New Zealand Parliamentry Library
The theme of sustainability was evident work and practices of the Parliamentary Library. The 55 staff provide confidential research services for the Members of Parliament (MP’s) their staff, other government organisations and the public, ranging from transactional to analytical. Given that the staff are the primary users of the collection, great emphasis has been placed on ensuring it is relevant to their needs. Therefore, initiatives such as a substantial collection review, integration of a range of delivery methods such as those available through NewsBank and PressReader, and development of a dynamic in-house thesaurus are helping to ensure the library is relevant and manageable now and into the future. In particular, the collection reduction from 750,000 to 180,000 items has freed up a considerable amount of physical space, which has reduced workload, but also presents opportunities for how this space could be used by library or other parliamentary staff in the future, a novelty which is uncommon in Australia.
Visits to multiple sites in Wellington indicate that there exists a large degree of communication and collaboration between government information agencies in New Zealand. The role of Government legislation such as the Public Records Act, the General Retention and Disposal Authority and agency specific authorities were evident at the Parliamentary Library, as was the case at the New Zealand Archive. These Acts and authorities inform the library’s strategic plan as well as the informational management framework and principles due the Parliamentary Library's role as a conduit between MP’s, government agencies and the New Zealand Archive.