The Congressional Library of the House of Representatives, Congress of the Philippines

Brief History

On July 27, 1987, the first congress established under the 1987 Philippine Constitution convened in the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City. The Congress was officially denominated as the Eighth Congress to signify the continuity of the Seventh Congress which martial law ended in 1972.

To support the new Congress in the exercise of its powers, each of its chambers formed its respective Secretariat. In the House of Representatives, the Secretariat was composed of two departments each with three bureaus. The Administration Department was composed of the Administrative Support, Finance and Management, and Engineering and Physical Facilities. The Operations Department was composed of Committee Affairs, Plenary Affairs, and Reference and Research. The Congressional Library together with other offices and divisions were placed under the office of the Secretary General.

The Congressional Library (CL) traces its origin to the libraries of the legislative institution in the pre war period: the Philippine Legislatures (1907-1934) and the Commonwealth National Assembly (1935-1945); and the post war period: First to Seventh Congress of the Philippine Republic (1946-1972), the pseudo parliament under Marcos (1978-1986), and the new Congress under the 1987 Constitution.

CL's earliest printed materials which can be found in its Legislative Archives, consist of a selective collection of documents, legal treatises and 19th Century classics. These are preserved to provide a gauge of the wealth of information available to the earliest Philippine legislators.

Remnants of the collection which belonged to the Commonwealth National Assembly can still be found in the Legislative Library.

Parts of the library and archival collections of the Philippine congresses dispersed after the imposition of Martial Law in 1972 that were retrieved from various sources became the initial collections of the Batasang Pambansa when the latter convened in 1978.

The collections built during the Batasan years which were used as the library and archives of the 1986 constitutional Commission served as the foundation for the present collections of the Congressional Library. These enabled services to be rendered when the new Congress convened in 1987.

Since 1987, the Congressional Library has developed its collections through the two divisions which constitute it. It served the Eighth Congress under Speaker Ramon V. Mitra, served the Ninth Congress under Speaker Jose C. de Venecia, Jr, the present 10th Congress under Speaker de Venecia, Jr. and expects to maintain if not better its position in future Congresses.

Hopefully the results of the 1988 national elections will contribute more favorably to a faster growth and development of the Congressional library.

Setting of the Library

The Philippines is a democratic and republican state with three co-equal bodies exercising their respective constitutional mandates. Legislative power is lodged in Congress, executive power in the President, and judicial power in the Supreme Court and lower courts

Two chambers - the Senate and the House of Representatives - make up Congress. The former is composed of twenty-four (24) members and the latter, two hundred and two (202) members and seventeen (17) sectoral representatives.

Senators are elected nationwide and the Congressmen are elected by legislative districts, which have been apportioned among the provinces, cities and the Metropolitan Manila area, on the basis of uniform and progressional population ratio

The administrative head of the Secretariat of the House of Representatives is the Speaker of the House. Subject to the Speaker's supervision and control, the Secretary General is the immediate Chief of House personnel responsible for the faithful and proper performance of official duties.

Administration, Finance and Legislative Operations, the Congressional Economic Planning and Budget Office (CPBO), the Office of Legal Affairs (OLA), the Planning and Management Division, the Electronic Data Processing Division and the Congressional Library constitute the Secretariat of the House. Responsible directly to the Secretary General are the Deputy Secretary General of each department, the Chiefs of the respective divisions under the Office of the Secretary General, the Director General of CPBO, the Directors of the OLA and the Congressional Library. The directors of the bureaus under each department are responsible to their respective Deputy Secretaries General.

The Congressional Library performs a three pronged mission to serve as:

• the central/principal source of information for the members of the House of Representatives and its Secretariat;
  
• the conservator of the permanent records of the Philippine constitutional bodies and the legislative institutions; and
  
• an agency of "last resort" where evidence that would decide issues of constitutionality and legality can be found.

Due to the nature of its functions and the significant support it provides Congress, the Congressional Library's collection and services have been developed independently of the National Library and other agencies. It maintains its network with librarians and libraries of key government agencies, i.e., Supreme court, Department of Justice, Court of Appeals and Office of the Solicitor General.

In 1980, arrangements for exchange of legislative documents between the Parliamentary Library Service of the Batasang Pambansa and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library of Australia were established. That linkage was revived in 1987 and remains valid to this day. The exchange arrangement with the National Assembly Library of Korea established in 1987 and strengthened in 1989 continues to exist. The exchange of documents with the US Library of Congress also continues.

Organisation and Staffing

The Congressional Library is headed by a Director who is responsible directly to the Secretary General. Her responsibility revolves around the formulation, integration and implementation of the general plans and programs of the bureau.

It is made up of the Office of the Director which serves as the administrative back-up of the Director; the Legislative Library which is charged with the acquisition, processing, organization of materials on the subject concerns of Congress and its Secretariat, and the Legislative Archives which is charged with the preservation of official documentary evidence of the Philippine constitutional and legislative institutions. Each division, which is organised along functional lines, is headed by a Chief of Division.

The Legislative Library is made up of four sections:

Acquisitions takes charge of all activities involving the selection, evaluation and acquisition of materials that would enhance the library's capability to meet the reference and research requirements of the House and its Secretariat.

