FreeForAll (FFA) describes itself as "an international collaboration of libraries whose mission is to provide underserved nations with health science journal articles for free." A noble calling, to be sure. Begun earlier this year, FFA gets researchers and doctors in developing nations access to medical journal articles by having participating US libraries serve as intermediaries. Services such as PubMed and Loansome Doc index and distribute various biomedical research papers to libraries; FFA extends the reach of this program substantially.

The FFA website is a single page linking to a handful of other sources for free journal articles and providing guides to ordering through FreeForAll (in English -- PDF -- and in Spanish -- MS Word format). The real action takes place on the FFA mailing list, where participating libraries can coordinate orders, exchange references and discuss the best ways to make sure that valuable medical literature is getting to the people who need it. More information on FreeForAll can be found on page 13 of this April 2005 Medical Library Association newsletter (PDF).

Libraries wishing to participate in FreeForAll should visit this Yahoo! Group.