Parliamentary Libraries, Institutes and Offices: Sources of Parliamentary Information

Abstract

As part of its Governance program, the Poverty Reduction and Economic Reform Division of the World Bank Institute (WBIPR) has sought to strengthen parliamentary oversight - in part, by improving parliaments' representative function and its accountability to the electorate. In parallel, efforts have been made within WBIPR, and elsewhere in the Bank to promote the greater access to information as a key component of good governance. Noting that legislatures need information to perform their representative, legislative and oversight functions, this Paper primarily looks at different sources of parliamentary information - parliamentary libraries (including research staff and internet access), parliamentary institutes, and more specialized legislative budget offices. Not surprisingly, the distribution of parliamentary libraries and their resources vary greatly, from the United States Library of Congress, which has 110 million books and 75,000 periodical subscriptions, to Burundi, whose parliamentary library has only 50 books, and Paraguay, whose library subscribes to only one periodical. Not surprisingly, the distribution of research staff is equally skewed - meaning that deficiencies in parliamentary library collections are typically not offset by other sources of information. In countries as varied as Canada, India, Bangladesh and Russia, parliamentary institutes represent a solution for the information problem. Such institutes exist either as independent organizations outside of parliament (as in Canada and Russia), or as specialized research and training arms of the parliamentary bureaucracy (as in India and Bangladesh). The Paper concludes that, where parliamentary budgets cannot sustain a comprehensive library service, a parliamentary institute could offer a more viable source of information for parliamentarians.