This is a challenging time for global public health and in particular for the fragile health of populations in developing countries. The ever-widening gap between the haves and have-nots continues to grow unabated. Poverty, disease, wars and natural catastrophes continue to ravage our most vulnerable peoples. This is compounded by the crisis in access to basic health services due to shortages of medicines, skilled staff, health care systems and infrastructures that struggle to maintain parity in a world of ever increasing complexity.
   
However, as a global community, we are presented with a real opportunity to sow the seeds of “inclusion”, to substantially bridge the “know-do” gap between research and practice, between what we know and what we do, between the knowledge we have and what we do with that knowledge. The technological, political, social and funding drivers are now in place to achieve the goal of global access to essential healthcare information. The World Health Organi zatio n (WHO) believes the time is now and in doing so we can bring untold benefits to the peoples of the world.
  
The Global Health Library (GHL) is one of the many initiatives in support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s). The GHL aims to extend to all peoples the benefits of the knowledge that is essential to the fullest attainment of health. This is based on the premise that “informed opinion and active cooperation on the part of the public are of the utmost importance in the improvement of health”