Official name of Parliament: Althingi
(Parliament)
Member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union
Member of the ASGP

2. Address
Upplysingathjonusta Althingis
Information Services of the Parliament
Skolabru 2
150 Reykjavík
Tel.: *(354)5630500; 5630685
Fax: *(354)5630690; 5630520
Telex: 3035 PARL IS
E-mail: upplysing@althingi.is
Homepage: http://www.althingi.is

3. Details on the Library
Year of foundation: 1849
Person in charge: Ms Kristin GEIRSDOTTIR
Position or official title: Deildarstjori Upplysingathjonustu
Number of library staff: 5
Number of professional librarians: 3
Number of secretarial and support staff: 2
Size of collection: 31.000
Number of annual accessions: 500
Annual acquisitions budget: 2.500.000 ikr (~ US$ 40.000)
Number of current periodicals: 150
Periodicals indexed for relevant articles: No
Number of current newspapers: 30
Press cuttings: Yes, by a private firm
Indexing of Parliamentary Papers: Yes, by the Publishing Dept.
Library in charge of the archival materials of the Parliament: No
Library uses a thesaurus or a classification system for subject indexing: Classification system
Automation of cataloguing: Yes
Is the automated library catalogue accessible as an online catalogue to outside users?: Yes
Clientele: Members, parliamentary staff; open to the public
Number of reading rooms: 1 (1)
Number of loans per year: 400
Reference services: Yes
Current bibliographies: Yes
Retrospective subject bibliographies: No
External database searches: Yes
Analysis and research: No
Depository library: Nordic Council
IFLA membership: No

4. Publications published by the Library
Ritauki
Lists of books acquired by the Library. - Published monthly during sessions (Oct. - April). - Ca. 8 lists p.a.

Nýtt efni (New aquisitions)
A list of new acquisitions of the library is published on the Information services Intranet on Althingis Web.

5. Publications concerning the Library
The Library of the Althingi, the Icelandic Parliament // In: The parliamentary libraries of the Nordic countries. - Stockholm, 1988. - p. 25 - 31
Blöndal, Ragnhildur: Drög ad sögu Althingisbókasafns. - 1992
Brief history of the Library of the Althingi

6. Parliamentary documents
Althingistídindi
Published weekly during sessions by the Althingi Office. - Divided into two parts:
A. Thingskjöl
Documents, including bills, motions, opinions, written questions, replies and reports
B. Umrædur
Verbatim report of parliamentary debates
Up to the session 1986/87 there were two annual indexes to Althingistídindi: a classified index to A showing results of individual matters dealt with by the Althingi as a part of A, a subject index to A and B as a part of B. - It showed for each matter the numeration of documents in A and the numeration of columns in B. - Following the subject index: the list of speakers. - Since the session 1986/87 a special volume containing various indexes is published
* Thingsköp Althingis
Standing orders of the Althingi
* Handbók Althingis
Handbook published after elections since 1984, a supplement being published each session. - Contents: Parliamentary groups, biographies of Members of the Althingi, Standing Committees, election statistics, Speakers 1845 - , Cabinets and Ministers 1904 -
All publications are in Icelandic, except the Standing Orders which are also available in Danish and English

(updated in April 1999)