Introduction: Language barriers are the source of two problems: access to texts in languages that are entirely unknown, and difficult or confused interpretation of languages that are marginally accessible.

Objective: To facilitate the access of the Spanish-speaking world (300 million persons) to the materials of the Cochrane Collaboration.

Methods: The Spanish Cochrane Center has developed a four-phase translation strategy, with the help of machine translation system (computer assisted translation-CAT). Phase I: machine translation (CAT); Phase II: correction and post-edition of the resulting text; Phase III: review by specialists; Phase IV: final correction.

Results: In January the translation of The Cochrane Library (CL) was begun. The following texts have been translated (CL No. 4, 1997); the Cochrane Handbook, abstracts, the Reproductive Health Library (15% of the reviews) in collaboration with the WHO, and 15% of protocols. It should be possible to include an important quantity of text in the first version of CL No. 1, 1999 (mixed edition English-Spanish) and by the end of 1999 release a Spanish-only version, per the recommendations made by the Publishing Policy Group of the Cochrane Collaboration and Update Software.

Discussion: Beyond the scientific and social importance of the large Spanish linguistic community, this project attempts to overcome an important idiomatic barrier in the dissemination of the Cochrane Collaboration. Other linguistic communities can learn and to benefit from our experience.