AI Literacy in Higher Education: The Role of Academic Libraries

AI literacy is defined as the ability to recognize, understand, use, and critically evaluate artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and their impacts. As AI permeates various industries, AI-literate graduates will have a competitive edge in the job market. AI literacy cultivates critical thinking, enabling students to comprehend AI’s limitations, ethical implications, and potential biases. AI literacy is a fundamental skill for navigating the AI era, allowing students to harness its benefits while mitigating risks.

Academic libraries can play a pivotal role in enhancing college students’ AI literacy. In the United States, libraries have curated AI-focused resources, developed workshops to demystify AI concepts, ethical implications, and applications. Furthermore, librarians can collaborate with faculty to integrate AI literacy into curricula, fostering interdisciplinary learning.

Recently I conducted a pilot study to analyze libraries’ efforts in supporting AI literacy education via a content analysis study examing US libraries’ LibGuides on AI literacy. LibGuides are the most frequently used systems for US librarians to create user-friendly online guides or mini-websites on specific topics. This study specifically focused on the content and themes represented in AI Literacy LibGuides from a sample of ten academic libraries, including five research universities, three teaching universities, and two junior colleges.

The content analysis revealed a strong emphasis on the ethical use of AI across all sampled libraries, highlighting the significance of AI and academic integrity. Libraries were unanimous (100%) in their inclusion of guidelines for ethically disclosing AI use, understanding and utilizing AI detectors, citing AI-generated content, and recognizing AI’s impact on academic publishing and copyright. This uniform presence underscores the academic community’s emphasis on responsible AI usage and transparency in scholarly work.

Another widely covered theme was AI fundamentals, present in 90% of the libraries sampled. These sections included basic explanations of AI concepts, terminology, and the underlying technologies. This focus on foundational knowledge reflects a commitment to providing all library users, regardless of their prior AI knowledge, with a solid grounding in AI concepts.

Approximately 70% of the sampled libraries included sections defining AI literacy, discussing critical thinking and evaluation skills for AI-generated information, and emphasizing effective use of AI tools. These topics are central to helping students discern AI-generated content’s reliability and accuracy and providing guidance on using AI tools for academic purposes. This category also covered specific guidance on constructing effective AI prompts, ensuring that students and faculty could utilize AI tools to their fullest potential.

College-specific AI policies and resources, such as training workshops, also appeared in 70% of the LibGuides. This inclusion demonstrates how institutions tailor their AI literacy support to the unique needs of their communities. Moreover, 60% of the sampled libraries included AI-related guidance and resources specifically for instructors, acknowledging the importance of equipping educators to guide students effectively in AI literacy.

A smaller portion of the guides presented a balanced view of AI, covering both its benefits and limitations (40%). Only 20% of libraries highlighted environmental and ethical concerns associated with AI, such as environmental impact, labor exploitation, privacy issues, and risks of AI “hallucinations” (instances where AI generates false or misleading information). Similarly, only 20% of the libraries explicitly mentioned their own library policies or resources regarding AI, which suggests that formal AI policies may still be evolving within academic library settings.

Findings from the study highlight the priorities and evolving areas within academic libraries’ AI literacy efforts. While ethical use and foundational understanding dominate the content in these LibGuides, there is variability in how libraries address AI’s broader societal implications and institutional policies. As AI technology and its role in academia continue to develop, academic libraries may play an increasingly crucial role in equipping students and faculty with the critical skills and ethical understanding needed to navigate an AI-rich academic landscape.

Using ChatGPT in Research Design

In the past two weeks, we completed the research methods training portion of 2023 IRDL Online. IRDL is a continuing education program for academic and research librarians designed to create a growing community of confident librarian-researchers. The research methods training portion was provided in the form of an online summer research workshop, where I was an instructor. It’s incredibly energizing and exciting to talk to a group of research-minded librarians about conducting research to improve professional practice. One theme that arose from our discussions was the use of AI in research design. One of the librarian scholars gave it a try and asked ChatGPT to write survey questions for a research scenario.

Here’s her prompt: I need to write a survey to find out how academic librarians engage in professional development. ACRL will use the survey findings to develop the Guidelines for Professional Development for Academic Librarians, which they believe will provide guidance for academic librarians as they explore professional development opportunities and make professional development plans. Can you write 4 questions for this survey?

