Academic Libraries – DigitalKoans

“Adoption of Artificial Intelligence in Academic Libraries: A Systematic Review of Current Practices, Challenges, and Research Opportunities”

Given the strategic role of academic libraries in higher education, this study provides a systematic literature review on the current practices, challenges to the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and the future research directions in academic libraries. A total of 29 relevant articles were used for review based on their relevance. Only peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers published in the last five years (2020–2024) were selected and included in the study. Web of Science, SCOPUS, and Library and Information Science Abstract (LISA) were the databases consulted. The current practices were grouped into six major dimensions, including technical services, references and information services, administrative services and circulation, collection development, information literacy and user education, and professional development and collaboration. The results showed that the most prominent use of AI in academic libraries is for reference and information services. Furthermore, it was found that 48.28 % (14) of the articles cited Funding as the major institutional challenge to AI adoption in academic libraries. A cluster of studies included in the review emphasized the need for more user-driven research on AI applications in academic libraries. This study reflects the importance of retraining librarians to develop new competencies in managing AI-enhanced communication tools, including chatbot integration and prompt engineering.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103185

“Curatorial Agency in IR Migrations: A Case Study of the University of Toledo Digital Repository”

This case study focuses on the role of curatorial agency in the migration of the University of Toledo Digital Repository (UTDR). Institutional repository (IR) migrations are necessary preservation actions intended to ensure long-term access to digital content. Disruptions resulting from iterative migrations may diminish user trust in IR services and present other risks. Curatorial agency refers to the responsibility and authority of curators mediating between digital media and audiences and can mitigate some unforeseen or unavoidable effects of data migrations. Curatorial agency is established through connections and negotiations within heterogeneous actor-networks, which result in transformational processes, such as those associated with data migrations. Therefore, this case study takes a sociotechnical approach needed for an analytical framework, which merges elements of the actor-network theory with those of the Digital Curation Centre’s (DCC) curation lifecycle model and a Levels of Representation in Digital Collections framework based on Lee’s model. It focuses on the vital role of curatorial agency in UTDR migrations. Using a detailed account of the repository migration and framework analysis, this case study offers significant insight into the role of curatorial agency in managing migrations and establishing new curation strategies, including virtual exhibitions. Key findings include increased transparency of transformational processes in the UTDR migrations and in the role of curatorial agency in the preservation framework.

https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v19i1.1063

“Are We Ghosts in the Machine? AI, Agency, and the Future of Libraries”

Artificial intelligence (AI) integration is fundamentally transforming information literacy and library-based research, often without student awareness or institutional review. As database vendors embed AI capabilities such as article summarization, enhanced search, and clinical decision support into familiar resources, students are increasingly engaging in a collaborative process that redistributes core tasks like source selection and information synthesis. This shift moves the research workflow from student-led inquiry toward machine-guided assistance. This article offers a conceptual analysis and theoretical framework for understanding this redistribution of agency, aiming to equip educators and librarians with vocabulary to address these changes and to pave the way for future empirical work. Without intervention, students risk becoming passive passengers in their own research process, potentially undermining the traditional goals of information literacy grounded in autonomy and deliberate practice. To ensure that AI enhances rather than replaces critical thinking, academic libraries must champion transparency, preserve choice in research methods, provide comprehensive AI literacy instruction, and maintain institutional accountability through ongoing assessment.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103181

“Big Ten Open Books: An Interview with Kate McCready (BTAA) and Charles Watkinson (UM)”

Authors Alliance has had a longstanding interest in helping authors see their older books reinvigorated with new life by making them available online for free on an open access basis. One of the most exciting initiatives working on OA for backlist books is the Big Ten Open Books program. This post is based on a set of questions we posed to Kate McCready (Program Director for Open Publishing, Center for Library Programs at the Big Ten Academic Alliance) and Charles Watkinson (Director of University of Michigan Press and Associate University Librarian for Publishing at the University of Michigan) about what the program is and how it works.

