The Library’s Strategic Plan 2015–16 to 2019–20 sets out the following strategic priorities to ensure that we remain relevant to the working lives of parliamentarians, today and in the future:

• delivering high quality library and research services
• increasing digital access and service
• supporting the Parliament’s engagement with the community and with parliamentary strengthening activities and
• strengthening our staff’s capability.

The strategic plan is supplemented by annual business plans which set out the key deliverables and service standards/targets for that year. These are approved each year by the Presiding Officers as annexures to Library’s Resource Agreement.

Delivering high quality library and research services

The 45th Parliament: welcoming new senators and members

Support for new parliamentarians remained a focus of the Library’s work. During the 2018—19 financial year, four new and one returning senator filled casual vacancies and six members were returned in by-elections (four of whom were returned members following section 44 resignations).

As a matter of practice, the Library assigns a contact officer to each new senator and member. Contact officers introduced them and/or their staff to the diverse range of Library products and services, and demonstrate how the Library could support them in their day-to-day work.

Individual orientation and training sessions were also offered throughout the year to new staff.

The success of this outreach is evident in the fact that 100 per cent of parliamentarians used the Library’s services in 2018–19 notwithstanding the changes in representation across the two chambers.

Preparations for the 46th Parliament

Preparations for the new Parliament were a major focus of the Library’s work for the last quarter of the financial year. A cohort of contact officers received fresher training to ensure they were familiar with all the Library’s services. After the election, a contact officer was assigned to each new parliamentarian.

The Parliamentary Librarian presented at the formal induction sessions for new senators and members and their staff organised by the chamber departments. The Library also organised dedicated orientation and training sessions for parliamentarians’ staff.

As part of the Library’s support for the new Parliament, we again produced a Briefing Book covering a range of key issues that can be expected to confront Parliament over the next three years. The edition for the 46th Parliament contains 53 separate articles, across a broad range of subject areas, and focuses on key strategic issues, their context and significance for Australia. The opening chapter addresses the digital world and its impacts, reflecting the far reaching public policy impacts of digital technologies. This edition also reflects a move to slightly longer articles which enable more detailed analysis. As a result, the Briefing Book is the longest we have produced, running to 260 pages.

The Briefing Book was distributed to new and returning parliamentarians in June, and published on the Australian Parliament House website in July 2019.

In addition to the contact officer program, the Librarian wrote to all new and returning parliamentarians providing them with a customised package of information which included: maps and statistics relating to their electorate or state; a copy of the Briefing Book; and a guide to Library services.

Support to Parliament’s consideration of the Budget

A major part of the Library’s annual work is to provide detailed analysis and support to the Parliament’s consideration of the federal budget. This year was notable for the compressed timing of the budget process due to the upcoming federal election; and the Library took the opportunity to trial a number of refinements to its budget products and services.

In addition to providing our annual seminar on Understanding the Budget on Budget morning, we offered information sessions to individual parliamentarians offices or groups of offices, early in the calendar year. These presentations, given by researchers in the Economic Policy section, proved very popular.

Other features were the pre-Budget publication of Quick Guides to assist clients to understand various aspects of the budget documents, and the production of high level summary briefs complemented by a reduced number of measures briefs and Budget related Flagposts.

The traditional budget seminars were well attended, with Professor Beth Webster (Pro Vice Chancellor, Swinburne University of Technology) and Professor James Morely (Professor of Macroeconomics, University of Sydney) presenting on the wider macro-economic context of the Budget.

Client requests

Senators, members and parliamentary committees, and the staff who support them, are able to request information or commission research and receive confidential, tailored responses by an agreed deadline, in person, by phone, email, or through detailed written advices. The 2017 client services evaluation found that research services remain the most often used of all Library services, with 94 per cent of parliamentarians and their staff using them to some degree.¹⁷

In 2018–19, Library staff answered 10,299 such requests (11,656 in 2017–18), providing one-on-one or group briefings, reports and memoranda, maps, statistics and other research products for individual senators and members, as well as analysis and information in support of committee inquiries and parliamentary delegations.

