Parliament Library of Sri Lanka

Today, the multifarious role played by the Members of the Legislatures of Democratic Establishments requires multifaceted information in their day to day performances as legislators. This was so, even during the good old days, though the demand was not so complex as it is today. Hence the bond between legislature and its library is not a novel concept. The case of Sri Lanka seems to be more positive when one eyes the annals of the Parliament Library of Sri Lanka.

In Sri Lanka, from ancient times, certain democratic political institutions have existed. Evidence has been found in early Chronicles and State inscriptions about demarcation of village boundaries, the idea which is closely associated with the concept of "Gam Sabha", village councils or Assemblies where chieftains and noble men of the village gathered to discuss the day to day affairs and to take decisions amicably. Likewise references can be found in the same Chronicles regarding well established libraries, which thrived during ancient times. However, the present concepts of democratic institutions and libraries are rather different from that of the past and by and large closely associated with Western culture/philosophy as seen herein later.

Sri Lanka -- Ceylon as it was called then -- had been in the grip of three Colonial powers from 1505 up to 1947. The Portuguese who came first and occupied some places along the coastal line from 1505 remained in power till 1658 when they were ousted by the Dutch who came subsequently to the East for the same purpose. Dutch power prevailed over the areas which were under the Portuguese from 1658 to 1796. The British who came last overthrew the Dutch administration and occupied first the maritime provinces in 1796. From there on they expanded their power gradually to other parts of the country and by 1815, after the fall of the Kandyan Kingdom, the whole country became a Crown Colony.

Establishment of the Legislative Council in 1833, as recommended by the Colebrooke Commission, which had been appointed to examine and report on the necessary reforms of the system, indicated the tendency of the colonial masters to administer the new colony in a more liberal manner. Undergoing several changes from time to time the Legislative Council existed till the next radical change which took place in 1931. During the last stages of the Legislative Council voices were aired concerning the need for a library for the Members of the Council. On 20th July 1922 a motion was moved on the floor of the council by Hon. E.R. Tambimuttu, Member representing the Eastern Province, for the establishment of a library for the convenience of Members of the Council. The motion was seconded by Hon. W. Duraisamy, Member representing the Northern Province.

On behalf of the government the then Acting Colonial Secretary Hon. B. Horsburgh explained that though the government was quite alive to the desirability of providing a library for the Council it was not possible to do so at that time due to non availability of funds and space, and that provision had been made for same in the proposed plan of the new council chamber which was coming up.

Although the acting Colonial Secretary indicated the prospect of establishing a library for the Council after the completion of a new chamber, the Members were lucky to have their long felt need fulfilled before that. The existing library records show that the Library for the Members of the Council was set up in 1927. By evaluating the sources and clues from the past, which are still available among the old stock of the Library, it is reasonable to conclude that the resources of the Unofficial Members Library, which seemed to have been some kind of a private library or a book club meant for the use of unofficial members, and some of those of the Colonial Office were used for the formation of the Library initially. It was designated as Legislative Council Members' Library and was in that form till 1931.

Glimpses of representative government could be seen in the political reforms introduced in 1931 on the recommendations of the Donoughmore Royal Commission. By this the State Council was established in place of the Legislative Council. A majority of the members of the council was elected under Universal Suffrage from territorial constituencies. Sri Lanka was the first colony (other than the white settlement colonies) to enjoy this privilege.

Along with the State Council replacing the Legislative Council as the legislature of the country, it inherited the Library of the Legislative Council and continued in that position till 1947. Another Royal Commission, with Lord Soulbury at the helm, came into the country in 1946 to recommend the constitutional reforms demanded by the people. The main recommendation of the Commission was that dominion status be granted to Ceylon. Accordingly, on 4th February 1948, Ceylon became an independent country. The constitution which came into effect was based on none other than the Soulbury recommendations with consequential changes. The legislature introduced by the constitution of 1948 was a bicameral Parliament consisting of the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Library which was serving the State Council became the Library of the House of Representatives and a separate library was set up in the Senate building for the use of Senators. Subsequently most of the resources of the Senate Library were added to the House of Representatives Library in 1971 when the Senate was abolished by a constitutional amendment. This move helped to strengthen the collection of the Library to a certain extent.

