of the International Association of Law Libraries (IALL), International Council of Archives (ICA), and the International Consortium of ALEPH Users (ICAU). It also participates in the work of the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD). III. Activities, Organization, and Staffing of the Sejm Library The mission of the Sejm Library is on the one hand to assist the current legislative process by providing the Sejm and its other research and informational organizations with necessary information and library materials, and on the other to collect complete documentation of legislative activity produced by the Sejm, and its coverage in the mass media, as well as compile the history of the Polish parliamentary system. The activities of the Sejm Library include the following: •

Acquisition, processing, storage and preservation, as well as access to library materials, archival documents, and museum exhibits

•

Collection of all current publications of the Sejm and Senate and their distribution to national and foreign institutions.

•

Production, processing, and access to video recordings from the current Sejm sessions and selected TV programs.

•

Provision of information services for users.

•

Preparation for publication of information sources on the Library's collections, bibliographies, reviews of press publications and TV programs, and publications

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covering law and the state system, as well as the history o f the Polish parliamentary system. The first task listed above comprises all the basic operations o f the Sejm Library as a library, archive, and museum. All the principal divisions o f the Sejm Library participate in these operations — those established by the type o f library operations (e.g. acquisitions, cataloging) or the type or subject coverage o f the documents in-house (e.g. archival documents, social history collection). The largest division in the library is the Reference Division, which comprises the General Reading Room, Information Desk, and Media Resource Center. The Reference Division also provides individual and interlibrary loans, prepares press information reviews and, upon request, compiles bibliographic (reading) lists and sets o f materials covering particular subjects The division offers a rich collection of information, also on C D - R O M and diskettes, and access to online databases available through Internet. It also produces its own reference sources, such as the recently automated current index to Polish periodicals covering articles on the legal and state system, as well as political and social issues. Regular bibliographic publications o f the Sejm Library are the product o f an automated system. They are prepared by the Cataloging Division, which also includes a three-person team o f system administrators. At the end o f 1996, the Sejm Library had 72 staff members (71 full-time) The structure o f the staff consists o f the following: 31 professional librarians, 21 secretarial and support staff, and 20 other staff (senior management, computer specialists, press information specialists, archivists and museum staff). Forty-seven staff o f the Sejm Library (65 percent) have university degrees, including 20 from library science departments, three from law departments, and 24 from other university departments. Six people in this group have a Ph.D degree.

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The majority of the Sejm Library staff work on computers and have sufficient skills to use computers to do their job in the Library. Many of the staff members skillfully use word processors, E-mail and perform searches of the databases on CD-ROM and diskettes, as well as online databases. The staff obtains the necessary skills through various training courses, organized both by the Library itself or by the Chancellory of the Sejm, as well as by specialized external companies. The staff of the Library has a generally good knowledge of foreign languages, the staff is quite good in English, and some people are fluent in two or three foreign languages. The new staff of the Sejm Library also has to complete a civil servant training program in the Sejm. IV. Collections of the Sejm Library Two criteria are used in the selection of publications for the collections of the Sejm Library. The first, formal one, refers to the acquisition of Polish and foreign parliamentary and official publications, as well as publications of selected international organizations, these publications are collected in complete runs regardless of the content of individual documents. The Library's collections contain a unique, complete set of publications of the Sejm and Senate starting from 1919 (bills, verbatim reports, bulletins from sittings of parliamentary committees etc.), and Polish legislation (law journals, officials gazettes of ministries and central agencies, and voivodships), and the same type of publications from over 30 countries, mainly European. The latter are obtained largely through exchange programs as the Sejm Library distributes official publications from the Sejm and Senate to several dozen foreign institutions, mainly parliamentary libraries. The Sejm Library is a depository library for United Nations publications, and in 1994 was granted the same status for publications of the Council of Europe.

It also collects publications of the European Union, the Western

European Union and NATO.

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The second type of selection is content-based and applies to the most representative and valuable Polish and world literature, both books and periodicals. This material matches the needs of the Sejm (its legislative and supervisory functions), and also is useful for the broadly understood research, advisory, and information activities.

The Sejm Library collects

publications chiefly in the subject areas of law (all fields, but mainly constitutional law, parliamentary law, administrative law, local government, international law, philosophy and sociology of law and principles of law making and law interpretation), state and political systems, international relations and organizations, political science, economics and history (especially social history since the mid-nineteenth century, and also the most recent history of the transformations under way in Eastern and Central Europe). Moreover, the Sejm Library collects general and special reference works (encyclopedias, bibliographies etc.), also in machine-readable form, as well as political writings, memoirs and biographies, particularly of eminent politicians and personalities of public life. The collection development principles of the Sejm Library were specified in 1992 in a written collection policy statement, and its results have constantly been monitored and adjusted. The decisions concerning the purchase of foreign literature are made by a committee consisting also of representative users who are specialists in the area of law. The Sejm Library fills orders of individual users, provided they do not clearly contradict the profile of the collections. In 1994 a major adjustment was made in the subscription policy for legal periodicals, preceded by an analysis of use (frequency of citations) of these periodicals in Polish legal literature. In 1995 a broader weeding program was started that covered books and periodicals that clearly diverged from the current profile of the collections of the Sejm Library, material that was outdated, and duplicate material.

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In 1994-1996 the Sejm Library collected annually about 5,000 volumes of new books. In relation to the average annual acquisitions of previous years (less than 2,000 volumes annually), acquisitions almost tripled in the past few years. About 50 percent of new items were purchased, and the annual expenditure for the purchase of books exceeded 100,000 new Polish zloty (i.e., about $30,000). The largest percentage of the new books acquired by the Library are books published in Poland (62.5 percent), whereas most foreign publications were published in the United States and France (about 26 percent each), Great Britain (about 24 percent) and Germany (about 15 percent). The Library subscribes to or otherwise receives 772 current periodicals and newspapers, including 324 foreign ones.

Moreover, it receives current serials, comprising Polish

parliamentary and official publications (150 titles), foreign parliamentary and official publications (190 titles), and publications of international organizations, such as the UN and its agencies, the Council of Europe, and the European Union (combined, 150 titles). At the present time, the Library has some 30 databases on CD-ROM and diskette These are mainly full-text databases, covering the legislation of Poland, the European Union, the United States, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, and also bibliographic databases in the area of law, such as "Polish Legal Bibliography" [Polska Bibliografìa Prawniczá] and "Index to Legal Periodicals and Books". As of December 31, 1996, the collections of the Sejm Library were as follows: •

Library materials (about 428,000 units) Books (about 244,000 volumes), Periodicals (about 108,000 volumes), Parliamentary and official publications (Polish and foreign) (about 54,500 volumes), 130

Publications of international organizations (about 15,300). •

Archival documentation Documents 1919-1994 (about 395 running meters), Sound recordings 1962-1995 (tapes and cassettes) about 11,000 pieces, Video recordings 1991-1995 (about 260 cassettes).

•

Museum exhibits (about 3,760)

V. Services and Products User services offered by the Sejm Library are of the following: •

Access to library collections through reading rooms and through lending services and interlibrary loans.

•

Information services at the information desk.

•

Access to current video recordings in the Media Resource Center.

•

Access to archival documents through the research workroom of the Sejm Archives and through loans.

The rules and regulations pertaining to user services identify four main categories o f users and specify the services available to them and also the priorities regarding the order and the range o f services offered. In 1996 the total number o f registered regular users was 1,494. The share o f users in each individual category was: Deputies, Senators and members o f the Constitutional Tribunal and State Tribunal (14 percent); staff of the Chancellory o f the Sejm, Chancellory o f the Senate and Office of the Constitutional Tribunal (33 percent); staff from parliamentary factions and sections, as well as assistants to Deputies and staff from Deputies' offices (9 percent); other people whose research or professional needs require the use of the Library's unique collections ~ academics, students, journalists, staff of ministries and other central officers (44 percent).

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The above figures show that 56 percent of the Sejm Library users are people for whom this library was established and for whom its services are targeted. On the other hand, as many as 44 percent of users are not directly linked to the activity of the Parliament. This high percentage confirms the prominent role of the Sejm Library's collections in the national library network and highlights the important status of the Sejm Library as a national research library Library materials are available to users in two reading rooms: the Main Reading Room (28 seats) located in the Sejm building about 50 meters from the Hall of Debates, and the Reading Room of the Social History Collection Division (16 seats) located in another building. The Sejm Archives also has a small work room for users. In 1996 the Library provided access to more than 185,00 volumes of library materials, mainly in the reading rooms, and, moreover, made about 220,000 pages of photocopies However the new copyright laws that have recently been introduced in Poland limit such services by libraries. Extremely popular with the Deputies and Senators is the Media Resource Center which offers video recordings of the current Sejm sessions and recordings of selected television programs devoted to political, social, and economic issues. The most popular service of the Media Resource Center is copying the recordings to cassettes provided by the users. Information services for users are provided mainly by the Information Desk especially established for this purpose, and also by the Sejm Archives, Media Resource Center and Social History Collection Division, in accordance with their scope of activities. Inquiries made in person, by phone, or in writing totaled about 12,500 in 1996. Inquiries come both from persons mentioned above as users of the Sejm Library, as well as from the agencies of the Sejm, parliamentary factions, deputies' offices, organizational units of the Chancellory of the Sejm, and also other persons and institutions whose information needs may be satisfied only on the basis of the unique collections and information sources contained in the Sejm Library.

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Apart from the above services, which respond to specific, individual requests, the Sejm Library also offers permanent and occasional products meant for its actual or potential users. The types and forms of information include: •

Information on the Sejm Library collections, including: "Selected List of New Accessions" [Wykaz Wazniejszych

Nabytków],

quarterly, published since 1950. Information on new books, released in the Sejm teletext on a biweekly basis. Exhibitions of new accessions, arranged in the Sejm Library hallway on a monthly basis. Abstracts of the most interesting new books, which are printed every few weeks in the pages of the "The Sejm Chronicle" [ "Kromka Sejmawa "]. •

Bibliographic information, current "Bibliography of Publications of the Sejm, Senate, Supreme Chamber of Council, Commissioner for Citizens' Rights Protection, and Constitutional Tribunal" published regularly in "The Sejm Review" [ "Przeglqd Sejmowy "].

•

Press information, provided as weekly reviews of the press and TV programs [ Tygodniowy PrzeglqdPrasy i Audycji Telewizyjnych], containing photocopies of materials pertaining to the Sejm and its agencies, Deputies, Chancellory of the Sejm and related topics selected from about 100 Polish periodicals and newspapers, as well as annotated information on the statements made by Deputies in television programs, prepared on the basis of recordings produced by the Media Resource Center.

•

Information bulletin on NATO-related matters, especially on NATO enlargement issues, entitled "Closer to NATO" [Blizej NATO], which has been published since January 1997. It consists of the most important documents and articles translated

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into Polish, which are selected first of all from NATO online databases and periodicals "NATO Review". The bimonthly bulletin is addressed first o f all to the members of parliamentary committees on national defense, foreign affairs, and European integration. Other publications by the Sejm Library in recent years include a guide on the Sejm Library issued in four languages at the end of 1993 (second updated edition in Polish and English - 1996), the 1993 catalog on "The Sejm and Law in the Rare Prints of the Sejm Library", the catalog on "Foreign Law Books in the Sejm Library: Accessions of 1990-1993" published in 1995, as well as its continuation for 1994-1996 (in print) An annotated catalog o f foreign parliamentary and official publications in the collections of the Sejm Library has been prepared for printing. Both the current "Selected List of New Accessions" and the above listed retrospective catalogs are distributed not only in the Sejm, but also to the Library's mailing list containing many interested institutions, particularly law departments and law libraries o f all Polish universities and the Polish Academy of Sciences. A new publishing program provides for gradual publication o f microthesauri of the Library's own Thesaurus of Law, so far, the Thesaurus of Geographical and International Organizations' Names has been published since the beginning of 1997. The Sejm Library also offers publications covering the areas of law, the state system, and history of the Polish parliamentary system. Particularly worthy of attention is a project, begun in 1991, to translate texts of foreign constitutions into Polish, and also a biographical dictionary of Polish Deputies and Senators since 1493 being prepared at the Sejm Archives (the most advanced part of which covers the period 1919-1939). So far, constitutions of thirteen European countries have been published, and work is continuing on publishing some further ten translations.

The texts of constitutions are sent first to all members of and

advisors to the Constitutional Committee of the National Assembly (joint committee of the

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Sejm and Senate), as well as research centers and persons specializing in constitutional law. Most of the translated texts are also available through the Internet. VI. Developments in Automation Like many other Polish libraries the Sejm Library has a long history of preparatory work and fragmentary use of automation that goes back more than 20 years. However, only the decision of the Chancellory of the Sejm made in 1992 to purchase ready-made software, one of the so-called integrated library systems (ELS), caused a major breakthrough in automation plans and operations. An Israeli system, ALEPH, was bought for the Sejm Library and installed in autumn 1993. The strategy provided for gradual implementation of the system, because of the modest amount of hardware available at the Library at that time, and the immense workload connected with Polonization of the English-language software and the necessity to adjust it to the needs of the Sejm Library. In 1993-1995 most of the ALEPH modules were implemented, i.e. cataloging (combined with creating and maintaining the search files of the system), serials control, OP AC (Online Public Access Catalog), and acquisitions. The only module still awaiting implementation is the circulation function. In order to make the modules more effective for the user, in 1996 bar codes were introduced for identifying materials located in the Library. The ALEPH system installed at the Sejm Library works in a UNIX environment on the HP 9000/847S server. The local area network consists now of 60 workstations (PCs and HP terminals). Several terminals are located at the Information Desk and reading rooms where users can search the OP AC themselves, using the instructions attached to each terminal or with assistance from a librarian on duty. Since 1996 full communication over the Internet has become operational. Thus, access to the Library's databases is available for users outside the

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Parliament. For foreign users an English-language version of the system interface has been prepared. At present two sorts of access to the system are available: via Telnet (as user "sejm" with password "aleph") in textual mode, and via Internet (WWW, Netscape, or Explorer, at address: http://bs.sejm.gov.pl:4001/ALEPH/) in graphical mode. Textual interface gives access to all ALEPH modules, while graphical interface allows only access to the OP AC module. The following databases are available in graphical version: BIS (main catalog of the library), ART (bibliographic data on articles from current Polish periodicals and newspapers), TEK (full-text database, which contains texts of all Polish and some translated foreign constitutions, as well as Polish texts of the most important international documents, like treaties, conventions, etc.), MUZ (museum collection, where at present the first virtual exhibition of the Sejm Speakers is shown, with their images and short biographical records in Polish and English), CLA (Thesaurus of Law, which is an authority file), and TGM (Thesaurus of Geographical and International Organizations' Names). Two new projects are under way: a multimedia database of archival documentation, and a similar database of the contents of video recordings produced by the Media Resource Center. At present the automated catalog contains over 22,000 bibliographic records, including almost 18,000 records of new books received by the Library since 1993 and about 1,200 records of current serials received since 1994. At the end of 1995 the Library started a project of retrospective conversion. During the first stage of the project over 3,000 records of books published in 1990-1992 were included, and at the next stage which is to cover books published in 1979-1989, some 10,000 records will be added to the catalog. According to current Library estimates, the planned extension of the chronological cover of the catalog will enable it to respond to about 90 percent of the queries referring to the content of the Sejm

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Library's collections. Moreover, the majority of permanent and occasional publications based on the Sejm Library collections are already a product of the automated system One of the most serious problems connected with library automation was the question of subject approach. After having analyzed several indexing languages used both in the Chancellory of the Sejm and in some Polish libraries, the decision was made to create the Library's own, in-house language In 1993-1995 the Library prepared such a language in the form of a multilingual thesaurus, which encompasses law and related fields. The work was based on EUROVOC — the thesaurus of the European Parliament. In mid-1995, the library began to implement the new indexing language. The descriptors have already been assigned to almost 80 percent of books registered in the automated catalog. The new Thesaurus of Law has also been used for indexing articles from Polish periodicals and for items in the system of the Chancellory of the Sejm, which serves to register all Polish legal acts. For now, databases on CD-ROM can be searched using CD-ROM drives at the Information Desk. There is a project under way to make them available on the network of the Chancellory of the Sejm. Some computer-aided tasks of the Sejm Library are performed outside the ALEPH system. The Sejm Library also designed and installed local databases for the needs of Sejm Archives and also for administrative work. The Library has a fax machine and access to electronic mail is possible from all PCs. Access to the Internet is currently possible from 40 work stations. VII. Important Developments in the Library In the coming years modernization plans will continue at the Sejm Library. The final goal will be to provide efficient, fast, and comprehensive user services. To achieve this goal the major objectives of the Library will be:

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To automate library operations fully: Automate processing o f all types of documents collected and made available by the Sejm Library, i.e., video recordings, archival documents, and museum exhibits. Upgrade the Sejm Library catalog through gradual retrospective conversion of the card catalog. Implement eventually the Thesaurus of Law by finishing retrospective assignment of descriptors to documents already registered in the system. Implement the circulation module of ALEPH T o extend the range and form, and improve the efficiency of the information services of the Library, which implies, among other factors: Further purchases of information sources in machine-readable form, particularly full-text databases containing legislation of selected countries and providing access to them in the network of the Chancellory of the Sejm. —

Access through Internet to selected commercial online information services. Upgrading o f the Library's full-text databases available through Internet by including new texts of interest both to Polish and foreign users (for instance, translations o f Polish constitutions and other legal acts into English). Creation o f multimedia databases of archival documentation and video recordings, as well as preparation of further virtual exhibitions o f museum collections illustrating the history of the Polish parliamentary system. Production of the Library's own information sources on CD-ROM, particularly bibliographic and full-text databases.

