Description of parliamentary information service - Katherine Close
Katherine gave a description of the Parliamentary Information Service, which responds to public requests for information about various aspects of parliament. They also act as a referral service for whom to contact within parliament.
Research papers produced by the Parliamentary Library on a variety of subjects are published on the New Zealand Parliament website and provide a wealth of easily accessible data. For example, recent titles include New Zealand Health system reforms; Young people and gangs in New Zealand; Immigration chronology: selected events 1840-2008.
Parliamentary process & documentation – Barbara Stedman & Mike Keane
Barbara, research librarian, law and government team and Mike, eServices Co-ordinator - Training, Parliamentary Library, took us through the parliamentary process and then presented a case study (she used the Policing Bill 2007) to follow the bill through all its stages - from its introduction when the bill is laid on the table (no debates), to the final assent.
In particular, they provided details about the process of bills through each reading and the difference between the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives and the Journals of the House of Representatives. It was also good to find out exactly what online coverage the Parliament website has for such things as the Supplementary order papers (SOPs), and the usefulness of the Bills Digests.
Parliament’s website & related websites – Mike Keane
Mike Keane, eServices co-ordinator, Parliamentary Library, raced through parliament's revamped website and gave a very good overview of this most interesting and informative site. The recent revamps have made the site even better and of course this is a continual process. The site appears easy to navigate and contains an immense amount of information - check out the home page! He covered other related sites and useful links:
- The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (which has things like a complete ministerial list)
- Dept of Internal Affairs (which has a wealth of varied information)
- Beehive (the official website of the government of New Zealand, which includes releases by ministers)
- and Elections
Hidden gems – historical perspective – Katherine Close
Katherine described the wealth of material the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives (often referred to AJHRs) contain, particularly those from the 19th and early 20th centuries. (From the 1940s onwards the level of detail strongly declines). The reports of one-off bodies like Royal Commissions, and the annual reports of government departments, published in the Appendices, contain highly detailed information on a wide range of political, social and economic topics of historical interest. They also include many mentions of individuals which make them of great interest for family history research.
She also spoke of the wide variety of illustrations they contain, including lithographs, maps, charts and photos, and recommended the following reference: “Maps in the Appendices to the Journals, House of Representatives : a chronological listing” / R.P. Hargreaves. Dunedin [N.Z.] : Geography Dept., University of Otago, 1968.
Collection Management – Katherine Close & Cath Anyan
Katherine and Cath covered the state of parliamentary publications in public libraries and universities throughout New Zealand. Publications such as Bills and the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Representatives (A-Js) are kept in a limited number of libraries and in many cases they are in a deteriorating condition (including Auckland City Libraries’ copies of the A-Js). In the case of Bills, many libraries have also thrown their older copies out. Due to this, there is an increasing demand for digitisation of parliamentary publications,
Another area of collection management touched on was statutes. Up until 2003 the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO) published statutes in bound volumes. However after 2003 there was a change in their policy, with statutes only being published individually. Auckland City Libraries now sources its bound statutes from Brookers, who still publish bound volumes. The reason for this change by the PCO was due to the increasing volume of material available on the parliamentary website.
The final area covered was the trialling of the 'e-committee' process. This has been designed to allow online submissions to select committees and subsequent publication of these submissions on the parliamentary website. Currently the e-committee process has only been used the Commerce Committee's Inquiry into Affordable Housing (and one other), but there are plans to widen its use.
Q&A, feedback, future developments – Moira Fraser & Cath Anyan
The seminar finished with a discussion by Moira Fraser regarding future developments, and the possible digitization of more parliamentary papers. There is currently no budget for retrospective digitization, but Moira requested feedback to help inform where best to start and to give information for presenting a business case for funding.
There was a difference of opinion between librarians from public libraries and those working at law firms. While public librarians were keen to see the A-Js digitised, starting from either the nineteenth century or the mid twentieth century, law librarians wanted to see the Parliamentary Debates/Hansards digitised first. Unluckily for both, a lack of funding means neither will be digitised in the near future.
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