Regional associations

APLA

Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Australasia
http://www.gil.com.au/~nickb/apla.html

The Association, which comprises the senior executives of the national and provincial parliamentary libraries, was formally set up on 2nd January 1984, following a series of informal meetings initiated by Mr Les Moore, the Commonwealth Parliamentary Librarian, in May 1972.

Following this first meeting, conferences were held in Sydney (1973), Melbourne (1975) Brisbane (1977) Canberra (1980) and Adelaide (1982). At the latter meeting, a Steering Committee of Dr Russell Cope (New South Wales), Mr Nick Bannenberg (Queensland) and Mr Hillas MacLean (Commonwealth) were authorised to draft a constitution and establish guidelines for subsequent conferences and meetings.

APLA's objectives are to:

• Encourage understanding of, and co-operation between, research and information services attached to National and State Legislatures;
• Consider any matters affecting the common interests or operations of Parliamentary Libraries;
• Initiate, develop, establish and support ideas, methods and techniques likely to result in the better functioning of Parliamentary Libraries generally, and in particular their effective provision of information relevant to the needs of the Parliamentarians they serve;
• Foster a clearer understanding of the respective needs and roles of Members of Parliament and their Parliamentary Libraries by establishing a forum for better communication between the two;
• Provide a body which can speak and act on behalf of its several constituents on matters coming within the ambit of its authority; and
• Advance the cause of Parliamentary Librarianship generally.
  The association has continued its policy of holding biennial conferences of two or more days during which formal papers are delivered and discussed, as well as conducting a one day general meeting each year. Conference Proceedings are usually published by the library hosting the conference. For more details see the list of Office Holders and Venues.

Honorary membership is open to parliamentary librarians from adjoining regions, and has been granted on at least one occasion, but the establishment of the Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Asia and the Pacific APLAP, in 1992, has provided an alternative forum.

More information on APLA and its constituent libraries can be found at its website:

http://www.gil.com.au/~nickb/apla.html

APLAP

Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific
www.aplap.ly.gov.tw

The Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific (APLAP), is a regional international organization, for the purpose of promoting understanding and cooperation among Asian-Pacific parliamentary libraries, and communicating the disciplines of modernized parliamentary librarianship, congressional research as well as legislative information systems and services. The origin of this professional and interesting organization could be traced back to the Workshop of the Parliamentary Libraries Section of the General Conference of IFLA in Sydney, Australia in August 1988. In keeping with the Workshop's theme, the participants from the Asian and Pacific parliaments decided that an association should be formed to help promote cooperative activities amongst them.

More information on APLAP can be found at its website: www.aplap.ly.gov.tw

APLIC/ABPAC

The Association of Parliamentary Librarians in Canada / L'Association des bibliothécaires parlementaires au Canada

The Association of Parliamentary Librarians in Canada (APLIC/ABPAC), established in 1975, was founded under the leadership of the Parliamentary Librarian, Erik J. Spicer, and a few colleagues from the libraries of the provincial legislatures.
The Association has met in Ottawa several times and meets every two years at a different provincial capital.

The Association, which consists of the Parliamentary Librarian and the Legislative Librarians of the Provinces and the Territories, has as its objectives to improve parliamentary library service in Canada, to foster communication and cooperation among members concerning matters of mutual interest, to identify issues requiring research and analysis, and to encourage cooperation with parliamentary officials and organizations.

It provides a common basis to facilitate the identification, location, and exchange of legislative and governmental documents among the member libraries, and to limit the duplication of collections. It also constitutes a network for cross-country surveys on policies, practices, and budgeting and for the sharing of research questions on behalf of our clients.

APLIC/ABPAC is also a source of expertise to its members, through reports of visitations and of operations analyses made for several libraries, and through the preparation of a regular annual survey of members' libraries, which is useful for planning, evaluating, and budgeting. And finally, our Association is a source for identifying contacts and subject experts in other jurisdictions, and a morale booster. Among its notable achievements has been the role played, for example, in the development of a legislative library in the Northwest Territories.

APLIC/ABPAC publishes a Bulletin twice a year, in April and December.

