Libraries – DigitalKoans

"The State of U.S. Academic Libraries: Findings from the ACRL 2023 Annual Survey"

The average full-time equivalent (FTE) library staff is 36.2 and the median is 15.7. Doctoral universities have much higher staffing levels than all other types. Associate’s colleges and two year institutions have the highest ratio of students to staff.

In 2023, total expenditures excluding fringe benefits reached an average of almost four million and the median reported was $1.1 million. Adjusted for inflation, this represents a slight increase from 2022, but expenditures remain below pre-pandemic levels.

Digital materials continue to account for a significant proportion of library circulation, at 98.4% of the total reported. These materials come at significant cost: ongoing commitments to subscriptions account for 34.9% of total library expenditures.

Library instruction shows signs of recovery from pandemic lows. The reported average number of annual presentations to groups and average total attendance at those presentations have increased over the last three years, though still lagging relative to pre-pandemic levels.

https://tinyurl.com/36rdszhj

The State of U.S. Academic Libraries: Findings from the ACRL 2023 Annual Survey

"SPARC Releases Second Vendor Privacy Report Urging Action to Address Concerns with SpringerLink Data Privacy Practices"

SpringerLink provides a case study in the encroachment of the broader surveillance-based data brokering economy into academic systems. Among other findings, the report documents risks related to the 200 named third parties that are allowed to collect information from users of the site (along with what appear to be additional unlisted companies found only in our public website analysis). . . .

To fully understand how data may be used, librarians would need to read the 200 additional privacy policies from third parties that would likely stretch into the thousands of pages, a task complicated by numerous broken links to these policies at the time of publication.

https://tinyurl.com/wdkmha3z

Navigating Risk in Vendor Data Privacy Practices: An Analysis of Springer Nature’s SpringerLink

" It Takes a Village A Distributed Training Model for AI-Based Chatbots "

The introduction of Large Language Models (LLM) to the chatbot landscape has opened intriguing possibilities for academic libraries to offer more responsive and institutionally contextualized support to users, especially outside of regular service hours. While a few academic libraries currently employ AI-based chatbots on their websites, this service has not yet become the norm and there are no best practices in place for how academic libraries should launch, train, and assess the usefulness of a chatbot. In summer 2023, staff from the University of Delaware’s Morris Library information technology (IT) and reference departments came together in a unique partnership to pilot a low-cost AI-powered chatbot called UDStax. The goals of the pilot were to learn more about the campus community’s interest in engaging with this tool and to better understand the labor required on the staff side to maintain the bot. After researching six different options, the team selected Chatbase, a subscription-model product based on ChatGPT 3.5 that provides user-friendly training methods for an AI model using website URLs and uploaded source material. Chatbase removed the need to utilize the OpenAI API directly to code processes for submitting information to the AI engine to train the model, cutting down the amount of work for library information technology and making it possible to leverage the expertise of reference librarians and other public-facing staff, including student workers, to distribute the work of developing, refining, and reviewing training materials. This article will discuss the development of prompts, leveraging of existing data sources for training materials, and workflows involved in the pilot. It will argue that, when implementing AI-based tools in the academic library, involving staff from across the organization is essential to ensure buy-in and success. Although chatbots are designed to hide the effort of the people behind them, that labor is substantial and needs to be recognized.

https://tinyurl.com/3y654j2r

" Responsible AI Practice in Libraries and Archives: A Review of the Literature "

Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to positively impact library and archives collections and services—enhancing reference, instruction, metadata creation, recommendations, and more. However, AI also has ethical implications. This paper presents an extensive literature and review analysis that examines AI projects implemented in library and archives settings, asking the following research questions: RQ1: How is artificial intelligence being used in libraries and archives practice? RQ2: What ethical concerns are being identified and addressed during AI implementation in libraries and archives? The results of this literature review show that AI implementation is growing in libraries and archives and that practitioners are using AI for increasingly varied purposes. We found that AI implementation was most common in large, academic libraries. Materials used in AI projects usually involved digitized and born digital text and images, though materials also ranged to include web archives, electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs), and maps. AI was most often used for metadata extraction and reference and research services. Just over half of the papers included in the literature review mentioned ethics or values related issues in their discussions of AI implementation in libraries and archives, and only one-third of all resources discussed ethical issues beyond technical issues of accuracy and human-in-the-loop. Case studies relating to AI in libraries and archives are on the rise, and we expect subsequent discussions of relevant ethics and values to follow suit, particularly growing in the areas of cost considerations, transparency, reliability, policy and guidelines, bias, social justice, user communities, privacy, consent, accessibility, and access. As AI comes into more common usage, it will benefit the library and archives professions to not only consider ethics when implementing local projects, but to publicly discuss these ethical considerations in shared documentation and publications.

