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

Post 1

Introduction:
My name is Rachel Karnowski and I'm in my 3rd semester in the MLS curriculum.  I'm working on getting archivist certification.  I tripled majored in French, History, and Linguistic Anthropology as an undergraduate at KSU and have been living in Topeka.  September 1st I will be moving to Mons, Belgium where I will be staying with family for the next three months.  I'm trying to get a job teaching English as a second language there.  I'm excited and nervous about the move and trying to get a lot of moving details finished this week.  

Topic:  Linguistic Barriers in Belgium
I'd like to find out how language barriers affect information structures in Belgium as it has three national languages (French, Flemish, and German) in addition to a large segment of their population being able to speak English. How do libraries in Belgium choose which language to have their information structures in.  Are there issues in interoperability due to linguistics? Are their solutions applicable on a global scale?