AAHSL Strategic Plan 2016 - 2018


Vision

Academic health sciences libraries improve health through essential contributions to patient care, discovery, teaching, and learning.

Mission

AAHSL promotes the success of its members through professional development and leadership programs; imagining the future; promoting best practices; advocacy; strategic partnerships and collaborations; fostering a community of colleagues; and enabling a diverse and inclusive association.

Goals and Objectives

  1. Professional and Leadership Development
    As the preeminent association representing academic health sciences libraries, AAHSL will aggressively pursue its obligation to ensure the vitality and relevance of libraries well into the future by identifying and cultivating new leaders and informing its members of the profession’s changing landscape.

    AAHSL initiatives to support this goal:

    • Leadership Development Program (Fellows, New Directors Symposium, Scholarships)
      • Leverage content for whole membership
      • Based on membership feedback, review goals and objectives of program
    • Evaluate the annual meeting based on member feedback
      • Investigate adopting new format(s) and/or time of year and/or who is invited to increase networking and education opportunities for members
    • Continue to sponsor the Matheson Lecture and recruit nationally known, preeminent speakers on topics of mutual interest to AAHSL and the AAMC Group on Information Resources (GIR) 
    • Collaborate with other organizations on development of new educational programs based upon members’ needs

  2. Imagining the Future

    The association will develop a shared vision of the future for academic health sciences libraries; one that reflects the changing nature of academic health centers and recognizes the emerging roles and activities among its member libraries.

    AAHSL will realize this goal through:

    • Membership Surveys
    • Strategic planning
    • Trend Analysis
    • Commission White Papers on Emerging Roles and Issues

  3. Promoting Best Practices
    The association will provide its members with the tools to make a greater impact within their institutions by employing quantitative and qualitative methods to identify best practices within health sciences libraries and promoting these practices through its media and programming.

    In pursuit of this goal,  AAHSL will

    • Establish a task force on the integration of Core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) in the Medical Education Curriculum
    • Identify and share qualitative assessment best practices which demonstrate to stakeholders the contribution of academic health sciences libraries to improved learning, research, and patient care outcomes
    • Strengthen the statistics program by leveraging commercial options for data collection, reporting, analysis, and visualization
    • Identify gaps in competency-based medical school curricula related to evidence-based practice and share best practices for curriculum integration
    • Identify research support services provided by academic health sciences libraries and share best practices

  4. Advocacy

    The association will continue to lend its voice to issues that directly impact its members, standing as an advocate for health sciences libraries and the idea that society benefits most when health information is freely and easily accessible.

    To meet its advocacy goals AAHSL will

    • Increase funding for support of Joint MLA/AAHSL Legislative Task Force
    • Continue to maintain awareness of issues relating to open access and open science among AAHSL leadership and members and to assist in conveying AAHSL’s viewpoints on scholarly communication issues

  5. Strategic Partnerships and Collaborations

    AAHSL will identify specific initiatives to embrace with our partner organizations that will substantially benefit AAHSL members as well as our partners.

    Specifically, AAHSL will seek to better leverage the following partnership opportunities:

    • Formal meetings of AAHSL leadership and partner associations’ leadership on an annual basis in Washington, DC
    • Partnership with AAMC Group on Information Resources on the Matheson Lecture
    • Active participation in AAMC Council of Faculty and Academic Societies (CFAS)
    • Membership in Interprofessional Education (IPEC) Collaborative

  6. Fostering a Community of Colleagues

    Hearing from its members that a community of colleagues is one of the most valued benefits of AAHSL, the association will focus efforts on enhancing the opportunities for its member representatives to learn from one another.

    AAHSL will address this goal through these activities and services:

    • Email lists (AAHSL-all and AAHSL-directors)
    • Website
    • Networking opportunities at meetings
    • Annual Fellows reunion
    • Cornerstone Award
    • Board/New Director/Member dinner
    • Library reception at annual meeting
    • New and Developing Academic Health Sciences Libraries Committee
    • Job postings

  7. Enabling a Diverse and Inclusive Association 

    In pursuit of this goal, AAHSL will establish a task force on diversity, equity, and inclusion which will

    • Survey AAHSL members about current policies, activities, and needs related to diversity
    • Identify AAHSL libraries which have diversity initiatives 
    • Review diversity and inclusion policies and programs of partner associations
    • Summary and report the current state of diversity in AAHSL libraries
    • Recommend a long-term diversity strategy for the association
    • Develop a list of initial actions AAHSL can take to meaningfully engage members in conversation and action around diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice

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