As we stepped into 2026, the Szilárd Library, as part of the Office for Scientific Information Management (OSIM), continues to expand and evolve its services in support of the EMBL community. From new open access agreements and enriched digital collections to a growing range of tools, print resources, and community events, the Library team is committed to making scientific information more accessible, open, and engaging for researchers and staff across all EMBL sites. Read on for a snapshot of what’s new and what’s coming.

In 2026, the Szilárd Library team and Open Science support team are excited to announce three new transformative agreements that significantly expand open access publishing opportunities for our researchers.

1. Through a Read & Publish agreement with the Royal Society, their journals will move to fully open access in 2026—allowing researchers to read content freely and enabling our authors to publish in both subscription and fully open access journals with no APCs.
2. Our agreement with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) provides a 15% discount on APCs for publishing in the fully open access journal Science Advances, while also permitting immediate green open access (self-archiving of accepted manuscripts) from the Science family journals without embargo.
3. Finally, our Read & Publish agreement with Portland Press offers unlimited, fee-free open access publishing across all its titles—both fully open access and hybrid—as well as full access to its complete journal archive.

As of this year, EMBL staff have access to a new AI e-book collection published by Springer Nature, along with selected titles from the Springer Nature Biomedical e-book collection.

Accounts for various tools and platforms — including Grammarly, O’Reilly, iThenticate, and Overleaf — are available to EMBL staff, governed by a new access policy.

Our e-journal collection is continuously updated through new consortial agreements and can be browsed via the e-journals platform EZB.

At the beginning of each month and on special occasions, new print books are put on display in the Heidelberg cafeteria and the reading room. We ship print books to all sites (except EBI — EBI colleagues are kindly asked to contact the Sanger Librarian for print book loans). See here what was new in February and March!

An overview of EMBL PhD theses defended in 2025 can be browsed in the Library’s online catalogue, while print copies are available in the reading room (ATC Rooftop Helix B).

For those based at or visiting the Heidelberg site, the latest issues of daily newspapers and print magazines such as Nautilus, New in Chess, Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, New Left Review, Jacobin, Gravel Touren, Trekking, National Geographic, and more can be found in the cafeteria, while the previous volumes are available in the Library reading room. Colleagues at the Barcelona site will soon receive their own print magazine collection based on their suggestions! If colleagues from other sites are interested in having the print magazines collection, please get in touch with librarians.

As in previous years, librarians will support events and initiatives in 2026, including International Weeks against Racism, Earth Week and Biodiversity Day, Fit for Spring, Pride Month, EMBL Alumni celebrations, Open Access Week, and more.

The traditional Christmas book flea market, with donations collected for a good cause, is planned for December — encouraged by the recent generous support of EMBL staff. Last year, €550 was collected and will be donated to the children’s library of the Children’s Hospital at the University of Heidelberg.

Contact the librarians for more information and stay tuned for updates!

OSIM team gathered for a creative workshop in February 2026, and the artwork is in the Library reading room above the new display of EMBL theses collection – one more reason to visit the site!