Global Health Library

About the Global Health Library 

The objective of the Global Health Library (GHL) is to contribute to radically increase access to information and scientific evidence on health, particularly in developing regions. GHL is promoted and led by WHO as part of its strategy of knowledge management in global public health.

The GHL aims to 'strengthen, promote and develop worldwide networks on the collection, organization, dissemination and universal access to reliable health sciences information'.

Based on existing initiatives, virtual libraries, networks, systems, products and services and to increase their interoperability, visibility and accessibility, the main objective of the GHL proposal is to maximize cooperative activities in networks and minimize duplications. The GHL is designed to create the global space that will promote and progressively connect local, national, regional and international flows of information on health.

The GHL was publicly launched in September 2005, during the 9th World Congress on Health Information and Libraries (ICML9) and the 7th Regional Congress on Health Sciences Information (CRICS7), held in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

In order to implement the GHL in the next years, the WHO prepared the GHL Framework, aiming to socialize the concept of a global library, its principles, operational structure and governance, as well as the respective plan of action.

Setting a framework is necessary for the GHL implementation due to its complex and decentralized network operation. Moreover national, regional and international institutions from all over the world and from several thematic areas are expected to increasingly participate in the effort.

The responsibility for the methodological and technical development, maintenance, operation and dissemination of the GHL platform has been assigned by WHO to BIREME/PAHO/WHO to take advantage of its Virtual Health Library platform that will be adopted and adapted for the GHL.

About WHO

The World Health Organization is the United Nations specialized agency for health. It was established on 7 April 1948. WHO's objective, as set out in its Constitution, is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Health is defined in WHO's Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

WHO is governed by 193 Member States through the World Health Assembly. The Health Assembly is composed of representatives from WHO's Member States. The main tasks of the World Health Assembly are to approve the WHO programme and the budget for the following biennium and to decide major policy questions.
WHO Member States are grouped into six regions. Each region has a regional office: Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), Regional Office for the Americas (AMRO - PAHO), Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO), Regional Office for Europe (EURO), Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), Regional Office for the Western Pacific (WPRO)

About BIREME/PAHO/WHO

The Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information is a specialized center of PAHO/WHO in the Area of Information and Knowledge Management. It was established in Brazil in 1967 with the original name of Biblioteca Regional de Medicina (BIREME) under an agreement between PAHO and the Government of Brazil, including the Ministries of Health and Education, the Secretary of Health of State of São Paulo and the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) in which campus it is located.

The objective of BIREME is to strengthen and broaden the flow of scientific and technical information in Latin America and Caribbean to support the development of health education, research, promotion and care. BIREME promotes and coordinates the networking of institutions and individuals that produce, intermediate and use health sciences information around common information products, services and events that are operated under a common model and space called Virtual Health Library.

About the VHL

The Virtual Health Library (VHL) is the BIREME technical cooperation model and framework for scientific and technical information. The VHL is a common and public space to converge the cooperative networks of institutions that are producers, intermediaries and users of health information. These networks produce in the VHL online collections of interoperable scientific and technical products and services.

The VHL network will be integral part of the Global Health Library and it is interoperable with several other networks, including, among others, SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) that publishes in open access decentralized collections of online journals, the ScienTI (International Network of Information and Knowledge Sources for Sciences, Technology and Information Management) that includes directories of researchers, research groups and institutions, and the ePORTGUESe to develop health scientific and technical information in the Portuguese speaking countries.