Official name of the country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Official language: English

Official name of Parliament:* Parliament
-Bicameral -
Member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union

Official names of Chambers: House of Lords (1)
Member of the ASGP

2. Address
House of Lords
The Library
Houses of Parliament
London SW1A 0PW
Tel.: *(44)(171)2195242
Fax: *(44)(171)2196396
Telex: 916318
E-mail: davispg@parliament.uk
Homepage: http://www.parliament.uk

3. Details on the Library
Year of foundation: 1826
Person in charge: Mr David Jones
Position or official title: Librarian
Number of library staff: 20
Number of professional librarians: 10
Number of research and subject analyst staff in the Library: 5
Number of secretarial and support staff: 5
Size of collection: 100.000
Number of annual accessions: 900
Number of current periodicals: 450
Periodicals indexed for relevant articles: No
Number of current newspapers: 40
Press cuttings: Yes
Indexing of Parliamentary Papers: Yes, by the Library
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?: No
Clientele: Members, officers of either House, restricted number of accredited research assistants
Number of reading rooms: 5 (110)
Reference services: 13.000
Current bibliographies: Yes
Retrospective subject bibliographies: Yes
External database searches: Yes
Analysis and research: Yes, by the Library
Other special collections of the Library: Truro law collections, Peel tracts, tracts on Charles I and the Civil War
Any other information: The Library provides research, information and bibliographic services in support of the parliamentary and judicial functions of the House of Lords
IFLA membership: Yes

5. Publications concerning the Library
House of Lords Library Guide (1998). Brochure prepared for Members of the House.
Companion to the Standing Orders and Guide to the Proceedings of the House of Lords, 1994, as amended
Standing Orders of the House of Lords Private Business 1991 (House of Lords Paper 72 of 1990-91), as amended

6. Parliamentary documents
Parliamentary debates
House of Lords official report. - published daily, weekly and in bound volumes containing the debates for 2/3 weeks. - indexes are produced weekly with a cumulation twice within a session and a final sessional cumulation. - collections of debates go back to the year 1660 and printings of individual speeches even earlier. - there is also Cobbett's Parliamentary history 1066 - 1803. - from 1803 - 1909 Cobbett and then the Hansard family followed by other publishers published debates on a regular basis. - In 1909 the House of Lords itself took responsibility for the publication of its debates through Her Majesty's Stationery Office. - Since then they have been published in a separate sequence from the House of Commons debates
Sessional papers
Bills, reports from committees and standing orders. - from 1914 to the 1970s these papers, arranged as Bills and then Papers were bound up each session into four to five volumes. - more recently the number of volumes has increased to nearer fifteen because of increased Select Committee work, especially in relation to European Community proposals and affairs. - a collection of these papers 1714 - 1805 was republished in 60 volumes. - collections of original printed papers 1800 - 1859 are very rare indeed and 1860 - 1914 are also very rare. - A microfiche edition of papers 1805 - 1859 has been published
The journal
Record of the business transacted by the House. - published after each session. - cumulative indexes are published every ten years. - the manuscript Journals exist from 1509. - printing started in 1767
Minutes of proceedings
Business papers for sittings of the House. - running number for each daily issue. - the issues have a running page number. - they are bound up into one or two volumes for each session. - the Minutes have been printed since 1825

(updated in August 1999)