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By Pascale Van Dinter - May 2001
How is the CULTIVATE project dealt with in Belgium? Which project tasks have been carried out to date? What kind of information is available via the national Web site? And what kind of information is sent via the national e-list? Pascale Van Dinter, the Belgian National Node, attempts to answer these questions and more.
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This
article is divided into three sections:
In Belgium public competences in the sector of libraries, are widely spread among federated entities of the country, the Cultural Communities; with the exception of the Royal Library (and the libraries of the federal scientific and cultural institutions) [1] which is placed under the responsibility of the Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs (OSTC) [2]. The other scientific and public libraries lie with the ministeries of the Flemish, French and German-speaking Communities or even with the provincial and local authorities.
The policies regarding public libraries have been defined since 1978 by Community decrees and implemented by a special administration for public libraries located within the ministeries of culture for the Communities. Higher Councils for public libraries (advisory bodies) have also been installed in the Flemish and French Communities.
University libraries are placed under the authority of the leading bodies for each university. There is no central administration responsible at Community level for these libraries.
Cooperation between libraries has been steadily increasing during the last years.
Public competences in the sector of museums are also largely exerted by the Communities. Museums are organised and managed by various authorities: municipalities, provinces, the Communities themselves (a limited number of institutions), the federal State (mainly the major federal museums located in the Brussels region), learned societies and private organisations. The principal federal museums are scientific establishments with a large autonomy, placed under the administrative control of the OSTC.
A central administration is installed in the ministry of culture for each Community (Flemish Community: Unit Visual Arts and Museums; French Community: Unit Patrimony, Visual Arts, Craft and Folklore). The Communities have established a regulatory framework with regard to the public funding of museums. Higher Councils for museums (advisory bodies) have also been installed in the Flemish and French Communities.
Although museums do in general enjoy a large amount of autonomy, cooperation is now increasing. New collaborations are being developed with regard to training, learning, publishing, research projects (in particular for telematics developments) and the digitisation of collections.
The public archives are governed by the law of 24 June 1955 which organises the General State Archives and the State Archives in the Provinces (16 deposits). Together these institutions form a federal scientific establishment placed under the administrative authority of the OSTC. The 1955 law prescribes the conditions under which all public archives must be transferred in this establishment. It will soon be replaced by a law that will take into account, among others things, the new federal structure of the country.
The Communities have established a regulatory framework with regard to the approval and public funding of private archives. The General State Archives (AGR) are de facto a national focal point as regards archival activities.
There are no permanent structures for cooperation between ALMs nor are there coordinated programmes. Some collaborations and synergies may possibly occur between various institutions who have the same organising/funding body or work within the framework of thematical programmes (e.g. the federal programme of scientific support to the development of the information society).
One of the main aims of CULTIVATE is to enforce national cooperation between ALMs within the framework of European programmes and the project is as such a useful initiative for the memory institutions in Belgium.
More detailled information on the situation of ALMs in Belgium can be found on the Cultivate Web site [3].
The STIS [4] is a separate government agency within the Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural Affairs (OSTC). The mission of the STIS is to retrieve and disseminate scientific, medical and technical information and documentation; to promote the use of electronic information sources, especially from international providers of scientific and technical information and to disseminate information about European research and innovation programmes.
Government agencies, universities, research centers and businesses, as well as the non-profit sector, can call upon the STIS whose main priorities include scientific research, innovation and science policy.
The National Focal Point (NFP) for European Libraries was created by the Belgian authorities in October 1990 in order to ensure exchange and disseminate information as well as follow-up the Telematics for Libraries Programme of the European Union. The OSTC were responsible for the secretariat and presidency of the NFP. From 1990 to 1998 the NFP represented Belgium in the European network of national focal points created for the Telematics for Libraries activities of the 3rd and 4th framework programmes for RTD of the European Union.
The Commission 'International Cooperation' of the Interministerial Science Policy Conference decided in January 1999 to enlarge the NFP to include representation of the archives and museums communities in order to be able to reflect in an appropriate manner the new place for these memory institutions in the 5th framework programme. The NFP became the National Focal Point for European Archives, Libraries and Museums (NFP/ALM) and the STIS was asked to act as chairperson and to run the secretariat.
In 1999, when some members of the "old" European network of National Focal Points decided to submit the CULTIVATE proposal under the IST-programme, the STIS became the Belgian partner in the new network.
STIS is planning to try to continue its information and assistance activities beyond 2002 after CULTIVATE has ended, within the new context of the European Research Area.
On February 5 2001, CULTIVATE Belgium organised an information day on European Archives, Libraries and Museums in the Royal Library Albert I in Brussels. This event attracted 100 participants from the ALM world. In the morning session presentations of EU programmes like IST-Digicult, Culture 2000 and eContent were given by representatives of the EU. The afternoon session was focused more directly on the 6th IST Call for proposals and on a presentation of the new Belgian CULTIVATE Web site. Belgian ALMs who have already work on European projects presented their experience in relevant areas. The Austrian partner of CULTIVATE also gave a presentation.
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The Belgian CULTIVATE Web site [5] is multilingual: French, Dutch and English. It contains 5 main items:
Under CULTIVATE one can find detailed information about the CULTIVATE network and the services provided at European level.
National Focal Point presents the National Focal point: a short history, the organisations that are represented in this national coordinating body, its tasks and its members. The subitem "Belgium, a Federal State" is especially designed for foreign visitors to explain how the Federal State is organised.
EU-programmes contains the following subitems: general information about EU-programmes and fundings, electronic tools for partner search and specific information on the different EU-programmes which are of interest for the ALMs.
Via the item National Activities one can find explanation of the national programmes, activities and research projects for ALMs implemented at federal and communities level. This section will be developed with the aim at giving a broad picture of the research and innovation activities of the Belgian ALMs and it should help establishing new collaborations with foreign partners.
Archives/Libraries/Museums gives a list of URL's of professional associations, advisory bodies, institutions and projects.The subitem "Report" presents a state of the art of ALMs in Belgium and is especially interesting for foreign users who want to know more about the status and the institutional framework of the memory institutions in Belgium.
Since March 2001 one can subscribe to the BE.CULTIVATE-list, an electronic list for those who want to know more about:
Subscription to this list is possible from the Belgian CULTIVATE Web site [6]. The information distributed via this list is provided both in Dutch and in French. At the beginning April 2001 more than 100 people had already subscribed to the list
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Pascale Van Dinter
Scientific Worker STIS and Project manager CULTIVATE
Belgium.
Keizerslaan 4 Bd de l'Empereur
1000 Brussels
Pascale.vanDinter@stis.fgov.be
Phone: +32 (0)2 519 56 42
Fax: +32 (0)2 519 56 45
Pascale Van Dinter worked between April 1995 and June 2000 for the Central Public Library Leuven (Belgium) on the following European projects:
Since July 2000 Pascale has worked at the Scientific and Technical Information Service as a project manager for CULTIVATE Belgium amongst other tasks.
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For citation purposes:
V. Dinter, P. "National Node Column: Belgium", Cultivate Interactive, issue
4, 7 May 2001
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue4/nodes/>
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