Latin American and Caribbean Health Resources: The VHL Regional Portal

Abstract

This column provides an overview of the Virtual Health Library (VHL) Regional Portal, a resource provided by Pan American Health Organization and others with the purpose of communicating and exchanging health experiences and information for Latin American and Caribbean countries. The content is organized in four sub-portals: the VHL Model, which describes health information and knowledge management to structures and guides; LILACS, the Latin American and Caribbean Index Health Science Literature; DeCS, Descriptors Health Sciences, a controlled vocabulary; and Training, which gathers and organizes information for librarians, developers, and users who are interested in construction and use of VHL methodologies. An overview of the resource and sample search is discussed.

Keywords:

• Online database
• research resource
• review
• Spanish-language
• World Health Organization

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Brenda M. Linares

Brenda Linares, MLIS, MBA, AHIP ([email protected]) is Associate Dean of Library Services at Miller Nichols Library, The University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, USA.

Katie Larsen

Katie Larsen, MLIS ([email protected]) is Cataloging and Collection Development Librarian at Utah State Library Division, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.