國會助理立法資訊尋求行為之研究

Abstract

國會助理主要協助立法委員行使各項立法職權與問政工作，其扮演著重要的幕僚角色。本研究主要目的為瞭解國會助理其任務所引發之資訊需求、資訊尋求行為、資訊使用與評估及影響其資訊尋求行為之因素，並針對國會助理之資訊使用環境－國會圖書館，其現行資訊服務是否合於使用者的資訊需求，期能提供國會圖書館服務規劃之參考與建議。 本研究以質性研究為取向，採用深度訪談法，並以國會圖書館為研究個案，分別邀請10位國會助理參與，受訪國會助理之工作以法案研究為主，深入瞭解國會助理資訊尋求行為之情境與特性，以及與資訊環境的互動與影響。並將訪談記錄依分析之構面加以歸納與詮釋，發展為國會助理立法資訊尋求行為之架構。 本研究結果顯示：解決立法委員法案研究與選民服務之任務，是國會助理主要立法資訊需求情境；而國會助理不同層次的立法資訊需求，會影響其選用立法資訊的管道和類型；國會助理的立法資訊需求，會因外在環境或個人因素影響。對於國會助理之立法資訊尋求行為，則發現國會圖書館網站資源，為開始蒐集立法資訊之管道，並以個人習慣熟悉的途徑獲得更多的資訊；國會助理同時會依據個人資訊需求特性，選擇書面或口頭的資訊為解決方案；同時國會助理習慣自己展開資訊尋求並自我判斷資訊適用性。在影響國會助理資訊尋求之因素，分析結果為主題性資訊太少，造成資訊蒐集上的困難；網站資源內容未配合實際議題的發展。在資訊使用評估方面，則發現國會助理選擇解決問題的資訊時，會考慮資訊的即時性與可取用性；並顯示國會助理多自己決定選用資訊的合用性；研究結果同時指出，國會圖書館網站資源與實體館藏，大致可滿足國會助理基本立法資訊的需求。 針對研究結果，本論文以使用者角度，對研究個案國會圖書館之資源與服務提出下列建議。在國會圖書館方面，應配合立委減半之國會環境，規劃依委員會為主動提供資訊服務對象；在資訊蒐集方面，應配合立委背景特性，強調地方性資訊與全國性資訊的蒐集；在資訊加值服務方面，需強化各國國會法與外國法規譯介與專檔服務；在資訊服務規劃方面，應深入瞭解服務對象，定期進行使用者需求調查；在館藏資源發展方面，應同時加強行政部門與研究單位之灰色文獻蒐集與使用；在館際資源方面，應積極建立館際合作機制，有效連結外部環境取得更多相關資源。

Congressional assistants play an important bureaucratic role in helping legislators deal with legislative duties and political affairs. The objectives of this study are: first, trying to fathom Congressional assistants’ needs, behaviors, researching methods and motivations of information seeking; second, trying to evaluate the information surroundings of the Parliamentary Library, which provides basic legislative information for Congressional assistants. The aim is to proffer references and suggestions for the service planning of the Parliamentary Library. The study belongs to qualitative research and adopts the in-depth interview approach, using the Parliamentary Library as the model case. I have invited ten Congressional assistants whose main tasks including bill research for interview. This study aims to analyze the characteristics of these Congressional assistants’ behaviors and the external situations when they execute information seeking. Analysis includes the interactivities and impacts between the targeted persons and the technological surroundings. I interpret the components of the interviewing records and consequently invent a format of the Congressional assistants’ legislative information seeking behaviors. The results of this study suggest that Congressional assistants mainly search the legislative information for two tasks: one, handling the issues and problems about the bill research; two, providing services for civilians. The Congressional assistants decide what channel is best according to specific needs. Also, their legislative information seeking can be swayed by social or personal factors. The Web site of the Parliamentary Library is seen as the first step on legislative information seeking, while searching methods differ from person to person. Primarily Congressional assistants seek and judge the compatibility of the specific information on their own, choosing recorded or printed documents according to their needs. Factors that influence the information seeking process include as follows: classified information are less than enough so as to cause the difficulties of information gathering; the content of the Web site does not correspond to social issues. When it comes to whether such information is useful, Congressional assistants regard the spontaneity and availability as most important factors. The results also show that the Web site and the repertoire of the Parliamentary Library basically satisfy the needs of Congressional assistants. This thesis uses the results to offer suggestions for the resources and services of the Parliamentary Library. The Parliamentary Library should do more to cater to the information needs of the committee since the scale of the Parliament has been halved. As far as the information gathering is concerned, the Parliamentary Library had better strengthen the gathering of the local and the national information so as to satisfy specific needs of legislators. In the aspect of information value-added services, related laws of Parliament, the introduction and translation of foreign regulations, and the special information services that are catered to individual legislators and Congressional assistants need improvement. When it comes to information service planning, the Parliament Library is supposed to hold the poll to better understand the needs of regular searchers. As far as the development of the library resources, the gathering and circulation of gray literature can be highly achieved through the collaboration of the administrative department and the research team. As to the interlibrary resources, the interlibrary system should be established to help resources exchange via the links.