By Janet McNeil - Librarian, Government Publications & Reference Services
The New Brunswick Legislative Library has a large, permanent collection of New Brunswick government publications both in print and in electronic format. The collection reflects the work and policies of the NB government, since the establishment of the province in 1784. Currently, in the library’s electronic repository, established in 2005, there are nearly 700 NB government monograph titles. All in all, the whole collection is a very unique resource.
But why would anyone ever need to access this material!
The reasons can be many and varied.
Perhaps the project on which you are working requires a copy of an old NB Act not available on the Internet. Library staff can scan the act, and e-mail it to you as a pdf file.
Maybe in the recent past your department experienced a large staff turnover; no one thought to save a copy of a departmental study, done several years ago , that was issued in electronic format only. Check with the Legislative Library, chances are good the study has been catalogued, and saved in their electronic depository.
You may have just been assigned a project to design and write a booklet on a topic that you are almost sure has been covered in a previous brochure, but no one can find such a publication anywhere in the organization. Try the Legislative Library . The government publications section also saves brochures and booklets published by NB departments and agencies.
Legislative Library staff considers it a vital task that we all continue building the NB government publications collection, which is an incomparable historical and research-rich resource. We hope all government employees will be in support of this work, by encouraging compliance with the Legislative Library Act; section 5 of the act requires 4 copies of NB government publications to be deposited with the Legislative Library:[ http://www.gnb.ca/0062/PDF-acts/l-03-1.pdf ].
