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Mission

The National Library of Medicine (NLM), on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, has been a center of information innovation since its founding in 1836. The world’s largest biomedical library, NLM maintains and makes available a vast print collection and produces electronic information resources on a wide range of topics that are searched billions of times each year by millions of people around the globe. It also supports and conducts research, development, and training in biomedical informatics and health information technology. In addition, the Library coordinates a 8,000-member National Network of Libraries of Medicine that promotes and provides access to health information in communities across the United States.

Interest in Diversity

The NLM is committed to increasing diversity across its broad portfolio of activities, including the collection and dissemination of biomedical information, support and outreach related biomedical research training, and funding of biomedical research and development. The NLM’s Strategic Plan: A Platform for Biomedical Discovery and Data-Powered Health places a strong emphasis on diversity-related activities.  Goal One contains strategies for ensuring the representativeness of data sets and establishing ways to debias data.  Goal Two is concerned with presenting information in ways that are accessible to a wide array of audiences.  Goal Three sets forth a commitment to increasing workforce diversity.  As delineated its Strategic Plan, the NLM is seeking to increase the representativeness and participation of individuals from underrepresented groups in its university-based training programs. NLM is exploring new incentives to recruit and retain underrepresented minorities within the programs it sponsors, and NLM will work with stakeholders to consider multi-focused strategies for increasing visibility and interest in these fields among underrepresented populations. In addition to graduate and postgraduate training for librarians and informatics researchers, NLM is seeking to expand the diverse workforce by enhancing visibility of library science and informatics in K-12 and undergraduate students.

Diversity-Targeted Programs
Director's Statement
Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PHD
Patricia Flatley Brennan, RN, PHD
Director's Statement
NLM is committed to developing a diverse workforce, inclusive of a broad range of racial and ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, and individuals from economically or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. Beyond workforce participation, NLM’s commitment to diversity extends to advocating for diversity of thought and plurality of methods. A commitment to diversity is grounded in the belief that participation of a diverse workforce improves team performance and engenders more robust knowledge representations and more culturally-competent means of supporting investigations and delivering health information.