Libraries – DigitalKoans

“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

“Clarivate Pulse of the Library Report Reveals Link Between AI Literacy, AI Implementation and Confidence”

The findings reveal a steady rise in artificial intelligence (AI) adoption, with 67% of libraries exploring or implementing AI tools, an increase from 63% in 2024. While the majority remain at the initial stages of evaluation, early adopters are pressing ahead and reporting greater optimism, particularly as they progress through implementation phases.

The report also shows that libraries are more likely to be in the moderate or active implementation phases of AI when AI literacy is part of the formal training or onboarding program (28%), librarians have dedicated time/resources (23.3%), or have managers actively encouraging development (24.2%).

https://tinyurl.com/49933npf

"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 |

“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

How Library Consortia Are Building Resilient Open Infrastructure in Times of Crisis

US-based library consortia provide an essential collaborative framework that enables academic institutions to achieve preservation, access, innovation, and educational goals that would be impossible individually. The report reveals that library consortia are stepping up as critical bulwarks against resource scarcity and service disruption among their members. Interviews with consortial leaders highlight both the urgent challenges they face—vendor consolidation, shrinking institutional capacity, and political and financial pressures—and the opportunities they see for bold collective action.

https://tinyurl.com/yzdu7rtu

“Implementing AI in Library-Led Programs to Foster Critical Information Literacy”

The spread of fake news and misinformation poses significant challenges to the integrity of information ecosystems, undermining public trust. Libraries, traditionally trusted sources of credible information, are in a unique position to address this issue through the integration of artificial intelligence (AI). This paper explores the potential of AI to detect misinformation and enhance critical information literacy. AI technologies like natural language processing and machine learning can analyze text patterns, verify sources, and identify fake news at scale. Tools such as fact-checking algorithms and real-time content monitoring systems can help librarians curate reliable resources and guide users in distinguishing credible information from misinformation. AI can also be employed to promote critical information literacy through personalized educational experiences, including chatbots and virtual assistants that offer on-demand guidance on evaluating information. Ethical considerations play a crucial role in AI implementation. The paper addresses concerns over biases in AI algorithms, data privacy, and the ethics of automated decision-making. Strategies for mitigating these risks include prioritizing transparency, accountability, and user-centered design. By upholding ethical standards, libraries can align AI use with their core mission of serving the public good. The study also highlights the practical challenges libraries face in adopting AI, such as resource constraints, staff training, and system integration. Case studies from pioneering institutions offer insights into overcoming these barriers. Libraries can implement AI to combat misinformation and foster critical information literacy while maintaining ethical principles. This approach strengthens libraries’ roles in ensuring informed, equitable access to information and positions them as key players in the fight against fake news.

https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202509.1281.v1

“Library Science Literature, 2019–2025: An Exploration Using Critical Bibliometric Methods”

This study applies critical bibliometric methods to the library science literature published from 2019 to early 2025. It combines citation network analysis and text analysis in novel ways to identify clusters of articles focused on trends and practice areas, and to analyze the citation rates and centrality of those clusters within the network of library science articles. The study provides an example of how critical bibliometric methods can be applied to provide context and nuance when assessing the impact of research and interpreting research impact metrics. Themes identified within the literature include the COVID-19 pandemic, diversity, artificial intelligence, and social media, and the study notes differences in citation rates between these trends, with articles in the cluster focused on diversity cited at a lower rate than those focused on technology. While the study employs a novel weighting method to mitigate the impact of journal self-citation, the preliminary results demonstrate the susceptibility of citation-based metrics to gaming by authors, journal editors, and publishers. Critical bibliometric methods, like those used in this study can illuminate flaws and biases in widely-accepted bibliometric approaches, and point towards unanswered questions about our perceptions of prestige, quality, and impact in academic research.

https://tinyurl.com/5n6vtn2m

“Can AI Become an Information Literacy Ally? A Survey of Library Instructor Perspectives on ChatGPT”

