Hi, my name is Clare and my Assembly placement is with the Legislative Library. I was very excited to be placed here as I loved working at one of U of T’s libraries while I did my Master’s degree there. The Legislative Library is unlike many other libraries because it is not public-facing: its main purpose is to respond to the needs of Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs). This makes their mandate very unique. The staff here are all non-partisan and very responsive to their clients - as evidence, to MPPs they proudly say “your hours are our hours!”
While here I have been assigned two research projects. One has involved looking at the library’s collection of pre-Confederation (or pre-1867) parliamentary documents. I have been working through this using many different primary and secondary sources, along with the help of several staff. The second project has been to do research about some older biographies in the collection to help determine which are most relevant to the Library.
I am very grateful to have been so warmly welcomed by Library Manager, Eileen, and the rest of the staff here. I look forward to spending two more weeks here in the North wing!