https://tinyurl.com/49mudpa8

“Lyrasis, Big Ten Academic Alliance Libraries, and California Digital Library Receive Grant to Advance Diamond Open Access in the United States”

The grant will support the project Mapping U.S. Diamond Open Access Journals, which will conduct the first national mapping of Diamond Open Access (OA) publishing in the United States. Diamond OA journals are peer-reviewed publications that are free for both authors and readers and operate without commercial profit motives. The project will illuminate the decentralized U.S. landscape of Diamond OA journals, surface sector-wide challenges, and provide actionable recommendations in support of sustainable, non-commercial scholarly publishing. By identifying infrastructure, investment, and policy needs, the project aims to produce actionable recommendations to guide institutions, funders, and coalitions in creating sustainable, field-informed investments that strengthen openness and resilience in scholarly communication.

https://tinyurl.com/2vdfajk9

“Sustainable Speed: Project Management and Productive Capacity in Projects Using AI”

[The article] examines the use of a handwritten transcription tool to generate full-text transcripts for a wide-ranging digitization project focused on slavery and the lives of enslaved people in the Colonial and Antebellum periods of the United States. It then reviews the challenges, rewards, and implications of incorporating tools like this from a project management perspective.

https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2025.2580900

“GRIN Transfer: A Production-Ready Tool for Libraries to Retrieve Digital Copies from Google Books”

Publicly launched in 2004, the Google Books project has scanned tens of millions of items in partnership with libraries around the world. As part of this project, Google created the Google Return Interface (GRIN). Through this platform, libraries can access their scanned collections, the associated metadata, and the ongoing OCR and metadata improvements that become available as Google reprocesses these collections using new technologies. When downloading the Harvard Library Google Books collection from GRIN to develop the Institutional Books dataset, we encountered several challenges related to rate-limiting and atomized metadata within the GRIN platform. To overcome these challenges and help other libraries make more robust use of their Google Books collections, this technical report introduces the initial release of GRIN Transfer. This open-source and production-ready Python pipeline allows partner libraries to efficiently retrieve their Google Books collections from GRIN. This report also introduces an updated version of our Institutional Books 1.0 pipeline, initially used to analyze, augment, and assemble the Institutional Books 1.0 dataset. We have revised this pipeline for compatibility with the output format of GRIN Transfer. A library could pair these two tools to create an end-to-end processing pipeline for their Google Books collection to retrieve, structure, and enhance data available from GRIN. This report gives an overview of how GRIN Transfer was designed to optimize for reliability and usability in different environments, as well as guidance on configuration for various use cases.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.11447

Reparative Description and Metadata Remediation Planning at the University of Michigan Deep Blue Institutional Repositories

This report shares ongoing metadata remediation work on The University of Michigan Library’s Deep Blue Repositories, or the “Deep Blues,” primarily focused on Deep Blue Documents. Deep Blue Documents is a repository that has been accepting research outputs since 2006. Currently, it contains about 160,000 deposits of items from 1863 to the present, with hundreds of thousands of downloads per month. Deep Blue Data launched in 2016, and as of Fall 2025 has approximately 2,000 deposits.

https://tinyurl.com/mtkh3f7m

“Can Academic Libraries Lead the Quantum Revolution?”

Currently, IBM, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Bracket all sell cloud access to quantum computing resources by the hour, by the task, or in credits. In the current environment, where quantum is limited to research computing, individual departments might strike separate deals with these platforms. But libraries, which have experience negotiating licensing, managing access, and ensuring equity for their community, could instead diffuse quantum across the university by buying a block of credits, or create a framework for allocation, setting a price point for each project and assigning funding accordingly, much like an internal grant application process or early approaches to APCs. I call this Quantum-Computing-as-a-Library-Service (QCAALS).

https://tinyurl.com/yt79vdmr

“University Presses and Libraries, Teaming Up to Innovate”

The case studies [described here] consider:

Brown University Digital Publications, a library-based program through which Brown, in partnership with scholarly publishers, supports the digital publication of open access, multimodal scholarship. . . .

