NLM’s 2017-2027 Strategic Plan

Posted by Patricia Devine on March 16th, 2018 Posted in: Data Science, News from NLM

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“Every day more than four million people use NLM resources; every hour, a petabyte of data moves in or out of our computing systems.”

The National Library of Medicine Board of Regents has released the Strategic Plan for 2017-2027: “A Platform for Biomedical Discovery and Data-Powered Health.” Working in conjunction with NLM planning staff, the Board identified themes to use as a framework to develop future priorities and directions. Public input was solicited on these themes:

• Advancing data science, open science, and biomedical informatics
• Advancing biomedical discovery and translational science
• Supporting the public’s health: clinical systems, public health systems
  and services, and personal health
• Building collections to support discovery and health in the 21st century

In addition, the following topics were considered across the four themes: partnerships, user communities, user engagement and educational outreach, international engagement,health disparities, standards, infrastructure, workforce development, research needs and funding.

The Strategic Plan introduces three major goals:

1. Accelerate discovery and advance health by providing the tools for data-driven research.
2. Reach more people in more ways through enhanced dissemination and engagement pathways.
3. Build a workforce for data-driven research and health.

From Dr. Patricia Brennan’s introduction:

• Data-driven discovery requires sophisticated library and information science to open the door to thrilling new prospects for improving the public health, as well as informatics and data science to deliver insights and solutions.
• The migration of clinical care from hospital to home challenges NLM to reach into these places where health occurs, not just where care is delivered.
• Governmental and scientific forces are aligning under a philosophy that innovation is accelerated if data flow freely, that the results of government-sponsored research should be open to the public as quickly as possible, and that linking scientists, citizens, and industry yields social benefits.
• Libraries continue to be essential places for knowledge repositories and community gathering, yet the advent of self-directed search, e-publishing and consolidation of hospital library services challenges librarians and libraries to devise new services and solutions.

Your comments on the Strategic Plan are welcome. Please send to: NLM Director’s Office (NLMDirectorsOffice@mail.nlm.nih.gov)