Belgium's Political System

 

Figure 1.  Administrative Map

            Belgium’s federal government is fairly complicated and in order to understand the politics that affect the libraries within the country it is necessary to understand the multiple political powers at play.  The federal government and federal parliaments have powerful roles, but they share their power with communities and regions “who independently exercise their authority within their domains” (Belgian Federal Government, 2008).  There are three communities:  French community, Flemish community and German-speaking Community.  In addition to these communities Belgium is divided into three regions:  the Flemish Region, the Brussels Capital Region and the Walloon Region.  These regions were divided for economic reasons.  Belgium is further divided into 10 provinces and 589 municipal councils. 

            In the Flemish Region or Flanders, there is a Flemish Parliament and a Flemish Government and is a unicameral legislature.  It has 5 provinces:  Antwerpen (Antwerp), Vlaams Brabant (Flemish Brabant), Oost-Vlaanderen (East-Flanders), West-Vlaanderen (West-Flanders) and Limburg.  As of January 2008 it consists of 6.2 million people and is 59% of the Belgian population.  There are 456 inhabitants per km² and has a surface area of 13.522km.² It is responsible for “for economics, foreign trade, health care, energy distribution, housing, agriculture and horticulture, environment, public works and transport, employment policy, culture and education, science and innovation” (Flemish Department of Foreign Affaires, 2008).  It can also form treaties with foreign nations when it comes to the domains it is responsible for. 

            In the French Region, or Walloon, there are five provinces:  Brabant Wallon, Hainaut, Liège, Luxembourg and Namur.  It’s domain include “the environment,  agriculture, housing, public works, transport, regional aspects of the economic policy, foreign trade, employment policy, regional aspects of the energy policy, organisation and supervision of the local authorities, property belonging to the various religious groups, scientific research relating to regional matters, international relations relating to regional matters” (Region Wallonne).  It has a separate parliament and government.  Its administration is divided into two ministries:  Walloon Ministry of Equipment and Transportation and the Ministry of the Walloon Region (Region Wallonne). 

            The French Community Commission (COCOF), the Flemish Community Commission (VGC) and the Common Community Commission (COCOM) are the three community commissions that are in charge of the local domains and are dependent on the language spoken by the head of the household (Region Wallonne). 

Belgian Federal Government.  (2008).  Belgian, a federal state.  Retrieved from http://www.belgium.be/en/about_belgium/government/federale_staat/

Institut Geographique National.  (2008).  Carte Administrative.  Retrieved from http://www.ngi.be/FR/FR4-1-1.shtm

Flemish Department of Foreign Affairs.  (2008).  Welcome to Flanders.  Retrieved from http://www.flanders.be/servlet/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1276149008684&context=1166590833692--EN&p=1166590837082&pagename=flanders_site%2FView

Region Wallonne.  Public Authorities in Wallonia.  Retrieved from http://www.crisp.be/wallonie/en/pouvoirs/region_wallonne.html

E-Government Iniatitives in Belgium

The Belgium government has websites that includes E-Government initiatives.  They are offered in Flemish, Dutch, English and French.  The Service Public Fédéral Belge, or Belgian Federal Public Service, and has created E-Government initiatives in order to provide greater equality in access to information to all of its citizens.  The Belgian Federal Public Service has the information written in a language that is accessible and « simple » for its citizens.  It includes a catalog dedicated to publications, electronic services, and the locations of public buildings (Service Public Fédéral Belge, 2008).    

Portial Belgium.be is the official government sponsored website of Belgium and is maintained by the Belgian Federal Public Service.  It offers several E-Government options that includes information portals and government programs :  Mypension, Tax-on-web, registering alarm systems, Medical Information, Smart2surf@home, Cyberhate, DOC STOP, and EID Quick Install (Service Public Fédéral Belge, 2010).
Allrights.be is a website sponsored by the government that provides information on Belgian citizens’ rights.  It includes information on Belgian laws and organizations that people can contact for help with the laws.  It is a site dedicated to promoting equality under the law.  This page also has social development programs.  It includes information about integration for all naturalized Belgians.  Another portal that is geared towards toward the exercise of citizenships is EID Quick Install.  Belgian citizens have an ID Card that has an microchip in addition to other information about the citizen.  It is similar to a passport, but is for citizens only.  The microchip is there for government agencies to use to access information about the person to law agencies. EID Quick Install focuses on verifying and enregistering the ID Card.  DOC STOP is another portal dedicated to the aiding citizens whose ID cards have been stolen.  It is used to stop identify theft and to report the crime (ASBL).

Belgium has several social development programs.  Smart2surf@home is a government sponsored initiative that offers computers and access to the internet for a reduced price.  They give a tax break to computer and internet businesses so that they will sell computers and internet packages at a reduced price to all Belgians.  In addition, they offer tax breaks to qualifying citizens (Service Public Fédéral Belge, 2010).

The E-Government portal also includes  Cyberhate is an information portal that offers countering information to propaganda about the Gaza Strip.  Another information portal is belgiquelex which includes information on legislation, parliamentary proceedings, and on the law.  The website is offered in four languages:  Dutch, English, French, and German (Belgiumlex.be, 2008).