Table 18: Client requests completed in 2018–19

Requests
Senators	2,935
Members of the House of Representatives	5,991
Parliamentary committees	168
Departments, reciprocal arrangements and other	1,205

This metric is further discussed in the performance report.

Enhancing client service: face to face briefings

The 2017 client evaluation highlighted the importance of personalised services to enable parliamentarians to maximise the potential benefits of the Library’s services.¹⁸ Where practicable, over the past year the Library has been building on its written advice with face to face meetings, enabling parliamentarians to explore the advice, refine the issues, and sometimes commission new research on matters of interest. This is leading not only to better research that is fit for its specific purpose, but develops staff understanding of parliamentarians’ business environment and needs.

Research publications

Each year the Library produces a broad range of general distribution publications to provide parliamentarians and their staff with authoritative and timely information and analysis of legislation and of current issues relevant to public policy and administration. These include short, topical FlagPost blogs, statistical bulletins, research papers, and Bills Digests. The 2017 client evaluation found that 87 per cent of parliamentarians and their staff, and 88 per cent of departmental staff make use of the Library’s publications.¹⁹

In 2018–19, the Library issued 385 new or refreshed research products, including 80 Bills Digests and 58 research papers.

A new product was released this year in response to changes to the Commonwealth Electoral Divisions boundaries: 151 Statistical Snapshots of each electorate based on the most up-to-date boundaries. Using data sourced from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) 2016 Census of Housing and Population, each Snapshot covered a range of interesting topics from age and sex, birthplace, ancestry and language (top ten for each electorate), religious affiliation, schooling, employment statistics plus data on families and dwellings. An electoral map was also included, produced by the Mapping team within the Library.

From time to time the Library also commissions research papers from external experts. One of these was published in 2018–19: Australia in the League of Nations: a centenary view (Emer. Prof. James Cotton).

Library lectures

Reflecting the reduced number of sitting days due to the federal election, the Library held only 11 lectures this financial year, which included regular events on the Library program such as the Reconciliation Week Lecture by Professor Tom Calma AO, and the Budget seminars (both detailed elsewhere).

The program ranged from the historical, with ‘Forgotten founder—George Houstoun Reid’ by Dr David Headon, to the very contemporary and technical ‘Section 44—Office of profit under the Crown’ by Professor Anne Twomey. The impacts of technology on public policy and legislative issues were reflected in tech briefings on cybersecurity, blockchain and new genetic technologies.

Improving research quality

Two years ago, the Library implemented a number of strategies to enhance the quality and consistency of its research output, particularly client advices. These measures—such as automatic peer review—have become business as usual processes. We have also refined the use of caveats in advices to ensure clients are explicitly made aware of any limitations on the information or analysis in a client advice, such as policy matters for which there is limited information or substantial disagreement among experts.

We continue to develop ways to further refine our approach, as detailed elsewhere in the sections on increasing Building our capacity and Enhancing client focus—face to face briefings.

Proactive management of the Library collection

The Library maintains a carefully curated collection to meet the contemporary needs of the Parliament—such selectivity being enabled by the Parliament’s ready access to the National Library of Australia’s extensive holdings. The Library aims to keep the collection at around 145,000 monograph titles. It also holds around 50,000 individual print and electronic journal titles, including those contained in the large aggregated subscription services. New material is acquired, and outdated, damaged or redundant material is discarded regularly, while materials on Australian politics, legislation and constitutional matters are retained permanently.

The Library’s budget for information resources is managed throughout the year to ensure resources are spent on a collection which remains relevant and focused. The major part of the Library’s collection expenditure is on current (and digital) sources of information: journals, reference materials and news services.

Increasing digital access and service

Growth of online resources

The Library has, in recent years, increased the range of digital resources so that senators and members have access to this information regardless of time or location. By way of example, approximately 80 per cent of the collection budget was spent on electronic resources in 2018–19. The 2017 evaluation of Library services showed clients appreciated the move to online services and use of emerging technologies.²⁰

The percentage of the Library’s collection available in digital form increased from 45.5 per cent at the end of June 2018 to 46.2 per cent at the end of June 2019. A little over 90 per cent of titles in the serials collection, and 30 per cent of monograph titles are available in full text.

