The 43th Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries (ACURIL) will take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico between 9th and 14th June, 2013. This will be the second time that BIREME / PAHO / WHO will take part in the event, which composes the technical cooperation plan signed for the Caribbean region. BIREME’s first participation was in 2007, when Abel Packer, the director at that time, shared experiences and perspectives to the onset and development of the Caribbean community of knowledge and health information networks.

This time, BIREME´s activities will be distributed in three parts. At the national level, there will be a meeting involving Puerto Rico VHL, with a focus on training, management and promotion of this VHL. Puerto Rico VHL has been officially launched in October 2012, during the Ninth Regional Congress on Health Sciences Information (CRICS 9) in Washington DC, United States.

Veronica Abdala, manager of Cooperative Services Information and Evidence (SCI) BIREME /PAHO /WHO, represents the institution at the 43th ACURIL conference, presenting a strategy for strengthening the VHL as a model to Health information and knowledge management in the Caribbean region, besides the application of VHL and the importance of capacity building and strengthening of  the Caribbean Network of Health Sciences Libraries (MedCarib Network).

In this sense, another meeting will be held to strengthen the MedCarib Network, which is addressed to Health Interest Group, in order to sharing the plan, involving the staff, defining strategies and identifying the needs of the countries that belong to this area. This will be held with the collaboration of the coordinator of the MedCarib Network, Ernesta Grenndige, Chief of the Library of Medical Sciences Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of the West Indies (TRT) and coordinator of the Advisory Committee of the VHL Trinidad and Tobago.

The 43th ACURIL is a strategic meeting for rooting the participation of Caribbean leaders of public and private sector and non-profit institutions (NGOs).

More information can be obtained on the website of the Association of Caribbean University, Research and Institutional Libraries