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The reference librarians at my school are often very helpful. If I tell them my topic, they will help me find many resources which I might not have otherwise found and generally tend to save me a lot of time. Is it common practice to credit them in someway, especially when publishing a paper? If so, what is the common format?

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Yes, the acknowledgements section of your paper is an appropriate place to thank anyone who provided valuable assistance. Depending on the circumstances, you could phrase it pretty generally ("I thank the reference librarians at University X for their assistance in conducting a literature search"), you could thank specific people, or you could even identify particular contributions ("I am grateful to Y for bringing the literature on Z to my attention").

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Yes, the acknowledgements section would be the place to acknowledge the hard work librarians do, especially the subject librarian tasked with your field of study, or, any other librarian who you'd like to acknowledge. And, as a librarian (although not a reference librarian), I thank you for recognizing the hard work of your campus' librarians! – Harrison W. Inefuku Jun 15 '12 at 3:30
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In general, I tend to give acknowledgments quite liberally. In particular, if anyone spent more than 3 or 4 hours doing anything that helped improve the paper, I like to thank them by name. I see it as a no-lose decision. It really doesn't cost you anything to acknowledge someone (none of your readers will think less of you or your paper), and I know that I always appreciate being acknowledged (so I assume that most others do to). – Dan C Jun 19 '12 at 16:37

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