To increase access to and use of the Sejm Library collections: Set up a reading room of parliamentary and official publications

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Grant unlimited access to the Library to users from outside Parliament, update collections and improve storage conditions. Continue to weed the collections, i.e., remove items outside the Library's profile, items out of date, or duplicate items. Construct specialized library stacks, or perhaps even a self-contained library building.

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Republic of Poland Bureau of Research of the Polish Sejm by Wiestaw Staskiewicz1

I. Brief Background The Bureau of Research (Biuro Studiow i Ekspertyz, or BSE) was established in 1991. Its creation was part of a general reform undertaken in the Sejm Chancellory to adjust its structure to meet an expanded legislative role. The Bureau of Research reports directly to the Deputy Chief of the Chancellory of the Sejm and to the Chief of the Chancellory Both chambers of the Polish parliament (the Sejm and the Senate) are members of the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD) The Director of the Bureau, Mr. Wieslaw Staskiewicz, is the correspondent of the Center for the Sejm Π. Organization and Staffing The Bureau consists of four divisions: The Budget Analyses Division provides direct assistance to the Economic Policy, Budget, and Finance Committees in assessing the draft budget submitted by the Council of Ministers. The division staff participates in committee meetings and provides it with expert opinions and reports on the budget and on the monetary policy of the State, along with an evaluation of the consequences of proposed amendments to the draft budget. The Economic and Social Analyses Division provides analytical and information materials on a wide range of policy problems concerning, among others, the State's social policy, national economic policy, environmental policy, foreign and defense policy, and European integration policy. Experts also participate in committee meetings, providing immediate comments on legislation under consideration.

1

Wieslaw Staskiewicz is director of the Bureau of Research of the Sejm.

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The Legal Opinions Division prepares expert legal opinions and information on the expected legal consequences of the bills submitted, along with a formal evaluation of their conformity with the norms of sound legislative procedures and bill-drafting techniques. Division staff provide interpretation of existing law and assess the constitutionality of provisions in proposed bills. Additionally, Deputies can obtain immediate legal consultation on public policy issues from the division's experts on duty during the Sejm meetings The fourth division is the Information Division. This division is subdivided into the following groups: The Inquiry Office of Parliamentary Consultants, located near the main chamber of the Sejm, ensures daily and direct contact with Deputies. Requests necessitating in-depth studies are registered and referred to the appropriate experts in the Bureau. Consultants on duty give immediate answers to questions asked by the deputies, provide bibliographic references and materials from the collections of the Bureau, and provide general reference assistance. They are also responsible for the distribution of the Bureau's publications and perform services such as retrieval and duplication of normative acts, Sejm papers, and the BSE publications. The Translations Group responds to requests concerning translation, verification and editing of texts, and analytical reviews of foreign texts. Translated documents are mostly Polish and foreign legal acts, various specialized studies and reports, and letters and other materials crucial for preparing expert BSE opinions. The group translates mainly from and into Polish, English, French, German, and Russian. Translations can be ordered only by the administrative organs of the Sejm, Chief of the Chancellory of the Sejm, and directors of the Chancellory bureaus. Finally, the Documentation Group is in charge of running the Bureau's reference collection. This group also provides a clipping service from the Polish press covering five daily and five weekly newspapers. 141

The Bureau employs 86 persons, of which 49 work full time. Among them are nine professors, 28 Ph.D.s, and 41 employees who have university degrees. These individuals are lawyers, economists, sociologists, ecologists, translators, historians, librarians, specialists in the field of social policy, management, foreign affairs, ethnic relations, education, forestry and agriculture. The Bureau's Divisions are staffed as follows: •

Budget Analyses Division - 12 employees (6 full time)

•

Economic and Social Analyses Division - 22 employees (15 full time)

•

Legal Opinions Division - 23 employees (6 full time)

•

Information Division - 19 employees (15 full time).

III. Collections The Bureau has its own reference collection (located at its headquarters on Zagóma Street). It consists of over 3,169 volumes, 186 serial subscriptions (of which 157 are Polish periodicals), 9 newspaper subscriptions (including two foreign newspaper), and eight CDROMs (dictionaries, encyclopedias, CELEX) The collection also contains three CD-ROMs (Facts on File-News Digest) without continuing subscriptions. IV. Services and Products Opinions prepared upon request by the Bureau's staff include: Expert opinions in the field of constitutional and parliamentary law and other branches of law. Preliminary opinions and comments on bills submitted. Expert reports and economic assessments of the budget and monetary policy of the State. Expert opinions concerning actual and expected economic, social and ecological consequences of bills submitted. 142

Opinions on issues regarding the European integration process and international relations in general. Analysis and information on particular legal solutions adopted by other countries. Analysis and compilation of conclusions of debates over bills; Statistical and quality analyses of bills submitted. The scope of the responses to requests range from materials drawn from the collection, elaboration of background materials and the preparation of written opinions and reports, to the preparation of complex, in-depth studies The Bureau also conducts studies and research on its own initiative. Its staff develops papers covering subjects related to current and forthcoming legislation and other subjects of public concern. The statutory activities of the Bureau include organizing specialized seminars and conferences related to current Sejm activities. In the term of office of the Sejm which began in October 1993, the Bureau prepared or cooperated in the preparation of 25 conferences and seminars devoted to the following topics: a comparative approach to drafting and adopting the constitution; assessment of the two-year period of association between Poland and the European Community; parliamentary rules and procedures; trans-border cooperation in the Baltic Sea region; labor protection; fiscal control; transport and environmental protection; environmental education; impact of ownership transformation on the environment; internal security of the State; State energy policy; status of the central bank; lobbying; women in public life; and highway safety. The records of proceedings of the conferences are published in a series, Conferences and Seminars. The Bureau's editorial group prepares the following series of publications: •

BSE Information

- brief information concerning selected problems under

consideration by the Sejm. 143

•

BSE Reports - publications resulting from the Bureau's own research. BSE Materials and Documentation - collection of documents and press clippings, in the original language or translated, dedicated to specific legislative topics under consideration by the Sejm. BSE Experts Opinions - opinions prepared by outside experts upon request of the Bureau Bulletin of Translation Division - translations of legislation of other states and international organizations. Bulletin of Legal Experts' Opinions - selection of experts' opinions prepared by the Legal Opinions Division at the request of Sejm organs. Conferences and Seminars - collection of conference papers received and records of the proceedings. IrrfoPacks - sets of Bureau publications on selected issues of particular importance to the Deputies.

Immediately after publication, copies are first delivered to all Sejm organs and other units of the Chancellory. Copies of all the Bureau's publications are available upon request from the Inquiry Office of Parliamentary Consultants or from the Bureau's Secretariat. During the second office of the Sejm, the Editorial Group (staffed by two people) issued 628 publications (including 32 books beyond the publication series) comprising a total of 17,907 pages. Overall circulation of all BSE publications distributed by the Inquiry Office of Parliamentary Consultants amounted to some 150,000 copies. In the second term of office of the Sejm (during the period October 1, 1993 - May 31, 1997), the Bureau received 6,247 orders for various experts' opinions.

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The number of opinions written by experts totalled 6,223 (in some cases more than one opinion was delivered to answer the request). A breakdown o f these written opinions by individual Bureau units is as follows: •

Budget Analyses Division - 844

•

Legal Opinions Division - 3,425 Parliamentary Law Group - 606 Legal Consultations Group - 2,819

•

Economic and Social Analysis Division - 1,812 Economic System Group - 710 Social Affairs Group - 576 International Affairs Group - 526

•

Information Division - 559 Documentation Group - 24 Translations Group - 427 Inquiry Office of Parliamentary Consultants - 108

The Inquiry Office also completed 8,000 requests for other information and services. O f the total number o f expert opinions requested, individual Deputies requested and received 3,343 opinions (53.1 percent); 1,736 opinions (27.6 percent) were provided to Sejm committees; 44 (0.7 percent) to the Presidium of the Sejm; 1,117 (17.7 percent) to the bureaus of the Sejm Chancellory; and 55 (0.9 percent) to outside clients. Information and research services provided by the Bureau are available to the organs o f the Sejm, namely to the Marshal and Vice-Marshals o f the Sejm, the Presidium of the Sejm, the Council of Seniors, Sejm committees and subcommittees, parliamentary clubs, deputies' groups and individual deputies as well as to the Chief of the Chancellory of the Sejm.

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The Bureau also provides services to and collaborates with other units of the Sejm Chancellory, especially with the Sejm Library and the committees' staff. All of the Bureau's publications are available to the public in the reading room of the Sejm Library. In some cases, with the Director's consent, the Bureau provides services to other public bodies. V. Developments in Automation The Bureau has a Local Area Network (Novell 3.12) shared with the Sejm Publishing Office. This network links more than 100 PCs in total (with more than 70 belonging to the Bureau). Except for a few employees, every member of the Bureau's staff has a PC for his or her own use. The in-house parliamentary network and some parliamentary databases and online services are already available through it, although it is still in the test stage. The most commonly used software in the Bureau is the Polish word processor, "QR-Tekst," both for DOS and Windows, but others like Word for Windows 7.0 or WordPerfect are also used. Software used in the Bureau includes Exel 4,5, and 7, Quatro-pro, Harvard Graphics, CSS, and Corel 5. Probably the most heavily used item on the network by Bureau staffers is "Info-lex," a CD-ROM full-text database of existing Polish legislation (a Polish commercial product). The Sejm Library's integrated library system, "Aleph," and the legislative information system, "Menudis," run by the Chancellory Computer Center and the Legislative Bureau are also available for the Bureau staff through the Chancellory network, and their use is increasing. Recently the Bureau was connected to the Internet. It is accessible from only one terminal, and the first selected group of staff has been trained in its operation and search techniques. Pursuant to the Resolution of the Presidium of the Sejm, the Bureau of Research operates a register of expert reports and opinions and keeps these texts. In order to fulfill this duty, the creation of a new database system called "Rex" (an acronym of the Polish, "Rejestr 146

Ekspertyz" or Register of Expert Opinions) has been completed and put intooperation. The system is aimed at storing the full texts of all expert opinions prepared for the Sejm and its organs both by the Bureau and by outside experts. The "Rex" system has been designed as a component of the computer network covering the Sejm, providing its bodies with reliable information crucial for the legislative process. The system is planned to begin operating fully within the network at the beginning of the third office of the Sejm. At present, a test of the system within the Sejm network is under way. Meanwhile, the registration and collection of texts of expert opinions, prepared both by the Bureau and ordered by Sejm committees in the second term of the office of the Sejm, has been completed. The Rex system has already proved to be an extremely useful tool in daily work and has significantly increased the Bureau's productive capacities. The Budget Analyses Division has been equipped with adequate software (formerly used in the Ministry of Finance), which improves the process of inserting amendments in the draft budget and in the interpretation of their consequences. The Chancellory Computer Center is preparing a database targeted at storage and quick retrieval of the full texts of all the Bureau's publications. The staff of the Computer Center is trained in the use of windows-based word processors, Internet, e-mail, and in the efficient use of databases accessible to the Bureau. Upgrading the Bureau's hardware is under way. VI. Other Developments In the spring of 1995 the structure of the Bureau was modified in order to improve management effectiveness and to adjust its structure to the requirements of the Sejm Chancellory. Divisions heads have been appointed to perform selected duties of the directors.

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Recently a new product was introduced to the Bureau's offerings: a special issue brief published and distributed to the Deputies before each sitting, consisting o f expert opinions on its agenda. Due to a growing interest o f Deputies in such products, it might become a new publication series. T h e establishment o f a permanent database retrieval service is being considered. The Bureau recently was given a new responsibility, the coordination and financial supervision of all scholarly consulting for the Sejm and its organs.

The amount o f administrative work

connected with such a new role will require the creation o f a separate unit to perform these activities. In the current term o f the Sejm, about 4 percent o f written opinions were prepared by outside experts.

The growing number and complexity o f the Deputies' requests require

establishing links with an increasing number o f highly qualified outside specialists

Such

cooperation will play an increasingly significant role in the Bureau's work. In future years, the work o f the Bureau will be primarily influenced by the role o f the Sejm in the harmonization o f Polish law with European Union standards.

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Republic of Poland Bureau of Research and Analysis of the Senate of Poland by Jacek Michalowski 1

I. Brief History The Bureau of Research and Analysis was created in December 1990 by a Resolution of the Senate Presidium

In 1994 the specialized library collections of the Research and

Analysis Office acquired an automated cataloging system called MAK, that was created by the National Library. II.

Setting The Director of the Bureau of Research and Analysis reports directly to the Secretary

General of the Chancellory of the Senate. The Director of the Bureau is also a Correspondent of the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD) and a member of its Executive Committee. The library within the structure of the Chancellery is a member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and participates actively in its conferences. Both the Bureau of Research and Analysis and the library are closely related to the Biblioteka Sejmowa (Library of the Sejm). The Library of the Sejm serves both chambers of parliament on equal terms. III. Organization and Staffing The Bureau of Research and Analysis includes: the Quick Reference Unit (11 staff), the European Documentation and Analysis Unit (5 staff), the Polish Emigration Documentation and Analysis Unit (3 staff), the Subject Reports Unit (13 staff), and the Archives of the Senate (3 staff).

1

Jacek Michalowski is the director of the Research and Analysis Bureau of the Polish Senate.

149

In total, the Bureau of Research and Analysis of the Senate has a staff of 41, of which 39 are full time.

The staff includes five foreign language specialists; nine librarians,

information specialists and archivists; two psychologists; one Polish language and press analysis specialist, and 25 staff with backgrounds in archeology, law, economy, pedagogy, political science, science, and sociology. 31 staff members have university degrees and three are in the process of obtaining degrees. The Quick Reference Unit encompasses an Electronic Documentation Crew of four staff. The importance of the Quick Reference unit is clear in a legal structure which requires the Senate to react to bills from the Sejm in just 30 days As its name indicates, research and analysis are the main functions and responsibilities of the Bureau of Research and Analysis, with library services being the subsidiary ones. Most of the specialists are in the Subject Reports Unit, including six lawyers (one part-time) and seven specialists in other fields (economics, sociology, biology, agriculture, Polish language, computers, and editing).

The employees specialize in particular fields such as budget,

banking, civil law, penal law, privatization, local self-government, environmental protection, social policy, and education, among others. The other units perform research and analysis as well, according to their specializations. IV. Library Collections and Other Resources The collection includes approximately 2,860 volumes, 260 serial subscriptions, and 30 newspaper subscriptions. The Bureau of Research and Analysis also has several CD-ROM subscriptions, the Polish Law electronic data base (LEX), Polish law bibliography data base, and Internet access.2

2 The Bureau is developing its own bibliographic data base including Polish and foreign press articles, books, citations and office products.