Trailblazers, a new open access initiative from Liverpool University Press, run in partnership with Lancaster University, University of Liverpool, and University of Salford (UK), that champions early-career researchers.

North Broad Press, a joint imprint from Temple University Press and the Temple University Library that publishes peer-reviewed open textbooks by Temple faculty.

https://tinyurl.com/yc7phd6c

“Ethical and Practical Implications of AI in Academic Library Research”

This article offers a critical and integrative review of how artificial intelligence (AI) is being incorporated into academic library systems, particularly in the context of scientific research production. Based on 29 studies, the review explores ethical practices, institutional boundaries, and epistemological challenges surrounding AI adoption. Findings reveal that AI is reshaping scholarly workflows, such as metadata creation, information retrieval, and literature review, while also introducing unresolved ethical concerns, including data privacy, algorithmic bias, academic integrity, and diminished human agency. The study identifies a misalignment between the rapid pace of AI implementation and the capacity of academic institutions to regulate its use responsibly. Librarians are situated at the intersection of innovation and ethical mediation, often without formal training or institutional support. The review concludes that AI should not be viewed merely as a functional tool but as a socio-technical agent requiring ethical governance, critical AI literacy, and structural accountability across academic ecosystems.

https://doi.org/10.1177/03400352251391753

Paywall: Library Publishing: How to Launch, Enhance, and Sustain Your Program

This book largely follows the three parts set out in the book’s title: launching a library program, enhancing that program, and sustaining the program. Over the course of this book, it will become clear that there is not an absolute chronology for the process. Depending on the specific context, some parts of the “Enhancing” chapters will be essential to launching a program, and concepts discussed in “Sustaining” chapters will be important considerations in both launching and enhancing a program. Indeed, most of the authors saw their chapters as belonging in the “Sustaining” section, as program longevity was an important part of their efforts to launch or enhance their program.

https://tinyurl.com/7rm6hak3

“When the Sky is Not the Limit: Managing Capped Open Access Agreements”

This paper features a dialogue between a consortium, two large research university libraries, and a large commercial publisher on the opportunities and challenges of setting up cost-neutral open access publishing agreements and managing capped allocations. The authors provide perspectives on the role of capped agreements in their negotiations, campus communications, workflows, and business processes as they navigate how to make open access publishing agreements work for everyone—consortia, universities, libraries, authors, researchers, and publishers.

https://tinyurl.com/bdf8y6y7

“Prompting Generative AI to Catalog: The Promise and the Reality”

The jagged technological frontier visualizes the boundary at which AI can be an asset versus a detriment for the user. Due to the inaccuracies of the generated MARC records in this project, MARC record generation barely landed on the favorable side of this frontier if using an effective prompt. However, even these records could not be trusted without a cataloger in the loop. Admittedly there is an art to cataloging, but it must be grounded in reality-based adherence to standards and norms, not one of creative writing.

https://tinyurl.com/4kjmxfae

“Scholarly Communication Work: On the Ground Perspectives”

This survey investigates the experiences of scholarly communication workers in North America, with a total of 282 responses. Previous studies on scholarly communication work in academic libraries have tended to focus on organizational structure and necessary competencies. This study aims to put the focus back on workers’ own experiences on the job, to better understand the contributing factors to burnout and attrition that can arise for those in these positions. Five main areas are investigated: newness of the position, scope of the work, support and resources, feelings of one’s expertise being unvalued or dismissed, and the impact of administration. The study concludes with recommendations for library administrators on how to fortify a more sustainable environment for scholarly communication workers.

https://tinyurl.com/435a8ewd

“Mitigating Aggressive Crawler Traffic in the Age of Generative AI: A Collaborative Approach from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Libraries”