A new constitution was adopted on 22nd May 1972 by which the country became a republic. The country which was known as Ceylon changed into Sri Lanka and the legislature, the Parliament, became the National State Assembly which was unicameral and was the supreme instrument of State power. The Library of the legislature was also known as National State Assembly Library.

Yet another change of constitution occurred in 1978. The second Republican constitution changed the name of the legislature again into Parliament and thereby the Library also changed its name as Parliament Library. The significant features of the new constitution which came into operation on 7th September 1978 were the Executive Presidential System and the Proportional Representation System. However, the executive presidency came into existence prior to the inauguration of the new constitution as a result of an amendment to the First Republican Constitution.

The Parliament which was housed in the magnificent building built in 1931 became congested due to the increase in the number of Members of the legislature from time to time and the expansion of its various services. The idea for the construction of a spacious new building for the legislature was a long conceived one. However in 1982 it became a reality. Away from the busy capital, Colombo, a scenic place at Kotte, which was the Capital of the country during the reign of King Parakramabahu the VI, was selected as the location for the new building of the legislature.

The new Parliamentary Complex surrounded by the historic Diyawanna Oya was declared open on 29th April 1982 with enough spaces for its various auxiliary services. In the new complex spacious accommodation has been allocated for the Library in the south wing of the main building. The Library occupies 9800 square feet on the first floor and 8500 square feet on the ground floor. This is about eightfold the space the Library had in the old building. Thus one of the constraints in enhancing the Library collection to keep pace with the increasing output of new materials has been removed. At present the reference, lending and newspaper reading sections are housed in the first floor of the Library, along with the working area of the staff. Hansards of the House of Commons and Lords and of other foreign legislatures, literature pertaining to Statutory Bodies like Government Corporations, Boards, and so on, are located on the ground floor with a vast area for leisure reading and studies. The Research division of the Library is also housed on the same floor.

Sri Lanka is a democratic Socialist Republic as outlined in the constitution promulgated in 1978. The legislative power of the people is enshrined in Parliament which is unicameral in nature. Members of Parliament are elected for a period of six years by the people through universal franchise under a proportional system in which the whole island is divided into 24 electoral districts. Total membership of Parliament is 225. There are 196 members elected on a district basis on the proportional representation system. Under this system the political parties obtain a share of seats in the legislature in proportion to the votes they poll. There are 29 "National List" seats too. These seats are allocated to the political parties and the independent groups contesting the general election in proportion to the votes polled by them at the national level. For this purpose, the political parties and independent groups have to submit lists of persons to the Commissioner of Elections within the prescribed nomination period. These names are published in the Government Gazette. Executive power of the people is vested in the President who is elected at a separate election called the presidential election. The President is the head of the State and also the head of the executive. Parliament and the President become the supreme instruments of state power.

Parliament is a separate and an independent institution in the context of its nature and administration. The traditional Head of the institution is the Hon. Speaker but as the Office of the Speaker is not continuous (as in the case of India) the Secretary General of Parliament who is appointed by the President plays an important role as the Head of the Parliamentary Staff. Staff of the Secretary General is appointed by him subject to the approval of the Hon. Speaker. The Secretary General and his staff function as a separate service which is regulated by an Act of Parliament called Parliamentary Staffs Act. To deal with the matters pertaining to the Parliamentary Staff there is a Committee of Parliament called the "Staff Advisory Committee".

For the convenience of administration the staff of Parliament is categorised into several departments. Administration, Serjeant-At-Arms, Hansard, Catering and House Keeping and Co-ordinating Engineers are the main departments of the Parliament. The Library is a section which comes under the department of administration and the librarian's place in the hierarchy is next to the Director, Administration, who is the head of the department. Thus the librarian is answerable to the Secretary General through the Director, Administration, in all his activities.

