The questioner raises her hand again: "Thank you. I agree with you. But though you have told us why we SHOULD set priorities for information, I am still not sure that we CAN. Maybe next year I will have access to new technology and maybe this new technology will make it possible for me to use new types of information. How can we plan for that?"

Dr. Carama responds: "You are right. But I think we need to do the best we can. If we do not try, we run the risk of making all our investments in information on an ad hoc basis. A bit of hardware here, some software there, some subscriptions here, a few publications there. MMRI has done that. We have spent money inefficiently in the past and I fear that we run the risk of making more mistakes in future."

"So, the answer to your question... Maybe we need to go through a priority-setting exercise this year and then do it again next year."