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There are 40 videotapes in the general collection and 222 video recordings o f Senate sittings (meetings). Recordings of these sittings for the archives started in the second year of the Third Senate with the 29th sitting in September 1994. The library does not have a reading room. V. Services and Products The Bureau of Research and Analysis takes requests for both general information and special research. The incoming requests range from relatively simple requests for reference, bibliographies, statistics, and biographies to inquiries requiring assistance with comprehensive comparative law problems. The questions may be general (e.g. a comparison of anti-nicotine legislative regulations in different countries) or more detailed (e.g. identification of the stance of state officials on particular issues). The process begins once a request is submitted to the Quick Reference Unit. Both a computerized and traditional search of internal and external sources are then initiated. The final product is usually either a subject report (OT series), a collection of materials (M series), a selection of press articles (WA series) or a bibliography ( B series). The unit is also responsible for maintaining subscriptions of Polish and foreign press for the Chancellery of the Senate, and it serves the Chancellery by purchasing needed books. Since September 1994 a new service of the office is the video recording o f Senate sittings with a full description, indexing, and the option for the Senators to order their own recording. Another new service of the office is that o f offering seminars, organized by the Marshal of the Senate and the Senate Presidium. This office usually takes part in organizing the seminar and prepares exhaustive info-packs as background.

It is also in charge o f

verbatim reports from these seminars (S series). The European Analysis and Documentation Unit specializes in gathering information and materials related to the European Union, the process of harmonizations o f Polish law with

151

European Union legislation, as well as a broad range of issues of European integration and security. For this purpose, the unit cooperates with institutions and contact centers dealing with European integration. The Polish Emigration Analysis and Documentation Unit provides support for activities related to the Senate interest in Polish emigration and the status of Poles living abroad The staff of the three above-mentioned units monitors and analyzes leading Polish press titles, with press clippings selected and classified according to their relevance to the activities of the Senate and its bodies. The unit's employees select and analyze materials from foreign dailies and periodicals, including French, English, German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, and Russian press, focusing primarily on legislative regulations introduced by other parliaments that may prove useful for the Polish Parliament. The units jointly compile and publish "A Review of the Polish Press," a weekly condensed presentation of the most important articles from the leading weeklies and monthlies, with copies of source materials available upon request. The units also publish "A Review of the Foreign Press," a biweekly digest, (not translation), of articles from the major dailies and periodicals in seven languages, with copies of source texts available upon request The Bureau of Research and Analysis also provides research services. The Subject Report Unit is a section whose pace of work follows the legislative process. For each bill submitted to the Parliament, the Subject Report Unit prepares "Zeszyty" ("Papers") with "Opinie" ("Opinions," O series) and "Raporty" ("Reports", R series). There were 61 titles published in 1996. Press clippings (WA series) and source materials (M series), subject reports (OT series) go into "Pakiet Informacyjny"

("Information Package") on the topic in

question. The unit either contracts for written expert opinions from outside or prepares them itself using newspaper and journal clippings on an individual bill, expert opinions, and foreign

152

language materials. Its employees are specialists whose task is to analyze and process the gathered material with regard to its relevance to the work of the Parliament. The level of the unit's involvement varies according to the speed with which the bill passes through the legislative process. However, the mode of work is quite similar in all cases First, an employee prepares a short note on the bill, for example, on the basis of the ministry's material. The second step is to prepare an analysis and/or order one from outside institutions The analysis is formulated in a professional and objective manner — both crucial aspects of effective service to the Senate. The unit produces comparative analyses, expert opinions, and financial calculations. If there is need either for clarification or expansion of the information contained in an analysis, the unit's staff, at the request of Senators and Senate committees, may also invite experts to attend a session of the Senate committees. The Bureau of Research and Analysis advertises and distributes its products and services in a variety of ways. The Senate Chancellery organizes an orientation program for Senators at which they receive Info-packs which include, among other items, a list of materials prepared by the Bureau of Research and Analysis during the previous term and the most recent issues of the foreign press and Polish press reviews. The staff of the Bureau of Research and Analysis also operates an outreach program for staff associates o f Senators.

The program includes a two-day seminar in Warsaw for

employees of the Senators' regional offices. The Bureau o f Research and Analysis tries to develop close, often individual, contacts with Senate staff, assuming that the effects o f the work of the Senators depend considerably on good cooperation between the Bureau o f Research and Analysis and the Senators' offices. The Bureau of Research and Analysis uses other methods to publicize its services and products:

153

•

Foreign press reviews, Polish press reviews, and some reports of the Subject Report Unit are regularly placed in Senators' mailboxes.

•

Special briefing sessions on "hot issues" are prepared for committees on various legislative proposals. A permanent exhibition is maintained in the basement of the Polish Parliament building

Here the Bureau of Research and Analysis showcases its new

publications, advertises seminars and lectures, and informs Parliament about available services. •

Lists of current materials are sent approximately bimonthly to all Senators (as well as to parliamentary caucuses and high officials of both chambers). These materials include opinions, reports, and other materials contracted, requested, or recently ordered by the Bureau of Research and Analysis. On the Senate computer network there is information about the Bureau of Research and Analysis, as well as a list of its publications.

•

Information about the Bureau of Research and Analysis is also available to Senators through the parliamentary cable television system. The Bureau of Research and Analysis organizes and advertises seminars for Senators, Deputies, and staff on various topics. For example, an early seminar addressed the subject, "The Problem of Bicameralism in European Parliamentary Systems."

The Bureau of Research and Analysis measures its workload by keeping statistics on requests. In 1996, there were 1,473 registered requests. Of these requests, 436 required an immediate answer (within one hour), 552 were completed within one day, 358 within one week, and 127 within a month. Besides information of a short term nature, all other requests

154

were answered in the form of subject reports, selection of articles, materials, bibliographies, verbatim reports o f the seminars in the Senate, or information packets. The Bureau of Research and Analysis serves Senators, Senate bodies, and the Senate Chancellery. Occasionally staff receive requests from Deputies of the Sejm and generally answers them. It is the priority of the Bureau to assist Members and staff in their day-to-day work V. Developments in Automation The network has 33 PCs. All Senate PCs are networked, and at present 30 local offices of Senators are also on the same network. There are also several terminals linked to the Sejm computer system. The Research and Analysis Office uses several CD-ROMs, fax machines, electronic mail, and connections to the Internet and to several on-line databases o f the European Union such as EPOQUE, ECHO, and DIALOG. Cooperation is planned with CIESIN, a network established by the U.N. Development Program (UNDP).. An automated catalog has been started, as well as a comprehensive and up-to-date database covering all other materials, including newspaper and journal clippings, and unpublished and other materials. VI. Important Developments The most important change recently has been the establishment of two new units: the European Analysis and Documentation Unit, and the Polish Emigration Analysis and Documentation Unit. Developing greater capacity in European law is an important goal for the office, as is creating a database more tailored to the needs of audiences served. Other important recent developments include the video recordings of Senate sittings, the organization of seminars for Senators, and the preparation of exhaustive info-packs. The European Documentation and Analysis Unit is planning to create a database to cover all European information within the Chancellory.

155

This database would include a

bilingual list of works of the Research and Analysis Office with abstracts. The database would be accessible to the outside world through the Internet.

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Romania Parliamentary Library of the Romanian Chamber of Deputies by Ioana Borocan 1

I. Brief History of the Library The Library of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania was established in 1918 by a gift from the Romanian Academy

Between the two World Wars, the Library had a valuable

Romanian and foreign law collection. Since the 1989 revolution that overthrew the communist system,

Romanian

parliamentary life has undergone substantial changes. New parliamentary activities have been initiated, including the development of the Library of the Chamber of Deputies. In May 1994, the Standing Committee of the Chamber of Deputies approved a new organization for the Library. [Editor's Note.· In early 1997, the Library was combined with the Archives, the new Center for Research and Studies into the combined Department for Information.

and

Parliamentary

The larger umbrella organization reports directly to the Secretary General of

the Chamber of Deputies.] Today the Library provides important support for the legislative activities of the Chamber of Deputies by collecting, arranging, analyzing, and indexing books and other parliamentary and government materials. Π. Setting of the Library Parliamentary life in Romania began in the first half of the sixteenth century. Since December 1864, the Romanian Parliament has had two chambers: the Elective Assembly (now the Chamber of Deputies) and the Senate. The Chamber of Deputies has 343 elected members and the Senate has 143 elected members.

Since the parliamentary elections of November 1996, 11 political parties are

1

Ioana Borocan is the director of the parliamentary library of the Chamber of Deputies of the Romanian Parliament.

157

represented in both chambers of parliament: the Christian and Democratic National Peasant Party, the Party of Social Democracy of Romania, the Democratic Party, the Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania, the Romanian National Unity Party, the Romanian Social Democratic Party, the Greater Romania Party, Romanian Ecologist Party, National Liberal Party, the National Liberal Party-Democratic Convention, and the Alternative Party of Romania. Members are elected from multi-member districts on the basis of proportional representation based on party lists. A 3% threshold of votes must be attained to achieve representation in the legislature. Moreover, the Parliament has a seat for the representative of each of Romania's 15 ethnic minorities. The Library of the Chamber of Deputies is a member of the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). The Library also has a working relationship with Romania's National Library.

In addition, the Library recently has established

relationships with other parliamentary libraries in the region, including those in the nations of Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and others. ΙΠ. Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Library The Library has a total staff of ten. Six are university graduates and four have a high school eduction. The Library is administratively divided into four offices, each of which handle responsibilities in one of four areas: collections development, analyzing and indexing documents, public relations, and research. The Library serves Members of Parliament, parliamentary stafij the staff of the Legislative Council, the Constitutional Court, the Council of Competition, the Romanian Senate, and nongovernmental organizations and students.

158

IV. Library Collections and other Resources The Library's collection in 1997 contained about 45,000 volumes. Annually, the Library acquires approximately 2,000 new books, 84 titles of serials, Romanian parliamentary and other government documents, and materials from other European countries. V. Cataloging and classification The office of cataloging develops databases for monographs, legal articles, foreign relations and economics periodicals, and articles from Romanian newspapers about the Romanian parliament and its deputies The office of cataloging uses the International Standard for Bibliographic Description, and classifies documents by Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) and key words. For documents o f the European Parliament, it uses the EUROVOC thesaurus. VI. Services Library services include: •

Direct access to the Library's collections, and reference services in response to requests by members of parliament and staff;

•

Searching for information on foreign countries on the Internet;

•

On-line catalog for monographs and articles from serials (this on-line catalog is not accessible to outside users);

•

Lending services;

•

Information packs (Info Packs) with articles from newspapers on subjects relating to Romanian social and political issues;

•

Monthly lists of new Library publications;

•

Bibliographies on major legislative issues;

•

Research papers; and

•

Other reference services.

159

In addition, a newspaper clipping service is provided by the Library's press department. The Library publishes the following documents: •

Biblio: Seria Cäty noi intrate în bibliotecä (Biblio: Series of new books in library);

•

Biblio: Seria Articole din publica(ii periodice (Biblio: Series of articles from periodicals);

•

Biblio: Seria Bibliografia unei teme (Biblio: Series of bibliographies on subjects); and

•

Biblio: Seria Tema de cercetare, nr (Biblio: Series of research themes)

The Library distributes its products and services to every deputy, each committee, and to the main departments of the Chamber of Deputies. Products are distributed to deputies in their mailboxes, which are located just outside the Library. The Library also has held several special programs to publicize its services to Deputies. The Library has one reading room with 16 seats. VI. Developments in Automation The Library currently has 12 workstations, CD-ROM capability, and access to the Internet. The Library staff has been using CDS/ISIS software since the Spring of 1994.

In

addition, the Library in 1995 acquired the new integrated library management system, known as TINLIB, from the Congressional Research Service of the U.S. Library of Congress. This system will enable the Library to develop a local area network involving both hardware (database server, communications server, personal computer work station, peripherals equipment, CD-ROM drivers, ink-jet printer) and software. Furthermore, the Congressional Research Service provided an additional 5 workstations, CD-ROM server, and database server to the Library. The Library converts all documents from ISIS to TINLIB. This integrated system will provide the Library with such capabilities as acquisitions, 160

cataloging, use of on-line public access catalog (OPAC), and loan and serial control

The

Library uses bar code technology. The Library is also connected to the Chamber of Deputies' information system. The Chamber of Deputies has also developed its own homepage on the World Wide Web

www.diasan.vsat.ro.

VII. Center for Studies and Research [Editors Note: In October 1996, the Chamber of Deputies created the Center for Studies and Research.

In early 1997, the Center was combined with the

Parliamentary

Library, and Archives to launch the Department of Parliamentary Information. of the Department

The head

is Dr. Christian Ionescu, who also heads the Research Center.

Section below was written by the Editor, William Robinson, based on material

The

gathered

during a one-week visit to the Chamber of Deputies in May 1998 ] The Center provides research and analysis on domestic and international issues, as well as synthesizing and analyzing draft bills for the Chamber. The Center has two sections: (1) Documentation and Information, and (2) Analysis and Studies. The Research and Analysis Center has an approved staffing level of 34. As of May 1998, 22 positions were actually filled. Eighteen of the staff on board are university graduates, including 9 lawyers, 3 political scientists, 3 physicists, 1 economist, and one each specializing in sociology and philosophy. In 1997, the Center completed 24 studies and analyses, as well as many shorter reports for Members and Committees of the Chamber. Future plans include filling vacant positions, becoming better known to the Deputies in order to be of greater service, and increasing the level of specialization of the staff.

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Romania Parliamentary Library of the Romanian Senate by Raymond Gastelum1 I. Brief History of the Library The library of the Senate of Romania was established in 1990 to meet the increased demands for information required by the Senate. Since 1990, the library has grown steadily to meet the Senate's new, more active role in the country. In addition, information services to the Senate have been increased with the recent creation of a Senate Research Service and the opening of a new Senate Reading Room near the entrance of the main Senate Office Building.

Plans for the new Research Service envision a group of 14-15 researchers,

recruited on a competitive basis. The Reading Room has a personal computer, fax machine, access to the Internet, and current periodicals and reports which the Senators use. IT. Setting of the Library The Senate of Romania has been a part of Romania's parliament since 1864. There are 143 Senators elected to the chamber. Elections in the Senate are based on the principle of proportional representation from national party lists. Parties must obtain at least 3% of the popular vote to gain parliamentary representation. [Editor's Note: In 1998, the Library was combined with Research, Information Documentation,

and Informatics

(automation),

to form

a combined

and

Department

of

Parliamentary Information. The new Department is headed by Dr. Valeriu Pescaru, former head of Informatics, who reports directly to the Secretary General of the Senate. ]

1 Raymond Gastelum wrote this chapter from material provided by a number of sources in Romania and libraiy staff of the Task Force on the Development of Parliamentary Institutions in Eastern Europe, as well as from other parliamentary library sources. At the request of the CRS Task Force, the material was reviewed for accuracy by Elizabeta Nico ara, the Parliamentary Librarian of the Senate, in May 1997.

162

The Senate Library is a member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), as well as the IFLA Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments. ΙΠ. Details on the Library The library has a staff of five people — three librarians and two outside consultants. In 1997, the collections of the library numbered 60,000 books and 60 periodicals in Romanian. In addition, the library had 120 current newspapers. The library makes approximately 15,000 loans per year and it provides reference services to Members and staff of the Senate. The library has annual acquisitions totaling approximately 2000 books per year. The library uses a uniform classification system and thesaurus for subject indexing. The library also uses the integrated library software system TINLIB

TINLIB permits unified

cataloging and tracking of books, monitoring the receipt and location of periodicals, and facilitates high-powered searches using subject and key words for easier, more practical use. In addition, the library has created linkages with the University Library and the National Library through TINLIB. This has given the library the ability to link its more limited collection with over 400,000 volumes at the University and well over 2 million at the National Library. The following are publications that are published by the library. •

New Books in the Library (Carli noi intrate in Biblioteca).

•

Articles from periodicals (Articole din periodice).

•

Subject bibliographies (Bibliografii tematice').

The library serves only Members of the Senate and Senate staff. The library is currently located on three floors of the Romanian Senate building. There are plans to group these three sections into one more convenient location, if space permits. The library has four computers (two are used for retrieval, one is used for periodical inputting for TINLIB). 163

The library also operates the Reading Room near the entrance to the Senate.

As

mentioned above, a Senate Research Services also has been established recently. Both are planned to be located near each other. The Reading Room has three computers

The

Reading Room attracts on average about five to ten Senators a day. IV. Automation The automation system of the Senate of Romania has improved considerably in recent years. Today the Senate has 120 work stations. Each of the Committees in the Senate and each of the seven parliamentary groups have personal computers. The Senate also has five network servers - a large server for ORACLE, one server for the World-Wide Web (Internet), and a server for TINLIB. It also has a CD-ROM tower

In addition, the Senate has six

databases: one on Senators, another on laws of the European Community (JURIS), Standing Bureau decisions, Interpellations, Citizens' use, and bill tracking. The Library plans to install a Novell network system soon. V. Needs and Plans According to the Senate library, there is still a need for more staff and the current staff need continued access to the latest library training. The library also needs a more advanced fax machine. VI. Research Services [Editor's Note: While plans to create a new Research Service were announced in September 1996, the actual implementation of those plans had to await adequate

funding.

