What was innovative in parliamentary library & research services in 2008, and where are those innovations now?



A joint conference of the Association of Secretaries General of Parliaments (ASGP), IPU and IFLA (‘Informing democracy: building capacity to meet parliamentarians’ information and knowledge needs’) was held in 2008. On behalf of IFLAPARL, and following consultation with colleagues worldwide, I presented a summary of some innovative strategies in use at that time.

The presentation covered the innovation process and the key strategies on which innovation was focused:

  • Improving service quality and value
  • Reducing information overload and raising information quality
  • Improving access to information
  • Enabling
  • Information for politics

These themes appear generally relevant now (2019) as then. The next section of the presentation looked at ‘emerging trends’. How do they look now?

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