The executive is presently composed of :

President
Sandra Perry
Legislative Librarian of Alberta
Vice-President
Margaret Murphy
Legislative Librarian of Nova Scotia

Secretary-Treasurer
Lynn Brodie
Director of Collections, Information and Documentation Branch
Library of Parliament, Ottawa

The next APLIC/ABPAC Biennial Conference will be held in Edmonton in 2004 and will be hosted by the Legislative Library of Alberta.

APLESA

The Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Eastern and Southern Africa (APLESA) was founded in Harare, Zimbabwe, in October 1994 when participants of eleven countries of the region met. These countries were Botswana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The idea of forming an association had been around since 1986 as the parliamentary librarians became aware of the need for effective information exchange programmes and cooperation among the parliamentary libraries in the region. In 1990 Mr Gurure, then Chief Librarian of the Parliament of Zimbabwe, circularised his colleagues asking for their opinion about a regional association. At the 1990 IFLA Conference in Sweden Mr Gurure received considerable encouragement for this proposal, and in1992, with the assistance of IFLA and the International Development Research Centre (IRDC), feasibility study visits and a further survey were carried out leading to the inaugural meeting, funded by IFLA.

At this meeting the topics discussed included a survey of Parliamentary Librarianship in the region, resource sharing among Parliaments of the region and the need for the Member of Parliament to have concise, timely and adequate information. A constitution was adopted and it was recommended that the different Parliaments should be asked to provide some funds to enable study visits, attachments, formal and informal training, collection development and attendance at Library meetings - national, regional and international.

The promotion of exchange of parliamentary documents with the region was agreed as well as a regular newsletter. Since that meeting members of APLESA have kept in touch, and exchange of some material has taken place.

The first APLESA Conference was held in Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in July 1995. Eleven delegates from eight countries attended and there were observers from information centres in Dar-es-Salaam.Topics discussed included the role of parliamentary libraries in multi-party states with special emphasis on the need to provide timely, up-to-date and accurate information; creation and utilisation of research services with special emphasis on the interrelationship between the Parliamentary Library and the Research Section; the need for cooperation or sharing of resources; and the role of the library in the 21st century. It was clear that there was still much work to be done in realising certain of the set goals, including the implementation of exchange programmes and the initiation of informal training programmes, but much progress had been made in establishing professional co-operation.

The 1996 conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa in September 1996 with the theme, 'The functioning of a modern Parliamentary Library in Africa'. South Africa is currently the only parliamentary library in the association with access to the Internet.

APLESA Executive Committee:

At the 6th APLESA Conference in Maseru, the following persons were elected to the following positions:

Chariperson
Mr. Donaven Raliile
Library of Parliament
c/o National Assembly
Parliament Building
Maseru 100
Lesotho
Tel. (+266)323035 Fax (+266)310438 Email: Parliam@ilesotho.com
Vice Chairperson
Ms. Esther Nxumalo
Swaziland
Email: Parl-Library@Realnet.co.sz

CONFERENCE OF BLACK SEA COUNTRIES

The initiative for cooperative meetings of the eleven Black Sea countries came originally from the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament. The first two meetings were held in. The third meeting was held in Bucharest in May 1996. The main topic had been the GLIN (Global Legislation Information Network) project and recommendations had been passed to the meeting of the secretaries-general of the Black Sea countries.

NORDIC COUNTRIES

The cooperation between the Nordic parliamentary libraries started in 1922. From 1965 and onwards meetings between the Parliamentary Librarians have been held every year. The meetings are organised in turn by one of the parliamentary libraries.

Topics discussed are strategic and organisational issues and technical and more practical issues. The aim is to share knowledge and best practice on all levels of library business. The staff have their meeting or study tour once every other year.

The cooperation is based on an open and inclusive network for libraries within similar parliamentary traditions.

SARC

The proposal to establish an association of Parlimentary Libraries of South Asia had been mentioned during the workshop. It was hoped that there would be more to report in 1997.

LATIN AMERICA

Attempts to establish meetings of parliamentary librarians from Latin America and Spain had so far failed for lack of funding. The emphasis was now turning to the use of the Internet. It was hoped that there would be more positive news next year.