Monks step in to avert clashes at mine site - Online Burma/Myanmar ...

Features 18
April 29 - May 5, 2013
Hluttaw library gets a helping hand
Foreign experts train library staff as part of a project to build information and research services for Myanmar’s MPs
By Maria Danmark
MEMBERS of the national
parliament are increasingly
making use of the powers
afforded them in Myanmar’s
new political system: not
only are they questioning
ministers on a wide variety
of topics, but they are also
enacting new legislation and
revising existing laws.
Despite their
industriousness, MPs
still face challenges in
implementing the system
of checks and balances
outlined in Myanmar’s
constitution.
One of these is access to
information. A February
study of 40 MPs by the Inter-
Parliamentary Union (IPU)
found many wanted more
research to support their
work in the parliament.
Based on an assessment
mission in July 2012, the
IPU started a short-term
project on December 13
to establish a parliament
library in the Pyidaungsu
Hluttaw. Unlike in many
other countries, however,
they still have to do most
of the research themselves.
“In more mature
parliaments, the members
of parliament often don’t
find the information by
themselves, because they
don’t have the time to look
it up in a book. They have
support staff to do that.
Here the MPs have to do
everything by themselves,
because they have no office,
not all of them have a
computer and they don’t
have enough support staff,”
said Ms Moire Fraser, one of
the experts attached to the
IPU project.
In early 2013, there
was about one support
staff for every MP in the
Pyidaungsu Hluttaw. In
mature parliaments the
ratio is usually two to three
support staff for each MP.
“If you look at senators
in the United States, then
they have around 30 staff
members to support them,”
Ms Fraser said.
It is estimated that it
will take about three years
to establish an effective
information and research
service in the library for
the MPs. The Pyidaungsu
Hluttaw library already has
a current collection of 20,000
books but most of them are
sorted by donor rather than
Ms Moire Fraser, a parliament library expert from Australia, with hluttaw staff at a research workshop in Nay Pyi
Taw on April 8. The workshop was conducted under an Inter-Parliamentary Union project. Pic: Maria Danmark
subject. The focus in the
coming months will be to
develop the collection.
“The collection is
reasonable, but there are
not as many newspapers,
journals and video clips.
Now they have to focus on
current information for MPs
like government reports,
comparative information
and statistics in the
collection,” Ms Fraser said.
She said another challenge
for the library was that
education for librarians in
Myanmar often focuses on
academic libraries, which
are different from those in
parliaments.
“There is a big focus on
the collection here, but a
parliament library should
have a focus on the services
and the MPs. It should
be about taking the book
down from the shelf and
finding the answers for the
members that will help
them do the work, whether
it is debating in the chamber
or committee, making the
law or policy work,” Ms
Fraser said.
The first phase of the
project will also involve
training the library staff and
library committee so they
can assist MPs in finding the
right information. This is
particularly important given
it is thought that two-thirds
of MPs do not know how to
use the internet.
“In other parliament
libraries 95 percent of the
work is done on computers
and the last 5pc is the books.
But the research training
that we are giving now is not
what we would think of as
full tailored parliamentary
research. It will come later,
when we have the right
kind of staff to do it. But
what we are doing now
is simply improving their
searching for information
and [teaching] how to
present it for the members,”
Ms Fraser said.
The latest workshop in
internet research focused
on how to find information
about Thailand and South
Korea. Meanwhile, two
groups of library staff are
going to visit the parliament
libraries in these countries
to see how they work and in
particular offer services to
the MPs.
“I hope that we can share
our experience and that
the parliament libraries in
Asia can work together, but
first we have to reach the
same standards,” said Ms
Sunida Boonyanon from
the parliament library in
Bangkok.
During her visit she
supplied an example of
the Thai parliamentary
library’s collection policy
to the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw
library, as the latter does
not have any policies, rules
or regulations yet.
Library staff readily
concede they need assistance
and training so they can
better serve MPs.
“Since we haven’t had
a hluttaw library for 30
years, we don’t have much
experience with a parliament
library, so I would like to
observe the library in [South]
Korea – how they supply the
MPs’ needs and how they
support the staff of the MPs,”
said the library’s assistant
director, Daw Ni Ni Aye, who
was an academic librarian
for 22 years before arriving
in the hluttaw library.
She said she is looking
at ways to encourage more
MPs to use the library.
“We plan to open another
reading room for the
MPs, just near the Pyithu
Hluttaw, where we will
provide computers and
newspapers. In that way
we can attract users and at
the same time promote what
kinds of services they can get
from the hluttaw library,”
Daw Ni Ni Aye said, adding
that she hopes the library
will provide assistance to up
to 100 MPs during the next
session, which will begin in
late June.
So far, almost 20 MPs
have used the facilities in
the library. But Ms Fraser
says whether there are
MPs in the library is not an
important indicator.
“In other parliaments you
would expect the library
to come to the MPs. The
library staff need to go
where the members are.
The MPs don’t know what
kind of service they can get
here. The next workshop
will probably be focused on
preparing a brochure and
how to communicate the
message out to the MPs,” Ms
Fraser said.
The IPU project runs until
the end of 2013. If it is
not extended, the project
is likely to be taken over
by the United Nations
Development Program: the
agency’s three-year, US$150
million Country Program
Action Plan approved on
April 8 contains a focus on
strengthening institutions
of democratic and local
governance, including
the development of the
parliament library.