Use of these electronic collections is highest when Parliament is sitting; this has been a consistent trend over several years.

Better management of our digital collections

Increasing digital access and services remains a key priority. As part of its digital delivery strategy, the Library is working to ensure we have the necessary policy and procedures, ICT infrastructure, and staff capabilities to collect, preserve and deliver innovative digital content. The Library’s Framework for the Digital Delivery of Library Products and Services, Digital Preservation Framework and Digital Preservation Policy were endorsed by the JSCPL at its 20 March 2017 meeting. The Library is implementing the strategic priorities identified in the frameworks and aims to complete activities by December 2020.

Achievements in 2018–19 included implementing EZproxy to allow greater access to Library products and services outside the parliamentary network, the completion of the digitisation of the Parliamentary Paper Series, the procurement of additional digital online newspapers and the recruitment of a Manager, Digital Resources position within Collection Management.

The Library continues to bed down the new digital policies and procedures; and a working group has been established to evaluate the Library’s digital preservation framework, policies and procedures.

Library systems replacement

During 2018–19, the Library commenced a Library systems replacement project as a number of key contracts were due to expire in 2019. A Request for Tender was released on the 22 October 2018 for the provision of an Integrated Library System (ILS), a digital repository and a discovery and federated search solution. Tenders closed on the 26 November 2018.

After reviewing the tenders, the Tender Evaluation Committee recommended that a contract for the ILS and digital repository be awarded to SirsiDynix (the current provider) and a contract for the discovery and federated search solution be awarded to Ebsco Information Services. These contracts were finalised in July 2019.

The project offers an opportunity to improve the discoverability of Library information resources by providing a single discovery layer for print, digital and database content and will ensure Library systems are supported and fit-for-purpose—both in terms of our present requirements and the future strategic direction—with a strong focus on accessibility, discoverability and convenience for clients.

The ILS and digital repository will be upgraded and the discovery and federated search solution implemented during 2019–20.

Parliamentary Handbook online

Last year’s annual report noted the completion of the Wadsworth database containing the digitised biographies of all Commonwealth parliamentarians since 1901 (numbering over 1,700), including information about their state and territory parliamentary service. The benefits of the database in serving the Library’s research needs are already being realised. In 2018–19, the historical biographies were published in ParlInfo Search, providing public online access to this information for the first time, and supporting the provision of a wider range of historical information on the website.

In 2018–19 the Library also commenced work on a new, digital Parliamentary Handbook, which we expect to move into production next calendar year. Complementing the new edition of the printed Handbook to be issued for the 46th Parliament, it offers an enhanced and interactive experience for users. The online version of the Parliamentary Handbook will move into production in early 2020.

Library mapping services

The mapping team in the Library creates and prints custom maps for clients using specialised mapping software to display combinations of thematic data, such as socio-economic or infrastructure data, and electoral information. The Library obtains information from online data sources such as data.gov.au, ABS, the Australian Electoral Commission, Geoscience Australia, state and territory governments, and industry sector portals and websites.

The Library’s mapping service remains popular with clients. During the 2018–19 financial year, the mapping team received 471 requests for mapping products, with the number of maps for each request ranging between 1 to 55 maps. Demand for maps fluctuates from year to year, reflecting increasing demand around the release dates of Census and election data.

Table 19: Mapping requests 2015–16 to 2018–19 Financial Year

Financial Year	Client Requests	Printed Maps	PDF Maps
2015–2016	568	1,585	1,175
2016–2017	442	1,715	1,723
2017–2018	500	1,437	2,764
2018–2019	471	1,425	2,956

Digitisation

Digitisation of the Library’s collection, both contemporary and historic records, continued to be a major priority in 2018–19.

In 2014–15 the Parliamentary Library began a program of preservation digitisation of its information files dating from the 1950s to early 2000s, a unique collection of Australian political and public policy history still regularly used by clients, Library staff and occasional visiting scholars. Since 2014, the entire collection of approximately 10 million pages has been digitised: two million in 2014–15; two million in 2015–16; three million in 2016–17; 2.75 million in 2017–18; and the final 300,000 clips in 2018–19.