ChatGPT’s response:
Certainly! Here are four sample questions for your survey on how academic librarians engage in professional development:

1. How frequently do you engage in professional development activities related to your role as an academic librarian?
• Rarely or never
• Occasionally (1-2 times per year)
• Regularly (3-5 times per year)
• Frequently (more than 5 times per year)

2. What types of professional development activities do you find most beneficial in enhancing your skills and knowledge as an academic librarian? (Select all that apply)
• Workshops and conferences
• Webinars and online courses
• Professional association memberships and events
• Formal education (e.g., degree programs)
• Informal learning (e.g., self-study, reading journals)
• Mentoring and coaching programs
• Other (please specify)

3. How do you typically seek out information about professional development opportunities? (Select all that apply)
• Internal communication channels (e.g., email, intranet)
• External websites and online resources
• Professional networks and colleagues
• Professional association publications and newsletters
• Supervisors and managers
• Other (please specify)

4. What factors influence your decision to participate in a professional development activity? (Select all that apply)
• Relevance to current job responsibilities and career goals
• Availability of funding or financial support
• Recommendations from colleagues or supervisors
• Reputation and credibility of the provider or organization
• Flexibility in terms of time and scheduling
• Recognition or credentialing opportunities
• Other (please specify)

Looking at these survey questions, I think ChatGPT did a nice job in operationalizing the key concepts in the research question based on the research goal. There’s room for improvement in wording survey questions that uphold the basic rules for survey design such as being concise and unambiguous, avoiding leading questions or double barreled questions, and making sure response categories are exhaustive and mutually exclusive. Still, this can be a good start if we are get stuck in our instrument design and don’t know where to begin.

There’s been discussion about using AI in manuscript writing such as this Science article “As scientists explore AI-written text, journals hammer out policies“. Looks like we will need more discussion about using AI in assisting the research process such as designing survey questionnaire, interview guide or a content analysis codebook.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Chinese College Students’ Information Behavior and Library Needs

Last year, my research collaborators and I conducted a study to examine how the pandemic had impacted Chinese college students’ use of the library. The study took place in April and May 2020. At that time, Chinese college campus had been shut off and all the teaching and learning had been moved online for two months. We collected data using a combination of journaling and in-depth interviews, focusing on the library use and library needs of Chinese college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our findings indicate that students generally lack awareness and understanding of the library’s online resources and would like the library to provide support in ways that could help them enhance productivity and lessen anxiety in the new reality of learning. Libraries should consider making more outreach efforts and offering programs and events to ameliorate isolation and improve students’ sense of community. We hope that our study can provide academic libraries with a nuanced view of user needs and thus help them make informed decisions to serve their campus communities during the unprecedented health crisis. Through the exploration and documentation of college students’ library use and needs, we also hope to document this critical historical event for the library community.

Now our study has been published in the Library Quarterly. Here’s the citation:

Shi, Y., Li, C. & Luo, L. (2021). Impact of the covid-19 pandemic on Chinese college students’ information behavior and library needs: A qualitative study. Library Quarterly, 91(2), 150-171.

I’m really glad that we were able to contribute to the library and information science (LIS) literature with regards to the pandemic. When years later, the pandemic is finally behind us, I think it will be quite interesting to conduct a content analysis of all the pandemic-related studies/articles in peer reviewed LIS journals to capture and document LIS researchers’ collection contributions.

Ideas for the COVID-19 Pandemic Related Research in Librarianship

Earlier this week I had an opportunity to talk to librarians at the University Library at the University of California at San Diego about the trends and methods of research in academic librarianship. They asked wonderful questions, and one of them was about the kinds of research that librarians may consider doing during the pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly disrupted our lives in significant ways, but there may also be new research opportunities arising from it. Conducting research related to the pandemic can help library professionals better understand our user needs and provide more meaningful and effective responses to this public health crisis.

