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Saskatchewan Legislative Library
The Saskatchewan Legislative Library is the oldest library in the Province of Saskatchewan. Its predecessor, the Northwest Government Library, was established at Fort Livingstone in 1876 to support the Territorial Government for Northwest Canada. When the Province of Saskatchewan was created in 1905, it remained in Regina and became the Legislative Library of Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan’s first parliamentary librarian, John Hawkes, was appointed in 1907.
For a large part of its history, the Library was the only research library and the only government library in the Province. The earliest rural library services, the Travelling Libraries and the Open Shelf Library, began under the Legislative Library prior to the establishment of the Provincial Library. As well, the Library also contributed to the development of provincial archive services in Saskatchewan, the Archives being a branch of the Legislative Library until the 1960s.
The Library’s present-day mission is to further the parliamentary process in Saskatchewan by providing authoritative and high quality information resources, services, and expertise to the Legislative Assembly; maintaining and developing the research and legislative collection; and ensuring the collection’s present and future accessibility to parliamentarians, the Saskatchewan public, and the civil service. The Library is committed to the principles of confidentiality, non-partisan service, access to information, and freedom of information.
The primary clientele of the Library are Members of the Legislative Assembly and their staff, legislative officers, caucus staff, and Executive Council. Members of the Legislative Assembly receive premium services including in-depth research assistance, customized current awareness services (daily, weekly media monitoring), and briefing kits. Government of Saskatchewan employees are also provided with library services and borrowing privileges. The Library welcomes the members of the public and special researchers to use the library’s collection in-house.
The Saskatchewan Legislative Library is the official deposit library for all Saskatchewan government publications (under The Legislative Assembly and Executive Council Act, 2007, section 81), and as such, all Saskatchewan government agencies are required to deposit copies of their printed and digital publications with the Library.
Materials accessible through the Library include: legislative and statute materials for all jurisdictions in Canada, Saskatchewan government publications (current and historical), Statistics Canada publications, federal, provincial and municipal government publications, foreign government and world body publications, Saskatchewan newspapers (current and historical), news media throughout North America, think tank publications, and a comprehensive collection of Saskatchewan local histories.The Library’s collection seeks to provide basic coverage in most subjects and in-depth coverage on topics of particular interest to Saskatchewan legislators including current events, public administration, law, political science, economics, history, biography, parliamentary practice and social issues.
Library personnel are actively involved in research and development activities that relate to information management, metadata, digitization, historical preservation, and web-based information delivery. The Library also contributes to the advancement of access to government information and parliamentary library services via cooperation with a variety of consortia, associations, and groups.
The Library has a public web site at http://www.legassembly.sk.ca/library/The Library catalogue can be searched online at http://legislative.voyager.uregina.ca/
Email: reference@legassembly.sk.ca
Legislative Assembly website: www.legassembly.sk.ca