The digitised news clips are currently being quality assured and uploaded to ParlInfo Search. It is expected that all clips will be available in ParlInfo Search by December 2020, in line with the Library’s 2020 vision for digital preservation. The Library met its 2018–19 KPI to quality assure and uploaded 20 per cent of the digitised files to ParlInfo Search and intends to achieve the same outcome in 2019–20.

This work is made possible by specific exemptions in the Copyright Act 1968.

Historic radio and television

Since 2014-15, the Library has also been digitising its large collection of radio and television news and current affairs programs. This collection of pre–2004 audio-cassette tapes and audio-visual tapes amounts to 55,000 hours of video footage and 38,000 hours of audio recordings. In many cases these are unique. During 2018–19, the Library digitised a further 9009 hours (9.7 per cent) of the collection, significantly exceeding its target to digitise 5 per cent of the collection. In total, 25,169 hours has been digitised since the commencement of this project.

Parliamentary Papers Series 1901–2012

In 2018–19 the Library completed its project to digitise the Parliamentary Papers Series (PPS) bound volumes from 1901 to 2012—some 25,000 reports amounting to around 2.4 million pages. (The project commenced in May 2016.)

The PPS comprises significant documents that have been formally presented to Parliament, and subsequently ordered to be printed; and so forms part of the public record of the proceedings in each Chamber. The PPS includes reports of parliamentary committees, Royal Commissions and other inquiries, Budget papers, annual reports of government agencies, white papers, and a variety of other material. As an original parliamentary record, the PPS is a core part of the Library’s collection, and a key resource for its researchers. Digitisation of the PPS ensures it is preserved for the future and enables broader and easier access as it becomes available online as a series for the first time.

The PPS are now all digitised, quality assured and publicly accessible via ParlInfo Search.

A full set of TIFFs and metadata files is being provided to the National Library of Australia for ingestion into TROVE.

Library research data plan

As the world becomes more digitised, there are ever greater volumes of data available that can be used to provide insights into many public policy issues. This year the Parliamentary Library commenced a new project to expand our capabilities in data analysis. This will have several phases, ultimately involving systematic plans for the collection and storage of data, as well as the software and people skills to analyse it. In 2018–19, the project commenced with a stocktake of the Library’s considerable data holdings. This information will provide the foundation for next stages in coming years.

Supporting the Parliament’s engagement with the community and with parliamentary strengthening activities

National Reconciliation Week

Professor Tom Calma AO delivering the 2019 lecture

The Parliamentary Library initiated its National Reconciliation Week lecture in 2013 as a contribution to fostering understanding and respect for the histories and diverse, living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year’s lecture was delivered by Professor Tom Calma AO, an Aboriginal elder from the Kungarakan tribal group and a member of the Iwaidja tribal group in the Northern Territory, and Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia. Professor Calma spoke to the theme of Reconciliation Week 2019: ’Grounded in truth: walk together in courage’.

Collaborative partnerships

The ‘First Eight’ Project

In March 2018, the Presiding Officers officially launched ‘The First Eight—Australia’s early Prime Ministers’, a collaboration between the Parliamentary Library, the National Museum of Australia, the National Archives of Australia, the Victorian Parliamentary Library, the Australian National University’s Australian Studies Institute and Canberra historian Dr David Headon.

Work in 2018–19 focused on Australia’s fourth Prime Minister, George Reid. The Library published a commemorative Flagpost Blog on Reid to mark the 100th anniversary of his death on 12 September 2018. Reid was the subject of centenary lecture at Australia House in London in September 2018, and a Parliamentary Library lecture in December 2018, both delivered by Dr Headon. The Library will publish the associated monograph in the 2019–20 financial year.

Work is also underway on a collection of Alfred Deakin’s articles published anonymously in the London Morning Post, the first volume of which will also be published in 2019–20.

Fifty Great Acts project

This year, the Parliamentary Library began a joint project with the National Library of Australia to produce 50 Great Acts: Legislation that Changed the Nation, a book that will showcase the important role of Parliament over time in shaping Australian society and institutions through milestone pieces of legislation. The Parliamentary Library will provide some of the underlying research, while the National Library of Australia will manage the detailed authorship, design and production as well as itself conducting research. We would like to also acknowledge the significant contribution by other parliamentary staff, from Hansard and the Department of the Senate, who prepared research briefs during the election period.

