Scholarly communication and research practices – especially in the humanities – are undergoing profound change. The growing influence of platforms such as Google Scholar, Sci-Hub, and AI-driven entities like OpenAI has transformed access to information, but often at the cost of transparency, source verification, and contextual depth. In this evolving ecosystem, libraries stand out as guarantors of reliability, providing curated, validated resources that remain essential for academic and public knowledge creation.

Digital transformation, open science, and data-driven methods have redefined scholarly work and broadened the remit of libraries far beyond their traditional roles. Today, they serve dual audiences: human readers and computational agents, including large language models (LLMs). Yet libraries face pressing challenges: competition from unverified sources, the ease of turning to generative AI without critical evaluation, and reduced engagement with curated collections. The solution lies in reaffirming their strengths – transparent provenance, methodological rigor, rich metadata, and quality‑controlled access – while integrating innovative digital tools that maintain relevance in times of machine‑assisted research (Horstmann 2022).

The Göttingen State and University Library (SUB Göttingen) and the German National Library (DNB) exemplify this strategic adaptation. As partners in Text+, the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) consortium for language- and text-based research data, they advance FAIR-compatible infrastructures (Wilkinson et al. 2016). The establishment of a dedicated GND agency within Text+ empowers researchers to contribute directly to authoritative metadata systems (Buddenbohm/Fischer 2023). SUB Göttingen builds on a long tradition of pioneering the digital humanities through infrastructures such as TextGrid and DARIAH-DE, now enhanced with modern computational tools for philological analyses. DNB transforms its vast holdings into derived text formats (Schöch et al. 2020), thus facilitating secure, transparent research on copyrighted materials and exploring their use for training trustworthy LLMs in projects such as CORAL.

Crucially, libraries are reimagining their role in public engagement with science. Through citizen science collaborations, thematic exhibitions, open workshops, and access to datasets, they invite individuals beyond academia to participate in research. This inclusivity bridges the gap between scholarly communities and the wider public, countering the exclusivity of algorithmically filtered knowledge and fostering trust through openness and demonstrable provenance. This talk shows how libraries position themselves as spaces for discussion, co-creation, and informed decision-making, guiding users – whether novice learners or advanced researchers – toward evidence-based understanding rather than unverified digital noise.

The active participation of libraries in 20 of 26 NFDI consortia underscores that they are not passive observers of change but architects of reliable digital knowledge ecosystems (Kurzawe/Stein 2024). By combining expertise in standardization, preservation, and connectivity with innovative strategies for public engagement, libraries offer a coherent answer to the challenges of the digital age. They remain unparalleled in delivering trustworthy information and ensuring that scholarly and societal knowledge prospers amid evolving technologies and shifting communication channels.

This talk explains why working in and accessing libraries is vital for democratic societies, especially in today’s accelerating information flows. Libraries stand as lighthouses guiding scholars and the public toward knowledge rooted in evidence, integrity, and shared understanding.