Our Canadian Friend

Disclaimer:  These session notes will be sketchy at best, just noting some interesting comments or points, rather than attempting to capture all of the content!

The Library Roundtable session is a perennial favorite at LRL Professional Development Seminars, and it was a great way to kick off the conference get to know our colleagues and their institutions.

Leslie Polsom started the hour with a description of the the Saskatchewan Legislative Library, which is the oldest library in the province, and their services.  She joked that she comes from the easiest-to-draw province in Canada.  They have 18 FTE.  They provide a weekly Table of Contents  service,  and new book listings, tailored to the subjects of interest to the  members.  The Member Services Librarian is responsible for working with the 58 members of parliament and creating custom searches for them. The Library has developed an interesting annual workshop for social studies in the province, to teach them about the parliamentary process.

The Saskatchewan Parliament, which is unicameral, meets twice each year, from late October to the beginning of December, and another session beginning in March, approximately 70 days in all.  The spring session begins with an opening day tea and a very formal  presentation of the executive branch agenda (we thought it seemed similar to a “State of the State” speech) called the “Speech from the Throne.”  The Speaker of the House is not the leader of the majority party, but elected by the entire body.  The speaker votes only in the case of a tie; the position is a nonpartisan administrative post.

Two versions of the journal are published.  The minutes are bare-boned, and Hansards, verbatim gavel-to-gavel transcripts, are published for meetings of the full body and committee hearings.

Leslie was asked about the references to the Queen’s Printer and Speeches from the Throne; it seems so British.  Of course Canada is a separate country, she said, but still part of the Commonwealth.    “We just never had the revolution.”

Robbie LaFleur

The Queen’s Printer

Leslie Polsom, Saskatchewan

Frances Thomas, Louisiana

The conference attendees arrived in St. Paul yesterday.  Several met one another for the first time, particularly Leslie Polsom, Director of Reference Services at the Saskatchewan Legislative Library.  This is her first PDS.  Legislative libraries differ greatly in administrative structure, size, and responsiblities within their legislatures.  Frances Thomas, Senior Information Specialist/Systems Librarian at the Legislative Research Library in Louisiana, was talking about how their librarians produce the indexes for their bills and acts.  (I’m glad that our Revisor’s Office does that task!)   Frances also said that the Secretary of State actually publishes the statutes in Louisiana, not the Legislature.  The executive branch also does the publishing in Saskatchewan, except theirs are published by the Queen’s Printing Office, which sounds so exotic.  “And when we get a king,” she added, “It will be the King’s Printing Office.”

Robbie LaFleur

A Warm Welcome to Cold St. Paul

In 2009, which marks the 40th anniversary of the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library, we are happy to host the NCSL Legislative Research Librarians 2009 Professional Development Seminar.

It’s a dismal economic year, which means that many of our colleagues aren’t able to travel.  It seems completely crazy that the librarians from Wisconsin can’t take a drive on I-94 to join us; their out-of-state travel ban is stringent.  Couldn’t they just stay overnight in Hudson, Wisconsin?  So our group is small, but the scheduled presentations will be great.  We will share as much of the content we can via this blog.  For those of you who are not here in person, join us virtually.