3 things legislative research librarians want you to know.

• Author: McClure, Megan
• Position: WHAT STAFF KNOW

"The only thing that you absolutely have to know is the location of the library."

--ALBERT EINSTEIN

Legislative librarians are a studious and feisty group of guides who love a good laugh just as much as a clever legislative research question. Client-driven and guided by statehouse timelines, legislative librarians are a key element of the lawmaking process.

They provide state legislators, legislative and state agency staff, as well as the general public, with critical, confidential and nonpartisan information and resources.

Like state legislatures themselves, libraries vary in their structures, resources and services and may be housed in the executive or legislative branch. Some have large staffs, while others get by with just one full-time librarian and one library assistant.

Here's what librarians want you to know about their role in the work of the legislature.

1

We've got answers based on the facts.

Librarians love serving their legislatures with the timely, thorough and reliable research necessary for knowledgeable and effective legislation.

They know that not everything is on the internet, and not everything on the internet is true.

Most legislative libraries contain a considerable amount of information, regardless of their size. Among the many resources are legislative studies, committee minutes, superseded statutes, historical budget materials, statistical resources and a plethora of more traditional online-subscription resources such as Lexis, Westlaw and HeinOnline, not to mention house and senate journals, session laws and bill drafts.

Most legislative and state libraries also have large archival collections containing not only statutes, legislation and committee reports, but also state government documents and documents of historical importance.

Colorado, for example, has state and regionally specific databases. One of them, the Colorado General Assembly-Statutory Reports database, allows the public to access reports the General Assembly requires executive agencies to submit. Another, the Colorado Legislators Past and Present database, contains a profile of every member who has served in the General Assembly.

2

We are the Watson to your Sherlock.

We can help with almost anything. Just try us. Want to know what the media are saying about the topic of your bill? We can do that. Want fact-checking that's based on information from recognized reference sources? We can do that, too.

Maryland's librarians, for example, can index bills...