# Canadian Virtual Health Library / Bibliothèque virtuelle canadienne de la santé update

The team at Canadian Virtual Health Library / Bibliothèque virtuelle canadienne de la santé (CVHL / BVCS) has been very busy since our meeting in Calgary this past May. Here are just a few highlights.

## The CVHL / BVCS database

Our dedicated Expert Panel (now called the Cataloguing Group), Natalie Clairoux, Tom Flemming, and Dean Giustini, have continued to update the database with free content. At last count, we were up to 1537 French and English records. Merci Natalie, Tom et Dean! Vous êtes incroyables! We also welcome new members to the Cataloguing Group: Gurvinder Batra, Tracy Daley, and Yongtao Lin! It's great to have you on board.

We would now like to extend an invitation to our colleagues across the country to continue developing this database, particularly those with knowledge of specialty areas. If you are interested in helping build the definitive database of free Canadian and international health information, please contact the CVHL / BVCS.

## Licensed content

Our other team, the Content Advisory Panel (M'hamed Belkhodja, Robin Dumais, and Linda Wilcox) has been working hard to collect statistics from each network subscriber (see www.cvhl.ca for list of CVHL / BVCS network subscribers) to determine the profile/size of each subscriber's (consortium) member sites, what each of them are buying, and when their renewals are due. This was a time-consuming but much-needed task, as it allowed us to create consistent and standardized metrics that will be used to negotiate opt-in/out pricing models with vendors and develop a cost-sharing model that is fair and equitable from province to province.

As our time lines for renewal are very short (December 31, 2011), we received renewal and new content price models from EBSCO and Wiley by mid-September for all versions of CINAHL, EBMR/Cochrane on multiple platforms, and Dynamed.

## Website update

Thanks to the support of the CHLA / ABSC, CIHR, CVHL / BVCS team, and countless volunteers, the website is now operational and actively being used. Here are some interesting facts about the website.

Since the launch of the site, visitors have come from 87 different countries (as of August 31)! Would you have guessed that visitors are from as far as Ghana and Indonesia?

Top 5 countries visiting the site are

1. Canada

2. USA

3. France

4. India

5. Australia

Visitors from Canada truly represent pan-Canadian interest and need for the CVHL. Visitors come from 230 different cities across Canada ranging from Alert Bay, B.C., to St. John's, N.L., to Whitehorse, Y.T., to Windsor, Ont.!

Let's continue to work together by building the CVHL's Network of Networks!

Visit the site at www.cvhl-bvcs.ca.

### Patrick Ellis

*Principal Investigator*

Canadian Virtual Health Library / Bibliothèque virtuelle canadienne de la santé

E-mail: Patrick.Ellis@dal.ca

### Jennifer Bayne

*Executive Director (Acting)*

Canadian Virtual Health Library / Bibliothèque virtuelle canadienne de la santé

E-mail: jennifer.bayne@knowledge-able.com