So far the Parliamentary Library has been unable to break through its structural barriers to be linked up with the National Library System. Somewhere in the 1990s there was a proposal to establish a Parliamentary Research Service [PRS], a scheme to cooperate and have linkages with other major libraries and databanks of the country with Parliament Library as its focal point. Unfortunately, this proposal did not materialise.

Despite this drawback experienced locally, the Library is maintaining cordial relationships with other parliamentary libraries in the region. The LARRDIS in the Indian Parliament Library sends copies of its regular publications including the English version of the Hansard of the "Lok Sabha" to the Library. Parliament Library is a founder member of the Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific which was formed in 1990. Representatives of the Library participated in the inaugural conference of SARC parliamentary libraries and research services which aimed to establish a regional association within the South Asian countries. This conference was held in Islamabad, Pakistan, on 3rd and 4th of March 1996. Thus, the Library is earnestly taking part in cooperative activities.

The Parliament Library is an integral part of the Parliamentary Secretariat. Though it comes under the administrative department, it functions as a separate unit due to the professional skill required in the operation of its activities. The Librarian is the head of the section in whose hands lies the responsibility of the general administration and maintenance of other professional services expected of the section. Below the Librarian are the assistant librarians and research officers who share equal status. They are responsible for the staffing of the main divisions of the Library. Junior assistant librarians, who help the assistant librarians, are placed next to them. The library assistants are deployed in every division to shoulder the work load with the superiors. Below them are placed the messengers who look after the heavy and tidying up work.

According to the nature of services rendered by the Library the recognizable main units are the reference division, lending division and research division. The latter was recently established and is, therefore, in its experimental stage. It is appropriate to mention here that there is no hard and fast divisional margin when it comes to serve the Members, as most of the time the whole staff has to devote their skill in all the spheres that matter.

The reference section caters for the day to day reference requirements of the Members be it a quick reference or a long range reference need. Members are at liberty to approach any member of the staff for their requirements or even send a note mentioning the particulars needed if the member concerned is engaged in the Chamber. They can convey the message by telephone, too, and will be assisted promptly. The nature of the reference requirements has been recognized and gauged by the experience gained over the period of service and, accordingly, a rich reference collection has been built up to meet the requirements.

The collection consists of general reference materials such as encyclopaedias, dictionaries, directories, year books, statistical reports, and reports of various government departments and statutory bodies, and so on, and special reference materials such as Hansards, Minutes, Order Papers, Questions and Answers, Documents tabled in the House, and so on. These are shelved separately for the convenience of Members who sometimes have direct access to these documents for their various needs.

The lending service is for the Members who prefer leisure reading and independent fact finding according to their own choice. This section is strengthened with almost every subject in the field of knowledge with special emphasis on subjects such as religion, political science, economics, law, public administration, social welfare, education, history, geography, and so on. Advanced scientific and technological materials are generally excluded from the collection as a policy, taking into consideration the nature of the clientele of the Library.

The recently established research division undertakes the analysis and research demanded by the Members on particular occasions and in special cases. At present this type of demand received by the section is very limited. Apart from that, parliamentary practice and procedure is a main area concentrated on by the research division. The Hon. Speaker and his deputies, Members of Parliament, and the Secretary General and his deputies very often consult this division for the requirements of Inter-Parliamentary Union and Commonwealth Parliamentary Association activities. Therefore special attention is being paid to this field by the research division.

The entire staff of the Library at present consists of 14 members as follows:

Except for the third and last categories mentioned above, the other members of the staff are professionally qualified at various levels in the field of Library and Information Science. Research officers are selected for their subject knowledge in various disciplines as required by the legislature taking into consideration their research experience. Naturally, after absorption into the Library service they tend to cultivate a familiarity with the profession mainly through their service and through in-service training. Library assistants, possessing lesser qualifications, are very keen to complete their professional examinations for the betterment of their future. With regard to other higher posts certain professional qualifications are required at the recruitment level.

