Organization and staff
Within the Bundestag Administration, the Parliamentary Library is part of the Library and Documentation Directorate, which, in turn, forms part of the Information and Documentation Directorate-General.
In addition to its management, the Library is divided into four sections whose staff deal with information services and the provision of material.
One acquisitions section is responsible for the collections which the Library of the German Bundestag receives by way of legal deposit or special supply agreements, e.g. German and foreign parliamentary materials and official gazettes, and publications of international organisations. A second acquisitions section deals with publications which the Library acquires through the book trade and via numerous special-interest groups, associations and institutions.
Indexing and Documentation Section
The Indexing and Documentation Section is responsible for indexing monographs and material which is not published as bibliographically independent works. A substantial amount of work is also involved in maintaining the thesaurus and the authority files. The staff of this section in the higher career range are responsible for collection development and for the compilation of subject-related bibliographies, in particular to support the work of study commissions set up by the Bundestag. Another important task is developing and maintaining collections of internet links organised by subject.
The Information and Reference Service is responsible for information services and assisting users. In particular, this involves searching for information and material, handling complex research requests, compiling lists of material on specific subjects, sorting and making available material according to topic, searching external databases, and obtaining material from other libraries. The staff of this section also give the weekly tours of the Library and offer training seminars. They are also responsible for the regular presentation of new publications and thematic book displays.
More than 80 members of staff
More than 80 members of staff, of which more than a third are part-time staff, work in the Bundestag Library. Staff in the higher service have a university degree, while staff in the higher intermediate service have a degree from a university of applied sciences. Increasingly, staff in the intermediate service have a vocational qualification as a specialist in media and information services. The Library’s staff also include non-librarians, such as the specialist staff who work in the Bundestag’s bookbinding service, and the stack assistants, who are responsible for retrieving publications ordered by users.