Libraries can play a role in navigating the Artificial Intelligence (AI) era by integrating these tools into information literacy (IL) programs. To implement generative AI tools like ChatGPT effectively, it is important to understand the attitudes of library professionals involved in IL instruction toward this tool and their intention to use it for instruction. This study explored perceptions of ChatGPT using survey data that included acceptance factors and potential uses derived from the emerging literature. While some librarians saw potential, others found it too unreliable to be useful; however, the vast majority imagined utilizing the tool in the future

https://crl.acrl.org/index.php/crl/article/view/26938

Paywall: “AILIS 1.0: A New Framework to Measure AI Literacy in Library and Information Science (LIS)”

Functioning, Ethics, and Evaluation emerged as core dimensions of AI literacy. Functioning scores correlated strongly with all other dimensions except self-assessed Usage. Overall, library professionals outperformed students, particularly in Ethics and Usage. However, students, especially first-years, reported higher self-efficacy despite lower performance, indicating a tendency to overestimate their AI literacy, as confirmed by focus groups.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2025.103118

“What Do Librarians Look Like? Stereotyping of a Profession by Generative AI”

The analysis revealed significant biases in the generated images, with a predominant depiction of librarians as Caucasian. Gender representation overstated the presence of men in all libraries, most notably in academic libraries with only 6% of academic librarians depicted as female. Additionally, there was a noticeable trend towards older librarians in public and academic settings, and the size of library buildings increased from school to academic environments. These findings highlight the reinforcement of stereotypes and the misrepresentation of authority dynamics, particularly the portrayal of men in positions of power relative to female colleagues.

https://doi.org/10.1177/09610006251357286

Paywall: “Mind the Gap!: How Do We Ethically Bridge the Divide Between the Cataloging/Metadata Community and the World of AI?”

How can cataloging/metadata professionals at academic institutions incorporate general frameworks and standards about ethical AI implementation into policies for AI use. . . . How can technical services/cataloging departments. . . provide accurate and culturally sensitive metadata? More importantly, how do cataloging/metadata professionals ethically fill the gap. . . without sacrificing job security?

https://doi.org/10.1080/19386389.2025.2525720

“The Current State of Female Representation in Library Leadership: A Comprehensive Analysis of Over 13,000 Open U.S. Libraries by Library Type, Collection Size, and State”

Women are underrepresented in leadership by 8.2 percentage points (pp) at academic libraries, 5.5 pp at special libraries, 10.7 pp at school libraries, and 14.7 pp at government libraries. This corresponds to a male being 28.6%–185.5% more likely to be director.

https://doi.org/10.1080/01930826.2025.2518008

“Generative AI and Open Access Publishing: A New Economic Paradigm”

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in scholarly publishing presents both opportunities and challenges for open access. AI can streamline workflows, reduce costs, and enhance the discoverability of research, potentially making open access more financially sustainable. However, the same AI capabilities also raise concerns about exclusivity and the creation of a tiered system that limits access to knowledge. Publishers face a strategic decision between embracing open access and leveraging AI for proprietary content and services. Libraries play a crucial role in advocating for open access and ethical AI use, building expertise, and influencing policy development. Balancing the benefits of AI with the principles of equity and inclusivity requires collaboration among stakeholders. By working together, publishers, librarians, and policymakers can harness the power of AI to democratize access to knowledge while upholding ethical standards, fostering a more inclusive and equitable academic community.

https://tinyurl.com/2d52e37d

Paywall: “AI and Systematic Reviews: Can AI Tools Replace Librarians in the Systematic Search Process?”

Focusing on the search stage of the systematic review process, the author examines the features and viability of select AI-based tools, evaluates their integration into existing systematic review workflows, and addresses issues related to transparency, reproducibility, and trustworthiness. The study also assesses whether these AI tools can be effectively and reliably incorporated into systematic review processes and discusses the evolving roles and responsibilities of librarians in using these technologies.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0194262X.2025.2521519

“Why Engage with Transformative Agreements in Scholarly Publishing? Analysis of Customer and Publisher Press Release Statements”

