The Virtual Health Library (VHL) (Biblioteca Virtual en Salud, BVS) is an institution that employs the

World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet. Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...

to "improve access to reliable, locally relevant information n health and health sciencesfor health-professionals, researchers, academics, educators, decision makers, and the general public". BVSes are organized under the auspices of the

Pan-American Health Organization The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is an international public health agency working to improve the health and living standards of the people of the Americas. It is part of the United Nations system, serving as the Regional Office for ...

and the

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

. VHL is a

digital library A digital library, also called an online library, an internet library, a digital repository, or a digital collection is an online database of digital objects that can include text, still images, audio, video, digital documents, or other digital me ...

and common space for the convergence of the cooperative work of producers,

intermediaries An intermediary (or go-between) is a third party that offers intermediation services between two parties, which involves conveying messages between principals in a dispute, preventing direct contact and potential escalation of the issue. In law ...

, and users of information on healthcare science, built and developed by the

Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information The Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information or BIREME was founded in São Paulo in 1967 as the Biblioteca Regional de Medicina, a specialized center of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) / World Health Organ ...

(also known as BIREME) in 1998. The VHL promotes the development of a network of sources of scientific and technical information with universal access on the

internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. BIREME has envisioned the VHL as a new model for the management of

information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random ...

and

knowledge Knowledge can be defined as awareness of facts or as practical skills, and may also refer to familiarity with objects or situations. Knowledge of facts, also called propositional knowledge, is often defined as true belief that is distinc ...

, which includes the

cooperation Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal a ...

and convergence between institutions, systems, networks, and initiatives of producers, intermediaries, and users in the operation of networks of local, national, regional and international information sources favoring

open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...

and universal access. Today, every country in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

and the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

regions participates either directly or indirectly in the cooperative products and services offered by the VHL, which includes over 1,000 institutions in more than 30 countries. The VHL is simulated in a

virtual space Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...

of the internet formed by a collection or network of health information sources in the region. Users of different levels and locations can interact and navigate in the space of one or many information sources, regardless of where they are. Information sources are generated, updated, stored and operated on the internet by producers, integrators, and intermediaries, in a decentralized manner, following common methodologies for their integration in the VHL. The VHL organizes information in a structure that integrates and interconnects literature databases, directories or experts, events and institutions, a catalogue of the information resources available on the internet, collections of full texts with a highlight for the

SciELO SciELO (Scientific Electronic Library Online) is a bibliographic database, digital library, and cooperative electronic publishing model of open access journals. SciELO was created to meet the scientific communication needs of developing countries ...

(Scientific Electronic Library Online) collection of

scientific journal In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research. Content Articles in scientific journals are mostly written by active scientists such as s ...

s, selective information dissemination services, information sources to support

education Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Va ...

and

decision-making In psychology, decision-making (also spelled decision making and decisionmaking) is regarded as the Cognition, cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several possible alternative options. It could be ...

news News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different Media (communication), media: word of mouth, printing, Mail, postal systems, broadcasting, Telecommunications, electronic communication, or through the tes ...

discussion list A mailing list is a collection of names and addresses used by an individual or an organization to send material to multiple recipients. The term is often extended to include the people subscribed to such a list, so the group of subscribers is re ...

s, and support to virtual communities. The space of the VHL is, therefore, a dynamic and decentralized network of information sources based on which it is possible to retrieve and extract information and knowledge to support health decision-making processes. The Virtual Health Library can be visualized as a distributed base of scientific and technical health knowledge that is saved, organized and stored in electronic format in the countries of the region, universally accessible on the internet and compatible with international databases.

References

External links

BIREME Website

Infomed website

National BVSes

The BVS web sites in individual countries:
Mexico

Peru
{{Expand list, date=August 2008 Aggregation-based digital libraries Healthcare in Brazil Databases in Brazil Bibliographic databases and indexes Medical databases Full-text scholarly online databases Medical search engines Brazilian digital libraries

See also

References

Further reading

External links

External links

National BVSes