NEW INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION ON LEGISLATURE AND IT'S LIBRARIES AMONG THE ASIA PACIFIC COUNTRIES: An Overview

Karl Min Ku

Association of Parliamentary Librarians of the Asia
Secretariat
Legislative Yuan
Taipei 10040, Taiwan, ROC
E-mail: ly567@lyfw.ly.gov.tw

The experiences in the past three decades show that the information technology application in government, legislature and jurisdiction falls behind that of banks, production business and academic institutions by one to one and half generation, that is, a ten to fifteen years lag. As a rule, legislature lags more than government. This phenomenon is even more obvious in the Asia and Pacific region. The information technology application in the legislature of the Asia and Pacific region falls mainly on the library and information services.

Since the Association of Parliamentary Librarians of the Asia and Pacific (APLAP) was created in 1990, with seventeen member countries, the aforesaid phenomenon has been changed in some degree. The APLAP certainly helped the progress of the information technology application of the countries in the area. It is impossible to describe the information technology application of the 28 member countries in details in this paper. But this paper will try to provide a bird's eye view of the information technology application of different languages, different levels of development (developed or developing), parliament and its library under different political systems in this vast area.

This paper will also briefly focus the progress and achievement of some APLAP member legislatures. The key point of this paper will be the effort and results of how the APLAP helped its member countries to establish their information technology application, and the effect of international cooperation and development in the past few years. In addition, the potentiality of development inspired by the common interests of digitized information of the APLAP parliaments in greeting the twenty-first century will also be described.

 1. INTRODUCTION

In the last decade of the twentieth century, an economic and political organization, the APEC was founded, in the meantime parliamentary organization, the APPF (Asia Pacific Parliamentarian Forum), and library and information organization , the APLAP were given to birth. The last two organizations are closely related to legislature. I am very honored to be the president of the APLAP now.

The preliminary purpose of organizing the APLAP was to promote information exchange and cooperation in the Asia-pacific region. Its domain is law and legislature, and it must use information technology to achieve its purpose. The APLAP was formally established in Seoul, Korea in 1990. The first Biennial Conference was held in Seoul, Korea in May 1990. The second Biennial Conference was held in Islamabad, Pakistan in May 1992. The third Biennial Conference was held in Bangkok, Thailand in May 1994. The fourth Biennial Conference was held in Canberra, Australia in October 1996. And the coming biennial conference will take place in Manila, Philippine in October 1998. Members of the APLAP are increased from seventeen countries in 1990 to twenty-eight in the present.

According to the Conference Communiqué of its fourth biennial conference held in Canberra, Australia, on the issue of New Information Technology as well as Information sharing and cooperation, the APLAP had the following consensus:

• The dissemination of key official documents in electronic form, preferably via the Internet.

• To seek to establish a regional Clearinghouse for key official and parliamentary documentation for those regional parliaments without access to the Internet.

• The APLAP member libraries provide reciprocal access rights to other members, either generally or through a 'sister library'.

• Form alliances with the IPU (Inter-parliamentary), APPF, and other organizations in order to provide mutual support in areas of common interests.

• Establish mechanisms for the training of staff in the region's parliamentary libraries to improve the skills of library personnel and the standards and quality of services.

  All those above consensus can be done or can become a wonderful reality if we use the new information technology application properly and satisfactory.

2. COMPUTER APPLICATIONS ON LEGISLATION AMONG THE APLAP COUNTRIES IN THE '90s

Before the APLAP was established in Seoul, Korea, delegates of prospective member countries held a pre-conference in Taipei on May 4 and 5 of 1990. The theme of the workshop was "Computer Application in Legislation". And the main topics of the workshop were:

1). Computer Applications in Governments,

2). Library Automation and Cooperation,

3). Legislative Information Systems.

 This conference helped the participating countries to understand each other and form a consensus on the development of computer and network. In addition, an ideological goal of how to build an Asia-Pacific Legislative Information Network was formed. This goal enabled the APLAP to use better and newer information technology applications to develop and cooperate step by step in the following years.

During the conference, participating countries encouraged each other to try their best to set up their own parliamentary library automation system and the following phases of the information technology application:

1). Legal Documents Full-text Information Group System;

2). Interpellation and Legislative Documents Information Group System;

3). International Legal Information Group System;

4). Office Automation Information Group System;

5). Bills Track and Administrative Management Information System;

6). Government Budget Information System

  The APLAP member countries have progressed rather well in the application of information technology in the past few years. As for the application of international legal information, the GLIN (global legal information network) is in operation.

3. DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION FOR LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEM AMONG APLAP COUNTRIES

Basically, there are no two parliaments which are completely the same, neither are their library systems. In fact, they may vary a lot. Owing to the differences of parliamentary structure, parliamentary library attributes, and the social and economic background, the strategy for information technology application in parliament and parliamentary library varies from country to country. Within APLAP members, the information system of parliaments can be classified in three categories:

1). Parliamentary library automation and information system proper;

2). Hybrid parliamentary information system and library system service;

3). Contractual parliamentary information system.

 The system in the first category is a pure automated library service system. The National Diet Library of Japan is an examples. Singapore has a smaller scale library automation system. The Legislative Information System in Taiwan (the Republic of China) belongs to the second category in which the system consists of eight sub-systems of the legislative information systems. It is similar to the SCORPIO of the Library of Congress in the United States. It is a kind of comprehensive database clusters which satisfies interior and exterior needs. The Australian Commonwealth Parliamentary Library is another examples in this category. Pakistan and Thailand also try to make some progress in this kind of system. The system in the third category is provided by exterior information resources, examples are in India, Philippines, Indonesia, and some pacific countries.

The development and achievement of these three kind of systems vary because of the funding and support of each country are quite different. For instance, Japan's library automation goes for EDP to assist library management, the first among Asian countries. In the beginning, it used Japanese system, in the eighties, Japan switched to DOBIS Library System, and at present, it is developing a brand new system. However, those are all library automation and management system. Therefore, it is classified as the first category development strategy.

4. MALHOTRA'S STUDY OF THE "AUTOMATION IN PARLIAMENTS" OF THE APLAP COUNTRIES

In the mid nineteen nineties, the former Director of India Parliamentary Library, Mr. G. C. Malhotra, made a comprehensive study of the seventeen member countries of the APLAP at that time, from Australia to Tuvalu. According to his evaluation, the information technology applications on legislative can be divided into three stages -- Advanced, Medium, and Infancy. The member countries which are in the advanced stage are Australia, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan (the Republic of China, ROC). Malhotra's study is in agreement with the review done at about the same time by an American information specialist, Ms. Jane Ann Lindley, who was the Consultant of Legislative Development Program of the Asia Foundation. Her review was made after her consulting works with a few Asian countries as a report to the Asia Foundation.

Both studies on the information technology application in APLAP countries were conducted during the pre-Internet age, but they are still very useful.

5. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE ACTIVITIES - IMPACT ON THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY APPLICATION AMONG APLAP COUNTRIES

Just as IFLA conference brings positive impact on the hosting country, the biennial conference of the APLAP gives momentum to the hosting country, too. For example, in order to fulfill the mission of organizing the biennial conference, Thailand, host of the 1994 APLAP conference, and Australia, host of the 1996 APLAP conference. They speeded up their parliament's computerization projects.

Some countries also hosted visiting colleagues. For example, the Legislative Yuan in ROC, arranged a five-day internship for the parliament computerization project leader of Pakistan in 1988, and the Director of Fiji Parliamentary Library in 1993 respectively. In addition, through exchange program, the parliament computer program leaders from Mongolia and Indonesia were also hosted.

We all understand that Australia is a large country with advanced information technology. In recent years, it has provided similar activities as described above to South East Asia and Pacific Islands. Therefore, whether it is a bilateral or multilateral international exchange activity -- including seminar, conference, workshop, internship, exchange program, etc. -- both the organizer and the participants are inspired and encouraged to make progress. For the past ten years, the APLAP member countries have benefited a lot in their information technology application because of these international activities.

6. THE PERSPECTIVES

Ever since the 1996 G7 Summit Meeting, countries all over the world have had a clear concept of the NII project of their own country and the GII project of the world. Most countries have set their national policy concerning this issue. The APLAP members also have deep understanding of it. At the Canberra conference in 1996, since Singapore brought up its "Information Technology 2000 and Library 2000" strategy and project, the APLAP members proposed many means to utilize the Internet in order to enhance information exchange and concern. Practical suggestions are as follows:

• Help members which do not have Internet access get on the Internet,

• All member libraries to be linked by e-mail,

• Electronic access to documentation from APLAP member countries,

• Exchange of data bases in electronic form, and

• More efficient and effective use of information in electronic form, e.g. Via the Internet

  Observing the information needs of the APLAP members in the past one and half years, I am sure that the Asia and Pacific parliaments and their information service systems must face the trial and challenge of renewal using the new information technology. I deeply believe this will be a success.