The Parliamentary Library of Australia (or Commonwealth Parliamentary Library) is the library of the

Parliament of Australia The Parliament of Australia (officially the Federal Parliament, also called the Commonwealth Parliament) is the legislature, legislative branch of the government of Australia. It consists of three elements: the monarch (represented by the ...

, administered by its Department of Parliamentary Services. It provides library services to elected officials, namely members of the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

and

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

, as well as their staff, parliamentary committees, the

Governor-General of Australia The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Australia.Commonwealth of Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

. Control of the new library was controversial as the fledgling parliament was located in Melbourne where the Victorian premier and the library committee of the State Library of Victoria sought to influence the control and management of the library. From 1923 the library used two names describing the two roles and two collections ''Commonwealth Parliament Library'' which designated the parliamentary collection and ''Commonwealth National Library'' to designate the national collection. The collections were relocated from Melbourne to Canberra in 1927. Sir Harold White served as Parliamentary Librarian from 1947 to 1967. In 1960 the ''

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

'' was created by act of parliament. The collections were separated when the ''National Library of Australia'' building was completed.

Organisation and services

The Parliamentary Library lies within the

Department of Parliamentary Services The Clerk of the Australian Senate is the head of the Parliamentary Department of the Senate, which is the parliamentary department supporting the work of the Australian Senate. The Clerk is responsible to the President of the Senate who in turn ...

(DPS), one of four departments supporting the functioning of Parliament. The staff of the Library is led by the Parliamentary Librarian, a statutory officer responsible for the control and management of the Library, who is on the DPS Executive Committee. This committee is the department's primary governance body, comprising the Secretary (chair), Deputy Secretary, Parliamentary Librarian, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Information Officer, First Assistant Secretary for Building and Security Division and Chief Finance Officer. , the Parliamentary Librarian is Dr Dianne Heriot. First appointed in February 2012, her five-year term was extended on 10 May 2017. The staff provide a media monitoring service, research and analysis as well as managing the library collection. The Parliamentary Library publishes the

Australian Parliamentary Handbook {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 The Australian Parliamentary Handbook (officially the ''Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia''), is the official record of the Parliament of Australia. The handbook is published once during each th ...

, which provides information about Parliament including the parliamentary service and political careers of Senators and Members, parliamentary committees and elections.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Legislative libraries Libraries in Canberra Parliament of Australia 1901 establishments in Australia Libraries established in 1901

Organisation and services

See also

References

Further reading

External links