Since March 1999, Abel Packer is the Director of BIREME, where he has been in charge of the information systems development for more than 10 years. He has actively participated in the design, development and operation of major BIREME projects, such as the Latin American and Caribbean System on Health Sciences Information, the LILACS database (referencing the Health Sciences Literature from LA & C), the LILACS/CD-ROM (launched in 1987 it permitted the wide dissemination of the scientific literature in the region for the first time), the SciELO project - Scientific Electronic Library Online (launched in 1997), and the Virtual Health Library (the current LA & C framework for the technical cooperation in health-related scientific and technical information led by BIREME). Abel Packer holds a Bachelor of Sciences and a Master degree in Library Science.