House of Commons Library

Encyclopedia : H : HO : HOU : House of Commons Library

The House of Commons Library is the library and information resource of the lower house of the British Parliament. It has adopted the phrase Contributing to a well-informed democracy as a summary of its mission statement.

Contents

1 History
2 The Library today
3 References
4 Librarians of the House of Commons
5 See also
6 External links

History

The Library was established in 1818 and a purpose-designed library was built for it by Sir John Soane and completed in 1828. This building, along with much of the mediaeval Palace, was destroyed by fire in 1834.

In the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster by Sir Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the Library was given four large rooms on the river front of the principal floor of the new palace, each 40 feet by 25 feet and some 20ft high. This suite was opened in 1852, and two additional rooms added in the mid/late 1850s.

The Library was stocked with some 30,000 books majoring in history, topography, biography and politics, as well as the official papers of the House. Almost alone among contemporary parliamentary libraries, the staff were given free rein to determine the scope of the collection from about 1850 onwards.

In 1945-46, it was reorganised on modern lines, and a Research Division created, to provide briefings to Members, and to answer their individual detailed enquiries on a confidential and non-partisan basis. A modern reference library was created in the former Map Room, which had been previously equipped with pull-down maps of all parts of the world.

A Public Information Office was set up in 1978. Electronic publication began in 1978, when the Library contributed to the Prestel viewdata system. Computerisation of the Library's information systems began in 1979 with the creation of POLIS, the Parliamentray On-Line Information System.

Staff of the Library are not, and have never been, employed by the civil service; they serve, and provide completely impartial advice and analysis to, Members of Parliament.

The Library today

By 2006, the Library had 192 staff, and occupied premises outside the Palace of Westminster as well as within it. Many of the staff had specialist qualifications in, for instance, law, statistics, and various aspects of public affairs.

The total holdings are about 250,000 print items, plus journals and official papers, together with extensive on-line and electronic sources. The Library is not a copyright deposit library, unlike the British Library and the Library of Congress. Some of the older book stock was loaned in 2004 to the British Museum, to populate the King's Library there. The Research Papers compiled by House of Commons Library research staff are available on the Internet.

The Library is not open to the public, though information about the history and work of the Commons can be supplied by telephone (020 7219 4272).

References

"The House of Commons Library - a History", by David Menhennet, 2nd edition 2000
"The Early History of the House of Commons Library", by Chris Pond, published in 2001

Librarians of the House of Commons

1818 Benjamin Spiller
1831 Thomas Vardon
1867 Ralph Walpole
1908 Austin Smyth
1937 John Kitto
1946 Hilary Saunders
1950 Strathearn Gordon
1967 David Holland
1976 David Menhennet
1991 Dermot Englefield
1993 Jennifer Tanfield
2000 Priscilla Baines
2005 John Pullinger

External links