Guidelines for legislative libraries

The idea for this book came to the editor in 1987 when IFLA met in Brighton in the United Kingdom. At the time I was Chairman of the Parliamentary Libraries Section of IFLA and it struck me that information work for legislatures was not only growing and becoming more sophisticated in the case of developed democrats, but was also spreading to many areas of the world where strong legislatures has hardly been a glimmer in anybody's eye for decades. Since 1987, as the result of many resolutions in different parts of the world, the pace of change in this regard has spreaded up till further. I first discussed the question of a short monograph Guidelines for legislative libraries in the Grand Hotel, Brighton, with Jane Ann Lindley of the Asia Foundation and formerly of the Congressional Research Service in Washington DC. She agreed to join the project and this was to prove important in view of the experience she was building up helping many Asian Parliamentary Libraries first while based in Islamabad in Pakistan and subsequently in Bangladesh. At the IFLA meeting in Moscow in 1991, William Robinson, Deputy Director of the Congressional Research Service and Brit Floisted, Librarian of the Norwegian Parliament in Oslo, joint the project. Subsequently, my own colleague Aileen Walker, who is responsible for the computer-based indexing of parliamentary papers and proceedings at Westminster, joined the team. Throughout the period 1989-1993 the support and encouragement of the present Chairman of the IFLA Parliamentary Libraries Section, Dr. Ernest Kohl of the Bundestag, Bonn, Germany has been most welcome. I am conscious that the writing of this book has taken much longer than was originally intended, but that during this period, the whole scene with regard to legislatures and the information they need has altered. Maybe the book's protracted preparation has helped contributors, in judging a changing scene, to make the volume more useful for the future. Guidelines for legislative libraries has been written not only for the library profession as a whole, including those who are training, but also for those engaged in parliamentary librarianship and, in particular, for those involved in setting up new information services for legislators. This includes administrators and those who have responsibility for authorising funds for this purpose. The collecting, analysis and dissemination of information services for legislators. This includes administrators and those who have responsibility for authorising funds for this purpose. The collecting, analysis and dissemination of information is expensive;lack of information, especially for those representing national opinion on an amazing wide range of domestic and international issues, is even more expensive. It is important therefore that all concerned with providing services for legislators, including Members themselves, should understand these needs and the most effective method of establishing necessary support.