The rise of aggressive, adaptive, and evasive web crawlers is a significant challenge for libraries and archives, causing service disruptions and overwhelming institutional resources. This article details the experiences of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill University Libraries in combating an unprecedented flood of crawler traffic. It describes the escalating mitigation efforts, from traditional client blocking to the implementation of more advanced techniques such as request throttling, regional traffic prioritization, novel facet-based bot detection, commercial Web Application Firewalls (WAFs), and ultimately, in-browser client verification with Cloudflare Turnstile. The article highlights the adaptive nature of these crawlers, the limitations of isolated institutional responses, and the critical lessons learned from mitigation efforts, including the issues introduced by residential proxy networks and the extreme scale of the traffic. Our experiences demonstrate the effectiveness of a multi-layered defense strategy that includes both commercial and library-specific solutions, such as facet-based bot detection. The article emphasizes the importance of community-wide collaboration, proposing future directions such as formalized knowledge sharing and the ongoing development of best practices to collectively address this evolving threat to open access and the stability of digital library services.

https://shorturl.at/7AP3I

Paywall: “‘It’s Like Some Weird AI Ouroboros’”: Artificial Intelligence Use and Avoidance in Scholarly Peer Review”

This interdisciplinary perspective paper explores the evolving relationship between generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) and library reference services across academic and public libraries, with implications for Library and Information Science (LIS) education. . . . The paper traces historical developments in personalized reference, staffing trends, and technological transformations, arguing that GenAI tools should complement rather than replace human librarians. Additionally, the paper examines the impact of GenAI on archival reference, specialized services, and the emergence of conversational assistants as digital intermediaries. Ethical considerations are also addressed, including misinformation, epistemic agency, and belief formation.

https://doi.org/10.1002/pra2.1232

| Artificial Intelligence |
| Research Data Curation and Management Works |
| Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works |
| Open Access Works |
| Digital Scholarship |

ACRL: “AI Competencies for Academic Library Workers”

This document contains two sections: mindsets (guiding orientations or dispositions) and competencies (skills, knowledge, behaviors, and abilities). Mindsets are presented in a single list. Competencies are organized into four categories: Ethical Considerations; Knowledge & Understanding; Analysis & Evaluation; and Use & Application. These parallel the categories Davy Tsz Kit Ng and colleagues identified in their content analysis of 18 articles about AI literacy. Each category contains four or five broad competencies. Each broad competency has a brief description and a corresponding list of related abilities.

https://tinyurl.com/4dxuauvy

“The Impact of Transformative Agreements on Reading and Publishing Behavior”

Academic librarians often work to educate and guide authors, fostering trust within the ever-changing processes of academic publishing. This article analyzes collection development decisions by assessing the outcomes of a six-year period of contracts between a big five publisher and an academic library that culminated in a transformative agreement. Funded institutional authors were surveyed to investigate the impact of the publish portion of the transformative agreement on their open access choices. Authors were more likely to choose hybrid publishing in cases where they had not considered the option. The library’s position, situated between the needs of authors and publishers, is increasingly one of limited funds and limited authority.

https://doi.org/10.58997/fx80dy21

Paywall: “Tracing the Research Trends in the Application of Digital Technology in Cultural Heritage: A Bibliometric Analysis Integrating Large Language Models”

This study identifies research trends, contributors, and collaborations in digital technologies applied to cultural heritage through a bibliometric and topic modelling analysis of 1,153 articles from the Web of Science database. The analysis revealed that these documents commenced in the year 2000, which can be attributed to the influence of the advent of digital technologies. . . . The analysis reveals that research predominantly originates from developed regions, identifies 15 key topics, and highlights five emerging areas with significant growth from 2000 to 2024. The findings provide actionable insights for advancing the application of digital technologies in cultural heritage research and identifying future priorities.

https://doi.org/10.1177/01655515251373084

Paywall: “Strengthening Research Support: Scholarly Communication Training for Liaison Librarians”

The study involved creating 16 OARs tailored to specific academic disciplines, utilizing a combination of free and subscription resources to compile data on publishing practices and citation insights. Surveys conducted before and after the dissemination of the reports evaluated the impact on librarians’ knowledge and confidence levels. The findings suggest that developing scholarly communication literacy among liaison librarians can improve their confidence and effectiveness in supporting faculty publishing practices. The collaboration between liaison librarians and the Scholarly Communications Librarian is essential for fostering partnerships with faculty and enhancing the library’s role in research support.

