Your Secret Research Weapon? It Might Be Your Librarian.
You’ve sequenced the genome, logged the field data, and survived another research cruise. But there’s one collaborator you could be overlooking – and we’re closer than you might think.
A recent feature in Nature (Dance, 2026) makes a compelling case that librarians are much more than custodians of journals and databases. Today’s academic librarians are skilled research partners who can support your work at every stage, and the services we offer our researchers at the MBLWHOI Library are no different!
Take historical data. The Nature article discusses a poignant example from Stanford’s Hopkins Marine Station. Marine ecologist Robin Elahi tapped into his library’s archive of student research papers going back to the 1940s, finding maps and tables measuring the body sizes of three intertidal snail species. When he returned to the same sites decades later, he found the snails had shrunk by about one-fifth. This was consistent with the predicted effects of climate change. That discovery would not have been possible without the help of librarian Amanda Whitmire, and the library’s carefully preserved historical record.
The power of preserved historical data isn’t just theoretical. Earlier this year, Ashley Jester, the Director of Research Data and Library Services at WHOI and co-Director of the MBLWHOI Library, and our partners at Mass Productions (our media preservation partner), identified what may be the earliest known recording of a humpback whale, captured in 1949 and discovered on a fragile audograph disc in WHOI’s archival collections. It’s a perfect example of why, as the Nature article argues, the historical record held in libraries is so essential to modern research.
And when it comes to literature reviews, librarians bring expertise that goes well beyond a basic database search. When you find that one database simply isn’t enough, we know which databases are most relevant for your field and can help you build your search strategically. In biology and environmental science, where interdisciplinary work is the norm, that kind of cross-database fluency is invaluable. In a 2024 study of systematic reviews done in the medical field, researchers “found that those with a librarian on the author list scored 15.4% higher on their quality assessment than did reviews that didn’t involve an information specialist” (Dance, 2026; Pawliuk, 2024).
Beyond archives, today’s academic librarians are also essential partners in managing the data your research generates. We can help you build data management plans, ensure your datasets are properly documented and stored (including in our own Dataverse Repository), and connect you to the right open access repository (including the Woods Hole Open Access Server, managed by the Library for the Woods Hole Scientific Community) — so your work is not only preserved, but discoverable and reusable by the broader scientific community.
The bottom line is come talk to us! Whether you’re launching a review, managing complex datasets, or navigating open-access requirements, your librarians are ready to dive in alongside you. Find out more about our publishing & research support and our data services on our website or contact us at library@mbl.edu and dla@whoi.edu.
Written by Samantha Porter, Scholarly Communications Librarian, sporter@mbl.edu
References
Dance, A. (2026). Why every scientists needs a librarian. Nature, 650, 1063-1065. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00568-y.
Pawliuk, C., Cheng, S., Zheng, A., & Siden, H. (2024). Librarian involvement in systematic reviews was associated with higher quality of reported search methods: a cross-sectional survey. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 166, 111237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclinepi.2023.111237.
WHOI discovers the oldest known whale recordings. (2026). Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://www.whoi.edu/press-room/news-release/1949-audio/