The stock held by the Library includes books and periodicals of a general nature and reference materials on subject areas such as social, political, economic, environmental and legal matters. The monograph collection of the Library numbers nearly 12,000 volumes. The Library subscribes to about 26 periodicals, both local and foreign, and receives well over 15 more titles free of charge, specially from countries such as Korea, Australia, and Japan. The Library subscribes to 18 newspapers: 16 local and 2 foreign, and receives about the same number of papers free of charge. A few newspapers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are received from the High Commission offices concerned.

In addition, the collection contains Legal Enactments and Parliamentary Debates of both Sri Lanka and Britain, Government Gazettes, Administrative Reports of Government Departments, Sessional and Parliamentary Series, Annual Reports and Accounts of State Controlled Boards and Corporations, publications of the Department of Census and Statistics and of the Central Bank, and the Electoral Registers. The British Hansard is available from 1861; the Sri Lankan Hansard from 1873; Minutes of the Legislature from 1931; Parliamentary Series from 1947; Sessional Papers from 1872; Administration Reports from 1867; Government Gazettes from 1932; several leading local newspapers from the 1920s. The Library also has a good collection of very valuable and rare books on Sri Lanka. Thus the overall collection of the Library consists of about 34,000 volumes. The major part of it is in English. The Sinhala and Tamil collections are currently being strengthened in earnest. The books are classified using the Dewey Decimal Classification Scheme and a classified card catalogue is being maintained. The annual allocation for the acquisition of new books is Rs. 3,500,000 (US$ 6380 approx.) and for the periodicals it is Rs. 1,00,000 (US$ 1823 approx.).

Quite a spacious reading room arranged in a corner of the 1st floor of the Library is available for the convenience of Members who wish to use the resources of the Library on their own. A similar facility is available on the ground floor, too, and both reading rooms are a few minutes walking distance from the Chamber of Parliament.

As mentioned already, the services offered by the Library to its members include reference, lending and research. The most popular service among the Members is the reference service. On a day when Parliament is in session the Library has to meet well over a hundred requests of a reference nature.

The work involved in meeting these requests may range from turning over a few pages of a reference book to thorough searches taking considerable time. The current awareness service maintained of cuttings from local newspapers and a few selected foreign periodicals is a very useful tool in this regard.

The research service, however, is not well-equipped to make research reports and background papers available to the Members on a regular basis. Such material is provided only to a Member making a request.

A popular feature of the lending section is its collection of fiction. It was started sometime not so long ago with the idea of encouraging Members to make more use of the Library. Nevertheless, the experience is that it meets an essential need of Members as a good means of relaxation.

The Library is open from 8.30 a.m. - 4.15 p.m. on non-sitting days. When the House or its Committees sit, it is open from 8.30 a.m. until the rising of the House/Committee. It is closed on Saturdays and Sundays and on all public holidays.

The Parliament Library is exclusively for the use of Members of Parliament. They can make use of the Library by themselves or they can employ their personal research staff to use the Library on their behalf. However, Members who wish to employ their personal staff are required to obtain the prior approval of the Secretary General of Parliament outlining the requirement fully in writing. The academics who pursue genuine research and who are unable to find relevant materials elsewhere other than the Parliament Library may also be allowed in for their limited purposes. For this, too, they have to obtain the approval of the Secretary General. The staff of the Parliament can use the Library in connection with their routine duties. So the members of staff working in Committee offices, Table office and Bills office, and so on, often consult the Library in their day to day duties. In this regard they are even allowed to borrow relevant materials subject to the condition that these are not to be taken outside the premises of the Parliament.

The Secretary General and his deputies have the privilege of using the Library as Members do. Apart from these, Ministries , Government Departments and Statutory Bodies often seek the assistance of the Library for their various information requirements. In most cases their requests are made by telephone and occasionally in writing seeking detailed information. All these inquiries are met promptly by the Library as a routine matter. In short, nobody who seeks information with genuine interest from the Parliament Library is denied access.