The following information was gathered by the Editor, William Robinson, while conducting a one-week training program in Bucharest in May 1998 and during a subsequent visit to the U.S. by Secretary General Alexandru Dumitrescu of the Romanian Senate in July 1998.] Plans to create the Research Service are now moving toward fruition. Funding was provided by the Senate in its budget adopted in May 1998, and staff recruitment is now in

164

progress.

As of May 1998, there were plans to hire 12-15 researchers. In July 1998,

however, Secretary General Alexandria Dumitrescu stated that the Senate planned to hire at least 14 researchers — an amount equal to the number of Standing Committees in the Senate. The Research Service is headed by Dr. Valeriu Pescaru, and will have separate sections for the Library and documentation, analysis, bill drafting, and informatics (automation). Its current priorities include recruiting new staff and training them in the latest research techniques

165

Russian Federation Parliamentary Library of the Federal Assembly of Russia by Irina Andreeva1 L Brief History of the Library The Library of the State Duma of Imperial Russia was established in April 1906, after the meeting of the first State Duma for the purpose of addressing its informational needs. An annual payment of 12,000 rubles was granted for the purpose of expanding the Library's collections; to arrange for librarians to visit Austria, England, and Germany in order to become familiar with the structure and organization of these libraries, and to establish an exchange of parliamentary documents with foreign countries. Since the Library's earliest years, the formation of its collection had been considered a State priority, and an excellent collection of legal codes, laws, and comments was assembled The Library of the State Duma was able to acquire the national legislation of both European and non-European countries; sub-national legislation, such as, that of the various states within the United States of America, or that of Switzerland's cantons, and official documents from other governmental departments. After the October Revolution of 1917, a part of the collection and catalogs of the State Duma's Library were sent to the Public Library named for M. E. Saltyikov - Schedrin. Later, in 1946, numerous other books were sent to the Library of VZIK (i.e., the Central Executive Committee) in Moscow. The remainder of the collection belonged to the Upper School at Tavricheskiy Palace, then to the Institute for Politology (Political Science), and finally to the North-West Staff Center. Currently, the Parliamentary Library of the Russian Federation is working on a project to reassemble all four of the first Duma's library collections

1

Irina Andreeva is Director of the Parliamentary Library of the Federal Assembly of Russia.

166

During the years of Soviet rule, the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Federation had a small library that served the staff and members of their families. This Library had a good collection of popular, artistic, and educational books and functioned like a small public library. In early 1991 a group of Deputies from the Russian Supreme Soviet visited the Congressional Research Service, a component part of the United States (U.S.) Library of Congress As a result of this visit, the idea of creating a parliamentary library for the Russian Federation wás bom. Later that year, a working group which consisted of leading specialists from many libraries in Russia began working on the idea of establishing a parliamentary library. As a result of their efforts, this working group produced a report entitled "Suggestions for the Conception of Parliamentary Library Creation." In December 1991, after a decree from the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet, such a the Library was established to serve as the Library of the Supreme Soviet, the Council of Ministers, and Moscow Committee of the Communist Party Public Center. In late 1993, this Library gained status as the Parliamentary Library of the Federal Assembly. After the separation of the chambers in the legislature of the Russian Federation, the Library became part of the State Duma. Notwithstanding this organizational realignment, the Library continues to provide services to the Duma and the Federation Council. Π. Setting of the Library The Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation is the chief legislative body of the Russian Federation, and is a parliament that consists of two chambers. The first elections to the Federal Assembly were held on December 12, 1993, the same day that a referendum was held on the new Constitution of the Russian Federation.

167

The two chambers of the Russian Federal Assembly are: (1) the Federation Council, and (2) the State Duma. Each of these chambers works separately on legislation, coming together as a single body only to hear the President's annual report. The Federation Council consists of two representatives from each of Russia's eighty-nine regions. One of these two representatives is the head of each such region's executive branch, and serves as its governor, or president The second representative of each region is the head of its legislative branch, and serves as speaker in the regional legislature, or in one of its houses if the regional legislature is bicameral. The first Federation Council members were elected from two-mandate districts, and served a two-year term. After elections, the second Federation Council was formed in January 1996, and each of its members will serve a four-year term. The State Duma consists of450 members. Half are elected by simple majority vote from single-member districts, and half are elected by proportional representation from party lists. Representatives to the first State Duma were elected in 1993 for a two-year term.

The

second State Duma was elected on December 17, 1995, and each of these new representatives began their four-year terms in January 1996. Today, the Parliamentary Library of the Russian Federation is a department within the staff structure of the State Duma, and its director reports to the Duma's Head of Staff. The Parliamentary Library has good working contacts with the largest libraries in Russia. Currently, the Library has formal cooperative agreements with six of these libraries. In exchange for obligatory copies of books, the Parliamentary Library receives library and information services in such specialized collection areas as medicine, agriculture, and technology in order to assist in answering Deputies' requests.

168

The Library also is trying to establish contacts and working relationships with the other libraries within the Federation.

To this end, there already are exchanges of books and

documents that occur with some regional libraries. ΠΙ. Organization and Staff of the Parliamentary Library Since 1993 the Parliamentary Library has been divided into four branches. •

The Branch of Database and State Bibliography on Official Documents, works with official documents, including processing these materials, and managing related databases.

•

The Library and Information Service Branch, provides overall reference services.

•

The Acquisition, Processing and Deposit Branch, manages library deposits and oversees all library services.

•

The Administration of Automated Library-Informational Systems Branch, establishes and maintains technological support for all the Library's automated systems.

There are fifty-four people on the Library's staff. Nine of these staff members have Ph .D. degrees, thirty-five have some other form of library background, and eighteen have university educations in such other fields as history (two), law (three), economics (one), philosophy (three), technical (seven), ecology (one), military (one), and journalism (one). The Library provides research and analysis only in extraordinary cases. The library staff does not have sufficient time or staff to provide these special services in addition to their other responsibilities.

However, both the Duma and the Federation Council have separate

Analytical Departments that employ specialists to meet the research needs of the Federal Assembly. (See Section VII for additional information.)

169

IV. Library Deposits and Other Resources The Parliamentary Library possesses a collection of 500,000 volumes, and annually receives about 1,000 titles of periodicals, both national and regional in scope. This collection also contains central newspaper files starting with the twentieth century. Since 1992 the Library has been receiving a mandatory deposit of all new Russian literature and copies of periodicals. With respect to foreign materials, books are obtained according to the Library's needs. The Library's collection also is expanded by gifts as well as by purchases The Library's collection includes both domestic and foreign legal literature in various branches of law, as well as materials concerning politics, economics, sociology, philosophy, history, and other

fields.

The collection also contains numerous reference books,

encyclopedias, dictionaries, statistical documents, monographs, reviews and issue briefs, scientific reports, and commentaries. The Library collects normative acts and other official documents of the Russian Parliament. This part of its collection includes: •

The principal law codes of the Russian Empire, the former Soviet Union (USSR) and Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR), and current Russian acts having the force of law (i.e., legislation by the Supreme Soviet, decrees of the President, governmental acts, and those by other Federal authorities since 1992),

•

Draft legislation and related analytical materials, including expert commentaries on such draft legislation and other documents from committees or commissions of the Russian Federation Parliament;

•

The files of administrative regulations by the ministries and other institutions of the Russian Federation;

170

•

Normative acts of the various Russian republics, autonomous regions and other areas of the Russian Federation, and of the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg (since 1992),

•

Translations of selected foreign laws, including those of Sweden, Poland, the United States, and others,

•

The official documents of international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), and

•

The bilateral and multilateral treaties of the USSR, the RSFSR, and the Russian Federation.

The Library has six CD-ROM subscriptions, and official documents from the United States on microform. The Library also is planning to open language training classes with audio and video materials. At present, the Library has two reading rooms that can serve up to twenty users at the State Duma, and twenty users at the main library center, the Svetnoy Building. In addition, a new, third reading room is scheduled to open in the near future in the building of the Federation Council. V. Products and Services The Library serves both chambers of parliament, including deputies, committees, and staff. It also serves other government ministers, the regional legislatures of the Russian Federation, academics, and researchers (with appropriate letters of authority). The Library creates databases on parliaments and parliamentary factions, political parties, and public associations. The Library's staff also compiles facts and bibliographic materials from the Russian press and the press of the former Soviet republics. Specialists in the Library create newspaper clipping files and collections of original documents issued by political parties and public organizations (including chapters and programs), and also of analytical

171

materials o f non-govemmental organizations, such as the Russian American University Corporation ( R A U ) , and the Gorbachev Foundation. The newspaper clipping files are formed using materials collected on a broad range o f issues. Since 1993, the Library has made daily press digests (express bulletins) based on the principal newspapers to reflect the key issues o f Russia's political life. In 1994, issue-oriented newspaper digests were launched covering the elections to the Federal Assembly o f the Russian Federation, Russian and foreign parliamentary experience, and reaction abroad to political developments in Russia. Based on the volume o f inquiries coming from the deputies, this informational service has proven to be a successful addition to the Library's list o f services. T h e Library also has begun to collect selected, unpublished analytical and other materials. This collection o f "gray literature" that is often hard to find, includes materials prepared by M o s c o w research fellows, from the institutions o f the Academy o f Sciences, independent institutes, and agencies o f independent experts. It will also comprise documents and other publications o f political parties, social movements o f the Russian Federation, and o f foreign parliamentary research institutions, such as the U.S. Congressional Research Service. T h e Library's Bibliographic and Reference Division maintains a unique reference collection classified both by types o f editions and fields o f knowledge: economics, politics, law, history, sociology, and philosophy. The Reference Division also works to define clearly a user's informational needs in order to provide a more precise answer to an inquiry.

In

addition, the Division produces bibliographic information such as annotated lists and indexes. Bibliographers and reference specialists from the Division also produce clipping files from newspapers and journals on the country's main economic and political problems. The Division also provides access to the databases o f the country's largest information centers and libraries.

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The Library provides information on the databases of the leading information and scientific centers of the Russian Federation and of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and maintains contacts with the largest legal information centers, both domestic and foreign. The Library's data bank includes information on the main lines of research work and publishing activity of scientific institutes and centers. Cooperation with them is based on agreements providing for the exchange of informational materials and legislative acts, translations, information on conferences and seminars, and consultation and other informational services. The Reference Service of the Library processes the major regional newspapers of the Russian Federation. The Service classifies central and regional news materials by key political and economic issues in the country, and by the nationalities of the Russian Federation or by the former Soviet republics. There are also files on the Deputies of the Russian parliament and other state officials. Processing of the Library's collection is carried out with the help of electronic catalogs and the local area network of the Library The classified and alphabetical catalogs are kept updated and cover books and bibliographic databases for official document collections in electronic form.

The document collections include: federal documents of the Russian

Federation; subject documents of the Russian Federation, documents of the former Soviet republics, and foreign and international laws. The Library keeps archives of materials that have been used to answer reference requests, and information also is maintained on the collections and catalogs of Moscow's largest libraries. The Library is developing cooperative relations with foreign parliamentary libraries. The Library prepares bibliographic lists and indexes, info-reviews and references including:

173

•

Bibliographical indexes on current legislation of the Russian Federation (indexed by results of the sessions, the source, and the effective period when the law becomes valid);

•

Indexes of official editions acquired by Moscow's largest libraries (official publications of the Russian Federation, those of Russian Federation subjects and those of foreign countries);

•

Indexes of translations of foreign legislation available at the Library,

•

Subject-oriented and authority indexes to the parliamentary chamber sittings;

•

Issue-oriented indexes to the parliamentary chamber hearings;

•

Issue-oriented digests on commentaries on the draft laws of the Russian Federation;

•

Bibliographical index on CIS-countries and Baltic States legislation.

•

State indexes on:

•

•

official documents of organs of state power of the Russian Federation,

•

official documents of organs of state power of the Russian Federation subjects; and

•

official periodicals.

Weekly index on new materials received by the library.

The Library provides various services free of charge. Such services include: offering documents

or

copies;

issue-oriented

or

factual-retrieval

references;

and prepared

informational and bibliographic materials. The Library also offers access to the databases of the largest libraries of Moscow and to the legal centers of the Russian Federation, and to foreign parliamentary libraries over the Internet. The Library offers consultations based on its documentary collection, and offers domestic and foreign editions or copies received through interlibrary exchange.

174

The Library uses various informational products to inform users of its services. It organizes exhibitions and sends its materials to the departments and branches of both chambers In 1996 the Library served 4,000 readers and 47,000 visitors. It distributed 240,000 items and answered 38,000 requests. The electronic catalog of the Library holds 140,000 entries. VI. Developments in Automation The Library has forty-five personal computers (PCs), and a local area network. The parliament has a local network and the Library plans to have direct connection between its main library site and parliamentary buildings The Library's electronic capabilities include: 450 CD-ROMs, CD-ROM Tower, scanner, microform reader, three FAX machines, Internet access, and electronic mail. Since 1994, the Library has processed its documents using ISIS/M a package of software from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Today, the Library has 12 databases for different types of documents. The Library has begun using an integrated library system called TTNLIB (the PeriodicalsModule), including bar-code technology. different buildings to the local area network

The Library plans to link the work places in Additional automation plans include:

•

Installation of CD-ROM on-line to the local area network (LAN);

•

Transfer parts of the library deposits to microform;

•

Creation of the technology for preparing informational and bibliographical products in an automated environment;

•

Creation of telecommunications links with large libraries and other informational organizations; and

•

Creation of a library Web-server. 175

VII. Research Services [Editor's Note: Because they were in the early stages of development questionnaire

was first distributed,

no official

parliamentary

research centers in Moscow.

responses

were received

The following

from

the

However, the editor has worked with these

centers and their predecessors since 1991 as part of a program of cooperation.

when the

inter-parliamentary

discussion was prepared by the editor, based on his own

experience, and in consultation with other knowledgeable Russian sources. All data are for 1997]. While the Parliamentary Library serves both chambers of the Russian Federal Assembly, both the Duma and the Federation Council have created separate Analytical Centers. The Analytical Center of the Duma had a total staff of 56 in 1997, making it one of the larger parliamentary research centers in Europe. The Analytical Center of the Federation Council was reorganized in 1997 by combining several departments (including automation) into one department

The staff of the Analytical

Center of the Federation Council numbered 107 in 1997, making it one of the largest parliamentary research organizations in the world. Both Analytical Centers provide specialized research and analytical services to Members, Committees, staff, and leaders of the two chambers. These services cover legal, economic, foreign policy, and domestic issues.

176

Slovak Republic Parliamentary Library and Information Services of the Slovak Parliament by Eva Malackova and Danica Sivakova1

I. Brief History of Slovak Parliamentarianism For several centuries, the territory of the Slovak Republic was part of a larger, multinational state. The history of the Slovak parliament is therefore associated closely with the struggle of Slovaks for national sovereignty. The role of Slovak representatives in the parliaments of the Hungarian kingdom, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, in the parliament of the first Czechoslovak Republic after World War I, and in the parliament of the newly re-constituted Czechoslovak state after World War II reflected the position of the Slovak nation in each of these respective states.

These

historical patterns thus lead to a somewhat paradoxical conclusion: that while, on the one hand, it would be hard to speak of a very old national parliamentary tradition, on the other hand, it is impossible to say that the Slovaks have only a brief experience in parliamentarianism. In September 1848, the first Slovak National Council originated under the auspices of the independence leaders: Stur, Hurban, and Hodza. It became the first Slovak national, representative, political organ. It led an armed struggle against the Hungarian ruling class, and sought to establish Slovak administration of territory then in its power. Based on these events, one could conclude that this first National Council was the first Slovak government.

1 Eva Malackova and Danica Sivakova are staff members of the Parliamentary Library and the Department of Information and Analysis.

