In addition to the objectives that can be attributed to the Center by resolution of the Pan American Health Organization's Governing Bodies, BIREME's objective is the promotion of technical cooperation in scientific and technical health information with the countries and among the countries of the Latin America and the Caribbean (REGION), aiming to develop the means and the capacities for the provision and the equitable access to the relevant and up-to-date scientific and technical health information, rapidly, efficiently and at adequate costs.

To achieve its objectives, BIREME has to:

• promote the decentralized construction, development and operation of the Virtual Health Library (VHL), understood as the basis of the scientific and technical knowledge in health which is registered, organized and stored in electronic format in the countries of the REGION, universally available on the Internet and compatible with the main international sources of information;
  
  
• develop the Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Information System (SYSTEM) taking into account the integration and the dynamic and cooperative participation of institutions, departments, libraries, documentation centers, and agents - who are producers, intermediaries, and users of scientific and technical health information in the countries of the REGION - in the construction, development and operation of the VHL. The SYSTEM is established at national level through health sciences information networks or systems;
  
  
• develop the Health Sciences Information System in Brazil through a Network that operates in a decentralized way and in which its members undertake different levels of participation in cooperative activities;
  
  
• create, improve and disseminate, using the VHL, the most varied sources of scientific and technical information sources in electronic format and in other supports in order to meet the needs of governments, health systems, education and research institutions, health professionals, and the general public in publishing, preserving, accessing and using information;
  
  
• coordinate, operate and promote the bibliographical control, dissemination, evaluation, and improvement of the scientific and technical literature published in the countries of the REGION in both paper and electronic formats; this literature is indexed by the LILACS System (Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences), which includes the LILACS Regional database, national databases that record the history of the countries' scientific and technical literature, and specialized databases that are produced and operated by PAHO and the countries;
  
  
• implement a broad, fast and cooperative access to the international scientific and technical literature published in paper or electronic format. To accomplish this function, to stimulate the development and the shared use of scientific and technical literature collections through library networks and associations in the countries of the REGION;
  
  
• promote, using the VHL, the search, development and dissemination of scientific and technical information sources in order to meet the information needs of specific communities of users, such as authorities, politicians, lawgivers and health managers, researchers, teachers and students, physicians and allied health personnel, community agents, communication professionals, and the general public;
  
  
• carry out the referential control of producers, users and health-related activities of the REGION in a decentralized operation through the VHL of up-to-date directories of institutions, specialists, courses, events, interest groups, etc.;
  
  
• disseminate, through the VHL, factual and numerical databases produced and operated on the Internet by national health information systems;
  
  
• disseminate, through the VHL, Internet sites operated by the countries of the REGION that publish scientific and technical health information;
  
  
• coordinate the development and maintenance of the health-related terminology, which should be organized and disseminated in Portuguese, Spanish and English through the Descriptors in Health Sciences (DeCS);
  
  
• search, develop, maintain and disseminate methodological tools based on advanced information technologies which are suitable to the countries of the REGION, aiming at the decentralized and equitable operation of the VHL information sources;
  
  
• integrate the health libraries and documentation centers of the countries of the REGION in the operation of the VHL, which includes the mediation of their information products and services to the communities not connected to the Internet;
  
  
• contributes to the human resources development in the countries of the REGION at managerial and technical levels, with the purpose of developing full capacities in the operation of the technologies and strategic methodologies for the provision and equitable access to the health information;
  
  
• promote and stimulate the exchange of experiences among the SYSTEM participants and the VHL producers and users;
  
  
• make possible the operational exchange of the VHL and of the System with other systems, libraries, information sources, and international experiences and initiatives in the field of health scientific and technical information;
  
  
• promote the recognition of the cooperation of Brazil in the REGION, realized by the national signatories, in the fulfillment of its purposes, and in the dissemination of the Health Sciences Information System in Brazil, systems, services and products.