The origin of the Virtual Healthcare Library (VHL) as a product of the evolution of the technical cooperation program for scientific information on healthcare in Latin America and the Caribbean is resumed in this article. We analyze its technological structure as a product of the restructuring of the scientific community spurred by the Internet, stressing the conceptual and operational improvement of the model of collective management of information and knowledge within the virtual arena and the challenges of fostering democratic access and use of information and updated knowledge in the processes that involve collective and individual healthcare.
virtual library; medical libraries; information systems; collective intelligence