177

In the aftermath of World War I, and the founding of the first Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, the second Slovak National Council constituted itself as the highest representative body of the Slovak Republic and issued the historic Declaration of the Slovak Nation. In 1938, disruptive political changes associated with Munich affected the Slovak political scene. In December 1938, the first elections to the assembly of an autonomous Slovakian land were held. However, external events determined that this Slovak legislative body, later changing itself into the Assembly of the Slovak Republic, was to exist only for a very short time. The powers of this legislature were gradually reduced by the executive branch of government. This erosion of power continued with the end of World War II, and as a result, this legislative body lost the power to influence post-war constitutional arrangements It is impossible to speak of Czechoslovakia having a free political life during the period from February 1948 to November 1989. In the communist controlled one-party system (legalized in the constitution of 1960), other political parties existed in theory, but did not share real power. During this forty-year period, it was considered a duty to take part in elections. As a result, formally elected legislative bodies existed, but they functioned as passive institutions, serving primarily to rubber-stamp the decisions of the ruling communist regime. In fact, the legal position of these various non-communist political parties was not established in law until January 1990, after the fall of the communist government. In November 1989, communist rule in Czechoslovakia came to an end. One of the first acts of the new non-communist government was to eliminate the leadership role of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. As a result, pluralistic political life began to develop once again in Czechoslovakia. In this process, the Federal Parliament, and both the Czech and Slovak National Parliaments had important roles in the movement toward a democratic legal state.

178

In June 1992, the majority of voters in an election in Slovakia opted for the peaceful dissolution of the state of Czechoslovakia, and the creation of an independent Slovak Republic. In the aftermath of these elections, the movement toward national emancipation began to quickly accelerate. At the beginning of the new election period in July 1992, Members of the Slovak National Council accepted the Declaration of the Slovak National Council on the supremacy of the Slovak Republic, and on September 1, 1992, they accepted the Constitution of the Slovak Republic. During the Parliament's first session, an amendment was added to the Constitution that officially created the National Council of the Slovak Republic as the legislative body of the country on November 17, 1992. On that date, the National Council accepted a resolution in which the Federal Assembly of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic recommended urgent discussion of a government bill on the dissolution of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic. The resolution was passed and the dissolution of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic became effective on December 31, 1992. In a period of a few months after the election results, the historic problem of the constitutional place of Slovakia was finally resolved with the decision to split Czechoslovakia into two, new sovereign States: the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic. As a result of these decisions, the existence of an independent Slovak Republic began on January 1, 1993. At a joint ceremonial session of the National Council and the Government of the Slovak Republic, the members in attendance accepted the proclamation by the Parliament creating a new, independent country. II. Creation of Information Services in the Slovak Parliament The process of successful transition in the post-communist parliaments of Central and Eastern Europe is closely associated with creating agencies that can provide independent, objective information and research. The main goal of these newly established agencies is to 179

create conditions for the effective, democratic functioning o f these burgeoning legislatures. Establishment o f information and research sources for use by

post-totalitarian

parliaments has been understood as being necessary by countries with democratic traditions. Substantial technical assistance to, and personal training of, parliamentary staff by representatives o f these older democracies has been welcomed by the parliaments o f Central and Eastern Europe.

Soon after the former Soviet satellites began their transition to

democracy, the new members o f the newly established parliaments began to receive both training and information that would aid in the development o f effective legislation institutions Compared with other newly democratic nations in Central and Eastern Europe, the situation in the Slovak Republic was a little different. From 1989 through 1992, the period when the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic ( C S F R ) existed, the greater part o f foreign parliamentary assistance supported the national Czechoslovak Federal Assembly

This fact

played an important role in the pace o f development o f information and research services in the Slovak parliament because, during the early post-communist transition years, political priorities did not allow the new politicians to deal with what some considered secondary issues and problems. In those days, foreign assistance played an important role as a stimulus in setting up and quickly developing improved information services, especially for the C S F R Parliament. The fact that assistance was focused on the Federal Parliament in large measure explains why there was a delay in the growth and development o f information and research services in the Slovak Parliament, and why visible development was not seen until after January 1, 1993, when the Slovak Republic was established. The responsibility o f providing parliamentary information and research services to the Slovak Republic belongs to three departments o f the Parliamentary Chancellory: the Library o f the National Council of the Slovak Republic, the Department o f Information and Analysis,

180

and the Computer Center. [Editor's Note: While each of these services is separately

in the Sections that follow, they were combined into a larger

discussed

Parliamentary

Institute in the summer of 1997. The Institute reports directly to the Secretary General of the Chancellory.

For additional

information,

see Section XIII of this report.]

The

paragraphs that follow provide a more detailed discussion of each of the first two of these three organizations ΠΙ. The Parliamentary Library The decision to build a modern parliamentary library in Slovakia was made after the "Velvet Revolution" by the leadership of the Slovak National Council in the resolution of June 1991 : "Proposal for the Gradual Creation of a Parliamentary Library of the Slovak National Council during the Years 1991-1992." In 1991 the Library became a part of the organizational department of the Chancellery of the Slovak National Council. From the onset, however, the intention was for the Library to become an independent division, subordinate directly to the Head of the Chancellory. On January 1, 1993, the Parliamentary Library came into being as a self-standing division within the Chancellory of the Parliament. Its establishment was directly associated with the peaceful dissolution of the CSFR, and with the creation of a sovereign Slovak Republic. The major developmental periods of the Parliamentary Library are as follows: •

1990 through 1991 — conceptual preparation and construction of a new facility;

•

1992 through 1993 — inauguration of basic services with three staff" persons, including the establishment of reference services and foreign cooperation,

•

post-1993 — the expansion of reference services with six staff persons, and the introduction of automation and computer technology.

At present, there is no exchange relationship between the Parliamentary Library and the National Library of Slovakia. However, the Library does work closely with other libraries 181

in Slovakia, mostly with: the University Library, the National Library, the Law Library of Comenius University, the Slovak Pedagogical Library, the Slovak Technical Library, the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD), and the Information Center of the European Union. The Parliamentary Library also cooperates with other parliamentary libraries in the region, especially with the Czech, Hungarian, and Polish libraries, and to a lesser extent with the Austrian, German, British, Swiss, and Russian libraries, plus those of the Nordic and Baltic countries. Furthermore, the Library is also associated with the European Parliament In 1993, special cooperation began between the Parliamentary Library and the Congressional Research Service of the United States Library of Congress. This assistance was authorized by the U.S. Congress for the benefit of the various parliaments of the newly independent countries of Central and Eastern Europe, and was under the control and direction of the commonly termed "Frost Task Force." During the period 1993 through 1996, this assistance was directly provided both to the National Council of the Slovak Republic and to the Parliamentary Library. Since 1991, the Parliamentary Library has been a member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), and its Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments.

Representatives of the Library have had the opportunity to

participate regularly in the annual conferences of IFLA, as well as other workshops which were organized through the Frost Task Force, and by the "PHARE Program" of the European Parliament. IV. Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Library Since 1993 the Parliamentary Library has been organized into four units headed by the chief of the library. The organizational structure of the library is as follows: •

Chief of the Library

182

•

Books Processing Unit.

•

Periodicals Processing Unit.

•

Information and Reference Unit.

•

Translation Unit.

The staff of the library consists of seven librarians and one assistant. The staff has had the opportunity to participate in specialized training at home and abroad.

Training has

included the following: •

Training in reference services by the Congressional Research Service under the auspices of the Frost Task Force in Washington, DC (two people for one week in 1994).

•

Instruction in information services by the European Parliament in Belgium and by the Library of the European Parliament in Luxembourg provided through the PHARE program (four people for one week in 1992, 1993, and 1995).

•

Instruction in the information services of the Library of the House of Commons in London, England provided by the Know-How Fund (two persons for one week).

•

Training in creating a library database in CDS/ISIS at the Institute o f Applied Cybernetics in Bratislava (four people in 1991).

•

Instruction in hypertexts, the Slovak Law Codex, the English-Slovak and SlovakEnglish automated vocabulary, and the Slovak Constitution provided by the law faculty of Comenius University, Bratislava (four people in 1994 and 1995).

•

English language training provided by the PHARE program in Bratislava (three people over a six month period in 1995).

•

Attendance at various seminars for librarians, including an annual special seminar of the Association of Slovak Librarians, and other specialized seminars in Slovakia.

183

•

Participation in the annual conferences of the IFLA Section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments; in workshops provided by the Frost Task Force, and in specialized seminars for Members of Parliament and staff provided through the Frost Task Force and PHARE Programs.

V. Library Collections and Other Resources According to the Slovak National Council Act on mandatory deposits of non-periodical publications dated September 13, 1990, the Library is to receive a free copy of publications issued in Slovakia. This legislation also determined that the resources of the former Library of Marxism-Leninism should become the property of the Library. As a result of the break-up of the Czechoslovak Federal Republic on January 1, 1993, a decision was made to divide the materials of the former Library of the Czechoslovak Federal Assembly. As a result, a certain number of Slovak publications and one copy of various Czechoslovak parliamentary documents became the property of the Slovak Parliamentary Library. The Library has its own financial budget for subscriptions to periodicals, books, and collections of laws necessary for the purposes of Parliament and its users. Moreover, the Library annually receives 40 titles of periodicals, 25 titles of databases on CD-ROM, and several hundred books in the form of gifts from the United States (from the Frost Task Force between the years 1993-96), United Kingdom (from the Know-How Fund in 1994), and from the European Parliament (through the PHARE program). As of 1997, the Library's book collection consisted of 120,000 volumes. The Library's collection also contained 820 periodical titles, including forty-nine foreign titles, and 230 newspapers titles. The Library also houses several special collections, including the complete Law Codex of Czechoslovakia and Slovakia from 1918; parliamentary documents, constitutions and 184

standing ordere from various other nations; and official documents from the United Nations. A small number of videotapes are also part of the Library collection. The main library is situated in the historic Castle located near the parliament building, but there is also a reading room in the main building of parliament. Under current library procedures, the reading room provides Members of Parliament and their staff access to recent newspapers, magazines, laws, parliamentary documents, reference books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. Additional copies of these documents are also available in the main library Furthermore, in 1997 a law reading-room was established in the Castle. This reading room provides special legal documents. VI. Services and Products of the Parliamentary Library The Library provides services to the Members of the Parliament, to Committees, the staff of the Chancellory, to other government ministries, to embassies, to university teachers, and to scientific institutions. The Library has been established as a reference center for the Slovak Parliament and provides the following services: •

A list of new book titles each month;

•

A list of periodicals annually;

•

Other basic library and reference services on demand;

•

Information materials upon request, using traditional and modern resources, such as CD-ROM databases;

•

Translations from English, German, Hungarian, and Russian, both for the purposes of general Library use and in response to specific requests;

•

Files for the committees of the parliament, and

•

Databases of books and periodicals.

185

Each member of Parliament and every chief of the Chancellery department is notified monthly of the services provided and of new acquisitions. Research services for the Parliament are provided by the Department of Information and Analysis. The Library, however, helps the Department to prepare its informational and analytical materials.

The Library's staff also participates in organizing parliamentary

conferences, seminars, and workshops. Statistics on services that are provided by the Library are analyzed monthly. In 1997, a summary from these monthly reports indicated the following: (1) 1,800 external book loans; (2) 2,200 internal book loans, (3) 4,600 periodicals loaned internally, (4) 4,100 periodicals loaned externally; (5) 58 instances of materials retrieved from CD-ROM databases; (6) 2,100 sets of materials prepared upon request, and (7) 400 completed translations. VII. Developments in Automation in the Parliamentary Library Since 1993 steps have been taken to build a local area computer network in order to create information facilities similar to those of parliaments with long-standing democratic traditions. This network is to serve Members of Parliament and the staff of the Chancellory. Since the Parliamentary Library is not located in the main parliament building, the automation and connection of the Library to the main building has been a late development. Nevertheless, there is a reading room in the main parliament building. Today, the Library operates ten personal computers (PCs) which are connected to the local network. In its reading room, the Library has the following automated systems: (1) electronic mail, Internet, and CD-ROM technologyy; (2) the integrated library systems CDS/ISIS and TINLIB are in place; and (3) Windows software, and Microsoft word. In its main facility, the Library uses the following automated systems: (1) the integrated library systems CDS/ISIS and TINLIB; (2) CD-ROM technology; (3) E-mail and Internet; (4) selected hypertext systems (Slovak Constitution, English-Slovak and Slovak-English vocabulary,

186

UN

documents, and a publication about the information centers and libraries in Slovakia); and (5) Windows software, text editor T602, and Microsoft Word. Vili. Future Plans for the Parliamentary Library The Parliamentary Library has had the CDS/ISIS system since 1991

In 1995 the

TINLIB integrated library system was installed. Plans for 1997 through 1998 include the following: •

Automated TINLIB system.

•

CD-ROM databases

•

Install hypertext bases, the Slovak Law Codex, Slovak dictionaries, UNO documents.

•

Electronic library/periodicals.

Future plans by the library include employing three more librarians, especially to assist with official documents, with the TINLIB system, and with the automated analytical processing of periodicals; broadening cooperation with special libraries in Slovakia, including the University Library, the Slovak Technical Library, and the National Library, broadening cooperation with other parliamentary libraries in the region, especially those in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany; and strengthening cooperation with the key parliamentary libraries throughout the world, and with the IFLA section on Library and Research Services for Parliaments.. IX. The Department of Information and Analysis The Department of Information and Analysis was formed from the prior Department of National Economics, which had existed for many years in the Chancellory of the Slovak Parliament. Before the creation of the independent Slovak Republic, this Department was an organizational part of the regional parliament, and had somewhat limited responsibilities and

187

resources. The Department was expected to prepare background materials, information and analyses, mainly in the economic area, for committees and members. After November 1989, when the totalitarian government of Czechoslovakia was abolished, the tasks of the Department widened and it acquired its current name. The idea was to create a larger department with approximately fourteen people divided into two teams: an economic team and a socio-political team In the case of each team, responsibilities were to include preparation of background materials, information, and analyses. In order to be part of the complex information system of the Chancellory, a program was designed to equip the Department and the whole Chancellory with the latest technology. However, due mainly to technical and financial reasons at that time, this plan was not fulfilled and the Department, until very recently, consisted of only six experts plus one secretary. After Slovak independence in January 1993, the Department began to assume more tasks, in keeping with the change of functions accompanying the transformation to a sovereign parliament. Besides its previous duties, such as preparing information for the legislative process, the Department began to organize seminars and conferences for Members of Parliament and staff and to cooperate with foreign parliaments and their information services. Since the beginning of 1993, development of the Department's services also has been greatly enhanced by the direct assistance of the Frost Task Force of the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Congressional Research Service, the British Know-How Fund, and the European Parliament's PHARE program. As a result of the new technology and staff training received, these various types of assistance have helped to increase the quantity, and to enhance the quality, of the Department's work. X. Organization and Staffing of the Department of Information and Analysis The Slovak Parliament works according to new standing orders that were adopted on January 1, 1997. These new rules substantially changed the working system of the whole

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legislative body, including its services.

They caused a large change in the system for

providing information services in the parliamentary Chancellory, with the creation of a new Parliamentary Institute as the organizational entity responsible for the entire information system in Parliament. The Parliamentary Institute came into being during the summer of 1997 The Department of Information and Analysis is organized as a part of the Parliamentary Institute, and is subordinate to the Head of Chancellory. The activities of the Department are governed by the internal rules of the parliamentary administration.

At present, the

Department is not subdivided, and individual experts and advisors are specialized across broad areas.

These areas include: macroeconomics and microeconomics; social policy,

education and culture; parliamentary affairs; and foreign affairs. The staff of the Department consists of seven full-time special advisors and a secretary. The background of most of the advisors is academic research or experience in governmental institutions. Moreover, the majority of these experts also have been trained for other special parliamentary services, primarily as a result of assistance provided by the U.S. Congressional Research Service, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, and the International Institute for Democracy. XI. Products and Services of the Department of the Information and Analysis The Department of Information and Analysis provides the following range of services: •

Information and analytical materials on different issues related to the work of Parliament;

•

Individual consultations on different issues for Members of Parliament and staff members;

•

Cooperation with the parliamentary committees by preparing their resolutions on the materials discussed in the National Council, as for example, the government's

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program resolution, the State budget, the final account of the State budget, and different reports by the government on a variety of important topics, and •

Background material for international delegations.

In addition, the Department prepares and organizes parliamentary conferences, seminars, workshops, and training sessions. Furthermore, it coordinates the European Parliament's PHARE program for the National Council of the Slovak Republic. Finally, it publishes products in two series: Information Materials, and the Socio-Economic Monitor. Some of the above-mentioned products and services are prepared on Departmental staff initiative, while others are prepared according to a specific request by a parliamentary committee, an individual Member of Parliament, or other parliamentary administrative units. Specialists from the Department of Information and Analysis do not provide services to either the media or the general public. There are several different ways that the products and services of the Department of Information and Analysis are advertised.

