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Laxmi Mansingh, Head of the Library of Medicine at the University of the West Indies in Mona, Jamaica passed away on February 19, which we are deeply sorry for. The database she created by compiling and publishing the Caribbean medical health literature, with more than 10,000 documents, was the gateway used by BIREME to initiate technical cooperation actions with the English Caribbean countries from 1989, year of creation of MedCarib. This network initiated an action plan, currently underway, for the development of a Regional VHL for the English Caribbean.

PAHO/WHO joins the World Cancer Day 2022 campaign, celebrated on February 4 and whose theme is “Close the care gap”. BIREME, in its mission to provide access to scientific and technical health information, makes information about cancer available in the Virtual Health Library Cancer Prevention and Control and in the Windows of Knowledge “National No Smoking Day: Tobacco and Coronavirus” and “Pink October: early detection of breast cancer”.

The 3^rd Adjustment Term to the Cooperation Term 93 (TA3/TC93) between the Ministry of Health of Brazil and the Pan American Health Organization had its validity extended for another five years, for the implementation of actions linked to the “Development and improvement of BIREME, in the context of information and knowledge management in the 2030 Agenda and Universal Health”. This result reinforces the commitment of the Government of Brazil, through the Ministry of Health, to the development, institutional strengthening, and technical cooperation program of BIREME/PAHO/WHO, which will complete 55 years of operation in March 2022.

With the objective of strengthening the democratization of access to health information and in line with open science practices, BIREME/PAHO/WHO makes available the Open Metadata Portal of VHL Information Sources. In its beta version, the Open Metadata Portal provides information so that the metadata can be reused and may be exported in various formats.

BIREME’s technical cooperation is characterized by its regional action in favor of equitable access to information and development of products and services that seek to improve the quality of production, access and publication of information and scientific and technical evidence in health for all countries in the Region. With the Ministry of Health as the main counterpart in Brazil, in the 2020-2021 biennium, BIREME cooperated with more than ten Cooperation Terms (TC in the Portuguese acronym) established between PAHO Brazil and the MS. Find out more about the projects developed under these TCs.

In 2021, the Virtual Health Library (VHL) Network established its priorities through an Action Plan aimed at strengthening the work in the network, following the model applied the previous year. The activities of the plan are based on the three pillars of the VHL (Institutions, Content, and Users), as well as the levels of maturity of the VHL instances. In total, 43 VHL instances will apply the maturity instrument and of these, 40 will adhere to the 2021 action plan.

The evaluation and selection process of Brazilian journals for the LILACS database is carried out annually, an activity in the context of TC93, between PAHO and the Ministry of Health of Brazil. The ad-hoc evaluation committee met on the 17^th of December, at the XXII Meeting of the LILACS Brazil Journal Evaluation and Selection Committee. Learn more about the process and outcome of this selection.

Through the TC71 between the General Coordination for the Surveillance of Diseases in Elimination (CGDE/DCCI/SVS) of the Ministry of Health and PAHO/WHO Brazil, through BIREME, public policies were developed for the surveillance and prevention of leprosy and other diseases in elimination recommended by SUS. On World Leprosy Day (which also raises awareness of other neglected diseases), observed on January 30, the products and services developed by BIREME with the support of TC71, such as the VHL Hansen’s Disease and the Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease) Window of Knowledge, bring information and knowledge to health professionals, researchers, and the public.

The American Library Association awarded the prestigious “Choice” award to the World Health Organization (WHO) Research Database on COVID-19 (WHO COVID-19 Research Database) “in recognition of value, quality, and scope that would not have been possible without the tireless dedication and determination of those involved”. BIREME/PAHO/WHO has made a key contribution to the development of the global database of scientific literature on COVID-19, which uses the same platform developed by the Center for the Global Index Medicus.

Within the framework of the new technical cooperation agreement between PAHO/WHO to be carried out by BIREME/PAHO/OMS and the Municipal Health Secretariat of São Paulo, the Meeting of the VHL SMS São Paulo with the Municipal Health Care Network of São Paulo took place on December 9^th, which aimed to present the VHL SMS-SP and share with the network the Cooperation Agreement to strengthen the VHL SMS São Paulo.