| Graduate appointments in Parliament | Part I |
| Library Clerks |  |
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The House of Commons Library provides an information and research service for all Members of Parliament on any subject related to their parliamentary duties. Library Clerks carry out research and provide information direct to Members and are expected to take full responsibility for their work from an early stage. You will probably work in one of seven sections which provide specialised information and research assistance to Members, and, on occasion, to select committees. The sections are Business and Transport, Economic Policy and Statistics, Home Affairs, International Affairs and Defence, Science and Environment, Social and General Statistics and Social Policy. You may be required to have a specialised background or qualification in a field such as law, economics or science to be appointed to certain of these sections but library qualifications are not required for Library Clerk posts. Five Library Clerks work in sections which provide quick reference and information services to Members and their personal staff or which create and manage the POLIS database. Your main duties as a research Library Clerk will be to respond, orally or in writing, to requests from individual Members and to prepare briefing papers on subjects of public and parliamentary concern. Many of the requests from individual Members have tight deadlines, sometimes needing an instant answer on the telephone or requiring a response on the same day or the next day. All such work is confidential to the Member concerned but is produced in a politically impartial form. You will also have to prepare briefing papers on major legislation and other topics of current interest and these are made available to all Members as well as on the Internet. If they are linked to debates in the House they too may need to be produced at short notice, but some subjects allow time for a more considered approach. Research sections are supported by professional librarians and clerical staff, who maintain files of source material relevant to the subjects which you cover as well as taking responsibility for the general holdings of the section and of the Library as a whole. Your sources will include relevant on-line databases as well as contacts in government departments and other outside organisations. Appropriate training is given in word processing and the use of both internal and external on-line sources. You will need to keep up to date with developments in the subjects which you cover and to develop contacts with experts in these fields. All Library Clerks are expected to acquire a basic knowledge of parliamentary procedures and documentation and to become familiar with the procedures of the European Union and to keep abreast of European proposals in the areas which they cover. Good reading ability in at least one foreign language is an advantage for most Library Clerk posts. Much of the initial training is on the job or provided in-house but Library Clerks are encouraged whenever possible to attend external conferences and courses in the subjects they cover. They are also encouraged to take advantage of training opportunities on personal development and management skills. There are also three Library Clerk posts in the House of Lords Library. |
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| © Parliamentary copyright 1999 | Revised 25 October 1999 |