https://tinyurl.com/2ufwxxre

"Collective Funding Models for Open Access Books: Librarians’ Experiences and Barriers to Participation Across Six European Contexts"

This report seeks to understand librarians’ experiences of collective funding models for open access books, especially barriers to joining organisations like the Open Book Collective (OBC). The OBC is one of an increasing number of organisations that are using a collective ‘Diamond’ funding model for open access, wherein libraries commit to financially support open access book publishers, and/or open infrastructure providers for a set period of time to fund their work. The report aims to learn from differing experiences in countries with different open access policies and institutional contexts. It focuses its research on six countries in continental Europe: Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. The research includes interviews with 20 participants. Most are librarians, alongside a selection of publishers and open access experts. It provides particular insight into how librarians understand collective funding models and their ability to become involved in them, within their national and institutional settings. This is supplemented by an analysis of existing research on collective funding models and a profile of each country’s current open access publishing context, based on an extensive literature review. The report will be of interest to librarians seeking to build further capacity to support collective Diamond open access funding models within their institutions, as well as publishers, infrastructure providers and collaborative endeavours seeking to build collective support for the development of open access programmes.

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17339946

| Research Data Publication and Citation Bibliography | Research Data Sharing and Reuse Bibliography | Research Data Curation and Management Bibliography | Digital Scholarship |

“‘Just Tick the Box’: Researcher Understanding of Intellectual Property and Open Access Research Policies in Publication Practices at Australian Universities”

Introduction: Australia has achieved limited national progress toward achieving policy goals for more open and rapid access to research outputs. This article provides evidence of the widespread confusion in Australian research practices and policies relating to ownership and dissemination of research publications. This confusion often results in researchers just ticking a box: assigning copyright to commercial publishers.

Methods: Based upon insights from interviews with university researchers, librarians, and research managers, we describe how academics grapple with myriad policies and pressures relating to research and publication.

Results: Subject matter covered includes university intellectual property (IP) and open access policies; research quality and peer review; article processing charges; and funder open access requirements.

Conclusion: The authors propose remedies to improve the ways that IP and open access policies can work better to achieve goals for dissemination. If implemented, these remedies would lead to greater policy harmonisation and ease of understanding within the research sector, as well as a permanent change in the way government and institutions assess research quality. These remedies also align with global policy developments aimed at creating a more open future for research.

https://tinyurl.com/bdezm4w5

“Electronic Book Acquisition Strategies in Academic Libraries: A Review of the Literature”

Electronic book (e-book) acquisition models have evolved over the decades they have been available to library customers. This review leverages findings from scholarly literature to document the proliferation and evolution of e-book acquisitions models, their strengths and weaknesses in various contexts, and their role in the collection development strategies of academic libraries. From firm orders and subscription packages to demand-driven and evidence-based acquisitions, engagement with e-book acquisitions models varies considerably based on factors such as library budget and staffing, institutional curriculum and programs, consortial affiliations, support for textbook affordability initiatives, and COVID-19 responses. The findings from this literature review suggest multiple acquisition models are frequently used in combination; librarians closely monitor e-book expenditures and use, regularly modifying acquisitions parameters; and e-book strategy is dependent on institutional goals, library budgets, consortial participation, and marketplace realities. Additionally, the increased availability of e-books and their acquisitions models have created opportunities for research that compares the efficiency and effectiveness of e-book purchasing models and draws on existing and evolving evaluative models to establish benchmarks for measuring success.

https://tinyurl.com/4zjucdch

“AI Policies in U.S. Universities: A Critical Analysis of Policy Gaps and Library Involvement”

This posIT column critically examines AI policies and resources at 50 four-year universities—one from each U.S. state—to assess alignment with the Association of Research Libraries’ (ARL) Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence. Through content analysis of LibGuides, AI taskforce membership, campus events, and public-facing policies, the study reveals widespread adoption of AI resources but a significant lack of clarity, consistency, and librarian involvement in policy development.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2025.2560268