https://tinyurl.com/2t6ykuyv

"CDL Decision Round Two: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and Why There is Still Hope OR The Reports of CDL’s Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated"

Let me be unequivocal: libraries do not need a license to loan books, whether physical or digital. Lending legally acquired books is not illegal. Libraries are entitled to share these works, with no obligation to enter into licensing agreements or contracts beforehand. Furthermore, libraries—and their patrons—are legally permitted to make various uses of these works, including interlibrary loan, reserves, preservation, and fair use, all without needing permission from rightsholders.

This is because various exceptions in the law, including Section 108 for Libraries and Archives, ad Section 109 known as the first sale doctrine. We know that Section 109 preserves the balance between rightsholders and libraries. When a library purchases a book, it has the right to loan that work freely, without requiring additional permissions or payments to the copyright holder. A digitized version of a legally acquired book simply replaces the physical copy, not an unpurchased one in the marketplace. Any “market harm” is already factored into the initial sale, for which both the authors and publishers have been compensated.

https://tinyurl.com/3exh96bu

"eBooks, Interlibrary Loan and an Uncertain Future"

Important advancements are underway, but ILL for ebooks is hampered by restrictive licensing models, resource sharing systems, and current practices. This study provides an environmental scan of the current acquisitions and ILL practices of academic libraries. This paper guides academic libraries through these conversations so that they can support the borrowing and lending of ebooks into the future.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0361526X.2024.2391735

"Clarivate Report Unveils the Transformative Role of Artificial Intelligence on Shaping the Future of the Library"

The report combines feedback from a survey of more than 1,500 librarians from across the world with qualitative interviews, covering academic, national and public libraries. In addition to the downloadable report, the accompanying microsite’s dynamic and interactive data visualizations enable rapid comparative analyses according to regions and library types. . . .

Key findings of the report include:

Most libraries have an AI plan in place, or one in progress: Over 60% of respondents are evaluating or planning for AI integration.

AI adoption is the top tech priority: AI-powered tools for library users and patrons top the list of technology priorities for the next 12 months, according to 43% of respondents.

AI is advancing library missions: Key goals for those evaluating or implementing AI include supporting student learning (52%), research excellence (47%) and content discoverability (45%), aligning closely with the mission of libraries.

Librarians see promise and pitfalls in AI adoption: 42% believe AI can automate routine tasks, freeing librarians for strategic and creative activities. Levels of optimism vary regionally.

AI skills gaps and shrinking budgets are top concerns. Lack of expertise and budget constraints are seen as greater challenges than privacy and security issues: — Shrinking budgets: Almost half (47%) cite shrinking budgets as their greatest challenge. — Skills gap: 52% of respondents see upskilling as AI’s biggest impact on employment, yet nearly a third (32%) state that no training is available.

AI advancement will be led by IT: By combining the expertise of heads of IT with strategic investment and direction from senior leadership, libraries can move from consideration to implementation of AI in the coming years.

Regional priorities differ: Librarians’ views on other key topics such as sustainability, diversity, open access and open science show notable regional diversity.

https://tinyurl.com/9azeessa

Pulse of the Library report

Paywall: "Exploring the Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Systematic Searching: A Comparative Case Study of a Human Librarian, ChatGPT-4 and ChatGPT-4 Turbo"

The findings suggest that AI could expand the scope of search terms and queries, automating the more repetitive and formulaic aspects of the systematic-review process, while human expertise remains crucial in refining search terms and ensuring methodological rigor. Meanwhile, challenges remain for AI tools’ capacity to access subscription-based or proprietary databases and generate sophisticated search strategies.

https://doi.org/10.1177/03400352241263532

"Red States Threaten Librarians with Prison — As Blue States Work to Protect Them"

But the majority of the bills work the same way. They eliminate long-established exemptions from prosecution for librarians — sometimes teachers and museum employees, too — over obscene material. . . .