It is now more than five years that activities towards the automation of the Library and its services started. The concept became a reality mainly due to the far seeing attitude of the office of the Secretary General. It has recognized that the application of computer technology not only in the Library but also in the whole office of the Parliamentary Secretariat would increase the productivity of its services. The computerisation of the Parliament Secretariat was, therefore, started on the basis of a well drawn up plan and phased in over several years.

It was first started with about 15 personal computers installed in various strategic sections of the Secretariat including the Library. At the second stage a Local Area Network (LAN) was created using a file server with 1 gigabyte capacity installed in the Library. At present 30 work stations covering the main offices of the Parliament, viz. Bills, Committees, Finance, Table, Library, Hansard are inter connected through the file server to the network. To its credit the Library has created several databases to be used in the network. Legislators from 1931 to date is very popular and useful, and frequently used by other offices such as Finance, Table, and so on. For the informational use of the Secretariat, the creation of other databases such as Bills and Acts of Parliament, Members of Cabinet, and Questions in Parliament, is also in progress. For the routing functions of the Library it uses the UNESCO package for libraries, CDS/ISIS. Part of the catalogue of the Library is computerised using this package. Lack of training facilities and funds required are slowing the progress of this unit, but the enthusiasm of the staff and encouragement from the higher officers are gradually taking the lead. Due to the earnestness of the present Speaker, Hon. K.B. Ratnayake, and the present Secretary General of Parliament Mr. B.S.B. Tittawella, the Library was able to be connected to the INTERNET through Sri Lanka Telecom very recently. Along with this, an electronic mail (e-mail) facility was also established.

These newest facilities are intended to make most of the services rendered by the Library more sophisticated by creating more databases as and when required. The Library is also pleased to join the National Information Centre proposed to be established in the National Library in the near future to provide a competent and successful service for Members of Parliament.

It has been observed that the ever increasing responsibilities of Members of Parliament have compelled them to concentrate upon information more than ever before. Today Parliament has become a multifunctional institution. Apart from its conventional role of law making, so many other functions are performed by it at present. The analysis of time consumed by Parliament on various activities proves this fact clearly. The emphasis has shifted to discussions on the accountability of the Executive, as the Executive is responsible to the Parliament for its performance. So question time, debates on policy statements and activities of Ministries, Departments and other Government Institutions have attracted the attention of Members more. As a participatory body of these debates, Members have to play a major role in these discussions. Secondly, the obligations towards the voters, whom they represent, and being alive to their collective needs, problems and wishes is a matter of paramount importance. The new election system, with its proportional representation, has increased the burden on the Members in this regard. Under this system, they have to concentrate on a wider area and on more people, because the basis of this system is a larger electoral district, when compared with the small constituencies of the earlier system. Apart from this, the recent trends in world politics, such as regional cooperation, international relations, and so on, have widened the horizon of even smaller and poorer countries. They are no longer isolated nations as they were in the past. So accurate and up-to-date information in connection with one's own country, as well as the global situation, has become essential armour for survival in the political arena.

Thus Members tend to use the Library and its services more and more. The Parliament Library of Sri Lanka has identified this trend and it is now preparing for action in line with this new development.

A detailed plan for the improvement of the Library and its services has been submitted to the Salaries and Cadre Committee of the Parliament appointed by the Secretary General of Parliament last year. A distinct feature among these proposals is the call for the rearrangement of the Library mainly under three sections, i.e. the Reader Services and Reference Section, the Technical Services Section, and the Research Section. The duties and functions of these sections have been clearly underlined and the staff required is also indicated. The logic of the inadequacy of the present cadre of staff, when compared with the number of Members to be served, is shown clearly and it has been proposed to increase the cadre from the present number of 14 to 32 for the extension of satisfactory service to Members. Viable proposals to elevate the use of computer technology in the Library were also presented.

As it was highlighted by IFLA once, "Parliamentary Librarianship is a distinctive form of information work" and this concept has been clearly recognized by the authorities of the Parliament Library. So efforts are being geared to modernize the Library to meet the challenges of the future and to serve its members more productively.