AI & Public Libraries: An Overview
This is a guest post by Ben Lee, Assistant Professor, University of Washington Information School.
In the context of public libraries, artificial intelligence (AI) has elicited a wide spectrum of responses. On the one hand, it brings excitement surrounding new possibilities for public programming, collection development, and staff usage. On the other hand, it elicits real fears surrounding patron privacy, interests of for-profit vendors, and algorithmic bias. Library leaders across the country have started to unpack these opportunities and challenges within their own institutions. As one library leader said, “There is a lot of talking about AI, but not as much doing.”
Working together, we’ve taken up the charge to 1) share the lessons each of us has learned so far, 2) begin a field-wide discussion surrounding these opportunities and challenges, and 3) develop a roadmap for shared experimentation and implementation.
Our first step toward answering this question was to convene a conversation on AI and public libraries at the Knight Foundation’s annual library leaders convening in Miami this February, when DC Public Library’s Director of Service Design & Engagement Meaghan O’Connor and I led a discussion entitled, “AI Opportunities and Challenges.” The moderated discussion, along with a breakout session attended by two dozen library leaders, revealed that public libraries across the country are eager to engage in a wider, field-level discussion. Based on anecdotes shared during these discussions, we have identified three broad areas of interest:
- Collection development: applying AI to improve access to special collections, developing better search & recommendation algorithms for library discovery systems, etc.
- Public-facing: developing public programming related to generative AI literacy, supporting patron experimentation with generative AI tools, etc.
- Internal, staff-facing: developing organizational best practices and policies surrounding AI, supporting staff experimentation, developing pilots for AI usage in an operational context, etc.
We hosted a series of online meetings with library leaders to solicit their ideas of ongoing and potential initiatives related to AI at their public libraries. Over the course of these four meetings with 15 library leaders, we have identified a number of public libraries interested in partnering with us to 1) conduct experiments over the next six months, and 2) report back on these experiments during next year’s Knight library leaders convening. These experiments reflect all three of these areas of interest and prioritize findings relevant across libraries with different staffing capacities. In particular, the decided-upon experiments will explore processes for developing AI policies, outcomes of public programming on generative AI, and pilots surrounding the application of AI to enrich metadata & search.
We intend to share what comes from those experiments at next February’s Knight Foundation convening of public library leaders, with an eye towards establishing a set of new projects surrounding AI across public libraries.
We welcome your input throughout this process, and please reach out to us with any questions, suggestions, or ideas.
At DPLA’s last Open Board + Community Meeting, Ben Lee and Meghan O’Connor shared an outline of their insights about AI and public libraries. Watch the full presentation below.
Banner photo by Martin Adams on Unsplash