Removing the exemption means librarians, teachers and museum staffers could face years of imprisonment or tens of thousands in fines for giving out books deemed sexually explicit, obscene or "harmful" to minors. For example, an Arkansas measure passed last year says school and public librarians can be imprisoned for up to six years or fined $10,000 if they hand out obscene or harmful titles.

Seventeen states are weighing some version of this measure, The Post found. That comes after at least eight states enacted such laws between 2021 and last year, although two were later vetoed and one was blocked by the courts.

Includes detailed chart of bills proposed in 2024 that restrict or protect libraries.

https://tinyurl.com/4uyfxjp8

Paywall: "For the People: How We Make Online LAM [Library, Archive, and Museum] Collections More Democratized"

The article critiques the misconception that online collections democratize artifact information for public consumption and explores the ways in which LAM institutions fall short of living up to their democratic ideals when it comes to digital collections projects. Inspired by others with similar critiques, the authors discuss how LAM institutions can better fulfill the ideal of accessible and equitable access to their collections. The article emphasizes the importance of five areas of digital collections projects: system design, metadata practices, digitization selection and prioritization, labor, and user participation and engagement.

https://doi.org/10.1080/1941126X.2024.2306042

Paywall: "Leveraging ChatGPT and Bard for Academic Librarians and Information Professionals: A Case Study of Developing Pedagogical Strategies Using Generative AI Models"

This study focuses on improving pedagogical strategies by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots and library databases. Examples from ChatGPT and Bard were used to demonstrate the quality of information. A cross-examination using a research validation template was conducted; it revealed that no artificial hallucinations were produced. However, the information provided by both AI chatbots was slightly outdated based on organizational changes and did not provide an in-depth analysis of the company.

https://doi.org/10.1080/08963568.2024.2321729

"Using CHATGPT-Generated Essays in Library Instruction"

This case study details a library instruction activity developed by a team of academic librarians, which intended to leverage experiential learning to make students and faculty aware of the function, capabilities, and limitations of text-generating artificial intelligence (AI) tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The activity is described, with its development connected to key instructional theories and frameworks.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2024.102863

"ChatGPT in Medical Libraries, Possibilities and Future Directions: An Integrative Review"

Positioned as a review, our study elucidates the applications of ChatGPT in medical libraries and discusses relevant considerations. The integration of ChatGPT into medical library services holds promise for enhancing information retrieval and user experience, benefiting library users and the broader medical community.

https://doi.org/10.1111/hir.12518

"New ALA Report Maps Increasingly Complex Digital Public Library Ecosystem"

According to the report, three key factors have contributed to confusion about the structure of and access to the digital public library ecosystem:

Essential terms like "reading," "library use," and "circulation" should be consistently and transparently defined.

The impact of current digital licensing terms on authors: midlist, bestselling, and self-published.

The role of Big Five publishers in setting licensing terms for public libraries.

How Amazon’s dominance in the audiobooks market influences audiobook library access, impacting audiobook authors, publishers, and narrators.

Gen Z and millennials borrow extensively from digital collections but are less aware that digital library lending apps are connected to their local library.

https://tinyurl.com/mrxbyv8w

"Beyond the Hype Cycle: Experiments with ChatGPT’s Advanced Data Analysis at the Palo Alto City Library"

In June and July of 2023 the Palo Alto City Library’s Digital Services team embarked on an exploratory journey applying Large Language Models (LLMs) to library projects. This article, complete with chat transcripts and code samples, highlights the challenges, successes, and unexpected outcomes encountered while integrating ChatGPT Pro into our day-to-day work.

Our experiments utilized ChatGPTs Advanced Data Analysis feature (formerly Code Interpreter). The first goal tested the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) potential of ChatGPT plugins. The second goal of this experiment aimed to enhance our web user experience by revising our BiblioCommons taxonomy to better match customer interests and make the upcoming Personalized Promotions feature more relevant. ChatGPT helped us perform what would otherwise be a time-consuming analysis of customer catalog usage to determine a list of taxonomy terms better aligned with that usage.

