By Kelly Blake
Virtual Visit to the House of Commons Library on 4th April 2024
by Kelly Blake
I was one of approximately 20 library professionals who were lucky enough to go on a virtual visit to the House of Commons Library on 4th April 2024. This was the first virtual tour that they had undertaken, and it was a thoroughly interesting and a very enjoyable to spend a lunch-break.
The tour began with a view from the library window to help show us exactly where within the Palace of Westminster the library sits. It’s a great view over the Terrace and across the Thames. The library was completed in 1852 on the principal (first) floor. Inside the library, we started in the Reference Room (originally called the Map Room) where a small exhibition was on display for Women’s History Month, which included the bolt cutters used to cut chains off suffragettes during their campaigning. This was not something I was expecting to see in the House of Commons Library!
The library of 100 years would not have look too dissimilar to what we were viewing today. The Palace of Westminster is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so not very much at all can be changed in the fabric and furniture of the library. It is all in keeping with the original design, with wood panelling and elaborate carpets throughout. In 1852 the library had three rooms designated to it called A, B and C. The Reference Room was an addition given to the library, along with the Oriel Room and latterly D Room. The function of the Reference Room changed as large physical maps were no longer used and it became the Reference Room with a small reference library which is mostly used by library staff.
We were then shown the Oriel Room and the window for which it was named. It is the main reception for the library and very close to the chamber in the House of Commons. We were told more about how the library worked, being staffed by a small team of 12-14 people who answer enquiries from MPs and their staff. In addition, almost 200 people working in the Research and Information team who are mostly based elsewhere and included eight Subject Specialist teams. The House of Commons Library is free to use and aside from dealing with enquiries and research they also write impartial briefings to help inform debates e.g. on the Post Office/Horizon scandal. These briefings are also available to members of the public. The Librarian confirmed that the library has a traditional book loans service too, although the collection is a specialist one which has very little fiction. They run an Inter-Library Loan service too, so there was a lot of familiarity in some of the functions of this specialist library.
At this point there was a pause to ask some questions. Firstly, there was a question about who sets the library budget and whether it is it enough, to which the librarian replied that it was part of the Administration Budget set by the House of Commons and whilst they have to operate within the budget, there have not been any staff cuts and the service has been able to grow. The next question was about the length of time given to an enquiry before it was passed to a member of the research and information team. There was no hard and fast rule on this. It will be triaged and if it needs specialist information, will be allocated to someone in that team. They employ fair-use policy for enquiries and have deadlines in which to respond to enquiries. Incredibly, there can be over 30,000 logged enquiries a year! Another interesting question was whether the House of Commons Library worked with libraries from the devolved parliaments. The library does work quite closely answering questions from them and vice versa and they all take part in an annual two-day conference too.
We then moved into the A Room which is generally shared in use between library staff and MPs. Members’ Staff and House Staff can use the library too, but they have more limited access than MPs. Looking a little out of place in this historic setting, this room had some PCs available. In contrast, there were also two green leather chairs which were used by the Speaker of the House and the Sergeant at Arms in the Second World War; and the original safe for the library hidden in one of the cupboards, which is still used today but difficult to open. In this room were hard-copy newspapers, which were still much in demand, including regional titles. They also have a news aggregator and lots of online subscriptions, as digital services have replaced physical versions in many other ways e.g. law reports, which used to be a large part of the library collection. At this point we were shown a smaller detail of the library – some intricately designed, silver-plated stationery racks which were part of the original library design. Other examples of these can be seen in the photo below:
The B Room was next on the tour, which featured some of the book collection with lots of desk space to work at. There were also the original green leather armchairs, which are apparently not at all comfortable! We saw the House of Commons Journals, which are the bound minutes of proceedings in the chamber. The original set is in the Parliamentary Archives, but the reprinted volumes were no less impressive. The librarian was able to point out some historic events in a couple of volumes – the 1642 record of Charles I entering the House of Commons with his supporters, and the 1605 attempt to burn down the Houses of Parliament by Guy Fawkes and his co-conspirators.
We moved on further through the library to the C Room, where there were engraved panels listing all the names and dates of the Speakers of the House from the 1300s onwards. Interestingly there was only room left for one more name on the panels and that it hadn’t yet been decided how or where it would continue after that. Then the librarian took some more questions, the first of which was about the renovations and how it would affect the library. The librarian said that this was all a little while off for the library as the plans need to be voted on in the new parliament. There was then a question about the hours for which the library is staffed, which we were told is from 9am until the “rise of the House” which on Mondays is at 10.30-11pm! Another was whether library staff needed to have background checks, we were assured that library staff were subject to the same checks as all Parliamentary Staff.
Lastly, we moved on briefly to the D Room which was originally part of the Speaker’s private apartments, but was gifted to the library in 1966. The nature of its location and original designation means that this room has a hidden corridor running to the Speaker’s Apartments behind a row of bookcases (this can be seen on the left in the photo below). This room fittingly features a bust of Erskine May and well as one of Spencer Perceval, who was assassinated in the Palace of Westminster. The librarian took further questions at this point; however, I had to get back to work and unfortunately missed the answers to those. It was a very interesting tour that had me talking about it to others for days afterwards, so many thanks to the librarian for her time and I would encourage others to visit the library if the opportunity arises.
CILIP South West Member Network 