Giulia's Legislative Placement with the Legislative Library

For my Assembly placement I had the absolute pleasure of working in the Legislative Library, which is not only a beautiful space in the main building of Queen’s Park, but also houses a unique branch of the Office of the Assembly. The Legislative Library provides non-partisan and confidential informational services such as research and analysis to all Assembly staff and MPPs. As a repository of information, the library also distributes news in the form of press clippings as well as basic reference support to all offices of the Assembly and MPPs. The work of the library is not only crucial in its archival purposes, but also in supporting the production of knowledge by and for the Legislature.

During my time at the Legislative Library, I had the opportunity to create a report on Select Committees, both as a physical document and as an interactive site. This dual nature of my report allows the information that I compiled to be accessible and discoverable for all Assembly staff. I learned so much about the importance of committees as a whole and got to learn a lot about committees with very interesting mandates. Using a website builder was also a new learning experience for me, as I used it extensively to create a guide for Select Committees on the library website. My colleagues at the library were so helpful in this endeavour, providing me support through training sessions on various reference tools and always answering my questions. I was also privileged enough to have a tour of the stacks, where I learned that the oldest book Grammatica Latina, is from 1490!

More specifically, the most meaningful part of my placement at the library was the level of knowledge I gained, not only regarding the substance of my project, but also in my ability to hone my researching and writing skills. The staff at the library were so integral in this regard, ensuring that I had all the tools to succeed not just in my placement with them, but also in my member placements and the creation of my OLIP paper.

I would like to thank everyone at the Legislative Library for creating such a warm and welcoming environment for my placement this fall. A special shoutout to my supervisor, Bryony Livingston, for being so willing to answer questions and helping me grow in my researching and writing skills through my project. A very big thank you to the Legislative Library for hosting me!