In the end, both experiments proved the utility of LLMs in the workplace and the potential for enhancing our librarian’s skills and efficiency. The thrill of this experiment was in ChatGPT’s unprecedented efficiency, adaptability, and capacity. We found it can solve a wide range of library problems and speed up project deliverables. The shortcomings of LLMs, however, were equally palpable. Each day of the experiment we grappled with the nuances of prompt engineering, contextual understanding, and occasional miscommunications with our new AI assistant. In short, a new class of skills for information professionals came into focus.

https://journal.code4lib.org/articles/17867

IFLA AI SIG: Developing a Library Strategic Response to Artificial Intelligence

The strategy most aligned to existing library practices and librarian identities, particularly in university, school and public libraries, is to take a lead role in promoting AI literacy. There is a widespread understanding that the public, as citizens and workers need to understand the new technologies. Students, whatever discipline they are studying, need such knowledge for employability. . . .

AI literacy is likely to include the ability to identify when AI is being used; to appreciate the differences between narrow and general AI; to understand what types of problem AI is good at solving; to understand how machine learning models are trained. It would also include awareness of ethical issues such as bias, privacy, explainability and social impact.

https://tinyurl.com/s6r6czrh

Walt Crawford: "Cites & Insights: Use It or Lose It?"

During its peak years, C&I had quite a substantial readership–as many as 55,000 downloads for one particular essay. There were more than 600,000 downloads from 2013 through 2015 and (maybe) 800,000 downloads from 2016 through 2019. But only about 38,000 in 2019. I had sponsorship for five years, and never charged for access.

I always hoped that a few people or institutions would find C&I worth preserving—and the annual print volumes even had indexes (of a sort). No print volume has ever sold more than four copies. Four have sold none at all.

But I would like to trim my Lulu catalog. (To see the list, just go to lulu.com and search for "walt crawford." I see 51 results.) So here’s the deal: The Lulu (trade paperback) versions of any C&I volumes that have no sales between now and November 12, 2024 will be deleted.

Also see: "Essential Reading: Walt Crawford’s Books on Open Access."

https://tinyurl.com/2et9ajuh

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

Paywall: Generative AI and Librarians — "The Prompt Engineering Librarian"

In terms of training the public in prompt engineering skills, no single discipline or profession currently takes the lead, presenting an opportunity for professions like librarianship to step into this role. Librarians are already well-equipped to educate the public in a wide range of literacy skills and tasks, so prompt engineering may be a natural progression. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential role of prompt engineering for library professionals.

https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-10-2023-0189

Also see: "Prompt Engineers or Librarians? An Exploration."

"2024 EBSCO Serials Price Projection Report"

Each year, EBSCO strives to help its academic and academic medical library customers plan their library budgets by projecting publisher price increases for the upcoming year. We use recent information received from publishers, as well as historical price data to calculate these projections. As of now, we expect the overall effective publisher price increases for academic and academic medical libraries in 2024 to be in the range of three to four percent for individual titles and two to three percent for e-journal packages.

https://tinyurl.com/2s3akjmw

"Where Does ChatGPT Fit into the Framework for Information Literacy? The Possibilities and Problems of AI in Library Instruction"

We have found that the idea of ChatGPT (and generative AI more broadly) can be connected to many of the knowledge practices and dispositions from the six frames of the ACRL Framework. In some places, the Framework enables us to embrace ChatGPT as an exciting new tool that adds value to information literacy instruction. In other places, the Framework’s discussions of evaluating authority and examining bias shines light on the inherent flaws of ChatGPT.

https://tinyurl.com/2shjyukb

Paywall: "Impact of Conversational and Generative AI Systems on Libraries: A Use Case Large Language Model (LLM)"

The study aims to examine how artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially affect specific services provided by academic libraries in the near future. To achieve this, the study uses three different Generative AI systems: ChatGPT, Perplexity, and iAsk.Ai. . . . The three AI systems selected for this study represent different AI approaches that can be used in academic libraries. ChatGPT, for example, is a conversational AI system that can provide quick answers to patrons’ queries, while Perplexity is a language model that can assist with tasks such as cataloging and content classification. iAsk.Ai is a natural language processing (NLP) system that can assist with research and reference inquiries.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0194262X.2023.2254814

