This paper discusses the experiences of the Research Department of the Italian Chamber of Deputies over the past few years. The first section describes the origin of the department in the 1970s, including political factors, basic organizational features, and the salient features of the department's activity. The second section addresses the…

This paper discusses the establishment of a research service in the Norwegian parliament. The first section presents some general assumptions regarding a research service in parliament. The second section describes the first initiative, a mandate in the 1970s to establish a commission to clarify the need for such a service. The third section…

In creating Australia's first prime ministerial library, a new cultural institution was developed which blends professional practice from the fields of librarianship, education, archives, journalism and museums. The John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library honours the contribution of wartime prime minister John Curtin, works towards the advancement…

Bibliotek.dk is a development project, resulting in a World Wide Web site, that gives the Danish citizen access via the Internet to search and order material in the collections of Danish public and research libraries. The citizen decides himself or herself which library he or she wants to collect the material from. Bibliotek.dk is developed in…

Since the organization of the United States Bureau of Education in 1867 statistics of public libraries have appeared periodically in the annual reports. It has been the purpose to gather such statistics every five years, but it has not been possible to carry out the plan with perfect regularity. For forty years every annual report of the bureau…