Processing takes charge of all activities involving the proper organisation and maintenance of materials in respective collections and the preparation of the necessary tools for retrieval and delivery of information and services.

Clientele Services takes charge of all activities involving provision of information, reference and research assistance to the Members of Congress, the Secretariat, other government officials and offices, and the general public.

Automation Services takes charge of all activities involving the preparation of necessary program applications, and maintenance of computer hardware, software and databases.

The Legislative Archives is also made up of four sections:

Acquisitions takes charge of all activities involving the transfer of custody of papers, records and other documentary evidence of the constitutional and legislative institutions, the evaluation of their archival value, and periodic inventory of collections.

Processing takes charge of all activities involving the technical processing and intellectual organisation of archived documents, and the preparation of finding aids to ensure the effective and efficient retrieval and delivery of information or source document when the need arises.

Conservation takes charge of all activities involving preservation of archived documents in conformity with preservation standards.

Services takes charge of all activities involving reference and research use, exhibit and display of archived collections.

The Congressional Library has a total staff complement of 34 who are assigned as follows: four (4) to the Office of the Director, fifteen (15) to the Legislative Library and fifteen (15) to the Legislative Archives. Of the total five (5) are licensed professional librarians.

Training of the Congressional Library Staff

Training comes in three forms: participation in conferences, seminars and workshops sponsored by professional groups or associations; in-house seminars/workshops prepared in coordination with or initiated by the Human Resources Development Services of the House Secretariat's Personnel Division (HRDS); and the Congressional Library's Libraries, Archives and Museums Tour Program (LAMTP). To date more than thirty training courses have been provided for the staff dealing with library management, marketing, total quality service, automation, archived collections conservation and management.

Special in-house training courses on indexing, thesaurus preparation, and materials conservation were initiated and completed in coordination with the House Secretariat's HRDS.

The bureau's LAMTP, introduced in 1994, has provided the staff with opportunities to study conditions in the libraries, archives and museums within Metropolitan Manila, the nearby provinces, and the Ilocos Region. The exposure to these institutions has broadened perspectives and contributed to a deeper appreciation and greater knowledge of library and archival work.

Research and analysis are activities integral to library and archival work and undertaken to prepare information packs on national issues or problems confronting Congress and provide other information services to the Members. These constitute vital inputs to a member who may have to defend his position during committee meetings or hearings, and floor deliberations. The Congressional Library provides research and analysis short of actual writing of the research papers.

In the House Secretariat, the Congressional Economic Planning and Budget Office (CPBO) undertakes activities relevant to economic matters while other concerns are covered by the Reference and Research Bureau.

Collections

To date the Congressional Library has in its Legislative Library a total collection of 53,319 foreign and locally published materials. This comprises 30,227 books and monographs and 26,755 documents. Subscriptions for 1996 total 92 titles excluding the eleven titles of local news dailies and two foreign newspapers.

In addition, to its printed collections, the Congressional Library has subscriptions to two CD-ROM titles: PHIL JURIS and LEX LIBRIS.

PHIL JURIS system produced by Gigabytes Research Systems, Inc., contains the full text of over 50,000 decisions and resolutions promulgated by the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 1901 to 1996 in three compact discs. Basic search is be done by subject, case title, G.R. No., date or name of opinion writer. Advanced research is done through a combination of subjects; of subject and case title; of subject, case title and date; or of subject, date and name of opinion writer.

LEX LIBRIS produced by CD Technologies, Asia. LL has volumes on Taxation and Laws. Taxation Philippine Edition includes texts of all the laws, presidential issuances, court decisions, Department of Finance opinions and circulars, Bureau of Internal Revenue rulings, orders and circulars, and international tax treaties. Laws Philippine Edition, contains the constitutions, laws presidential issuances, and Supreme Court circulars and other issuances.

The total holdings of Legislative Archives are approximately 56,802 documents which is the equivalent of some 3,788 linear feet using the archival unit of measure. These are composed of bills and resolutions in various stages of passage on the floor, originals of resolutions simple, concurrent, joint and resolutions of both houses in joint session, republic acts signed or vetoed by the President, committee reports, transcripts of stenographic notes of committee meetings or hearings, plenary sessions proceedings and congressional records.

Likewise in its custody are 4,044 rolls of microfilm, 3,622 tapes and ten archival boxes (15" x 12" x 10") of photographs taken between 1945 and 1992.

The House of Representatives occupies the building which in a record speed of three months was constructed in time for the opening of the Batasang Pambansa. The outer structure remains as originally built; its interiors were renovated in 1987 to accommodate the Members of the new Congress.

The Library was among those affected by these renovations. It was relocated from the second floor North Wing to the South Wing basement and its area was reduced from 1,000 sq metres to 730 sq metres. The new location, however, provides better accessibility to its clientele. Archives remains where it was originally located in the North Wing basement. The change of layout greatly improved working conditions.