References
ASBL (Association sans But Lucrative).  Objectief.  Retrieved from http://www.allrights.be
Belgiumlex.be (2008).  Belgiumlex: Crossroads Bank for Legislation.  Retrieved from Belgiumlex.be.
Service Public Fédéral Belge. (2010).  Portail Belgium.be.  Retrieved from http://www.belgium.be
Service Public Fédéral Belge. (2008).  A Propos de ce cite.  Retrieved from  http://www.belgium.be/fr/a_propos_de_ce_site.jsp

Library Organizations in Belgium and Information Literacy

Belgian libraries reflect the political and economic divisions that exist within the country.  The North/Flanders and South/Wallonia each have their own library institutions.  In addition they are divided by type of institutions and are dependent on regional and community governments instead of their federal government.  University and school libraries depend on their own institutions for funding and as a result there isn’t a global strategic framework. 

Pachet and Thirions conducted a study in 1995 on the Information Literacy situation in Belgium.  They found that there is a significant dichotomy between the technical and intellectual aspects of information literacy with a heavy emphasis on the technical aspect.  Instruction focuses on what “buttons to push” instead of the how and why of information literacy.  They discovered that there are infrequent partnerships between librarians and teachers and that computer assisted learning is rare.  They identified AFFD’s Strategic Directions are as follows:
-    Developing statistical and qualitative evaluation of Information Literacy
-    Developing marketing policy within the institutions
-    Developing a legitimization process of Information Literacy
-    Integrating libraries and teaching
-    Developing official recognition of Information Literacy programs in political and institution decisions
AFFD is also working on modifying the following practices:
-    Integration of student use of libraries
-    Teachers integrating libraries into the classroom
-    Increasing librarians awareness of the role as teachers
Pachet and Thirion cite lack of financial resources as reasons for the slow progress in these areas. They also indentified the organization CERFISTS three main goals:  teacher training, development of training, and measuring Information Literacy impact. The last organization they discuss is the SOFIE Project who aims to train the user community to use Belnet (Belgian National Research Network for education, research and public services) and in selecting and indexing online resources. 
Pachet and Thirion assert that problem areas within the Belgian Library system stem from the lack of a key role in education and training.  Libraries are “far from the centre of concern in Belgium” as policy makers do not think that users need assistance in accessing information.   

The following is a list of organizations in Belgium:
Wallonia
Association Belge de Documentation (ABD)
Fonds National de la Recherche/Scientifique (FNRS)
    -they focus on library instruction and supports federal projects
Belgian Collective Catalogue et Monographs (CCB)
Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS)
Association Belge des Bibliothécaire d'Expression Française (ABBEF)
Association Professionnelle des Bibliothécaires Documentalistes (APBD)
-    Concentrates on public libraries
Fédération Interdiocésaine des Bibliothécaires et Bibliothèques catholiques (FIBBC)
-    concentrates on the Catholic sector
Prodoc-edu
-    high school librarians
-    created by EduDOC Group
-    focuses on the role of libraries within the teaching community
Conseil Interuniversitaire francophone (CIUF)
-    Coalition of University libraries
Ateliers Francophones sur la Formation Documentaire (AFFD)
Réseau Coopératif pour une Documentation plus Accessible (RéCoDA)
-    Cooperative network of libraries
Development d’une Formation à Information Scientifique and Technique (DéFIST)
-    Collaboration between RéCoDA
Federal Projects
Belgian Collective Catalogue of monographs (CCB)
National Collective Catalogue of the Serials (Antilope)

Flanders
Mededelingenblad van Vlaamse Vereniging voor Bibliotheek -,Archief- in Documentatiewezen (VVBAD)
-    Association includes public, scientific, school, academic and private libraries
-    financed by the Flemish government
-    Journals include “INFORMATION" and "Bib-SCOOP"
-    Does not currently have an IL project
Thirion P., Pochet B. "Information literacy in Belgium. An overview by the EduDOC group".
In Basili. C (ed.). Information Literacy in Europe : a first insight into the state of the art
of information literacy in the European Union. Rome : Italian National Research Council,
2003, p 12-24.

Post 2

Belgium is a small nation in the European Union that has three official languages:  French, Flemish, and German.  Most citizens are required to take at least one language course in another language during their education.  An interesting phenomenon I have discussed with my aunt Karine, a retired professor and veteran of the Belgian education system, is that many citizens opt to take English as their foreign language.  There are stark political divides that have strong linguistic and geographic ties.  The Walloon (Francophone) are more likely to take English instead of Flemish and the Flemants (Flemish speakers) are also more likely to take English than French.  However official documents are always in Flemish, French, or have both listed.  They are rarely in English and German.  This raises the question, what language should Belgian Libraries have their information in?  Should they include all three official languages in their documents, collections, and websites so as not to marginalize a linguistic group or should they have it in English in order to provide a neutral language.  What kind of linguistic chaos would it create to have four languages offered?

Access to computers and the internet are problematic for similar reasons.  What language should the computers be in?  On the subject of usability I witnessed a French speaker, who also knows quite a bit of English, try to access the internet account with great difficulty.  The user had memorized the navigation of the website and learned the new internet jargon in French as the site had been offered in either French or Flemish.  However, without providing a tutorial or any assistance in navigation the website had changed everything to English.  Resulting in the user being completely lost on how to access his bill.  The site wasn’t consistent at all as to which language it utilized, but instead was a hodgepodge of English.  This made it near impossible for even me, an English speaker who knows French and is familiar with websites to navigate the site. 

For this paper I have plans to visit two of Mons’ public libraries and request an interview with one of their librarians to see what kind of factors they consider when making linguistic policy decisions.  The following is demographic data the UNESCO article Towards Knowledge Societies includes about Belgium:

3-5,000 internet users per 10,000 people (32)

10-30 personal computers per 10,000 people (34)

50-70% of households have a radio (35)

75+% of households with a television (36)

UNESCO. (2005). Towards Knowledge Societies. Available from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001418/141843e.pdf