Health Translations library is funded for another three years

On behalf of the Health Translations team, I’m very pleased to share that the Victorian Department of Health has committed funding to support the library for another three years.

For those who may not have come across it before, Health Translations is a free online library of translated health and wellbeing information. It was initiated and funded by the Victorian Government and has been managed by the Centre for Culture, Equity and Health since 2015.

I work as a Project Officer with Health Translations, alongside our coordinator Anni Tillack-Benton and fellow Project Officer Blossom Ah-Ket. I joined the team before completing my postgraduate qualifications in Library and Information Management at the University of South Australia in 2023. Starting my career in this role has shown me how library and information work can directly support equitable access to essential services.

The library brings together over 39,000 resources in about 140 languages, including Easy and Plain English and Auslan, across 100 health topics from over 300 trusted Australian organisations. These resources cover everything from navigating the health system to mental health, sexual and reproductive health, smoking and vaping, Medicare and Centrelink, and more.

The multilingual resources in the library are available in a range of formats to suit our users’ different information needs and preferences. Alongside printable materials like factsheets, flyers, brochures and posters, the library also includes web pages, accessible text documents, audio, video, presentations, flipbooks and images. This is important, as communities engage with information in different ways, and formats like video and animation are increasingly valuable in supporting varying literacy levels.

As a small but dedicated team, we curate and organise these resources by topic, language, organisation and format so they are easy to find and use.

Our work also involves ongoing engagement with content partners, the Department of Health and other organisations to identify gaps in translated resources, and to prioritise topics and languages that matter most to the communities we serve.

Learn about what a Health Translations content partner is and how we work to address gaps in multilingual health information.

For libraries and library workers, Health Translations is a great reference tool to support culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Access to clear, reliable health information in community languages can make a real difference in how people understand services, make decisions, and navigate the health system.

We’re grateful to the Victorian Department of Health for its ongoing support, and to our content partners who help ensure the information remains accurate, relevant and up to date. This continued funding recognises the importance of this work. It means we can keep improving the library and supporting both communities and the professionals who work with them.

How libraries can get involved:

• Subscribe to the Health Translations newsletter for updates on the latest health and wellbeing information.
• Promote and link to Health Translations through your library services. Visit our “promote us” page to see how you can easily share our poster, flyer and brochure to your community, by including us in your newsletter, and through linking to us on your website.
• Book us for a free meeting to explore how we can support your work with multicultural communities. Email us at healthtranslations@ceh.org.au or use our contact form on the website:  https://www.healthtranslations.vic.gov.au/contact-us