The Legislative Archives located in the North Wing basement occupies an area of 896 sq metres. The area is divided into a legislative gallery, depository, staff area, audio visual room, microfilm room, information center, and a research area which is provided with nine study carrels. The Legislative Library is located in the South Wing basement and shares its 730 sq metres with the Office of the Director. It includes an acquisition area, processing, clientele services area, open shelves and book stack areas and a computer room. LL's Clientele Services area includes spaces for circulation, periodicals, members' study, and readers' area which has 28 study carrels.

The officers and staff of both divisions are strategically and visibly located where they can best provide control over collections and assist researchers.

The separate locations of the divisions do not provide the most suitable conditions for the bureau but one can only count one's blessings.

Services and Products

Services of the Congressional Library are availed of directly from the Legislative Library, the Legislative Archives or indirectly through the office of the Director, Congressional Library. Services range from simple to complete requests which are all given due attention.

A) Clientele Need Services

A.1) Phoned-in-requests
Requests made by telephone usually require facts and figures, or bits of information, and do not require more than a quick check into reference tools.

A.2) Request for materials

Requests for materials pre-identified as to title, author or number or by other simple identifiable coding system.

A.3) Requests for Research Assistance

These requests require consolidation of pertinent and/or relevant materials on a given subject which necessitates a lengthy process of research.

B) Pre-need Services

Preparation of special files of high information value can readily be made available when called for.

B.1) Subject compilation of Philippine Laws (SCPL)
The service puts together in compilations all laws enacted and all issuances of the President on a wide range of subjects.

B.2) Vertical File (VF)

The service puts together in files all studies, reports and other materials from varied sources on a problem, question or issue which Congress would likely be called upon to address. Thus, substantial information sources can be made readily available.

B.3) Info Pack Service

The Info Pack Service takes either of two forms: those which members request to be prepared and those which are prepared in anticipation of a Member's request.

Services offered are basically the same and differ only in the nature of materials each division handles. In LL, the majority of materials are in printed form: books and monographs, documents, serials/journals, newspapers and magazines. Printed, computerised data bases and other special files are also available.

The material resources include the constitutions of nations, the laws of the Philippines, the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries as well as the laws of some states of the United States; California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas; and the United Nations documents.

In the LA, the legal documentation of constitutional and legislative institutions are kept in custody and preserved. These include original bills, laws and resolutions together with the documentation of committee action and deliberations in plenary sessions. Its collections are comprised of documents of the constitutional institutions of 1971 and 1986, martial law period institutions, Batasang Bayan and interim Batasang Pambansa and Regular Batasang Pambansa, legislative institutions from First to Ninth Congress; Electoral Tribunals: House, Senate, Presidential and Constitutional Convention; and reports on Members' participation in international and regional conferences or meetings.

Apart from those mentioned above, no other research services are provided.

The Congressional Library Bulletin comes out on a quarterly basis. The Bulletin provides the bibliographic data on the materials acquired during the earlier period as well as the list of documents archived.

Statistical records are kept of the accomplishments of each section of each division of the Congressional Library. Total services rendered for 1995 numbered 23,199 with 18,556 attributable to the LL and 4,643 to LA. Archives registered 20,935 reproduction of copies and 27 compilations of legislative histories.

For the same year the total services by clientele type were: 3,590 to Members and their staff, 5,564 to Secretariat Officials and employees, and 2,773 outsiders.

The Congressional Library is intended to serve exclusively the House of Representatives' Members, Committee Staffs, and Secretariat officials and employees. Services are extended to the Senate, the Office of the President, the Department of Justice, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Office of the Solicitor-General and other government institutions. Under certain conditions, services are also made available to the general public such as researchers and scholars.

Developments in Automation

The legislative Library operates on a limited local area network linking acquisition and processing. The network is operated through four PCs with one unit for Acquisition and three for Processing. It has one stand alone unit for use of CD-ROMs.

LA has five PCs with two units connected to the House Secretariat's Electronic Data Processing (EDP) Division. These are used for the institution's Bills Information System (BIS). It has one unit for Acquisition and Processing and another for general use.

The EDP is currently doing a study on the House link-up with Internet.

Storing on compact discs of Philippine laws and other resources is likewise being considered while scouting for the best company which could provide the conversion services.

The Congressional Library envisions a larger and better positioned office in the organisation that would prepare for the eventual merging of the Senate Library with the House Congressional Library when the Senate and the House become permanently housed in one building, as the Congress of the Philippines.

It proposes the elevation of the bureau into a department which would in turn upgrade the Legislative Library and the Legislative Archives divisions into bureaus and its sections into divisions.

It proposes the creation of additional divisions: a Public Affairs Division which would undertake the formulation and implementation of an outreach program, undertake exhibits and other activities for the general public; and, an Automation Division which would undertake the formulation and implementation of an automation program, prepare and implement computer program applications, improve/upgrade and maintain its software, hardware and databases.

It envisions the establishment of a bureau-wide network that can become a institution-wide network that would allow access from offices of Members and their staffs and the Secretariat officials and employees.

It envisions the storage on compact discs of the Philippine Laws and legislative documents that would allow wider dissemination of and faster access to information.

Finally, it envisions a Congressional Library that can access and be accessed instantly by any parliamentary library in the region or anywhere in the world.