The book is expected to be published in 2020.

Regional engagement

Support to the Pacific Parliaments

In 2018–19, the Parliamentary Library participated in two United Nations Development Program (UNDP) missions to the parliaments of Vanuatu and Samoa as part of its ‘Floating Budget Analysis’ initiative. This innovative capacity building program enables Pacific parliamentary staff to enhance their skills by working together collaboratively and with staff from more established parliaments to undertake analyses of national budgets.

Parliamentary Library staff had previously participated in budget missions to Fiji.

The November–December 2018 mission to the Vanuatu Parliament comprised staff from the Australian Parliamentary Library (senior researcher Michael Klapdor) and the parliaments of Fiji, New South Wales, New Zealand and Tonga. The team for the May 2019 mission to the Samoan Parliament comprised senior researcher Juli Tomaras and colleagues from the parliaments of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu.

Both teams worked with local staff to produce independent and non-partisan research and analysis of the respective country’s national budget. The missions culminated in workshops open to all parliamentarians in which presentations on the budget process, the budget at a glance, and selected ministries were delivered to enable enhanced budget scrutiny.

Association of Parliamentary Librarians of Asia and the Pacific (APLAP)

APLAP was founded in 1990 to encourage cooperation and knowledge sharing between bodies that provide library and research services to parliaments in Asia and the Pacific. Throughout 2018–19, the Parliamentary Library worked closely with other members of the APLAP executive in preparation for its upcoming conference and General meeting in Tokyo in October 2018.

Delegates from 27 institutions across 21 countries attended the conference which was hosted by the National Diet Library as part of its 70th anniversary celebrations. The conference theme, ‘Developing human resources for research services and parliamentary libraries’, allowed delegates to present on the latest developments in staff training, strategic human resource planning and improving staff capacity to support parliamentary processes and provide specialised research services.

The Parliamentary Librarian ceased her term on the APLAP Executive at the 2018 General Meeting; however, the Library continues to administer APLAP’s website and Facebook group.

Participants at the 2018 APLAP Conference, National Diet Library, Tokyo

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)

IFLA is the leading international body for library and information services and its Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section (IFLAPARL) brings together specialist legislative information services from around the world. In 2018–19, the Parliamentary Librarian remained an active member of the Standing Committee administering IFLAPARL.

In addition to contributing to preparations for the IFLAPARL’s annual meetings and training workshops, the Library has been part of a project to produce a revised and updated edition of the IFLA Guidelines for Legislative Libraries.

Other engagement

The Library is also active in the Association of Parliamentary Libraries of Australasia (APLA), a collaborative network of federal and state parliamentary libraries in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, including managing the association’s website.

The Librarian and senior staff met with delegations from ASEAN member states and from the parliaments of: Ghana, Malaysia and Timor Leste; and presented to the participants of the 2019 Inter-parliamentary Study Program.

Recognising the importance of supporting the development of professional skills in the library community, the Library also hosted a group of library students from Charles Sturt University.

Summer Research Scholarship

The Parliamentary Library’s Summer Research Scholarship offers post-graduate students the opportunity to undertake a research project at the Parliamentary Library. Scholars undertake a six-week placement in the Library during the summer academic break. They have access to the Library’s collections and facilities, the opportunity to interact with expert librarians and researchers, and mentoring for their research project. Upon submission of their final report, scholars receive a small honorarium.

One scholarship was awarded in 2019, to Graeme Read, a PhD candidate at the Australian Centre on China in the World, Australian National University College of Asia and the Pacific.

As has now become tradition, the Presiding Officers hosted a reception in the Speaker’s courtyard for the 2019 summer scholars from the Library and the national cultural institutions.

Parliamentary Library intern programs

Since 2014 the Library has been offering four-week placements for interns in the Research and Library Collections and Databases Branches. Fourteen interns have participated in the program in Library Collections and Databases (two in 2018–19), six of whom are currently employed in the Parliamentary Library following graduation (four ongoing and two in non-ongoing positions).

