Virtual Library on Gender and Health

Four Central American countries, with support from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information (BIREME), are developing a new Virtual Library on Gender and Health (GenSalud Virtual Library) that will be the first of its kind in the Americas.

Affiliated with the larger Virtual Health Library of the Brazil-based BIREME, the GenSalud library will provide full-text access to some 30,000 journal articles, research papers, evaluations and other reports on topics ranging from domestic violence to methodological issues in gender research.

The GenSalud Virtual Library will be administered by the Center for Research in Women's Studies at the University of Costa Rica. Also participating in the project are the Center for Information and Documentation on Women at the National University of Costa Rica and Costa Rica's National Women's Institute, the Salvadoran Institute for Women's Development, the National Women's Institute and Center for Women's Rights in Honduras, and the Nicaraguan Institute for Women and the Center for Health Information and Consulting Services in Nicaragua.

PAHO's Gender and Health Unit has provided technical support and funding for the project's development. BIREME is assisting with Web site and database development.

The goal of the GenSalud Virtual Library is to help countries access, produce and better utilize information on gender and health to support research, policymaking and projects in this area.

Cathy Cuellar, a consultant in PAHO's Gender and Health Unit, noted at a workshop on the virtual library in Costa Rica in May that the larger objective is to promote the democratization of health knowledge. "PAHO's commitment is clear: to support efforts to close the gap in access to information and stimulate production of information that is relevant, easy to use and of high quality for decision-making in the area of gender and health," she said.

The GenSalud Virtual Library builds on a 10-year PAHO effort to document, archive, disseminate and promote information on health and gender through an online bibliographic database at www.metabase.net, which has more than 3,000 entries. The new library, at http://genero.bvsalud.org, will expand that online collection to include full texts of the most up-to-date bibliographic references from all seven participating institutions in Central America.

Yamileth González, vicerector for research of the University of Costa Rica, noted at the May workshop that promoting information on gender and health contributes to greater equity in health.

"When we talk about gender, we are talking about equity, equality of rights and opportunities, eliminating discrimination and building a more just cultural and political system. We're talking about opportunities for education, open dialogue, negotiation and justice to achieve a better collective quality of life."

Marta Ibarra, of the National Women's Institute of Costa Rica, told workshop participants that the GenSalud Virtual Library has already become an important information source for her organization, particularly in the development and implementation of its Women's Integral Health Care Model, a demonstration project being carried out at Women's Hospital in San Jose.