How open access (OA) should be supported has been a frequent point of debate during the last three decades as different pathways have been created and evolved. One particular point of contention has been the use of institutional contracts between customer institutions and academic journal publishers, so-called transformative agreements (TAs), where subscription-based reading access is bundled with OA publishing rights. This study explores the motivational reasonings given by customers and publishers engaging with TAs. This study provides a thematic content analysis of customer and publisher statements from 95 press releases announcing new TAs involving five large scholarly journal publishers. Existing literature on motivational reasoning for open science, OA, and TAs was reviewed in order to create an initial set of codes to be used, which was complemented with an inductive process producing additional codes based on categorisation of reasonings that did not fit within the initial codes.The study found that TAs were supported for a variety of reasons, where both customers and publishers stressed better research dissemination, facilitating a transition towards OA publishing, and improved workflow management for publishing and invoicing. Customers emphasized economic and equality aspects while publishers did so to a notably lesser degree. This study complements the active area of bibliometric studies on TAs with a rich qualitative study based on a set of press releases that have not been used for this type of research, establishing a solid foundation for future studies to build upon.

https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/crxn3_v1

“Reeling Them In: Using TikTok and Video Content to Leverage Engagement Between Academic Librarians, Libraries and Students”

TikTok is the video-sharing social media platform of the moment. Young people, most often of the age of undergraduate students, are its primary users. Creating a library TikTok profile and sharing video content on the platform is consequently an excellent way for academic librarians and their libraries to engage with their student users. This case study explores the strategy employed at the Ferriss Hodgett Library at the Grenfell Campus of Memorial University for creating and sharing engaging videos on our library’s TikTok and other social media channels. Providing a critical evaluation of TikTok use and discussing themes and ideas for video content alongside best practices, this article outlines how short-form videos can be leveraged via TikTok and other video-based platforms to make the academic library and its staff more relevant and approachable, and lay the foundation for building stronger and more meaningful relationships with students.

https://doi.org/10.1629/uksg.693

“Prospects of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) for Academic Library Search and Retrieval”

This paper examines the integration of retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems within academic library environments, focusing on their potential to transform traditional search and retrieval mechanisms. RAG combines the natural language understanding capabilities of large language models with structured retrieval from verified knowledge bases, offering a novel approach to academic information discovery. The study analyzes the technical requirements for implementing RAG in library systems, including embedding pipelines, vector databases, and middleware architecture for integration with existing library infrastructure. We explore how RAG systems can enhance search precision through semantic indexing, real-time query processing, and contextual understanding while maintaining compliance with data privacy and copyright regulations. The research highlights RAG’s ability to improve user experience through personalized research assistance, conversational interfaces, and multimodal content integration. Critical considerations including ethical implications, copyright compliance, and system transparency are addressed. Our findings indicate that while RAG presents significant opportunities for advancing academic library services, successful implementation requires careful attention to technical architecture, data protection, and user trust. The study concludes that RAG integration holds promise for revolutionizing academic library services while emphasizing the need for continued research in areas of scalability, ethical compliance, and cost-effective implementation.

https://tinyurl.com/43d97fe5

“A Survey of AI Tools in Library Tech: Accelerating Into and Unlocking Streamlined Enhanced Convenient Empowering Game-Changers”

This article presents the current status of AI tools in library resources and systems, such as those licensed by Clarivate, Elsevier, and EBSCO. It also offers thoughts on the utility of the tools, how they work, their problems, and their context within the offerings of the companies that own them. With this information, library workers will be able to make better informed decisions about which, if any, AI tools to subscribe to, activate, or opt out of in their library resources and systems.

https://tinyurl.com/5xzc9d5d

“Use of Generative AI in Aiding Daily Professional Tasks: A Survey of Librarians’ Experiences”

This study examines how librarians are using third-party generative AI (GAI) tools such as ChatGPT to aid their daily professional tasks. An online survey of 272 librarians found that text-generating AI tools were the most popular. The majority of respondents felt that GAI tools were effective in improving productivity. Key challenges included ensuring content accuracy and designing effective prompts. Top suggestions for better preparing librarians to use GAI include practical training on using GAI, establishing AI policies and guidelines, fostering collaboration and communities of practice, and providing access to useful GAI resources. The study highlights popular use cases that can inform professional development, while underscoring the need for hands-on training, institutional policies, opportunities to experiment with GAI, and access to enhanced tools. As GAI evolves, supporting librarians’ adoption will be crucial for harnessing its potential benefits.

https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lib.2025.a961200

“Identifying Open Access Practices in Librarianship Journals”

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Policies around open access (OA) models, open peer review, and open data are often not transparent or consistent, leading to barriers in understanding for scholars, particularly those new to publishing; therefore, librarians and editors should take care to learn about OA models ahead of the publishing stage of their writing process.

