LIBRARY OF GRAND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF TURKEY
Introduction
During the process of transformation into the information society, it has become more difficult to provide the incredibly increasing information sources, as well as to organise them and serve these information sources effectively by means of classic library techniques. If Parliamentary librarianship characterised by the necessity of quick and efficient service criteria is included in this, the difficulty and the importance of the work is stated better.
- History
- The Contents of Services
- Organization Chart
- Main Sections
- Book Collection (Nov. 2011)
- Library Staff According to Their Education Level
- Location
- Working Hours
- Access
Following the proclamation of the First Constitutional period, the first Turkish Parliament that consisted of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies convened on 19 March 1877 in Çırağan Palace. The fire that destroyed the Çırağan Palace, along with the many historical and cultural treasures it contained, also destroyed any records that might have shed light on the existence of a library in the first Turkish Parliament.
We have documentary evidence of the establishment of Libraries in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies during the Second Constitutional period (1908-1920). The Library of the Turkish Grand National Assembly contains, in its collection, some 5.000 volumes bearing the stamps of the Chamber of Deputies Library and the Senate Library, including books, newspapers, journals and minutes in Turkish and other languages showing that there were two different libraries in the Parliament in that era. The Standing Orders of the Chamber of Deputies, dated 1916 stated that the Library was a service unit within the administrative organisation which was attached to a special committee.
Only five months after the establishment of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Dr. Mazhar Germiyan, Deputy of Aydın, made a motion that a library was to be established, and that funds were to be allocated for this purpose. This proposal was accepted at the 74th meeting of the Turkish Grand National Assembly on 28th September 1920; and in accordance with the Standing Orders, which remained in force as the Standing Orders of the Turkish Grand National Assembly until 1927, a five member Library Committee was elected. Thus, the Turkish Grand National Assembly Library was officially founded.
On December 21, 1960, the Parliament moved to its present building. The Library, which was specially taken into consideration during the planning stage of the building, has served in its original place ever since.
The main function of the Library and Documentation Centre of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) is to support legislative activities of Members of Parliament (MP), auditing the Government, representation and duties related to their constituencies by providing every sort of information and documentation.
The contents of the services supplied can be given as follows:
Library Services: To collect, organise and serve books, newspapers and periodicals, reference sources, minutes of the Parliamentary debates and other information sources. In addition, to provide book loans service, and to produce and serve microfilm copies.
Documentation Services: To make content analysis of newspapers, periodicals and the Journal of Minutes of TBMM's Debates. In addition, to prepare various databases for World Wide Web and update them.
Research Services: Related to the legislative activities of the MPs, in accordance with their demands, preparation of information profiles and research reports based on analysis. Furthermore, without depending on inquiries, making researches on important subjects developing in Turkey and the world, and on the subjects which are on or may come to the TBMM's agenda.
- Readers Service
- Cataloguing-Classification
- Acquisition
- Depot
- Minutes (Records of Parliament) Documentation
- Newspaper Documentation
- Periodical Documentation
- Periodicals
- Microfilm
- Digitalisations
- Reading Room for Advisors of MPs
Efficiency and productivity in parliamentary work is closely related with the degree to which Parliamentarians are informed. The Library, which is organised to maintain this principle, carries out a systematic monitoring of the domestic and foreign publishing world while acquiring selected materials, cataloguing, classifying and finally presenting them to the readers.
Reference:
The Library has various reference materials in the Readers Service Section.
Collection:
The Library has a rich collection both in Turkish and foreign languages in the field of law, economics, public administration, philosophy, sociology, local administrations, international relations, history and geography. etc. Since 1976 the Library has been collecting all sorts of domestic publication free of charge according to the Collecting Law. Today about 300.000 volumes of books in Turkish and foreign languages are in MARC format. The Data Processing Centre has developed a software to make our collection available over the Internet. And, the project has been in examination stage, now, our rich collection is available at the national and international level via World Wide Web address (https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/kutuphane/index.htm). To the collection is yearly added 5.000-6.000 new items of literature written in Turkish and 1.000-2.000 in foreign languages. In 1998, in total 8.507 readers consisting of 3.187 MPs, 916 former MPs, 3.274 staff and 1.130 researchers benefited from the Library, and nearly 50.000 books were examined in the Library while 13.000 books were loaned. The periodical collection consisting of newspapers and journals in Turkish and foreign languages is one of the richest in Turkey. All Turkish newspapers and journals printed in old scripts, available in the collection, have been preserved on microfilm. Therefore, instead of printed forms users are given microfilms from which copies can be made.
Newspaper Documentation:
The newspaper covers five nation-wide newspapers in the period 1991-1997, From the database including more than 180.000 newspaper items. And all Turkish nation-wide newspapers later than 1998. From the database including more than 1.030.344 newspaper items to which 250 are added daily a search can be made using options such as author name, subject, newspaper name, genre of writing and date interval.
Periodical Documentation:
Periodical documentation currently is under way on 350 selected periodicals with the aim of providing information comprehensively and quickly to MPs. The periodical documentation unit, which was launched in 1997 and for which expansion is planned provided problems of sufficient qualified staff, space and equipment can be solved, has, to date, indexed over 244.650 periodical articles and included them in the system as bibliographical cards. Analysis works of computer programs required in order to offer service efficiently of periodical documentation has been executed by the Data Processing Unit. When the software is ready it will be possible to access periodical articles as texts and to offer a `'Selected Information Publication" service to meet the needs of MPs as well.
