Canadian health libraries and library professionals will contribute to the improvement of the health of Canadians by providing optimal access to knowledge-based information to health professionals in support of clinical care, education, and research, and health consumers to assist them in making informed health care decisions.

We will accomplish this by:

• collaborating with the other key partners in the health information field ¹ in the creation and maintenance of technological and human networks at the provincial, national, and international levels;
• supporting and promoting evidence-based health practice;
• identifying, evaluating, organizing and disseminating high-quality, synthesized, published and publicly accessible information, in electronic as well as traditional formats;
• educating students in medicine and other health professions, practising health professionals and health consumers in the identification, use, and management of health information sources;
• making extensive use of informatics and technological applications to provide information where and when it is needed.

Adopted by the Canadian Health Libraries Association / Association des bibliothèques de la santé du Canada Board of Directors, 27 October 1997.
Adopted by the Association pour l'avancement des sciences et des techniques de la documentation, 8 November 1997.
Endorsed by the Association of Canadian Teaching Hospitals, February 1998.
Ratified by the Association of Canadian Medical Colleges / Association des facultés de médecine du Canada Board of Directors, April 23, 1998.

¹ For example, Health Canada (Health Canada Advisory Council on Health Info-Structure); Industry Canada (Telehealth Initiative); Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI); Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI); HealNet, the Canadian health care and research industry; health related centres of excellence and public groups involved in health care and research, including disease-specific lobby and support groups.