About the Parliamentary Library

Parliamentary Handbook

The Parliamentary Library publishes the Parliamentary Handbook of the Commonwealth of Australia. The Parliamentary Handbook covers many aspects of the Commonwealth Parliament and the Australian political system and is published each Parliament. The first handbook was published in 1915 at the request of the Joint Library Committee. The full text of the handbook has been available online since 1999 on the Parliament’s web site.

Administration

The Parliamentary Library is part of the Department of Parliamentary Services and provides services to senators, members, their staff, the staff of parliamentary departments and the Governor-General. The first library services were delivered to federal parliament in 1901 and continue to provide significant support to parliament and the democratic process.The blistering heat experienced by the United States during August, as well as the June through August months, marks the second warmest summer on record, according to scientists at NOAA's National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, N.C. The persistent heat, combined with below-average precipitation across the southern U.S. during August and the three summer months, continued a record-breaking drought across the region.

The average U.S. temperature in August was 75.7 degrees F, which is 3.0 degrees above the long-term (1901-2000) average, while the summertime temperature was 74.5 degrees F, which is 2.4 degrees above average. The warmest August on record for the contiguous United States was 75.8 degrees F in 1983, while its warmest summer on record at 74.6 degrees F occurred in 1936. Precipitation across the nation