The Library of National Congress in Chile provides legislative support services and houses a collection of over 200,000 objects. It was founded 120 years ago to support the Chamber of Deputies and Senate. The library contains Chilean and foreign books, journals, press articles, and databases. Services include access to Chilean laws, congressional speeches, treaties, and an online catalog. The head of the new Digital Services department assessed the library's technology and created a plan to improve systems and transition to new platforms to better serve congressional clients.

1. Library of National
Congress:
centered on clients concerns
Christian Sifaqui Merczak
Head of Department “Digital Services”
Talca, October 2004

2. National Congress

3. SenateSenate
Chamber
of
Deputies
Chamber
of
Deputies
Library of National CongressLibrary of National Congress

4. Library of National CongressLibrary of National Congress
Studies and
Publications
Production of
Information
Resources
Legislative and
documentary
services
Administration and
Finance
Computation Law Bill Input Unit
Integrated System
of Territorial
Information
Networked
Information
Services and
Systems

5. Library of National Congress
Founded 120 years ago to provide support for both Houses of the
National Congress: Chamber of Deputies and Senate
Headquartered in the National Congress building (Valparaíso), with 160
employees
Contains 229,161 objects, including books, pamphlets, rare books and
special collections, together with 109,314 Chilean and foreign
magazines and journals, more than 4 million press articles and 14 data
bases

8. Library of National Congress
Services
Chilean law: full text of 177,000 laws and rules
Congressperson histories: full text speeches (in both paper and electronic
formats)
History of the Law: background material related to Bill passage (in both
paper and electronic formats)
Treaties, from 1814, to date (full text)
On-line catalogue, with 140,000 titles

9. Library of National Congress
Services
Law Passage Information System, with the Bill passage history of every
law
Legislative Assistant: information on current Bill passage, including
bibliographies, press, foreign law, studies and briefings
Congressperson biographies
Integrated System of Territorial Information: combines 1,400 variables
for complete analysis of local realities

10. Library of National Congress
Congressperson advisory services
Studies and briefing papers
Background papers for Congressperson speeches and presentations
Summaries and specialized publications
Press dossiers: on issues of Congressperson or national interest

11. Initial situation
january 2004
New head of new department
• 2 “computing sections”
• another group with computing competences

12. Library of National CongressLibrary of National Congress
Studies and
Publications
Production of
Information
Resources
Legislative and
documentary
services
Administration and
Finance
Computation Law Bill Input Unit
Integrated System
of Territorial
Information
Networked
Information
Services and
Systems

13. Library of National CongressLibrary of National Congress
Studies and
Publications
Production of
Information
Resources
Legislative and
documentary
services
Administration and
Finance
Law Bill Input Unit
Integrated System
of Territorial
Information
Digital Services

14. Bringing some order
Help-desk
Operations/Administration
Research+Development

15. Bringing some order
Toward a new technological platform
Improving process
• CMM
• PSP
• standards
• procedures

16. What I found (technology)
many products
some of them really “legacy”
some of them really good

17. Library solution
Horizon
Administration
Circulation
Cataloging
Acquisition
Searching
IPAC

18. History of the law

19. Parliamentary work

20. Press clippings

21. Territorial information

22. Law
Senate
Chamber of
Deputies
motion or message motion or message
President
Official gazette

23. Law
Senate
Chamber of
Deputies
motion or message motion or message
President
Bill
tracking
System
Bill
tracking
System
History
of the law
System
History
of the law
System
Laws = n
Law
System:
LEGIS
Law
System:
LEGIS
Law bills = m
Parliamentary
work
Parliamentary
work
Official gazette
History
of the law
System
History
of the law
System
Parliamentary
work
Parliamentary
work

24. LEGIS system
Official gazette Library of National Congress
Law 20000
1.- abc
2.- def
3.- ghi
Law 20000
(original)
1.- abc
2.- def
3.- ghi

25. LEGIS system
Official gazette Library of National Congress
Law 20345
1.- modifies
law 20000
Art. 1
changes a
for xyz
Law 20000
Law 20345
(original)
1.- abc
2.- def
3.- ghi
(updated)
1.- xyzbc
2.- def
3.- ghi
Law 20345
1.- modifies
law 20000
Art. 1
changes a
for xyz

26. LEGIS system
Client-server
Web interface

27. And next?
Here we are…
but how about the future?
Technology
(what we will use)
Technology
(what we will use)
Change
(how we do things)
Change
(how we do things)

28. Technology: discontinuities
Discontinuities make it impossible to forecast the future by
extrapolating the past
Discontinuities are periods of rapid change, triggered by IT advances
Rapid technology evolution will continue, driving significant
discontinuities during the next decade:
– Automated customer service will become the primary interface for the majority of
business relationships
– By packaging business processes as software components, Web services will drive
new software pricing and delivery models, and more dynamic competition
– The prevalence of “wearables” will lead to commerce and service opportunities as
significant as those resulting from the wired Web
– The “tagging” industry will modify consumer buying behavior and drive new
industries around the ownership of “tags”

29. Automated customer service
Enabling Technologies
• NLP, speech recognition, and knowledge maps for search and analytics
• Personalization and alerting
Business Drivers
• Strong ROI
• Customer acceptance, benefit from reduced costs
• Increased access points (mobile, home networks)
Inhibitors
• Consumer backlash on multiple levels
• Increasing complexity of goods and services