Diamond OA is the most common method of publication in librarianship journals, and librarianship journals are most commonly published by association or society publishers. Librarians can highlight how this positively impacts authors and readers while being conscious of the workload and power imbalances possible in editorial environments where labor is not directly remunerated.

Following diamond, hybrid (green) OA is the most commonly offered publication option by all types of publishers in librarianship journals. Librarians can advocate for deposit in institutional repositories and support researchers in doing so.

A very low number of the analyzed librarianship journals (14 of 133) were either closed or required an APC for OA publication; therefore, librarians and editors can note that the field has strong adoption of no-fee publication and readership models.

To inform their own publication choices and to better engage with and guide other researchers at their institutions, librarians should develop competencies in OA literacy by following industry trends and changes and considering critically the structure of academic publishing.

https://doi.org/10.31274/jlsc.17778

Paywall: “Technical Standards Within Socio-Technical Systems: An Annual Review of Information Science and Technology (ARIST) Paper”

The paper presents interdisciplinary viewpoints to discuss key aspects of the literature, including how standards reflect political, financial, and cultural motivations, how standards are often implemented in different ways, challenging their effectiveness, and how standards structure work as much as they structure information. These various disciplinary perspectives are also used to highlight standardization issues related to emerging technologies, such as social media and generative artificial intelligence.

https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.25017

“Estimating Transformative Agreement Impact on Hybrid Open Access: A Comparative Large-Scale Study Using Scopus, Web of Science and Open Metadata”

This study of over 13,000 hybrid journals shows a substantial rise in open access due to transformative agreements between 2019 and 2023, although most articles remained paywalled. While transformative agreements accounted for the majority of open access, many articles continue to become open through the payment of individual publication fees. Hybrid open access and transformative agreements remain concentrated among a small group of large commercial publishers, with European countries—alongside South Africa—showing high adoption rates. In contrast, the three most productive countries, China, the United States, and India, show a substantially lower adoption in transformative agreements. Open questions remain as to whether this uneven distribution reflects temporary implementation gaps, inherent inequities in the transformative agreement model, or deliberate avoidance of such agreements.

https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.15038

“Guest Post: Eight Hypotheses Why Librarians Don’t Like Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)”

Content providers are starting to silo their collections in order to restrict other RAG-based tools from accessing their content.

An example: in the case of Primo Research Assistant, collections from APA (and others such as Elsevier and JSTOR) are excluded from result generation. This would need to be explained to students and faculty using the tool, which adds considerably to the time and energy put into the communication needed to make these tools worth their licensing cost. It can reasonably be assumed that almost all content providers are going to invest in their own AI assistants or make licensing deals with existing ones. How many of these can and should we license and maintain? Librarians working on discovery layers should start making plans now for identifying the tools that best serve their community and how their workflows need to change.

https://tinyurl.com/2fe6hdnw

“Exploring Emerging Technologies in Archiving and Preservation: Leveraging 3D Models, Interactive Environments, and AI Tools”

This article. . . explores how cultural heritage practitioners can leverage emerging technologies to enhance their work. . . . This article highlights AI applications and emerging technologies that can generate scripts without needing coding experience, create 3D models that increase accessibility and engagement, and develop virtual exhibits that extend the lifespan and reach of physical exhibits while providing additional interactive elements.

https://doi.org/10.1177/18758789251336085

“Learning from the Past | Periodicals Price Survey 2025 ”

Since 1960, Library Journal has published an annual article covering the ups and downs of periodicals pricing. . . . The article, however, is not just about numbers. It also touches on new and emerging pricing and sales models, discusses trends in the serials marketplace, and considers the issues collections librarians deal with when working with a finite budget. This year, we cast both a look back to see what can be learned from the past, and a look forward to consider what might be heading our way in the coming years.

https://tinyurl.com/bpkpf27a