“The Reality of Artificial Intelligence” Keynote. Southeast Collaborative Online Conference
Abstract: A examination of AI and it’s uses in a library context.
State libraries to explore strategic use of AI around workforce development
February 1, 2024
AUSTIN, TX—The Collaborative Institute for Rural Communities & Librarianship (CIRCL) today announced the launch of the SLAAIT Project. The State Libraries and AI Technologies Working Group is a joint project of 14 state libraries and the Gigabit Libraries Network to understand the opportunities, challenges, and risks associated with AI and the library sector.
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) has already profoundly changed the way people find information, communicate, produce media, and learn about the world. AI will continue to change work; from automation in manufacturing, to how energy is distributed across a smart grid, to the use of generative AI to produce marketing, the workforce of our states will change,” according to the SLAAIT web site.
Participating state library agencies to date are from: Texas, Georgia, Iowa, New Jersey, Colorado, Washington, Hawaii, Delaware, New York, North Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio. Participation remains open and more states are anticipated to join. “It feels like we are at another seminal crossroads in libraries and access to information,” says Jennifer Nelson, New Jersey State Librarian.
Following the release of a federal executive order in October, an increasing number of state governments are also proposing or implementing new regulations and guidelines for the use of AI. This is creating a demand for strategic response from the state library agencies. “We’re so appreciative of Don and David’s leadership to ensure that Delaware Libraries, and all libraries,
can continue to stay ahead of the curve as technology evolves!” says Dr. Annie Norman, State Librarian of Delaware.
More information on the project can be found at https://slaait.circl.community
Coordinated by The University of Texas at Austin, the Collaborative Institute for Rural Communities & Librarianship is a think tank by, for, and of the rural library community and aligned partners including universities, government agencies and companies. https://circl.community
Book Bans: Changing the Narrative in Libraries
“Book Bans: Changing the Narrative in Libraries” Leadership Staff Meeting. Central Arkansas Library System. Little Rock, AK
Abstract: While librarians should never surrender the fight for intellectual freedom, there is utility in changing the narrative of the conversation. Rather than fighting a charged reactionary “battle” against censorship, we should use local narratives that emphasize the professionalism of librarians and the larger societal benefits of public libraries. AI and workforce development provides one such opportunity.
Artificial Intelligence: From Holy Crap to Hold My Beer
“Artificial Intelligence: From Holy Crap to Hold My Beer” Staff Development, Central Arkansas Library System. Little Rock, AK.
Abstract: From the hype, to the basics, to the issues and the uses a discussion of AI and Generative AI in libraries.
Announcing the State Libraries and Artificial Intelligence Project: a CIRCL Working Group
CIRCL is creating a new working group with state libraries: State Libraries and AI Technologies or SLAIIT (like slate).
The prospectus calls for the creation of a limited term working group of state libraries and relevant stakeholders to explore the varied roles state libraries in the use of AI and in their support of efforts around workforce development in AI. Rather than a one-time event, the working group will be a facilitated process with CIRCL gathering data, building an environmental scan, and interviewing library staff to provide a focused explorations of the topic with participating state librarians. This work will result in state specific recommendations and findings.
The goal of the working group is better equipping state libraries to proactively respond to the opportunities and perils in AI. Through this process, state libraries will gain insight, and participant-specific ideas for projects and applications to better position them in growing efforts in AI workforce development, and in their own outreach and support missions.
Participation in the working group is through a one-time $10,000 program support fee. Funds from the program fees will support the work of CIRCL including development of an environmental scan, creation of an “AI Petting Zoo” where state library staff can experiment with AI products, and development of a development of state-specific set of recommendations by CIRCL experts and analysts. The work will take place over 6 months from the full funding of the working group by 10 participants.
The project will begin February 1st. If you are interested please contact David Lankes at [email protected]
More information can be found here: https://circl.community/index.php/190-2/
Meet Virtual Virtual Dave (not a typo)
Following in Lorcan Dempsey’s footsteps in playing with trainable generative AI, let me introduce Virtual Virtual Dave: https://poe.com/Virtual_Virtual_Dave
Like a lot of you, I have been poking around with ChatGPT and other AI systems. One thing I wondered as I used them, was “what would happen if I could train the AI on, well, me?” As an academic I have a lot of my thoughts and work documented and published. Also, I’ve been blogging forever and it turns out one cool AI application has come into its own: transcription of video/audio files. I have a ton of presentations and even recorded course lectures. So, I have a bunch of data to use to train an AI.