These include the use of personal contacts,

preparation and distribution of small booklets on available services, and distribution of various publications to committees and members during parliamentary sessions. Specialists from the Department also may become involved in the preparation of briefing materials for special occasions, such as conferences or foreign business trips. In this regard, for example, specialists from the Department were involved in the preparations for celebrating the third anniversary of the acceptance of the Slovak Constitution, which is combined with the annual Parliamentary Open Day Festival, and were recognized for contributing to the success of this event. XII. Information Sources of the Department of Information and Analysis The Department uses the collections of the Parliamentary Library and, through it, the collections of all other Slovak libraries. As previously discussed in greater detail, the Library

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is well equipped with recent literature, scientific journals, and electronic databases that were primarily gifts from the Frost Task Force, the British Know-How Fund, the PHARE program, and ECPRD. The Department also has its own reference library of scientific journals and newspapers, as well as materials statutorily mandated for delivery from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. The Department's information specialists cooperate actively with other research services in the region, Western Europe, and the United States.

The

Department has four computers with CD-ROM drives and through Internet connection has access to external databases.

Due to its location outside of the main building of the

Parliament it was important that the Department and the Library were connected by fiber optical cable to the main parliamentary building in 1996. Through this arrangement both organizations became part of the automated information system of the Slovak parliament and were able to obtain: (1) voting tabulation results; (2) electronic collection of the legal code (JURDC), (3) fulltext databases of parliamentary debates and other parliament documents such as resolutions and laws; (4) CD-ROM server containing foreign legal databases and other documents; (5) Internet connection; and (6) the integrated TINLIB library software system. At present, there are no statutory arrangements facilitating the Department's access to government information. If there is need for some special information from a government agency, the Department's ability to obtain such information depends on personal contacts. To get information, the Department also uses specialized outside research bodies, such as the Slovak university system, the Slovak Academy of Sciences, or contacts with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), although these latter contacts remain informal. Establishment of formal procedures for such information acquisition thus can be viewed as one of the future tasks awaiting full implementation of the new Parliamentary Institute.

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XnL

The Parliamentary Institute - a N e w Concept for Information and Research Services in the National Council of the Slovak Republic According to the National Council's newly adopted Rules o f Procedure ~ a new

legislative support service, the Parliamentary Institute, was opened in the summer o f 1997, as part o f the Chancellory. The responsibility o f the Parliamentary Institute is to provide information and training services related to the legislative activities o f the National Council and its Members through the provision o f reference services and analytical research

The

Parliamentary Institute also provides for the operation and development o f information systems in the National Council, contains a library, and provides analytical and research, documentation, and archival service.

The Parliamentary Institute is organized into four

departments: ( 1 ) Department o f Analytical and Training Activities, which is the new name given to the Department o f Information and Analysis, ( 2 ) Department o f Computer and Data Communications, ( 3 ) Parliamentary Library, ( 4 ) Parliamentary Archives. The role o f the Department for Analytical and Training Activities is to conduct analytical research, consult, inform, and provide informative issue-based seminars for Members o f the National Council and Members o f the Chancellory. The work o f the department is divided into t w o separate divisions: the division o f economic, social and statistical analysis, and the division for domestic and foreign policy analysis and European integration. T h e responsibilities o f the Parliamentary Library are to acquire, update, maintain, and provide specialized library collections, as well as research materials and provide translation services.

The Library will also have a reading room that will have legal literature.

This

reading room will be a subdivision o f the Parliamentary Library. The Parliamentary Library will also be responsible for creating a catalog consisting o f informative documents, provide specialized reference services at the request o f Members and committees, systematically acquire and make available information by fact sheets, bibliographical, and full-text databases in traditional and electronic form, publish additional listings on the most recent library

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collections, maintain and develop relations with foreign parliamentary libraries, international organizations, and chosen libraries within Slovakia. The Department of Computer and Data Communications provides a working information system to the Members of Parliament, and the Chancellory.

The Department gathers

information on the activities of the Parliament, its Members, and senior officials of the Parliament, and makes this information available to users of the computer network. The Parliamentary Archives provides for the filing of all written documents and other information from the Parliament and its committees, particularly information from regulatory organs of the Parliament, sub-committees, and the President and Vice Presidents of the Parliament.

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Republic of Slovenia The Documentation and Library Department of the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia by Majda Filipovska1 I. Introduction The Republic of Slovenia was proclaimed an independent country by a decree passed by the Assembly of the Republic on June 25, 1991.

According to its constitution, it is a

parliamentary democracy with a unicameral parliament of 90 deputies. Deputies are elected according to the principal of proportional representation where each voter votes for a partylist or an individual candidate. Seats are than distributed on a proportional basis. Remaining Deputies are selected at the national level from those lists which have the highest remainders. The election system is governed by the law on elections for the National Assembly, which was passed by the National Assembly on the basis of a two-thirds majority of votes by all deputies. During the period of transition and integration into the Western European legal and economic system, the National Assembly, as the supreme legislative body, has passed numerous new laws and has made important decisions. These functions are carried out through 29 working bodies, commissions and committees, which formulate and refine views and proposals concerning laws or items on the agenda. The structure of the administration within the National Assembly is organized into ten professional and administrative services which support the day-to-day operations of the parliament. One of these ten services is the Documentation and Library Department, the head of which is directly responsible to the Secretary General of the Parliament.

1 Majda Filipovska was the head of the Documentation and Library Department of the National Assembly of Slovenia when this chapter was first written. She is now a senior official in the Government of the Republic of Slovenia.

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The Documentation and Library Department was founded in September 1963 after the ratification of the new constitution, according to which the role of the Assembly was considerably increased. Until then, only a library and a reading room operated within the Assembly, both of which were integrated into the Department. Today the Documentation and Library Department plays an important role in informing and assisting deputies in decision-making as well as helping staff of the National Assembly in their professional work. The Department is responsible for the acquisition, monitoring, collection, and documentation of published professional and other material significant to the National Assembly. The Department is organized into three sections: •

The library and reading room,

•

Internal documentation, and

•

External documentation.

Π. Library and Reading Room One of the segments in the Documentation and Library Department is the Library and Reading Room. The Library of the National Assembly operates within the Department and is located in the sub-basement of the National Assembly building. The library was founded in 1963; its initial collection comprised 4,818 volumes acquired from the then Executive Council of the Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia. It covers an area of 120 square meters, having a total shelf-length of 1,532 meters. The reading room spans 52 square meters and has 16 seats for readers.

There have been no spatial

alterations since the founding of the library, with the exception of the 1994 renovation of the reading room.

The library is open Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At the time of its founding, the purchase policy of the library was quite ambitious. After 1982, when its budget proved insufficient due to the increased prices of books, the library began to give priority to professional literature from the fields of law, politics, and economics

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in keeping with its specialized professional status. For comparison: 1,137 volumes were entered in the catalogue in 1975, only 476 in 1984, 381 in 1991, 320 in 1995, followed by a small increase back up to 360 volumes in 1996. Collection policy for foreign language books has also changed. In 1990 literature in Slovene and Serbo-Croatian predominated, but later the share of literature that was written in foreign languages began to rise. In 1994, almost half of the volumes were in foreign languages (mostly English and German). The library collection totaled 25,000 volumes of books in May 1996. The library subscribed to 221 different periodicals, 154 of which were in Slovene and 67 of which were in foreign languages. It also subscribed to 119 newspapers. Almost all literature possessed by the library was published after 1945. Only a few editions are older.

Two dailies worth mentioning are Jutro (1924-1945) and Slovenec

(1934-1945), which are kept in bound volumes. The issues of the Delo daily newspaper from 1945 onward, the year when Ljudska pravica was first published, are also kept in bound volumes. The library also comprises an extensive collection of official gazettes from 1945 onward. These are principally official gazettes of Slovenia, the former Yugoslavia and former Yugoslav republics (until 1991). The library also keeps the Official Gazette of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes from 1922 to 1940.

Currently the library also keeps the

Official Journal of the European Union. Because the library still has sufficient storage space, all books are retained, but some of the less important periodicals are discarded The purchase of books and periodicals is conducted as follows: •

According to an agreement, book-shops send new publications for examination.

•

Books ordered on the basis of catalogs and reviews in trade journals.

•

Books purchased on recommendation or according to users' demands. 196

Funds allocated for the operation of the library are incorporated into the budget of the National Assembly for the implementation of its working program. The finance officer usually takes into account the amount allocated in the previous year and increases it by a certain percentage for the current year.

In 1995 these funds amounted to US $125,000, but

it must be taken into consideration that not all of these funds are actually spent by the library. A share is allocated to the acquisition of literature received directly by deputy groups and expert personnel of the National Assembly (such as newspapers, magazines, official gazettes, various handbooks, and publications for representational needs). The library material cannot be accessed freely (with the exception of periodicals in the reading room) and the user is assisted by a professional librarian. Users have access to catalogs arranged by authors and subjects. All catalogs are in card-file format. The computer catalog and inventory records were started in 1991. Components of the library collection purchased before 1991 are gradually being cataloged on computer — thus far, details of approximately 5,000 books have been processed. Information on books is also accessible through the local computer network. The record of books on loan is still not computerized, but it will soon be. The Library is connected to the Joint Cooperative Online Bibliographic System and Services (COBISS/OPAC) catalog within the University Institute for Information Sciences in Maribor.

This catalog is derived from a joint venture in collection and distributed

processing of bibliographic data. COBISS/OPAC enables the user to search according to type of material (e.g. all material, monographs, serial publications, articles) and allows different degrees of search technique (basic, selective, imperative).

Through the

COBISS/OPAC system, the library is connected to the general catalog and also to other libraries on the system, although it is limited to read-only access to these databases.

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Another of the activities is inter-library exchange, and the number of participants in this activity is increasing rapidly. The international inter-library exchange is organized through the National and the University Library. With regard to the accessibility of material and services, the library is partially restricted and intended only for use by a limited number of people. These are mostly deputies (90) and officials of the National Assembly (249) and National Council (40), although many users are from other national bodies (e.g.,

the Office of the President of the Republic and the

Government Ministries). In addition to these, the library is also used by scientists, journalists and students. The library's only weekly publication is Nove Publikacije (New Publications). This is a review of all newly purchased books and professional magazines and their contents

Its

circulation is 200 and these are sent to all deputies and expert personnel. The department has nine total staff: two professional librarians, five research staff, one documentalist, and one support staff. III. Internal Documentation The internal processing section (which is staffed by one documentalist) is where the material discussed by the deputies at sessions of the National Assembly is kept and documented, and where relevant information is supplied. The principal matters monitored are the various stages of the legislative process, including proposed laws at the first, second, and third readings.

Occasionally, legislation is considered in a shortened or accelerated

procedure. Analyses and information from various spheres of activity that can assist deputies in decision-making are also kept here. The material is kept in archive folders, the first stage of a law being filed first. Additional opinions, viewpoints, or comments expressed by the government, ministries and parliamentary working bodies, commissions and committees together with amendments by individual

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deputies and other institutions are filed later. Various organizations, institutes, and societies, including institutions from various locations in Slovenia, occasionally send their opinions and comments concerning certain laws. The contents of the second and the third stages of the legislative process are added to the folder for the first stage, along with any accompanying opinions and views, so that material in the folder is processed contextually and in chronological order. The user has complete information on those items on the legislative agenda, from the time they are placed on the agenda to the point of enactment. The material is marked with subject keywords taken from a standardized keyword index. The users usually do not know the exact titles of the material but, because the material is marked as the Register of Parliamentary Acts (EPA) by a combination of a keyword index and the sequential numbering of the contents of the folder, the desired material can be found easily. Material is also marked with a classification number determined by the Main Office. For each item, there is a card with keywords, a title, the name of the author, an EPA mark and a classification number.

These cards are arranged in a card file in alphabetic and

chronological order. Besides the card file, data concerning the contents of new folders have been entered into a computer system since 1992. The advent of Slovene independence in 1991 entailed a great deal of work for the deputies because of the numerous laws that needed to be enacted. First were laws connected with the formation of an independent state. Subsequently, laws were enacted that covered areas that were until 1991 under the auspices of the federal legislature (laws of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) and the legislatures of the republics (laws of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia, implemented exclusively in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia as a constituent part of the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).

The

process of establishing a constitution in the state of Slovenia is still under way, and the rate 199

at which material is processed is increasing and is expected to continue to increase for at least the next few years. In January 1975 the Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia first published its bulletin, Porocevalac (Reporter). Parliament decided to publish the bulletin in order to improve the supply of information to delegates, and the bulletin is still being published today.

Porocevalac

contains draft documents for parliamentary sessions, reports of parliamentary working bodies and questions and initiatives of deputies and their relevant replies. Until 1992 Porocevalac was documented in the same way as other material, and cards with records of articles published in the bulletin were kept along with other records in the card file. Since 1992 the data on articles published in the bulletin have been entered into a special parliamentary documentary database called insi dokumenti (SKUP)

The Documentation and Library

Department keeps the entire series of Porocevalac bulletins, from the first issue in 1975 to the present, in bound volumes that are loaned to interested readers. Apart from materials for sessions, the users often ask for the minutes of any debates and discussions that may have taken place during a reading of special subjects at parliamentary sessions. Reports on parliamentary debates and discussions can be accessed in a publication entitled Sejrti zapiski (authorized tape recordings). The Service has kept all issues of this publication since the first session of the Constitutional Assembly of the then People's Republic of Slovenia, which took place on November 18, 1946 in Ljubljana. These Sejni zapiski document all proceedings of parliamentary sessions and the complete agenda of debates by deputies. Before 1974 the supplement to Sejni zapiski contained all materials for sessions, however, it now has only proceedings of sessions, with details of the points on the agenda and

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the deputies' discussions. In addition to the agenda, a list of speakers is published in every issue. Sejni zapiski is up to date and since 1992 has been available on the computer network. Laws and other documents ratified by parliament are then published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia.

The Documentation Service keeps a complete set of

back issues of the Official Gazette in bound volumes. Another service offered is access to information from the SKUP database, where deputies' questions and initiatives and their relevant replies are kept. Internal documentation is accessible to all citizens. All those interested can find out what has been and will be discussed by the National Assembly and obtain certain information for personal use

The service can also be used for comparative and scientific studies by

institutions. Students and lecturers are regular users. IV. External Documentation An important mission of the Documentation and Library Department concerns external publications. This is the role of the External Documentation Service and encompasses a wide range of activities ~ all of considerable importance to the entire legislative information system. Initially the Service kept abreast of and processed the articles in newspapers and magazines mostly from Slovenia and other former Yugoslav republics. It also tracked some foreign publications, the contents of which were relevant to the activities of the Republic Assembly and its bodies, delegates of the Republic and delegates in the Federal Assembly. From these periodicals, documentation staff selected articles suitable for current or future work, i.e., both topical and theoretical articles of lasting value. The emphasis was placed on subjects currently under discussion in the Assembly or those included in the program of future

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work. The External Documentation Service kept track of public debates on these subjects and communications to the Assembly. Documentation staff prepared bibliographies of articles and wrote abstracts.