Minutes Documentation:
Minutes documentation services have been under way since 1990. Minutes database has been formed in order to provide fast and proper access to the minutes information which is required by MPs. In this context, the period since the XVII th term (1983) has been indexed, with the indexing process carried out daily. Furthermore, retrospective work has also been carried out. All the minutes in 1908 to the present day "pdf" format for use on the Internet has opened up.
Microfilm Service
Microfilm collection, 5735 is composed of roll. Until 2005, all published in all newspapers and magazines in Arabic letters has microfilm copies.
Microfilm records, microfilm scanner and transferred to digital media.
Some of the Important Databases and Information Sources Prepared or Managed by the Staff of the Turkish Grand National Assembly
- Parliamentary Debates (from 1996 onwards.) (full text). The Debates Database is planned to comprise all the debates since 1877 in the long term. The period since the XVII th term (1983) has been indexed and it is also in digital form (full text) but it is not available on the Internet. The periods of Danışma Meclisi, Milli Güvenlik Kurulu, Birleşik Toplantı, Milli Birlik Komitesi, Kurucu Meclis and Temsilciler Meclisi are also in digital form (full text) but they are not available on the Internet,
- The Bills (full text),
- Recently accepted Laws (full text),
- Oral and Written Questions (full text),
- Reports of the Basic Committees (full text),
- Information about Members of Parliament (Biographies and e-mails),
- Information about Presidents (Biographies),
- Information About Governments,
- List of Prime Ministers,
- Information about Speakers (Biographies of some of them),
- Information about Political Parties,
- Newspaper Database (five newspapers between 1991-1997, and majority of the daily press except local dailies since 1998) (full text). Newspaper Database is only available on the intranet of the Parliament (Approximately 1.030.500 records for the period between 1991-March 30 Nov. 2011); Newspaper Database is available on the intranet of the Parliament,
- Approximately 30.126 volumes of newspaper (Nov. 2011),
- Approximately 5.735 rolls of microfilm of Turkish newspapers and old script journals (Nov. 2011),
- Periodical Articles (Bibliographic) (Indexed over 59.274 periodical articles) (Nov. 2011),
- Approximately 43.304 volumes of periodicals (Nov. 2011),
- The Catalogue of the Library and Documentation Center of The Turkish Grand National Assembly
Turkish (Latin Alphabet) |
241.460 |
Turkish (Arabic Alphabet) |
12.578 |
English |
34.298 |
Deutsche |
3.489 |
French |
17.086 |
Other Languages |
2.962 |
TOTAL |
311.873 |
Library Staff According to Their Education Level
Doctorate Degree |
2 |
Masters Degree |
7 |
Other Degrees |
63 |
Total Persons |
72 |
The Library and Documentation Centre is located in the east wing of the TBMM building. It occupies 2.550 square meters.
4 - storey depositories which are located under the General Reading Room contain the books, newspapers and journals that constitute the main collection. The length of the shelves the library has for storing its source materials is around 14 kilometres.
The Big Reading Room at the end of the corridor provides a comfortable working atmosphere to the readers with its tables suitable for individual or group work, general reference books, and thanks to its special lighting. The information section which is comprised of library specialists helps readers to use the library sources effectively and find the information that is looked up.
Reading rooms are located at each side of the entrance to the Library. The Turkish dailies reading room is on the right. The collection of foreign dailies, along with Turkish and foreign journals, are placed in the room on the left. Only some of the subscribed journals are displayed in this room. Offices of the Librarian and the Deputy Librarians, Administration Office, Research Service, Loans and Photocopying Services are located in the corridor between the Entrance and the General Reading Room.
The offices of Minutes Documentation, Cataloguing and Classification, Newspaper Documentation, Journal Documentation and Microfilm Services are located downstairs, which is reached via the stairs leading to the corridor between the Entrance and the General Reading Room.
Additionally, besides the Library's facilities in The Main Building, The Assistant's Reading Room in the Public Relations Building serves the assistants of MP's. In this room, daily newspapers and some weekly journals are available, and photocopies can be obtained upon request.
The Library is open at weekdays from 09:30 a.m. to 06:30 p.m., continuously during the plenary sessions. The Library is always in charge while plenary sessions are in progress.
The Library is open at weekends, except for religious, national holidays or the TBMM recess, with service limited to the newspaper and periodical reading rooms.
All sorts of information and documentation needed by MPs in order to carry out their legislative duties can be provided by the Library. The Library also serves former deputies. Information requests are accepted in person, by telephone or by letter. Requests on specific subjects can be channelled to the related divisions.
Library Services also include preparing reports, fact sheets, etc. on various subjects upon request. Research staff, whose educational backgrounds are in law, economics, international relations, political science, public administration, etc. carry out the mission.
Current and former MPs and TBMM staff may borrow all source material except for rare books, manuscripts and reference works. Before taking the source material, borrowers must sign a voucher. Maximum borrowing period is 20 days. The period may be extended for the following 10 days. As with all libraries, in the TBMM Library periodicals, whether bound or not, can not be removed from the premises, and can not be loaned, nor can an entire issue or volume be photocopied.
External users, who are not able to find the source material in any other library, have to get working permission from the Library Committee to use the Library. External users can not borrow any material and the working permission is limited to 30 days.
