The Press Clipping Service was started on a modest scale in the year 1956 with the objective of speedy disposal of references on current topics received from members of Parliament and others. The Service collects all important, relevant and up-to-date news items, editorial comments and articles on developments in the legislative, political, economic, socio-cultural, scientific and technological fields. The clippings are taken from 11 Hindi and 18 English Newspapers published from various parts of the country. Hindi newspapers are – Business Standard, Dainik Jagran, Economic Times, Hindustan, Jan Satta, Nav Bharat Times, Rashtriya Sahara, (all from New Delhi), Aaj (Varanasi), Lokmat Samachar (Nagpur), Punjab Kesari (Panipat), Rajasthan Patrika (Jaipur). English newspapers include- Asian Age, Business Standard, Economic Times, Financial Express, Hindu Business Line, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Pioneer, Statesman, The Hindu, Times of India, Tribune (all from New Delhi), Assam Tribune (Guwahati), Deccan Herald (Bangalore), Free Press Journal (Mumbai), Kashmir Times (Jammu), Telegraph (Kolkata), The Hindu (Chennai).
Press clippings are used extensively by members, Research and Reference staff and also by different Branches of both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha Secretariats, research scholars visiting the Parliament Library and accredited press correspondents.
Since 2017 the Press Clipping Service has been fully computerised, The pdf files of every selected news items prepared and uploaded on a specially designed software developed by NIC. These press clippings can be accessed and retrieved subject-wise, date-wise, newspaper-wise and classification no. wise through Parliament Library Homepage from the computers connected in the Local Area Network in Parliament House Complex.
The press clippings belongs to pre 2017 era are maintained chronologically in subject folders and stacked in a proper sequence according to a specially devised classification scheme based on the Dewey Decimal Classification System. These folders are not issued out but can be consulted in the Reading Rooms of the Parliament Library and the Press Clipping Section.
Press clippings are retained for five years. However, important clippings of archival value and those having a bearing on constitutional, parliamentary and legal developments are retained permanently.