The

abstracts of important articles were published in daily, weekly, or monthly bulletins. Occasionally, special thematic bulletins were issued. These could be particularly lengthy during the preparations for amendment to the constitution or before the passage of important laws. Some thematic bulletins were compiled as a collection of photocopied articles on a specific theme. Since the Universal Decimal Classification was inappropriate to the Assembly's specific legislative documentation needs, the Service introduced and developed its own system of defining keywords in alphabetical order with auxiliary keywords, for instance law—civil, law-international, law—maritime. This comprehensive, controlled keyword index system was expanded and supplemented through the years and is still in use today. In addition to the subject index, an author index was compiled using standard library classification principles In 1987 External Documentation started using computer processing of its materials Custom PC software was created to meet specific needs and was modernized. It is now included in the internal computer network. This opened up numerous possibilities for the facilitation and improvement of the Service's work. After Slovenia became an independent country, the Documentation and Library Department considerably reduced its intake and processing of magazines and newspapers from the former Yugoslav republics and at the same time increased the number of newspapers, magazines, and materials from Western Europe and many other countries. Currently, documentation and information staff processes newspapers, magazines, and other foreign language material which are significant for the work of the parliament. Examples include certain documents issued by the United Nations, the European Union and 202

the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development—in particular foreign legislation and responses of the foreign press to developments in Slovenia. The External Documentation Service processes more than 80 Slovene and more than 30 foreign newspapers and magazines. It processes those newspaper and magazine articles that are topical and relevant to the work of the parliament, individual deputies and expert associates, or work that could become so in the future, together with articles of lasting theoretical value. A special emphasis is placed on subjects expected to be discussed in the National Assembly in the current year Documentation or information staff record the title of the article and other bibliographic data, write an abstract (annotation), and assign relevant subject descriptors. These are entered into the computer on a daily basis. Almost all the results of this activity are published in the daily bulletin entitled Pregled tiska (Press Review), which, after editing, is sent to more than 220 addresses through the computer network and is therefore available to users everyday by noon of that day. The bulletin is sent through the computer network to deputies, expert personnel of the parliament, administrative staff, and other interested parties. In printed form, it is sent to sixty addresses not included in the computer network and to external users. Pregled tìsica is therefore distributed by the Documentation and Library Department also as a bulletin printed by the parliament's printing office. At the same time, the entering of Pregled tiska into the computer system represents a part of a library information system named Knji 'nicni informacijski sistem (KIS) that can be accessed by deputies, councilors, expert personnel of the National Assembly, and other interested parties. KIS contains more than 53,000 entries. At the request of users, regular monthly computer printouts are produced containing information on various subjects, such as human rights, local government, penal legislation, as well as information on relevant authors. 203

The users can, on demand, have the External Documentation Service locate or print out all computer entries on a certain subject, author, for a certain period of time or according to a combination of several descriptors. It is possible to search for any word in the text, for the article title, or for the title of a magazine or newspaper. The External Documentation Service has access to other computer databases, such as those of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Slovenia, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia, the Senate for Offenses and the Ministry of Justice. The External Documentation Service also uses the databases developed from the joint Cooperative Online Bibliographic System and Services (COBISS/OPAC) project. In order to offer the best service possible to its users, the External Documentation Service contacts other documentation services and libraries in its search for information

It

cooperates with the documentation services of major daily newspapers, such as Delo and Republika, the European Documentation Center, the National and the University Library, the Chamber of Commerce, and various other institutes and organizations. The External Documentation Service had supplied information on regulations published in the Official Gazette.

However, recently it

discontinued this practice because the

parliament has purchased a network version of the Slovene Law Register. The External Documentation Service employs five documentation workers, each with a university degree and a working knowledge of at least one foreign language. V. Conclusion Even though services are divided into their constituent parts as described above, all three segments of the Documentation and Library Department represent a single unit and cooperation among them has proved crucial to the smooth running of the Department as a whole.

Users interested in any subject can receive information on the relevant discussions

in the National Assembly, interesting and expert articles on that subject, publicized political

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views, and relevant monographs all under one roof. In practice, a single keyword index is used for all three types of documentation (discussion documents, media articles, and monographs). All three are computerized at the local level and are included in the KIS public database. In addition to KIS, the National Assembly also compiles the SKUP database, which has information on deputy initiatives, questions and their respective replies, and the Zakonodajni

dokumenti (ZAKD) legislative database, which records legislation in force,

including complete texts of active laws

The Service searches and passes the information

obtained from these three databases on to internal and external users. Since its staff and offices are limited, the development of the service is adjusted to needs and possibilities. Because of the limited staff, the Service focus on the needs of deputies and parliamentary officials; whereas services to external users will be extremely limited. Further development will be aimed at building legal resources and developing more economical methods of information storage, such as microfiche and CD-ROMs, due to limited physical space for storing documents, a problem confronting most similar services. These media have already been tested, but additional equipment is needed to facilitate wider access. The internal computer network now includes 220 PC terminals, which offer numerous possibilities, such as use of windows for word processing, electronic mail, access to various documents, minutes, decrees, appeals, and agendas of sessions, expert opinion on specific topics, and links to external databases. As has already been mentioned, the Service is connected to the national and university libraries, the European Documentation Center and the Constitutional Court. The aim is to establish computer network links with all major institutions. It is always better to acquire information from the original source than to recreate it at a cost and risk inaccuracies. Facilities for accessing the Internet have been installed, so that information on external databases may be made available.

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Personnel training for certain programs is carried out in the parliament itself, and users are not allowed access to software until they have completed a basic course. The Service has an open attitude to education and the benefits of foreign experience, principally that of other parliaments in the same field. Slovenia also became a full member of the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD) and has a correspondent who has been taking part in this body's activities for several years. ECPRD has organized numerous training seminars. These have been regularly attended by representatives of the Service, who have thus had the benefit of the experience of others. In general, the service wants more links with international organizations and associations in the same sphere of activity. As a young country, which is still in the process of building its new system of governance, Slovenia would benefit enormously from the legislative experience of others with which to compare its own.

The exchange of opinions and

experiences undoubtedly allows accelerated development, quality services for users, and improved reciprocity concerning the sharing of information. Slovenia also has great need for access to major publications of other parliaments. In the near future a department for analysis and comparative research will be established It will employ top experts from the legal and economic areas who will conduct objective analyses and offer balanced opinions in order to provide expert assistance to deputies in their decision making. Although the physical size of the service is small, its objective is to offer professional documentary information of a consistently high quality. VL Research Services for Parliament [Editor's Note: On April 1, 1998, a new Research Department was established in Slovenia.

The following section was written by the editor, based on information

206

provided

by Natasa Glavnik and Tatjana KraSovec, head of the Documentation Department and head of the Research Department,

and

Library

respectively.]

The Research Department is an independent department, managed by an Assistant Secretary General (Tatjana Krasovec).

It reports to the Secretary General, and will

coordinate its activities with the Parliamentary Library. The Department has nine employees, including 8 researchers and 1 secretary The research staff all have university degrees, with 3 lawyers, 2 economists, and 1 each trained in political science, social science, history, and art history They will cover five basic fields: economy, social systems (pensions, education), ecology, international relations and organizations, and the political system (including constitutional law). The Department will provide overviews of subjects discussed in the parliament and its committees, and is also expected to issue reports that analyze policy problems and their causes, develop alternative solutions to problems, and provide comparisons with other countries.

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Ukraine Parliamentary Library and Information Services of the Supreme Rada of Ukraine Raymond Gastelum1

I. Brief History of the Library Centuries of Ukrainian state formation has resulted in the accumulation of a historical collection that is stored in various institutions — libraries, governmental and state archives, and other state structures. In 1991, independence from the Soviet Union was proclaimed and the Supreme Rada of Ukraine became the parliament of an independent Ukraine. Independence meant that the Supreme Rada would need to take a more active role in the political life of the country. The Supreme Rada's new role necessitates reliance on and access to information, so that its Members can make informed decisions on legislation

Two

institutions provide library support to the Supreme Rada — the Department of Library and Information within the Rada, and the National Parliamentary Library — a large external library that was created from State Library of Ukraine.

In turn, these library services are

complemented by a sophisticated automation department, the Center of Computerized Information Systems of the Secretariat of the Supreme Rada of Ukraine (CCIS), and an independent Research and Analytical Department The Library of the Supreme Rada ofUkraine was created in 1938, the year the Supreme Soviet of the Ukraine Soviet Socialist Republic was founded. It provided mostly Russian

' Because of changes in the organization and leadership of the Library of the Supreme Rada as this book was originally written and being brought to completion, this chapter was drafted by Raymond Gastelum from materials prepared earlier by Dr. Mykola Shvetz, Ms. Hanna Voskrcsenska, and Ms. Donna Usher. The current Director of the Library is Dr. Eduard Afonin, who was appointed as Director of a new Library and Information Department on October 20, 1996. We appreciate the help of Dr. Afonin in reviewing the material in this report and providing important information to update it and make it more accurate. However, he is not responsible for any changes that have occurred since late 1997 (the last time that he reviewed this chapter) and which may not be reflected here.

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language materials (periodicals, newspapers, and monographs) with a heavy emphasis on Soviet ideology, as well as foreign materials approved in Moscow. A certain amount of fiction was also included. The service was provided to Members of the Parliament and their staff. Following independence from the Soviet Union, this library collection continues to serve the parliament in the form of the Library Reading Room which is part of the new Section of Library Services. The Reading Room has been remodeled, and reference materials added to the collection. If staff of the library are unable to provide information required by the Member, the request may be passed on to National Parliamentary Library

Another

component of the Department of Library and Information is the Section on Foreign Literature. Within this Section is the Reference Unit, which has a reading room located near the plenary hall for the Rada. The Reference Room is stocked with national and international reference material. The third unit of the Department of Library and Information is a Scientific and Methodological Section. The second institution that has been given library support responsibilities is the former State Library of Ukraine established in 1866. It was designated as the National Parliamentary Library of Ukraine in 1993. However, it is still under the Ministry of Culture for funding and administration purposes, and must serve several other purposes and clients than the Parliament. In addition, the National Library of the Academy of Sciences, the Vernadsky Library, also provides the parliament with research and reference assistance. In all, the Rada has informal agreements or understandings with many nearby libraries in Kiev to provide it with needed library services. Π. Setting of the Libraries Ukraine has a presidential form of government. The president is popularly elected to a 5-year term by direct popular elections. The legislature of Ukraine is the 450-Member unicameral legislature the Supreme Rada. Deputies are chosen to serve four-year terms by

209

a mixed electoral system adopted in 1997. Half the parliament (225 seats) is chosen by simple majority vote in single-member districts; the other half is chosen by proportional representation from party lists. To achieve representation, a party must meet or exceed a 4% threshold of total votes. The latest parliamentary elections were held on March 29, 1998. As noted, the Supreme Rada has four primary institutions that it relies on for information. The first is the Library and Information Department, which consists of the three units — including a Reading Room and a separate Reference Room which is located inside the parliamentary building. The second is the National Parliamentary Library which is located several blocks away.

These library institutions are supplemented by a sophisticated

automation system and data bases provided by the Center of Computerized Information Systems (CCIS). Finally, there is a new Parliamentary Research Department created in 1995, which was a part of the CCIS but is now independent. Three of these information institutions report to the Secretariat of the Supreme Rada, the fourth, the Nationiii Parliamentary Library reports to the Ministry of Culture, but has some general information responsibilities to the Supreme Rada. The CCIS also attempts to coordinate information and research activities conducted by various institutions outside the Supreme Rada that have also been given the responsibility of providing the parliament with information. III. The Library and Information Department The Department of Library and Information was created in June 1996 and is head by Dr. Edward Afonin. It consists of three units: (1) the Library unit, which also contains the Reading Room; (2) the Scientific and Methodological unit; and (3) the unit on Foreign Literature, which also contains the Reference Room. The Supreme Rada is a member of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and recently began participating in the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD).

The Department has also participated in several meetings of Parliamentary 210

Librarians from parts of Central Europe and the former Soviet Union to promote cooperation and information sharing. The Department has half a dozen staff members. All staff have advanced degrees in various fields. The Department operates 9am - 6pm Monday through Friday and 9am to 1 pm on Saturdays The Department does not conduct research and analysis. Most research and analysis is done by the Parliamentary Research Department and the Vernadsky Library

The

Reading Room and the Reference Room offer services to Members of the Supreme Rada, permanent Commissions in the Parliament and sub-groups, and staff members of the Supreme Rada. The establishment of the Reference Room and the creation of a separate Department of Library and Information was encouraged by the Congressional Research Service of the U.S. Library of Congress as part of ajoint U.S.-Ukrainian cooperation program to strengthen library services for the Rada. Reading Room The Reading Room has a collection of more than 30,000 volumes, and subscribes to 126 newspapers, and 234 periodicals, all in either the Russian or Ukrainian language. There are no CD-ROM subscriptions at this time, nor audio/video tapes. The Reading Room has one computer and there is a project design to integrate it into the network of the Supreme Rada. The Reading Room provides the following services: •

In-house lending.

•

Reference Services. The Reading Room provides bibliographic research at the request of the user, utilizing in-house materials. Approximately 3,500 reference questions are answered per year. Those requests that cannot be handled in the Reading Room are sent to the National Parliamentary Library or the Vernadsky Library.

211

•

A list o f new acquisitions is prepared and distributed by the Reading R o o m on a monthly basis.

•

A list o f new acquisitions o f translated foreign legislation is produced and distributed quarterly.

Reference R o o m The Reference R o o m currently holds approximately 1000 volumes and 50 periodicals and newspapers. These are primarily non-Ukrainian and non-Russian language items and are mostly in English. However, there is some information in German and French. There is a collection o f U.S. Government information on microfiche, as well as a collection o f pamphlets and newsletters

This collection is extremely useful for public policy purposes.

It is

structured as a database that is indexed using a standard thesaurus ( E U R O V O C ) to facilitate searching by keyword or subject. It is available on the Internet and updated regularly. The database was started t w o years ago and is used extensively. The Reference R o o m is still in its infancy, yet it is already a very convenient source o f quick answers to reference questions for many members and staflÇ and also provides texts o f laws Its location near the plenary hall makes it readily accessible to members. The Reference R o o m is planning to provide the following services in the future: •

Information packets (or Info Packs) on scheduled discussions o f specific legislation using the "Schedule o f Proposed Legislation to the Supreme Rada".

This

information will be distributed to the Commissions and to Members w h o request them. •

Bibliographical data as requested by Members.

•

Domestic and foreign laws in full text as requested by Members.

•

Quick reference service to Members, using materials on hand.

212

IV. The National Parliamentary Library The collection of the National Parliamentary Library totals 3.9 million units, including 2.6 million books and 1.1 million periodicals (with 5,237 subscriptions to current titles of periodicals). The Library has 10 reading rooms. One of them is specially designed to respond to the requests of deputies and is 500 meters from the building of the Supreme Rada Information services of the National Parliamentary Library are offered by the following subdivisions of the Library: information and reference, literature in foreign languages, and readers' services. Other subdivisions of the National Parliamentary Library responsible for collections management also participate in information and library support for the parliament according to their specializations. Requests that cannot be answered by the Department of Library Services in the Supreme Rada are passed on to the National Parliamentary Library. The National Library is a public institution that serves, without restrictions, the needs of a wide range of users. Among the services given directly to the Supreme Rada is the monthly preparation of bibliographic indexes, "New acquisitions in the field of social and humanitarian sciences." The Library also works on the requests of individual Deputies and Permanent Commissions concerning national and foreign legislation, parliamentary activity of countries around the world, and specific questions related to economics, politics, and culture. Until recently, the organization of services and technology were based on traditional methods and means. Efforts to automate the Library began in 1991. Library development is now conceived as the creation of an automated system, integration into the world of information, the use of modern hardware and software, and staff training. The use of modern methods of data retrieval has opened possibilities of new solutions in the field of information and analytical support for the legislative process. However, all of these planned developments in automation are in the early stages of conceptualization and development. 213

V. Computerized Information Systems Center ( C C I S ) Created in 1992, the Center of Computerized Information Systems (CCIS) of the Secretariat of the Supreme Rada is the organization which is responsible for developing the hardware, software, and telecommunication capacities for sharing reference and analytical information for the law-making process, and is responsible for planning, implementing, and overseeing the parliament's automation plans— as well as maintaining the 550 ( o f which 350 are networked) computers in the parliament. The Supreme Rada has made a concerted effort to become a modern automated legislature. In fact, the Supreme Rada is on the path to becoming a full participant in the information revolution. The parliament is equipped with IBM-compatible PCs with Intel processors (at the 486 or Pentium level), and large capacities for hard drive storage and R A M . The five buildings that house the Rada are all linked by fiber optic cable.

The

parliament is also linked to the Internet via a U.N. satellite and also through a high-speed land-line. In all, automation equipment supervised by the Center is credited with speeding up the legislative process 9-fold. Automation technology has enabled the Rada to distribute new legislation 10 days after enactment. By comparison, it takes the executive branch 110 days to distribute legislation after enactment. Members of parliament have come to rely on the new technology in making the legislative process more efficient. VI. Parliamentary Research and Analysis Department This Department was created in 1995, and had a staff of 30 people, as of February 1998 The staff have advanced degrees in economics or science. The Department is independent and reports directly to the Secretary General of the Supreme Rada. It conducts research and analysis on legislative issues that are before the parliament.

The Department is organized

into three sections: the macroeconomic monitoring section, the analytical information section,

214

and the section on the forecasting of social processes. The main responsibilities of the Department are as follows: •

Analysis of the developmental processes of a market economy.

•

Analysis of financial and economic issues.

•

Systems analysis on social issues

•

Analysis of international issues dealing with other countries' experience with the establishment of economic and market reforms.

