120 años de la Biblioteca del Congreso Nacional de Chile: 2-e

Library of the National Congress of Chile Institutional Information.

Identity

The Library of the National Congress of Chile is a service institution of the National Congress of Chile, governed by General Constitutional Law 18.918 and supplementary norms. The Library is conceived as an instrument responding to the concerns and needs of the National Congress, specially those regarding the main functions of “citizen representation, legislation and oversight”.

Qur mission, of service to Senators and Representatives, is to create a space for social interaction in which congresspersons and the community can recognize each other in their political and social history, can access information and create links with those who articulate national and global knowledge in the areas of social, political and legislative concerns.

In its role in society, the institution preserves the history —in multiple formats— of the National Congress, especially in the areas of the history of the law and the congressional activities of its members, as well as placing its bibliographic collections at the disposal of Chilean and foreign students and researchers. These functions have made the Library a space of knowledge and understanding of high-priority spheres of social interest for all actors in the country, with emphasis on the social and juridical sciences.

In its congressional role, the Library is dedicated to operate as a relevant tool for congresspersons, accompanying them in the fullfillment of their commitments as legislators, representatives and overseers of the Executive, while favoring the disclosure of new possible scenarios in the debate around issues central to the national agenda.

Values

The work do the Library is founded on certain values that guide and give meaning to its activities: to strengthen democracy and citizen participation; with a spirit of service toward the congressional community, with integrity and responsibility in ts advisory capacities; diversity, flexibility and simplicity in access and use of its services and products; together with strict observance of privacy, probity, and transparency in all íts activities.

Organization

The staff of 160 employees is distributed in Library installations in the National Congress, in Valparaíso, and in the National Congress building in Santiago, in Compañía 1175, Santiago.

Administrative offices are located in downtown Santiago, in Huérfanos 1117.

The Librarian of Congress is Ms. Soledad Ferreiro Serrano; the Deputy Director is Mr. Alfonso Pérez Guiñez. Both took office in April, 2003.

Departments of the Library

-Legislative and documentary services
Department Head: Mr. Nevihle Blanc Renard (nblanc@bcn.cl)

-Studies and Publications
Department Head: Mr. Edmundo Serani Pradenas (eserani@bcn.cl)

-Production of Information Resources
Department Head: Ms. Marialyse Délano Serrano (mdelano@bcn.cl)

-Administration and Finance
Department Head: Mr. René Martínez Saint-Jean (rmartinez@bcn.cl)

-Digital Services
Mr. Christian Sifaqui Merczak (csifaqui@bcn.cl)

Services

-Information Resources.

The collections of the Library contain 229.161 items, including books, political, economic, and social pamphlets of historical interest, special collections, donated by literary critics, historians, military officers, poets and ex congresspersons, and the Rare and Valuable Books collection.

The Library collects 5.854 non-actualized national and foreign periodicals and 766 periodicals up-to-date.

The Library also maintains a collection of over 4.400.000 press clippings and 14 databases.

-On line chilean legislation.

Users have access to more than 160.000 juridical norms, full text, in both original and actualized formats. This systern is actualized on a daily basis according to the legal daily gazette. The norms available include the Constitution of Chile of 1980; the law codes of the Republic; more than 13.300 acts; more than 72.000 Decrees, and some 55.000 administrative rules.

-Records of legislative activities.

Users also have on-line access to the speeches, motions, indications and, generally, all session participation of congresspersons, since 1813 to date. Sources are the Gazettes of the Upper and Lower Houses.

-History of the Law.

This service makes available background information on the bill tracking after is promulgated as a law of the Republic. This information is used to determine the intention and mind of the legislator and is available as of 1811 to date. A selection of materials is available on line, in full text, on the Library Web site.

-On line Catalogue.

The on me catalogue available on the web site (www.bcn.cl) offers searches by author, title, topic or key word, over more than 143.000 titles, including books, pamphlets and priodicals.

-Study research and consultancy services.

This service provides in studies, reports, and briefing notes prepared by multidisciplinary teams of professionals who generate products in both simple formats and other more complex products, in order to solve the information needs of parlamentaries and congressional committees. Diverse sources are used to prepare synthetic visions of national and international issues being addressed in Congress or that will be relevant to the national agenda. -Presentations and participations.

Background information is gathered and provided to parlamentaries in support for their interventions in Seminars and Conferences, as we as for their speeches.

-Press Dossiers. Press clippings related to issues of current legislative interest are selected and sent to parlamentaries, upon request, together.

-Databases.

The Library has 14 updated databases of bibliographic, legislative and georeferenced data, among others, available to parlamentaries and the community at large.

-Integrated System ot Territorial Information.

The Library maintains an integrated system of territorial information to provide in-depth knowledge on the regions, municipalities and congressional districts of the country. The system empowers users to create statistical reports and cartographíc visualizations, with graphic displays of data housed in a database of more than 1,200 data types provided by official sources.

-Bill tracking.

The bill tracking system is coordinated by both the Senate and the House. It offers the history of a bill as well as the documents of the projects that are in the legislative process. The information available on the system is input by staff of the Senate and the House of Representatives.

-Legislative Assistant.

This tool complements the Legislative information System that allows for the recovery of available bibliographic titles, press articles, international laws, comparative law resources, expert opinion, studies, briefing notes, and reports related to the main bill passing through Congress.

-Interactive Help.

This service provides responses to requests made by email regarding legislation, bills in Congress, publications, Web site content, and advice on how to search for information.

-On line International Treaties.

Full text official versions of international treaties celebrated by Chile, both bilateral and multilateral, from 1814 to date, are available. The official sources for this information are the Gazette of Laws and Decrees of the Government of Chile, from 1810, the Official Gazette of the Republic of Chile and Annual Report of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Chile.

-Parlamentaries biographies.

In order lo conserve the political-legislative memory of our country and promote the identity of the National Congress, biographical summaries are maintained for all who have been legislators during the entire course of our country’s history.

-Special current legislative topics.

Periodiocally, issues are researched in depth, on relevant subjects to the current situation or in discussion in Congress.

-Outreach actvities.

The Library of the National Congress reaches out into the community in order to communicate the work of Congress, encourage transparency and contribute to the cultural life of Chilean citizens. In this context, debates and forums are organized around issues of current legislative concern, together with other seminars, expositions, book launchings, special communications programs and civic education.