Library and Information Unit

Thirteen years after the birth of a new democratic South Africa, we are in our 3rd democratically elected Parliament, with a vision of:

Building an effective Parliament that is responsive to the needs of the people and that is driven by the ideal of realizing a better quality of life for all the people of South Africa.

The Parliament of South Africa has two houses, namely the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces and the Library of Parliament is a special library providing library and information services to both Houses. The library is a legal deposit library and is therefore entitled to claim a copy of every publication in printed and electronic form published in South Africa.

The main task of the Library and Information Unit is to provide library and information support to Members of Parliament, including Presiding Officers of Parliament, Committees and Parliamentary Staff. The Unit is designed to serve as a reliable port of call for all the information needs of Parliament. In order to provide quality service to clients, the Library and Information Unit is structured on the basis of subject - area specialization and functional sub-units.

While most energies have been focused on the law-making processes after 1994, more recently the demand on Parliament to engage in oversight and international activities have increased considerably. This has impacted heavily on the Library of Parliament and its services.

The Library’s services include: a circulation service, reference and information service, imaging services, interlibrary loans, full-text electronic databases as well as a current awareness service. Having been established in 1857, the collection now stands at well over a million items, including books, journals, maps, artworks, videos, CD/DVDs, etc.

For more information, please contact the Chief Librarian:

Mr. Albert Ntunja
Library of Parliament
PO Box 18
Cape Town
8000
Republic of South Africa

Tel: +2721 403 2126
Fax: +2721 461 4331
Email: antunja@parliament.gov.za