The House of Commons Library is the library and information resource of the

lower house A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise e ...

of the British Parliament. It was established in 1818, although its original 1828 construction was destroyed during the burning of Parliament in 1834. The library has adopted the phrase "Contributing to a well-informed democracy" as a summary of its mission statement.

History

London - Victorian Building in Westminster - Detail

The Library was established in 1818 and a purpose-designed library was built for it by Sir

John Soane Sir John Soane (; né Soan; 10 September 1753 – 20 January 1837) was an English architect who specialised in the Neoclassical architecture, Neo-Classical style. The son of a bricklayer, he rose to the top of his profession, becoming professor ...

and completed in 1828. This building, along with much of the medieval

Palace of Westminster The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...

, to which it was added, was destroyed by fire in 1834. In the rebuilding of the Palace of Westminster by Sir Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, the Library was given four large rooms on the river front of the principal floor of the new palace, each 40 feet by 25 feet and some 20 ft high. This suite was fully opened by 1852, and two additional rooms added in the mid/late 1850s. One of these was to compensate for the loss of Room D, which was taken over by Speaker Denison and his successors as their private library—it was not restored until the 1960s. The Library was stocked with some 30,000 books majoring in history, topography, literature, biography and politics, as well as the official papers of the House. Almost alone among contemporary parliamentary libraries, from about 1860 onwards, the staff were given free rein to determine the scope of the collection. In 1945–46, the House of Commons reorganised its library on modern lines. A Research Division was created, to provide briefings to Members, and to answer their individual detailed enquiries on a confidential and non-partisan basis. A modern reference library was created in the former Map Room, which had been previously equipped with pull-down maps of all parts of the world. The Public Information Office (now House of Commons Information Office), was set up in 1978, headed by Chris Pond under the oversight of David Menhennet. Menhennet also began

electronic publication Electronic publishing (also referred to as e-publishing, digital publishing, or online publishing) includes the digital publication of e-books, digital magazines, and the development of digital libraries and catalogues. It also includes the e ...

in the same year, when the Library contributed to the Prestel viewdata system. Computerisation of the Library's information systems began in 1979 with the creation of POLIS, the Parliamentary On-Line Information System. The total holdings are about 350,000 print items, plus journals and official papers, together with extensive on-line and electronic sources. The Library is not a mandatory or copyright deposit library, unlike the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

and the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

. Some of the older book stock was placed on permanent loan in 2004 with the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

, to populate the King's Library there (the original King's Library bookstock having been transferred to the

at St Pancras). It is the official custodian of the House's printed records. In 2008 the Library was incorporated into the new Department of Information Services following a ''Review of Management and Services of the House of Commons'' conducted by Sir Kevin Tebbit. However, research, information and library services continue to be provided to Members of Parliament and their staff under the House of Commons Library banner. The Department of Information Services is also responsible for information services for the public including Parliament's Education Service, the House of Commons Information Office, Visitor Services and the Web & Intranet Service.

The Library today

The Library provides four core services to the House, Members and their staff: * A confidential enquiry service for Members and their staff covering all subjects of parliamentary interest. Some 19,200 substantive requests ("logged enquiries") were received in 2010/11. * Briefings for the House and Members generally covering the business of the House and other issues of parliamentary concern. 83 Research Papers (around half on bills before the House) and 187 Debate Packs were produced in 2010/11. 494 new Standard Notes were published in the year and around 1,200 were updated at least once. Research Papers and most Standard Notes are generally available via th
Parliament Website
* Library services including reading rooms, book loans, on-line resources and reference collections. The Library is one of the main common spaces of the Houses of Parliament; Members use it for conversation, discussion and relaxation as well as consulting information sources. Reading room facilities for Members' Staff are provided in the Derby Gate Library. * Training and guidance in the use of information, particularly online resources and Library services. In 2011, the Library had 150 staff, and occupied premises outside the Palace of Westminster (principally the old Whitehall Club at no.1 Derby Gate) as well as within it. Many of the staff have specialist qualifications in, for instance, law, statistics, and various aspects of public affairs, or librarianship. Staff of the Library are not, and have never been, employed by the

civil service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

; they serve, and provide completely impartial advice and analysis to, Members of Parliament. Although Members of the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

may by courtesy use the Library, the House of Lords has a separate

Library A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

. The Library is not open to the general public, though information about the history and work of the Commons can be supplied by the House of Commons Information Office. Arrangements can often be made for members of the public who wish to use resources of the Library not available elsewhere to have access to them in the Parliamentary Archives.

Librarians of the House of Commons

The following have served as Librarian: * 1818: Benjamin Spiller * 1831: Thomas Vardon * 1867: George Howard * 1887: Ralph Walpole * 1908: Austin Smyth * 1937: John Vivian Kitto * 1946: Hilary Saunders * 1950: Strathearn Gordon * 1967: David Holland * 1976: David Menhennet * 1991: Dermot Englefield * 1993: Jennifer Tanfield * 1999: Priscilla Baines * 2004: John Pullinger * 2015: Penny Young * 2022: Grant Hill-Cawthorne

References

Sources

* Menhenne, David (2000). ''The House of Commons Library – a History'', 2nd edition * Pond, Chris (2001).''The Early History of the House of Commons Library''

External links