Official name of Parliament: Botswana Parliament
Note: The Botswana Parliament consists of an elective National Assembly with legislative powers and a consultative House of Chiefs which advises on cultural issues. The National Assembly is under no obligation to accept decisions of the House of Chiefs. The Parliament as a whole elects the Head of State.
Member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Official names of Chambers:
House of Chiefs / Ntlo ya Dikgosi (1)
National Assembly (2)
Member of the ASGP
The National Assembly Library also serves the House of Chiefs

2. Address
Botswana National Assembly Library
Parliament Buildings
P.O. Box 240
Gaborone
Botswana
Tel.: *(267)373200 ext. 216
Fax: *(267)313103
Telex: 2376 PULA BD
E-mail: parliament@gov.bw

3. Details on the Library
Year of foundation: 1968
Person in charge: Ms Florence BUTALE
Position or official title: Librarian
Number of library staff: 2
Number of professional librarians: 1
Number of secretarial and support staff: 1
Size of collection: 4.000
Annual acquisitions budget: 40.000 P (~ US$ 8.000)
Number of current periodicals: 48
Periodicals indexed for relevant articles: Yes
Number of periodicals which are currently indexed for articles: 6
Number of periodical articles indexed per year: 1.752
Number of current newspapers: 15
Press cuttings: Yes
Number of newspapers and press services used for clipping: 9
Indexing of Parliamentary Papers: Yes
Library in charge of the archival materials of the Parliament: Yes
Library uses a thesaurus or a classification system for subject indexing: Classification System
Automation of cataloguing: No
Catalogue not accessible online
Clientele: Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Chiefs, Parliament Staff, Senior Government Officials, General Public (by approval of the Clerk)
Number of reading rooms: 2 (20)
Number of loans per year: 800
Reference services: 100
Current bibliographies: No
Retrospective subject bibliographies: No
External database searches: Yes (started searching external databases in November 1998)
Analysis and research: Yes, by the Research Unit
Right to deposit: For Government Departments
IFLA membership: Yes

5. Publications concerning the Library
Tapisa, A.P.N.: Pushing the information frontier : a study of the information needs of the parliamentarians in Botswana

6. Parliamentary documents
Parliament
* Standing orders of parliament
House of Chiefs
* Minutes, order and notice papers of the House of Chiefs
* House of Chiefs official report
National Assembly
* National Assembly official report : Hansard Official report of the proceedings of the National Assembly
* Votes and proceedings of the National Assembly, order and notice papers
* Annual report / Public Accounts Committee of the Botswana National Assembly

(updated in August 1999)