Gail Higgins completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of Sydney and a Graduate Diploma in Library Science from Kuringai College of Advanced Education.

Following a number of years as a Teacher Librarian, she changed tack and spent 3 years with the NSW TAFE Information Systems Division. After that she joined the University of Sydney Library and worked as Pharmacy Librarian, and then Internet Training Librarian.

She has worked as an Information Specialist for the Cochrane Haematological Malignancies Group in Cologne, Germany and the Cochrane Cancer Network in Oxford, UK. In 2007-8 she completed a secondment with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland on the International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) project.