A few months ago when the pandemic just broke out, the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology published a commentary titled “Global health crises are also information crises: A call to action” (Xie et al ,2020)“. In this article, a group of information researchers discussed specific things that information scientists can do to “help individuals and society as a whole survive global health crises like COVID‐19, deal with the aftermath, and be better prepared for the next crisis”. They recommended the following research directions:

Misinformation/disinformation particularly during global health crises
Health literacy—including eHealth literacy
Information behavior during lock downs
Vulnerable populations—a case for accessible and usable solutions
Information dissemination, sharing, and integration among multiple forms of digital data
eHealth tools
Predictive methods
Digital archiving
Ethical considerations

I think it would be helpful for library researchers to put out a similar “call to action”, encouraging librarians to investigate research topics related to the pandemic as well. Some of the potential topics may include:

Usage of library services during the pandemic, how it changes from before – especially the use of online library resources and services
Library needs of users during the pandemic – e.g. for academic libraries, how do their students and faculty would like the library to provide support to assist them as they study from home? for special user populations, especially those suffering from the digital divide, what can libraries to ensure equity when providing services during the closure of physical library locations?
Librarians’ well-being – what are librarians’ health and safety concerns with regards to working during the pandemic if they have to return to work?
How librarians can help address misinformation related to the pandemic – what can the library do to better help library users become more critical consumers of information and avoid being victimized by misinformation?
Libraries’ response to the pandemic – did the library have a crisis management/communication plan, how did the library make decisions on their responses to this crisis?

My new book – “Enhancing Library and Information Research Skills: A Guide for Academic Librarians”

My two wonderful colleagues, Kris
Brancolini and Marie Kennedy, and I wrote a book together based on our
experience with the Institute for Research
Design in Librarianship (IRDL), an IMLS-funded program that provides
professional development opportunities for academic librarians to improve their
research skills. The book is titled “Enhancing Library and Information Research
Skills: A Guide for Academic Librarians”, in which we covered the whole
spectrum of being a practitioner-researcher in the academic library setting.

It was a great experience working with
Kris and Marie on this book. They both are strong advocates for academic
librarians’ engagement in research and use of research evidence to inform
decision making. We truly hope that this book will help academic librarians
around the nation to become more aware of the value of research to academic
librarianship, develop a solid understanding of the research process, and ultimately
improve their confidence and competency in conducting and applying research in
their professional practice.

IRDL 2016

The third and final Institute for Research Design in Librarianship
(IRDL) took place in June. IRDL is an IMLS-funded
project that seeks to create a learning opportunity and a support system for
academic librarians who want to improve their research skills and increase
their research output. Twenty-one librarian scholars gathered at the beautiful
campus of Loyola Marymount University and went through a 9-day intensive
research methods training program. This year, quite a number of librarians were
working on topics involving populations that are understudied in library
research. Here are a few examples:

1.
How international students use the library and
how does the library contribute to their success and growth in life

2.
How Chinese international students interpret
“Authority is constructed and contextual”

3.
How scholars who study materials in non-English
languages but publish in English use citation management software

4.
What is the experience of librarians of color in
residency programs

5.
What are the barriers for women to seek
leadership positions in libraries

During the Institute, there were
two hours scheduled each day for the participating librarians to consult the
instructors and IRDL directors about their research projects. I enjoyed these
consultations immensely. It is always pleasant to chat with people who are
enthusiastic about their research. The projects about understudied populations
reinforced my idea of offering a research methods course that focuses on
researching special populations. Every semester there are always students in
our MLIS degree program proposing to conduct research about the library and
information needs/behavior of a population that is traditionally underserved or
understudied in libraries. For instance, in the past semester, a student
proposed a survey study to examine the library needs of people who are
quadriplegic. As our libraries strive to meet the needs of diverse user populations,
it would be helpful if our librarians know how to properly design studies to
generate practice-informing evidence about different populations, especially
the underserved or less privileged ones.

See, IRDL always gives me new
ideas and refreshes my perspectives as a researcher/educator. Two weeks flew by
very quickly. I appreciate the opportunity to be part of this great effort that
seeks to enhance the quality of scholarship among librarians and foster a
culture of research-mindedness. Marie and Kris, the two wonderful IRDL project
directors, are truly insightful in making IRDL happen, and I’m sure that the
IRDL participants will make them proud by raising the bar of library research.

[The photo was actually taken during the first year of IRDL in 2014 – Greg, Michael and I were the instructors. It was so nice to see Greg and Michael every year at IRDL (and Emily this year). We make a great team 🙂 ]