Research Branch hosted four interns in 2018–19, three under the Australian National Internship Program and one under the ANU College of Law program.

The Library also provides assistance to the wider cohort of interns placed in the Parliament, including access to the Library’s databases and collections. The Parliamentary Librarian is also a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Internship Program Steering Committee.

Assistance to other parts of DPS

Since July 2014 the Library has selected and recommended politically themed book titles for sale in The Parliament Shop. Over this period, the Library’s acquisitions team has recommended 688 titles (62 in 2018–19), helping ensure that The Parliament Shop is the ‘go to’ place for politically themed books.

The Library also provided specialised indexing services to DPS for the 2017–18 annual report. The use of in-house Library skills to achieve this legislative requirement also met the Library’s performance measure of supporting the Parliament’s engagement with the community.

Strengthening our staff’s capability

Restructure of the Library Collections and Databases Branch

In July 2018, a new structure in the Library Collections and Databases Branch was implemented. This restructure was the result of a 2017–18 review undertaken in close consultation with Library Collections and Databases Branch staff. (The restructure was budget neutral and did not result in any redundancies.) The restructure aimed to position the Library strategically to deal with rapidly evolving library technologies and systems, whilst still maintaining high quality business as usual activities.

In January 2019, Library Collections and Databases Branch staff were further consulted to gain feedback on the restructure and to determine if any further fine tuning was required.

The new structure has established two new sections: Library Collections and Discovery and Library Systems, Projects and Innovation. The Library Collections and Discovery section (combining the former Collection Management and Database and Media Services) has focussed on enhanced acquisition, management and organisation of Library collections and content and making them easily discoverable to Library clients. The Library Systems, Projects and Innovation section has focussed on enhanced digital delivery of library products and services and the Library’s digital preservation priorities. The Central Enquiry Point section has remained unchanged.

The new structure has already realised many benefits: the completion of the Parliamentary Papers Series project, progression of the Wadsworth project, a successful Request for Tender for our Library systems, the achievement of branch key performance measures and the establishment of the Library Systems, Projects and Innovation Advisory Group.

Cyber working group

Many public policy issues do not sit neatly within the boundaries of a particular subject discipline, and insightful analysis requires multi-disciplinary expertise, and the digital world is a case in point. The Library this year created a working group to analyse cyber issues and includes research specialists from across Research Branch.

As its major focus in 2018–19, the group devised a program of publications that will continue into 2019–20. Under the auspices of the program, three Quick Guides and a Flagpost were published in 2018–19, and work commenced on several other publications. The completed and in-progress publications contributed to the Library’s responses to client requests, as well as other Library publications, most notably the chapter ‘The Digital World and its impacts’ in the Briefing Book: Key issues for the 46th Parliament.

Strategic Workforce Plan

In 2018–19, the Library developed a strategic workforce plan to inform future capability requirements, ensure employees have the right skills, knowledge and experience to meet current and future challenges, foster a positive workplace culture and align the Library’s strategic plan, business plan and budget to human resource strategy.

The plan will be implemented from July 2019.

Training and skills development

The value of the analysis and advice provided to our clients depends in large part on the professional skills and knowledge of the Library’s staff.

In 2018–19 staff attended a wide variety of externally provided conferences and seminars but also participated in a full program of development activities held in-house. These included training courses covering statutory interpretation, writing for the library, editing skills, preparation of Bills Digests and two Study of Parliament courses (also open to non-Library staff). We have continued to host a program of in-house seminars run by visiting experts or colleagues, which this year numbered fifteen.

These activities are now also underpinned by the development in 2018–19 of the Research Branch knowledge and capability framework that provides a structured syllabus and associated training for staff of all levels of experience.

The Editors group continued its program of in-house seminars, which this year covered areas such as accessibility standards.

The Library continues to welcome the opportunity to send officers to the ANZACATT Parliamentary Law, Practice and Procedure (PLPP) Course, with one officer from Research Branch receiving excellent results. Five Library staff attended the 2019 Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) Information Online conference. This conference focuses on managing digital resources, library systems and library innovation.