Research output and information coaching at the House of Commons Library

Catrin Owens

Library subject experts

Teams of researchers covering a range of subjects • Home Affairs• International Affairs and Defence• Science and Environment• Social Policy• Statisticians:

• Economic Policy and Statistics• Social and General Statistics

Research output

Reactive:• answering specific enquiries

Proactive:• research papers

• government bills• selected other bills• topics of major interest

• standard notes

Library Intranet pages

Research papers• available on Parliamentary Intranet

and www.parliament.uk Standard notes

• available on Parliamentary Intranet only

Collections of links and resources used by Library subject specialists

Research homepages

Subjects covered by that team Staff contact details Research output

• research papers• standard notes

Subject index

A to Z list of subject headings• broad overall categories listed on

Library homepage• lead to pages offering a choice of

more specific subject headings

• can also view full index with broad headings and more specific headings integrated

Subject pages

Contact details for relevant Library specialists

Links to full text of research papers and standard notes

Links to selected websites and electronic documents

Cross references to other Library pages

Current awareness

Topical issues page What’s new bulletin Parliament and constitution

daily bulletin

Services and resources

Databases• in-house and commercial products• statistical databases

CD-ROMs Electronic documents Specialist websites Information about the Library

E-Library

Electronic reading room• bank of PCs• training area• facilities for laptops• some hard copy stock

• research papers• Library leaflets• training documentation

PCs for readers

Access to:• Parliamentary Intranet

• electronic resources

• Internet• wordprocessing software• spreadsheet software• email

Information coaching

Formal courses Library tours Demonstrations / drop-in

sessions On the spot assistance Documentation

• helpsheets• leaflets

Training courses

Library Intranet pages POLIS Intranet database Media sources Parliamentary sources on the

Internet Searching the Parliamentary

Intranet Searching the world wide web

Demonstrations

New services• LexisNexis

Encouraging use of existing services• BBC Monitoring

External organisations wanting to promote services• working4anMP.co.uk

On the spot assistance

Guidance on sources Advice on search techniques /

terms / strategies Problem solving

Future developments

Computer-based training• constituency staff

Parliamentary Information Management Services• Parliamentary portal / gateway into all

services• adding / standardising metadata• archiving• availability