This presentation examines the evolving role of libraries as trusted infrastructures in an era of rapid digital transformation and AI-driven knowledge production. Structured around three themes, the transformation of digital knowledge production and scholarly communication, the sustainability and governance of digital research infrastructures, and the evolving role of libraries in AI-driven knowledge ecosystems, the talk addresses growing challenges such as the erosion of source criticality, fragmented infrastructures, digital sovereignty concerns, and the concentration of epistemic power in a small number of commercial actors. Drawing on concrete examples including the Text+ consortium and the DNB SPARQL Service, it argues that libraries are uniquely positioned to act as navigators, trusted intermediaries, and long-term stewards within the complex European research infrastructure landscape, serving both human researchers and increasingly AI systems and computational agents.
Buddenbohm et al. (2026) studied this question.