How AI might change academic library work

Hannah Prince



Cox, A. (2023). How artificial intelligence might change academic library work: Applying the competencies literature and the theory of the professions. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 74(3), 367–380. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24635


This article focuses on how AI can be applied to knowledge discovery. It analyzes eleven different potential approaches libraries might adopt - and these “applications are analyzed and their likelihood evaluated”. The paper also assesses how outside factors might influence how AI is adopted by those in academic libraries.

The paper covers a variety of topics, including analyzing the “theory of professions” and debating different iterations of what they call, “hybrid professional” roles - where a librarian can use AI to meld the skills of a librarian, a researcher, and an archivist all into one role. I did appreciate the multiple table examples used throughout the paper, it was a useful representation of data and helped to communicate the range of approaches that people are taking when incorporating AI into their profession.

Despite initial pessimism, this paper comes to the eventual conclusion that AI is inevitable in libraries, but doesn’t necessarily have to come at the expense of librarians' jobs. In fact, AI can integrate into librarians’ roles and the author goes as far as to say that, “it might be considered fair to be optimistic, therefore, that librarianship will adapt, even be strengthened through this process.” Increasingly we see librarians playing a hybrid role that is part managerial, part customer service, part academic - but often less of the “classically trained librarian”. AI can be incorporated into that hybrid role better than into the classical librarian role. As with most think pieces about AI, it summarizes ways that the library industry will be irrevocably changed by AI, but professes that the individuals in the industry will adapt rather than be wholly replaced. I did not think that this article was necessarily groundbreaking or saying anything new, but I liked how they approached the subject and how the author broke down the different sections. And as mentioned previously, I thought the use of tables was super helpful to get the author’s point across.