Silence, the smell of books, and whispering readers. That is the traditional image of a classic library. But the Scientific Library Cukrovarnická at the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences quickly proves this stereotype wrong. There is no quiet reading room here, and the idea of sacred silence is just a dream. In reality, it is an active workplace that provides solid support for research teams.
The seven-member team has a wide variety of tasks. The librarians manage a collection of over 6,000 mostly English-language physics publications, keep records of scientific outputs in the Czech Academy of Sciences repository ASEP, and report them to the Office of the Government.
But the biggest challenge in recent years has been something else: open science, an approach that aims to make research results available to other scientists and to the public, rather than keeping them hidden away or locked behind a paywall. In practice, this means a great deal of work.
When the library helps science
As open science develops, new demands are also placed on working with research data. Scientists need to decide where their data will be stored, how to describe it, share it, or preserve it for the long term. This is exactly where the library team steps in, offering support in the areas of data management and open science.
"If data is made available to the public, it should be findable, accessible, well described, and ready to be reused," explains Kristýna Dostálová, the institution's data steward. She admits that this environment is not easy to navigate. Rules keep changing, and each funding body has slightly different requirements.
The Scientific Library, therefore, monitors developments, evaluates options, and collects information. "Libraries have long since stopped being just places for traditional library services. They have gradually become centres that provide support for researchers in more and more areas," says Karolína Dědičová.
A scientist in all of us
One outcome of this direction is the June conference Re:vision of Science, organised by the library in cooperation with science communicator Julie Nekola Nováková on 11 June 2026. Speakers will come from both the Czech Republic and abroad. The programme is intentionally divided into two complementary parts.
The morning session will be in Czech and will focus on what open science means in the day-to-day running of research institutions. You will learn how so-called data policies, documents that set out how an institution should handle its data, are created. "Research data is very diverse, and every discipline works with it differently. That is why we want to talk openly about real challenges and show what can help," says Karolína Dědičová.
A significant part of the programme will also be dedicated to citizen science, an approach that involves people without a scientific background in real research. "Citizen science is a wonderful way for people who are not professional scientists to take part directly in real research."
This means that any of us can briefly become a researcher, for example by mapping the spread of plant species, monitoring air quality on our own street, or sorting images from space telescopes from the comfort of our sofa. There are so many of these images that professional astronomers cannot process them all on their own. An example of collaboration between volunteers and the scientific community will be presented by Matyáš Adam from Tomas Bata University in Zlín.
Clear and practical
The afternoon session will be in English and will shift the discussion towards how the evaluation of scientific work is beginning to change across Europe. Mathijs Vleugel from the German Helmholtz Association, the largest research organisation in Germany and one of Europe's leaders in implementing open science, will speak at the event. He will be followed by Gareth O'Neill from Technopolis Group in Brussels, an expert who tracks how research evaluation is changing across European institutions.
The Scientific Library is determined to make sure the conference is not just a series of presentations. "We do not want to overwhelm participants with theory," says Karolína Dědičová. "It is important to us that everyone leaves with concrete tips from institutions that have already successfully started this transformation, whether here in the Czech Republic or abroad."
Major changes in science can often feel like just more administrative burden. "We want to show that enormous changes do not have to mean more paperwork, but can actually help research and move it forward."
And what does the head librarian picture as the ideal ending to a participant's day? Leaving with the feeling that they have the tools to introduce similar changes in their own team, their own institution, and their own everyday practice.
The conference Re:vision of Science will take place on 11 June 2026 in Prague. If you work in research, data management, or are interested in the direction science is heading, we would love to see you there. Register now.