Twice a year, leadership at NLM invites the 1,700 women and men who work for the Library to a Town Hall meeting. These meetings provide an opportunity for leadership to announce new initiatives and demonstrate accountability to our team, and for staff to ask questions and share ideas, concerns, and even words of appreciation.
I use a lot of channels to connect with my colleagues here, ranging from email updates to informal brown bag lunches with groups across the Library, casual conversations in the hallways, and Musings from the Mezzanine. But the NLM Town Hall structure is unique because it allows NLM leaders to receive valuable feedback from staff about how things are going and how changes are perceived, while we’re all in one place. I was happy to host one just last week.
First, we paused to remember Donald A. B. Lindberg, M.D., who served as the director of NLM for more than 30 years. As I noted in last week’s blog post, he was a visionary giant who lives on in the activities and legacy of NLM. We have lost a great treasure, but he would want us to keep investing in the future.
Our Town Hall meeting highlighted progress on many fronts. We reported on implementing NLM’s 2017-2027 Strategic Plan, discussed plans to stimulate innovation across NLM, and talked about employee engagement and the quality of work life.
As we put our strategic plan into effect, it’s important to me that every individual working at NLM knows that he or she plays an important role in the present and future of this great organization.
One of the pillars of our strategic plan is to accelerate data-driven discovery. I was pleased to announce that Xiaofang Jiang, PhD, will be joining NLM’s Intramural Research Program (IRP) as a tenure-track investigator who will be accelerating data-driven discovery. Her research plans involve developing methods for computational microbiome studies, including refining the resolution of metagenomic sequencing to the strain level. She also proposes to design a tool to track the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes using metagenomic data. In other staffing news, the search for a new scientific director for the IRP is underway.
A key component of implementing our strategic plan is communication. Our new director of the Office of Communications and Public Liaison, Jody Nurik, delivered a compelling vision for harmonizing NLM’s public presence to build a stronger, more consistent central identity that will create and enhance engagement with our stakeholders. This effort includes better showcasing the depth and breadth of our work and the resources we make available to the many audiences we serve.
Our discussion of innovation included an announcement of the launch of NLM Labs, a think tank to stimulate new ideas, prototypes, and research that support the goals of the strategic plan. Valerie Florance, PhD, director of NLM Extramural Programs, is heading a committee comprising staff from across NLM that will issue calls for proposals. Any NLM staff member can apply for an NLM Labs award.
The third theme of our Town Hall meeting was ensuring that NLM is a great place to work, and we addressed this in several ways.
The leadership team at NLM has reviewed the responses to the annual Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, or FEVS, which measures federal employees’ perceptions of their agencies and job satisfaction. Overall, most NLM employees reported positive feelings about the work they do and the quality of their work life, so this year we’re focusing on employee engagement and our commitment to diversity, excellence, and safety.
Like other Institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NLM is developing a formal anti-harassment plan. Central to this plan is engagement with the NIH Civil Program, whose mission is to foster civility throughout the NIH workplace. The program provides a way for staff to report concerns about uncivil behavior, such as harassment, inappropriate conduct, bullying, and other disruptive actions.
We announced next steps for creating an NLM anti-harassment plan, as well as an upcoming presentation by the NIH Civil Program to Library staff planned for the fall.
After the Town Hall presentations, we opened the floor to comments and questions from staff, whether they were attending in person or online.
Several questions addressed challenges and opportunities facing NLM as a 21st century research institute, ranging from workforce planning, best practices for data center security management, and what it means to have perpetual access to the biomedical literature. Staff also discussed how NLM shares its story with stakeholders across the globe, which served as a reminder of NLM’s responsibility as a custodian of centuries-old historical treasures and our leadership role in the acquisition and analysis of biomedical data and information.
I welcome your questions, thoughts, and ideas about NLM and where we’re going. Whether you’re a Library employee, stakeholder, or member of the public, I want you to see yourself as a part of NLM—now and in the future!
Every time I read the reflections, I feel very inspired. Thanks!!!
With tongue in cheek, I cannot help but wonder whether the panning of the PubMed Commons commenting facility was part of the NLM’s “antiharassment campaign.” Many continue to question the wisdom of the conclusion that the PMC “experiment” was a failure.