"Every country in the world has some from of parliament. Parliamentary systems fall into two categories: bicameral and unicameral. Out of 193 countries in the world, 79 are bicameral and 113 are unicameral, making a total of 272 chambers of parliament with over 46,000 members of parliament." IPU Parline

WDLRSP The World Directory of Library and Research Services for Parliaments by IFLAPARL

The World Directory of Library and Research Services for Parliaments (WDLRSP) is the result of a collaborative effort between IFLAPARL which is a Standing Committee Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section of IFLA and The Library of the National Congress of Chile.

The WDLRSP is a website with an electronic directory containing contact information and basic data of the parliamentary libraries and parliamentary related research centers across the World.

This portal was developed under the directions of Lillian Gassie, Chair of the IFLAPARL Section, and Manuel Alfonso Perez, Director of The Library of the National Congress of Chile, as to create a virtual space, where the information of participating parliamentary libraries and/or research services is properly stored, preserved and presented.

Initially, from 1985 to 2016, the WDLRSP was developed and maintained by the Library of the Deutscher Bundestag. Until 1992, the WDLRSP was compiled as a print version and updated every two years, converting into an online database in 1992, in order to keep its content updated.

The Library of the Deutscher Bundestag played an important role for the past three decades in keeping the Directory active for the use of the parliamentary library community. Over the years, the WDLRSP has been widely used to find information about parliamentary libraries, to look up for contacts, and to access those libraries' websites.

In 2017, the Library of the Deutscher Bundestag passed on the WDLRSP torch to The Library of the National Congress of Chile, which has been this resource's custodian to date.

Main Objetive

IFLAPARL's WDLRSP website seeks to become a virtual directory which makes the information about participating parliamentary libraries and research services, available online 24/7. The WDLRSP website grants free and open access to the said information.

Specific Objetives

  • To promote cooperation in the parliamentary libraries and research services community, by facilitating the access to their respective information.
  • To preserve the historical information stored since, the beginning of the project, by creating a record of each institution’s current and past authorities.

Characteristics

The WDLRSP website was created under librarian criteria, and hence has the following characteristics:

  • Registration Form: The operation of the website is based on each member institution’s capability to register and administrate its own information, contained in the said form.
  • Universal Access: Each member institution's information will be available by free search and consultation through this website.
  • Distributed Management: This website is based in distributed content management, and is to be permanently updated by each participating institution.
  • Multilanguage: The access to each member institution's information is available in English and in the member’s country official language.
  • Independent platform: The WDLRSP virtual space is owned by IFLAPARL and will operate on an independent, universal access platform.

Project Teams

Following is a list of people participating in this project.

Direction Team

  • Lillian Gassie
    Lillian Gassie

    Chair of IFLAPARL Standing Committee Library and Research Services for Parliaments Section

  • Diego Matte Palacios
    Diego Matte Palacios

    Director of The Library of The National Congress of Chile

Participants members of IFLAPARL Team

  • Ida Kelemen

    Head of Information Services for MPs, Hungarian National Assembly, Hungary

  • Steve Wise

    Director of Information Management, House of Commons Library, United Kingdom

  • Sonia L'Heureux

    Assistant Parliamentary Librarian, Library of Parliament, Canada

  • Chama Mpundy Mfula

    Chief Librarian National Assembly of Zambia

  • Alvaro Sandoval

    Chief Information Officer, Library of the National Congress of Chile

Technical Team at The Library of the National Congress of Chile

  • Adolfo Hernandez

    IT Technical Staff

  • David Manriquez

    IT Frontend Developer

  • Alejandra Muñoz

    Head Production of Information Resources Department

  • Johana Henriquez

    Assistant librarian

  • Marek Hoehn

    German Translator

  • Christine Weidenslaufer

    English Translator