30. Web Services
Enabling Technologies
• SOAP/HTTP for transport
• UDDI for registry and discovery
• E-business XML standards
• Security and trust frameworks
• Event notification
Business Drivers
• Increasing “Web” software culture
• Componentization of e-business processes
Inhibitors
• Technical obstacles: security, network impact, service discovery,
service switching and a lack of standards
• A lack of proven business models and trusted networks

31. Wearables
Enabling Technologies
• Ubiquitous, reliable wireless
• Heads-up and flexible displays
• Speech recognition
• Personal-area networks (PANs)
• Miniature cameras
• Context-aware services
• Embedded sensors and processors
Business Drivers
• Social acceptance of wearable peripherals
• Evolution of “local” vs. “virtual” etiquette
Inhibitors
• Health issues
• Privacy concerns
• Backlash against constant connectivity

32. Tagging the world
Enabling Technologies
• Channels for peer feedback
• Automated quality determination
• Affinity groupings
• Active sensors
• Information extractionpara peer feedback
Business Drivers
• Business models, e.g., micropayments
• Consumer acceptance of value
Inhibitors
• Slow development of semantic standards
• Privacy of opinions and behavior
• Lack of a business

33. Technology plan
We will use self-service technologies for contact centers
Within the next 24 months, we should assess development and
business implications for Web services
Within the next three to five years, we should plan for new
enterprises, processes and consumer models that exploit
wireless and wearable technologies
Within the next four to six years, we should commit to product
and service delivery models that support semantic tagging
standards

34. Technology base
Transition
– PHP
– MySQL
– Apache
Actual and future base of development
– Python (www.python.org)
– ZOPE (www.zope.org)
– CMF (cmf.zope.org)
– Plone (www.plone.org)
– SVG
– Topic Maps
– Gecko + XUL

35. Change: a new vision of our Library
Library = product + a service provider
 limits its field of client transactions to needs and requeriments
The change
library = institution that collaborates in broadening client possibilities
tuning in on clients
(but seeing the word client not in its historical meaning of dependency)

36. Change: a new vision of our Library
Our Vision
Role vis-a-vis Society: serve as depository for the National Congress,
especially with regard to Bill passage history and Congressperson action.
Role vis-a-vis Congress: serve as an instrument, relevant to Congresspersons
and Congress as a whole, for the optimum fulfillment of their committments
and the disclosure of new possible scenarios for Chile.
Rol vis-a-vis Civil Society: serve as a space of knowledge and understanding
of priority social issues, with emphasis on political and juridical concerns.

37. The change
Product
management
Relationship
management

38. “Market”
National Congress
Ministries
Judicial power
Lawyers
Law students
Constitutional court
Think tanks
Interest groups
Civil society

39. Focusing on client
Our commitment is to produce value for congresspersons.
Value is an congressperson judgment.
They have the authority to make that judgment.
This opinion flows from their experience and standards and from
the community to which they belong.

40. Focusing on client
How is value produced?
– Making ourself responsible for client concerns
– “putting ourself in the other´s shoes”

41. Focusing on client
What are congressperson concerns?
Dissatisfactions andDissatisfactions and
needsneeds
Role andRole and
coordinationscoordinations
IdentityIdentity
Social changesSocial changes
and valueand value
conflictsconflicts

42. Present developments
• Create easy and selfexplanatory access, (Web BCN)
• Eliminate dissatisfactions (PGS)
• Teach, incorporate, guide (Information abilities)
• Participate into the congressperson network of
collaborators (Project Negotiation, Project
procedures, Senado Ciudadano)
• Strengthen the working and collaborative teams
• Create services’ standards (promises)
• Generate knowledge to support congressional
activity (Congressional Advisory services)
• Generate material for individual, specific use
(Contents)
• Create links and interactive networks with citizens
or others (Web BCN, CCC)
Congressperson concerns Activities
Dissatisfactions and
needs, habits and
experiences (past)
Role and
Coordinations (now)
Identity (future)

43. Current developments
• Congress person interviews to identify life
narratives, past identities, daily organization, and
changes on their practices or habits
Congressperson concerns Activities
• Field visits (Ethnographies)
• Interview Analysis
• Segmentation according to value traits
• Design and test of product and services
prototypes
• Transfer into action
Social change and
Evolution (non
available future)

44. Structuring the staff
The new name “Digital Services” implies what
defines us
Because we are not electronic
That term implies “relationship management”

45. Examples of new services
Client relationship manager version 2

46. Examples of new services
Congressional services: Intranet

47. Examples of new services
Virtual reference desk: 24 hour response
≈ 100 daily responses

48. Recently
passed laws
Links to more on issue
Issue briefing
Example: web

49. Example: web
0
10.000
20.000
30.000
40.000
50.000
60.000
Week 33 Week 34 Week 35 Week 36
Sessions number
0
50.000
100.000
150.000
200.000
250.000
300.000
350.000
400.000
Week 33 Week 34 Week 35 Week 36
Printed pages
52% return

50. Example: web
Web  e-Process
Web query mining
Lurkers