•

Analysis of economic and social development.

•

Evaluation of legislation dealing with economic and social issues and drafting proposals for its improvement.

•

Assistance to the permanent committees of the Supreme Rada with analysis on legislative issues that deal with social and economic matters.

•

Preparation and submission to the Supreme Rada and its leadership of abstracts, summaries, reports, and references, on social and economic issues.

•

Assistance to the parliament in preparing for conferences, seminars, and symposiums that deal with social and economic issues.

VII. Future Developments The needs of the Supreme Rada for quick, reliable, current information is constantly increasing. Due to the lack of sufficient staff and funding, the libraries that have been given legislative support responsibilities are not able to completely satisfy the increasing needs of the parliament. With limited resources, the Rada faces heavy challenges to develop the information services that it needs, including additional staff, continued improvements in technology (e.g. copy machines, microfiche readers, computers with CD-ROM) and appropriate upgrades of hardware, software, and telecommunications. A translation service within one of the libraries would also be helpful. Future library developments include:

215

Preparing materials requested by the Commissions, and other Supreme Rada bodies. Creating databases of foreign materials. Forming a collection of foreign parliamentary and official publications and reference tools. Offering such services as photocopying of information requested, use of CDROM's and the provision of information from the Internet. (Some of this is already done in the Reference Room). Providing a more efficient structure for the way other information organizations are asked for, and provide, information to the Members of the Supreme Rada — to ensure greater efficiency and effectiveness.

216

APPENDICES

217

APPENDIX A Key Questions or Issues in Developing Information and Research Services for a Parliament by William H. Robinson The legislature has a number of important choices to make if it desires to enhance the role of research — and, in tum, to have the capacity to generate alternative policy choices for the legislature. In general, the choices require a balancing between important competing goals A. Balance Between Party-Based Research and Central Research There are many places at which research can take place for a legislature: with the individual member of parliament, the party, committees, a central research and analysis facility for the legislature as a whole, or at outside think tanks. Ideally, research will be done at all these places on the theory that there can never be too much research for the legislature However, it does make a difference where certain kinds of research are done, and what the balance is between objective research done for the legislature as a whole and the more biased party-based research. It may be instructive to examine the U.S. experience on these points. In the 1970 amendments to the Legislative Reorganization Act (LRA) of 1946, Congress decided to increase its analytical resources in order to have the capability to develop alternative choices and to equalize its policymaking capabilities with those of the executive. Congress examined several models for accomplishing this objective and then decided against adding resources at the committee or member level in favor of pooling its analytical resources in one institution in the interest of efficiency. It set as a goal to triple the staff of the newly renamed Congressional Research Service (formerly the Legislative Reference Service with a staff of about 300). It charged CRS with developing alternative proposals, assessing the implications of those choices, and working closely with committees on legislative issues. 218

This pooled approach is more efficient for several reasons: •

It requires a relatively large-scale organization to anticipate issues over a broad range of topics, to do in-depth issue definition, and develop alternative policy choices. It is more efficient to create such a capacity that is available to the entire legislature as an institution, and to conduct background research that is objective and authoritative for the use of all. To create the same capacity in all of the parties or committees would be duplicative and wasteful. Moreover, research done in parties is not widely shared with others, and because of partisan coloration it is not as trusted as that coming from a more objective source. Having an agreed upon set of facts and statement of the problem facilitates consensus. While parties can and will disagree about policy solutions, they should start with a common definition of the problem. With a smaller staff, the parties can take the background information and shape the options to suit their preferences.

B. The Balance Between Research for Committees and Members Most legislative scholars believe that the most important decisions made in the parliament are made at the committee stage. With relatively weak parties compared with the European experience, the key role played by committees in the U.S. Congress is clear. As a result, CRS focuses most of its analytical resources on the committees. This priority for legislative action is cast in law (the 1970 Amendments to the Legislative Reorganization Act of 1946), and reiterated in policies set by the Joint Committee on the Library. By staying close to the legislative process, CRS specialists are able to stay abreast of legislative developments and to participate in informing that process as it happens. Armed with such current information, CRS staff can produce reports on legislation quickly and make them available to Members— thus meeting both the needs of Committees and Members (in that temporal order). This order ensures that scarce analytical resources are conserved for the most important stage of the process, consideration by committees.

219

Moreover, this policy ensures that research is focused on developing viable alternatives and forecasting the consequences of these choices — which are important foci of attention at the committee stage. Finally, if the committee staff and party groups are going to find central research staff useful, there must be a sufficient supply of highly specialized research staff to offer something that the committee staffers or party groups cannot do for themselves— arguing again for larger scale to permit greater specialization. C. The Balance Between Anticipation and Response At present, there is little margin for proactive research in most legislatures. If the goal is to increase the share of proactive work, then several steps may be necessary: More resources need to be made available to the central research and analysis group (aiming for a target of 50-100 specialists in some of the larger nations), •

Thought should be given to hiring outside specialists at the mid- to senior-level from other institutions (this is how CRS quickly built its own expertise during the expansion years following the LRA of 1970). Moreover, the fresh ideas from the outside also invigorated the institution. The same pattern is used in CRS for senior managers (the two most recent division chiefs were recruited from outside the institution). This latter step has a further important implication. If external recruitment and

retention is going to be a feasible strategy, then salary levels must be competitive with the ministries. For CRS, the basic law for the Service (the Legislative Reorganization Act, as amended) sets the salaries of its Senior Specialists at a level that is equal to the highest-paid staff in the ministries with comparable responsibilities. D. The Balance Between Prepared Materials and Tailored Responses Every research service faces a tension between providing tailored information that answers a specific request from a member of parliament and the need to create general research products that respond to a number of more general inquiries. The former is very

220

targeted but expensive to create, while the latter requires more reading by the member but is very efficient in managing general information requests. The tension is not between choosing one of two polar approaches, but rather to balance these two reciprocally useful techniques to best meet the overall needs of the legislature. The evolution of the U S Congressional Research Service during the past thirty years provides a useful illustration. CRS began by responding to individual requests with specific memoranda. If similar requests were received, the response memoranda would be photocopied with the name of the original requester obscured. In the middle 1970s, following a large staff expansion, an effort was made to create more CRS Reports and a wholly new product called Issue Briefs. (The latter became the backbone of CRS efforts to provide current information to members on legislative issues.) While persona] memoranda continued to be produced, the balance shifted dramatically in favor of the use of already prepared materials and reports for answering the vast majority of requests during the remainder of the 1970s and through the 1980s. This large inventory of reports permitted the researchers to concentrate their time on more specialized committee work — while reference librarians and researchers used the prepared materials and reports to answer quickly nearly two-thirds of the requests coming into CRS during this period. After a Strategic Management Review in the early 1990s, including focus group interviews with congressional staff, it became clear that shorter reports and more targeted memoranda were desired by congressional clients. Roughly half of the reports now in the CRS inventory are short reports (2-5 pages in length) or one-page fact sheets. individual memos are also written.

221

More

All legislatures in the region could benefit from a richer supply of analytical reports and fact sheets for Members and Committees. With an increase in the number of researchers, these reports could be written and additional analytical work and options could be developed for use by committees and party groups. A more adequate supply of such reports would make the work of the central research unit more efficient, while also providing the opportunity for better services for both members and committees. E. Observations About Technology It is useful to note the important role that automation and telecommunications can play in making parliamentary research and analysis more effective and timely. Automated resources (databases, CD-ROM) can promote rapid access to information for the researcher— thus enhancing the speed of response and/or broadening the range of sources consulted within a given time period. They can ill so provide direct access to information which members, committees, and staff of the central research service may use themselves — with self-service relieving some of the workload on those units. Telecommunications (e-mail and Internet) can broaden the range of resources consulted to include foreign laws and experts, and speed the delivery of relevant documents to the researchers or directly to the users. For example, CRS is preparing a series of "Electronic Notebooks" for use by Members of Congress and staff on public policy issues These notebooks are available on the Congressional Intranet, and take full advantage of hypertext linkages to access laws, reports, and other Internet sites, etc. A limited inventory of CRS Reports and Issue Briefs on current public policy issues is also available in full-text on the Intranet for use by Congress. All of these sources are available 24 hours each day, and can be printed out by the users. A fax-on-demand system is also available for obtaining short reports in fax mode by Congress. Recent statistics indicate that client use of CRS-created

222

electronic resources rose by 68% over the previous year, and now accounts for approximately 45% of total workload (January-March, 1998 compared with same quarter in 1997).

223

υ

Albania

>> u e a o

Bulgaria

2 η 13 CQ

224

Between 1993 and 1996, the Library of the National Assembly was one of 14 Departments in the parliamentary administration. Since 1996, the Library became part of a larger department for Information Services, which also encompassed Informatics and computer services. Analysis and Research, and a Publishing Center. Information for the pari, is also provided by the Law Dept. and Intemat'l Relations ι & Protocol Department

The Presidential Library was established in 1933 and provides services to the Parliament

of the Information Dept.

collection

R&A: Small Reference

(Was scheduled to add 400.000 vols from Central Cmte of Bulgarian Comm. Party)

R&A unit: 2 total staff : 1 expert and 1 advisor

1 librarian

Library: 102.000 vols. 240 periodicals & newspapers 1 3 CD-ROM titles

Library: 8 total staff: 7 subject specialists

Research and Analysis (R&A) was provided by a separate unit, the Parliamentary Research Department (PRD). which was estab..in Feb. 1995, but was abolished in 1997. It has been replaced by a Res. and Anal. (R&A) unit of 2 staff, whose primary function is to harmonize Bulgarian laws with European laws.

undertakes studies.

of the Pres. Library

Pres. Lib. Has 1 . 5 million volumes; 4 1 8 periodicals; 152 newspapers

domestic)

(55 foreign, 20

75 periodicals

37,000 vols.

Library Collections

The Pres. Library has a total staff of 1 0 1 ; 86 with higher education; 15 with technical training.

3 librarians

Number of StafT/ Training

The Research Division

services are provided

est. in 1992 and is part

No research or analysis

mentary Library was

Provision of Research/ Analysis (R&A)

The Albanian Parlia-

Library/Information Services and Structure

R&A: work on hannonization of EU laws

Library: lending svcs. reference svcs., bibliographies, SDI, periodical indexing, publications and databases

bibliographies

Reference; research;

Reference services, bibliographies, newspapers clipped & indexed; Info Packs; seminars; databases on Albanian legis.

Types of Products/ Services

R&A: Between Feb. 1995 and Oct. 1996, produced about 50 reports. Info Packs, etc., and 4 seminars. Current unit: no information.

Library: 6.500 visitors; 50% of MPs registered as users; 24,000 loans; 8,500 reference requests

500,000 loans; 33.000 reference requests; 3 reading rooms

staff

increase number of

R&A: Need to

Library: ILS and building a thesarus

member of IFLA

become a full

other countries;

Extend contacts with

automation

Begin research services; enhance

requests annually

Future Goals/ Plans

70 reference

Number of Services/ Requests

o O

È a

a

o t/5

235

The National Assembly is divided into 10 services, one of which is the Documenution Service. This Service was created in 1963 and includes 3 parts: external documenution service, internal documenution service, and the library.

Library /Information Services and Structure

ι 1 1

A new Research Dept. was created in April, 1998. It is independent and will report directly to the Secreury General. It is headed by an Assisunt Secreury General

Provision of Research/ Analysis (R&A)

8 with university degrees: 3 lawyers 2 economists 1 each in poi.sci., soc. sci., history, and art history

Toul suff of 9: 8 researchers 1 secretary

Research Dept:

221 subscriptions to periodicals , incl 67 foreign titles

Toul suff of 9: 2 librarians 5 researchers 1 documenulist 1 support suff

Research Dept: No information, although will coordinate with the Library

119 newspaper subscriptions, incl 30 foreign titles

25,000 volumes

Library Collections

Doc. & Library:

Number of StafT/ Training

Research Dept.: Reports on policy issues, including analysis of causes and alternative solutions; overviews of issues discusscd in Parliament.

databases. Also provides system of folders, tracking legis. & related docs, at each stage of legis, process. Folders incl. reports, comments, opinions of the Government, committees, & outside sources. Entire system is indexed by keyword.

The library provides general reference services; bibliographies; lending services including InterLibrary Loan; lists of acquisitions; & maintains several

Types of Products/ Services I

ι

Number of requests not provided

Number of Services/ Requests ι 1 In the near future, there are plans to establish a department for analysis & comparative research; increase specialization in law; establish a computer network to major institutions in Slovenia; establish more links to international organizations; find more economical means of data storage.

Future Goals/ Plans

1

Country

S

ΎΛ O

4)

ffl

236

The Center for Computerized Information Systems (CCIS) currently acts as the center for information technology and processing.

In addition, there is a National Parliamentary Library which serves the needs of parliament as well as being open to the public.

There is a newly created Library SL Info Dept, which is a separate Department of the Secretariat. This dept. was created in late 1996. It is creating a coopeiative computer network to link 37 libraries in Ukraine.

Library/Information Services and Structure

There is also an Institute of Legislation which reports to the Chairman of the Supreme Rada.

Within the Secretariat there is also a small Office of Research.

There is a new Research Department created in 1995.

Provision of Research/ Analysb (R&A)

Institute of Legislation: 15 staff

Research Dept.: 30 staff (1998)

Library: 6 total staff

Number of Staff/ Training

5.237 titles of periodicals

2.6 million vols

Nat'l Pari Library:

There is a separate reference room near the Rada mtg hall, with 1,000 volumes and 50 periodicals and newspapers — many foreign

126 newspaper subscriptions

234 periodicals

30,000 volumes

Lib & Info Dept:

Library Collections

Research Dept: Offers analysis on economic & social issues, evaluation of legislation on those topics, and assistance to committees

Lib & Info Department: Offers reference services, loans, bibliographies on legislative issues.

Types of Products/ Services The Rada would like to add staff and continue its automation efforts. It would also like to create a translation service in one of the libraries. Future points of emphasis include: preparing additional materials for committees and other Supreme Rada bodies; creating databases of foreign materials; building collections of foreign parliamentary material; and offering a more efficient structure for the flow of information to the Rada. Lib & Info Dept:

No workload info.

Research Dept:

3.1 million loans

Nat t Pari Lib:

3,500 reference requests

Future Goals/ Plans

Number of Services/ Requests

APPENDIX C PARLIAMENTARY LIBRARIES AND RESEARCH SERVICES OF CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE Draft Chapter Outline I

Brief history of the Library (or Research Service) When was it founded? Any interesting historical events that led up to its creation or coincided with it? What have been the major developmental periods since its founding?

II

Setting of the Library (This Information is used once, and not repeated for the Research Service, if it is separate from the Library) Brief description of the legislature: One house or two? Parliamentary or presidential system? Brief description of the electoral system (proportional representation from party lists, simple majority in single-member district, or a combination) Location in the parliamentary structure: Report to Secretary General, Chairman of the Parliament, Legislative committee, or independent? Who else do you relate to? Are you part of the European Center for Parliamentary Research and Documentation (ECPRD)? Do you have a sharing arrangement with the national library? Special relationships with other parliamentary libraries in the region?

III

Organization and Staffing of the Parliamentary Library (or Research Service) — — —

IV

Library Collections and other Resources

—

V

Organization Chart Discussion of principal units of the Library/Research organization How many staff? What kinds of training? Does the library provide research and analysis? How many specialists? What kinds (economists, lawyers, etc.)?

Size of collections: number of volumes, number of serial subscriptions, number of newspaper subscriptions, number of CD-ROM subscriptions (including some description), others? Other holdings: audiotapes, videotapes, other? Reading rooms: number and location. Do you have a reading room in the main parliament building? What is the closest reading room to the parliament? (What is the distance to the Chamber?)

Services and Products Full description of the services and products offered by the Library/Research unit What kinds of research services, if any? How do you advertise and distribute your products and services? Do you measure your workload or services? If so, how many units of service did you provide last year?

237

—

VI.

Whom do you serve? Both chambers (if bicameral), Members, Committees, staff, other legislatures of regional or local bodies, ministries, academics, researchers, the public?

Developments in Automation — — — —

How many PCs and are they networked? Does the parliament have a network to which the library/research organization is connected? What other use do you make of technology? (CD-ROM, fax, electronic mail, imaging technology, integrated library system, Internet, etc.) What are your automation plans?

VII. Important Developments in the Library/ Research Service

— —

Recent trends? New products and services? New management structure or style? Any other items of interest? Some speculation about the future of your library or research service

238