• Email Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Whatsapp X Librarians can help researchers to find and query relevant databases, manage data storage and access open-science resources. • Credit: Tom Werner/Getty Walk into a big academic library, and chances are you’ll enter a hushed space with soaring ceilings. • “It’s like going into a church or a place of worship,” says Jane Harvell, director of library culture and heritage at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. • How to make data open? • Stop overlooking librarians How to make data open? • Stop overlooking librarians But academic scientists don’t always take full advantage of these temples of knowledge, which have morphed from places full of quiet, dusty stacks to dynamic research centres with the latest technologies.

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  • Scientists increasingly rely on librarians as essential research partners. Academic libraries have transformed from quiet stacks into dynamic hubs offering coding classes, maker spaces, and data‑management support. Librarians-often called information specialists, informationists, or knowledge managers-assist researchers in locating databases, curating literature reviews, ensuring open‑access compliance, and filtering AI‑generated content. Case studies from Caltech, the University of Sussex, and Canadian hospitals illustrate how a librarian’s expertise can save hours of independent searching and help organize large bibliographies. The trend highlights libraries as critical, career‑forming centers for data‑savvy scientists.
  • Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript. Walk into a big academic library, and chances are you’ll enter a hushed space with soaring ceilings. “It’s like going into a church or a place of worship,” says Jane Harvell, director of library culture and heritage at the University of Sussex in Brighton, UK. But a

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