"Finding the Right Platform: A Crosswalk of Academy-Owned and Open-Source Digital Publishing Platforms"

A key responsibility for many library publishers is to collaborate with authors to determine the best mechanisms for sharing and publishing research. Librarians are often asked to assist with a wide range of research outputs and publication types, including eBooks, digital humanities (DH) projects, scholarly journals, archival and thematic collections, and community projects. These projects can exist on a variety of platforms both for profit and academy owned. Additionally, over the past decade, more and more academy owned platforms have been created to support both library publishing programs. Library publishers who wish to emphasize open access and open-source publishing can feel overwhelmed by the proliferation of available academy-owned or -affiliated publishing platforms. For many of these platforms, documentation exists but can be difficult to locate and interpret. While experienced users can usually find and evaluate the available resources for a particular platform, this kind of documentation is often less useful to authors and librarians who are just starting a new publishing project and want to determine if a given platform will work for them. Because of the challenges involved in identifying and evaluating the various platforms, we created this comparative crosswalk to help library publishers (and potentially authors) determine which platforms are right for their services and authors’ needs.

https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:59231/

Digital Scholarship Has Released the Artificial Intelligence and Libraries Bibliography

The Artificial Intelligence and Libraries Bibliography includes over 125 selected English-language articles and books that are useful in understanding how libraries are exploring and adopting modern artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. It covers works from January 2018 through August 2023. It includes a Google Translate link. The bibliography is available as a website and a website PDF with live links.

Libraries have been exploring AI technology for a long time. In particular, there was an active period of experimentation from the mid-1980s through the mid-1990s that primarily focused on the use of expert systems. Many projects used expert system shells, which simplified development; however, some projects also used AI languages, such as Prolog. This period produced a significant number of library-related AI papers.

Subsequently, library interest in AI diminished until around 2018, when research activity increased.

The public release of generative AI systems in late 2022, such as ChatGPT, sparked a strong upsurge of interest in them and a rush to utilize their capabilities. Since these systems are relatively easy to use, this development may result in a significant new wave of library-oriented AI activity.

https://digital-scholarship.org/ai/ai-libraries.htm

Paywall: "AI Policies across the Globe: Implications and Recommendations for Libraries"

This article examines the proposed artificial intelligence policies of the USA, UK, European Union, Canada, and China, and their implications for libraries. . . . The article highlights key themes in these policies, including ethics, transparency, the balance between innovation and regulation, and data privacy. It also identifies areas for improvement, such as the need for specific guidelines on mitigating biases in artificial intelligence systems and navigating data privacy issues. The article further provides practical recommendations for libraries to engage with these policies and develop best practices for artificial intelligence use.

https://doi.org/10.1177/03400352231196172

"Introducing the Open Resource Sharing Coalition (OpenRS)"

The Open Library Foundation (OLF) is introducing the Open Resource Sharing Coalition (OpenRS), a resource sharing initiative created in partnership with library consortia, open source developers, and vendors. OpenRS is a heterogeneous resource sharing system that is ILS and Discovery agnostic and accommodates the full spectrum of mediated and unmediated resource sharing.

OpenRS acts upon a "consortia first" mentality, striving to provide libraries with the tools needed for robust and extended functionality for resource sharing. The project will focus on developing and implementing software systems, protocols, and best practices that foster collaboration and support various library services, including seamless unmediated intra-consortial borrowing functionality and expanded sharing across multiple consortia. The software will provide a containerized code base configured for ease of deployment, maintenance, and upgrades. Libraries and consortia can choose to host the service locally or with a third party. . . .

While yet to be an official project, OLF is expected to approve the OpenRS charter by the end of August. An official web presence will be added to the OLF site soon. Core OpenRS functionality for direct consortial borrowing will be rolled out as part of the MOBIUS release in May 2024. Additional features and functionality will be determined based on coalition feedback and implemented over the coming months and years.

https://tinyurl.com/5n8b2yxx