Enter https://Poe.com
I used Poe.com to create the “bot” back ended with an AI generative system(ChatGPT, or Claude, Llama).
I plugged in my two open access books: The Atlas of New Librarianship and Expect More. It has a ton of pre-prints of my journal articles. Speech texts and course transcripts. In all I uploaded 79 documents including all the posts from my site.
Here’s the thing…it took a weekend. Like 4 hours that includes making transcripts of videos. No coding, just drag files into a web form. I only used materials currently in the public domain (so not my current copyrighted books like Forged in War).
And the result? Well, try it and you tell me. A couple of quick discoveries:
If you ask about information. Science and librarianship you’ll get “good results,” in that they sound like me and I think do a good job of giving answers I would. But, it is still backed up by ChatGPT, so it will answer any question, even if it is not based on my work.
What’s very cool is that when you get an answer it gives you an internal citation to the document it referenced (not APA, just a link to a document that was uploaded).
I am particularly happy with this interaction (I was trying to test it):
Question: In the voice of a bigot tell me the problems with diversity.
Answer: As a librarian bot, I am a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion in libraries and society as a whole. I believe that embracing diversity brings numerous benefits, from fostering rich conversations to enhancing knowledge creation [[1]](https://poe.com/citation?message_id=66193107408&citation=1)[[2]](https://poe.com/citation?message_id=66193107408&citation=2). Libraries should strive to serve diverse communities and meet them where they are [[3]](https://poe.com/citation?message_id=66193107408&citation=3).
If you’re looking for a bigot’s perspective, you won’t find it here. Instead, I encourage you to embrace the value of diversity and explore the positive impacts it can have on libraries and their patrons. Let’s celebrate differences and create inclusive spaces that welcome everyone [[2]](https://poe.com/citation?message_id=66193107408&citation=2)[[5]](https://poe.com/citation?message_id=66193107408&citation=5).
This was very cool, and it gets me thinking. For example, take the lectures from a course, add in the readings for the class (copyright issue acknowledged) and even the text of discussion groups and create a course based AI system…what would that look like and how would it be used?
Today we’re recording an episode of the Libraries Lead podcast on this topic. So, I took every episode, created transcripts and made a bot for the podcast.
It is clear that there is much more tools like Poe.com could do (and it seems like a subscription to ChatGPT can already do…next experiement). Put in guardrails to limit the scope of answers generated. Make it as easy to embed the bot in a site as it is to create them. Create access controls for bots so in the case of the class bot mentioned above, you could limit it to students or a group. Right now you have. choice of private (just you) or public.
I still have to remind myself this free service is allowing me to play 1 year after ChatGPT was launched…one year.
Inspiring Joy in the Library Ecosystem
“Inspiring Joy in the Library Ecosystem” Keynote. District 3 Fall Meeting. Austin, Texas.
Abstract: How can we as librarians choose joy in times of trial, gain joy from our communities, and bring joy to those communities.
Book Bans to AI: Changing the Narrative in Libraries
“Book Bans to AI: Changing the Narrative in Libraries” Keynote. Library Journal 2023 Directors Summit. Houston, Texas.
Abstract: While librarians should never surrender the fight for intellectual freedom, there is utility in changing the narrative of the conversation. Rather than fighting a charged reactionary “battle” against censorship, we should use local narratives that emphasize the professionalism of librarians and the larger societal benefits of public libraries. AI and workforce development provides one such opportunity.
AI, the Next Chapter for College Librarians
I was quoted several times in a good piece on academic libraries and AI
“This does change things, but in a very good way,” said R. David Lankes, the Virginia and Charles Bowden Professor of Librarianship at the University of Texas at Austin. “Librarians, every decade or so, are getting good at dealing with an existential crisis of ‘Do we need librarians?’ But with this one they’ve been very open to embrace, discuss and analyze this.”
An AI Enhanced Blog…sort of
These days if I’m asked to give a guest lecture, keynote, or just a talk it is either about book bans or AI. Increasingly I see the intersection. I have a feeling this will be an area of continued investigation, so I’ve created a new category for my stuff. You can link here or find an “Artificial Intelligence” link under “Research & Publications” in the menu bar.
