Ibero-American Library on Drugs and Addiction

The COPOLAD Programme, managed by the FIIAPP, held the “Third Workshop for Directors of Documentation Centres: Follow-up of the implementation of the Ibero-American Library on Drugs and Addiction (BIDA)”, in Lisbon from 29th to 30th October. The activity was organized under the leadership of the Intervention Service for Addictive Behaviours and Dependencies (SICAD-Portugal) and the Spanish Government Delegation for the National Plan on Drugs (DGPNSD-Spain).

The purpose of the workshop was to follow-up the implementation of the Ibero-American Library on Drugs and Addiction (BIDA) through an exchange of experiences of the countries during the pilot phase, to identify key points for improving the platform and to propose actions for efficient delivery of the service.

With this activity, the Ibero-American countries participating in BIDA (Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Spain, Mexico, Peru, Portugal and Uruguay) were able to see the consolidation of the project they have been developing within the framework of COPOLAD over the past four years of work focused on consensus, design, implementation and creation of records on the platform.

BIDA, currently in the data entry phase (which is being handled by the member documentation centres), in 2015 will start offering researchers, professionals, decision-makers and interested members of the public a collective physical catalogue managed on a decentralized basis. Users will have direct access to an extensive digital repository comprised of a Catalogue of Journals and a Documentary Collection on drugs and addiction ranging from highly specialized topics to basic information needs.

This initiative seeks to promote an efficient system of inter-library borrowing that can provide access to specialized and quality information, with a special emphasis on scientific documentation published in Spanish and Portuguese, which before now had been difficult to locate and access through English-language databases.

The virtual platform, which is now a reality, was possible thanks to the cooperative work of the countries and funding from the European Commission through the Cooperation Programme Between Latin America and the European Union on Drug Policies (COPOLAD), managed by the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP).