Information for Members of Parliament: the service provided by the House of Commons Library

Abstract

‘Information transfer’ may be considered at different levels of sophistication. The subject goes much wider and deeper than, for example, the physical movement of library materials from one location to another. It is wise for us to remember, however, that behind all our discussions at this Conference, and behind the massive apparatus of the Congressional Research Service in Washington and of the National Diet Library in Tokyo, lies one simply expressed requirement: that of providing the right person or organization with the right information in the right manner at the right time. The most carefully organized information retrieval systems are sometimes defeated by elementary slips or misunderstandings on the part of those who operate them. From this introduction you will have deduced that I am a firm believer in the overriding human values of common sense, intelligence and attentiveness to the matter in hand—whatever the question and whatever the circumstances.

Citation

Menhennet, D. (1973), "Information for Members of Parliament: the service provided by the House of Commons Library", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 25 No. 12, pp. 477-483. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb050438