VHL 25 Years: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities

By Verônica Abdala

Image: Virtual Health Library .

Twenty-five years ago, in 1998, the Latin American and Caribbean Health Information Network approved the Declaration of San José “Towards the Virtual Health Library”.¹ Since then, BIREME/PAHO/WHO has been leading the development of the Virtual Health Library (VHL) as a health information and knowledge management strategy for the Region of Latin America and the Caribbean (LA&C), with expansion to Spain, Portugal, Mozambique, and other African Portuguese-speaking countries.

The main challenge at the time was to realign the technical cooperation carried out by BIREME since its creation in 1967, when it developed essential functions of the Regional Library, promoting access to health scientific and technical information and the shared use of collections and services between libraries.

The VHL was a response to the emergence of the Internet and represented an evolution of BIREME’s technical cooperation that culminated in a new process for operating information sources through the Network, making users’ access to information more agile. Since then, the VHL has been developing naturally and adjusting to the different contexts of the Region, aligned with a single mission: to provide access to health information and scientific evidence  to users from all health sectors, contributing to narrow the gap between knowledge and practice in LA&C countries.

In 2022, the VHL was recognized as a good practice in the 4^th volume of the Publication Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development² of the United Nations Agency for South-South and Triangular Cooperation (UNOSSC)

Nowadays, BIREME’s technical cooperation and the work of the Network materializes mainly in the more than 60 VHL instances (national, thematic, and institutional ones), more than 50 databases and dozens of other sources of information built from these databases, such as the Windows of Knowledge, Evidence Maps, infometrics, etc.

There were many achievements and many challenges that turned into opportunities thanks to coordinated network working and the availability of common methodologies and systems such as LILACS Methodology, FI-Admin system, DeCS and the IAHx interface.

We experienced the advancement of digital collections, cloud storage, open science, open data, institutional repositories, open software etc. Now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at our doorstep and, more than a challenge or a threat, it is an opportunity to renew the VHL.

The moment is one of celebration for the 25^th Anniversary of the VHL, but also of reflection. You are all invited to watch the VHL 25 Years: Achievements, Challenges and Opportunities seminar recording. Join us!

Notas

1. Declaration of San José Towards the Virtual Health Library [online]. Portal da Rede BVS. 1998 [viewed 20 April 2023]. Available from: https://red.bvsalud.org/modelo-bvs/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/11/Declaration-of-San-Jose.pdf

2. Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development – Vol. 4 (2022) [online]. UNOSSC – United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation. 2022 [viewed 20 April 2023]. Available from: https://unsouthsouth.org/2022/08/31/good-practices-in-south-south-and-triangular-cooperation-for-sustainable-development-vol-4-2022/

References

2020 Guide for the development of the Virtual Health Library. Portal da Rede BVS. 2020 [viewed 20 April 2023]. Available from: http://red.bvsalud.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/EN-opas-guia-bvs-2021-p3-v3.pdf

Biblioteca Virtual en Salud [online]. Portal da Rede BVS. 1998 [viewed 20 April 2023]. Available from: https://red.bvsalud.org/modelo-bvs/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/05/Livro-da-Biblioteca-Virtual-em-Saude.pdf

Declaration of San José Towards the Virtual Health Library [online]. Portal da Rede BVS. 1998 [viewed 20 April 2023]. Available from: https://red.bvsalud.org/modelo-bvs/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/11/Declaration-of-San-Jose.pdf

Good Practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development – Vol. 4 (2022) [online]. UNOSSC – United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation. 2022 [viewed 20 April 2023]. Available from: https://unsouthsouth.org/2022/08/31/good-practices-in-south-south-and-triangular-cooperation-for-sustainable-development-vol-4-2022/

About Verônica Abdala

Verônica Abdala is a librarian with a master’s degree in information science. She has been working for many years in the management and development of services, products and health information sources at BIREME, a Specialized Center of the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (BIREME/PAHO/WHO). She coordinates technical cooperation projects linked to the Virtual Health Library (VHL) that promote and facilitate access and use of knowledge in policies, strategies, and decision making in health and in Latin American and Caribbean countries. More recently, she has focused her activities on the area of health knowledge translation, working on the production of evidence maps and evidence syntheses. http://lattes.cnpq.br/7290821948813039

Translated from the original in Portuguese by Lilian Nassi-Calò.