By Megan McClure
Legislative libraries are critical, nonpartisan legislative resources, serving state legislators, legislative staff and other state agency staff, as well as the general public.
Like state legislatures themselves, legislative libraries vary in their structures, resources and services. Connect with your legislative librarian or researcher to find out what resources and services they provide.
The key to every good library is the staff. Legislative library staff are always busy providing specialized institutional knowledge and research contacts, tirelessly serving their legislatures with the timely, thorough and reliable research necessary for knowledgeable and effective legislation.
The resources and services provided by state legislative libraries are indispensable to the efficient and informed functioning of state legislatures. With small budgets, most legislative library staff have become adept at tapping outside resources and cross-institutional relationships with local universities, state libraries and library professional staff associations such as NCSL’s Legislative Research Librarian staff section.
Some legislative libraries, such as Texas’ Legislative Reference Library, have large staffs and some are small, such as Montana’s Legislative Reference Center with just one full-time librarian and one library assistant.
Generally, legislative libraries are housed in the research division of the state legislative branch but not always. The California Research Bureau is housed in the California State Library, an independent agency in the executive branch.
Each library caters to the needs of its states’ legislative clientele and patrons. Legislative libraries are very much client-driven, and guided by legislative timelines.
Most state legislative libraries play an important role in keeping thorough and real time documentation of legislative action. Librarians and researchers often staff information desks with extended hours during sessions.
In Texas, during legislative sessions, several staff members enter bill actions as they occur on the floor of the House and Senate into the capitol-wide legislative information system, which feeds information to the public Texas Legislature website and a toll-free bill status hotline.
Along with more traditional online subscription resources such as Lexis, Westlaw and HeinOnline, libraries also hold legislative materials like House and Senate journals, session laws, interim committee studies and more.
Most legislative libraries also hold materials of state historic interest. A copy of the Connecticut statutes from 1796 rests in the Connecticut Legislative Library, which patrons are encouraged to touch without gloves, engaging with historic documents in a personal, tactile way.
Some legislative libraries also house subject files for newspaper clippings and reports of current and historical interest. Montana and Texas both have large clipping collections.
While state legislative libraries and research divisions may be small in the scheme of legislative organization, they provide vital services and resources to their legislatures and, like the research gems they are, should be treasured by their clients.
Megan McClure is a senior staff assistant with NCSL's Center for Legislative Research and Support and is NCSL’s liaison to the Legislative Research Librarian staff section.
Email Megan