AI and Libraries – Innovating for the Future

• Convener

  
  Pep Torn-Poch

  Library Director, European University Institute Library, Fiesole, Italy

• Laurie Bridges

  Instruction and Digital Initiatives Librarian, Oregon State University, USA

  AI Literacy Education at Oregon State University

  Since the launch of ChatGPT in 2023, librarians at Oregon State University have taken on a series of initiatives to increase AI literacy across campus. Laurie Bridges will discuss these efforts:

  1) Developing and delivering a 1-credit elective course for undergraduate honors students, “Generative AI & Society";

  2) Facilitating workshops, convening book clubs, and developing Libguides for graduate students and faculty;

  3) Funding two AI literacy fellowships for Liberal Arts faculty through the OSU Center for the Humanities;

  4) Working with the OSU Center for Teaching to plan a virtual AI Literacy Center as part of the library’s strategic action plan.

• Paris O'Donnell

  Metadata and Discovery Librarian, Biblioteca Berenson, I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies, Italy

  Probing the potential of genAI for creation of collection management and development tools

  This presentation traces some steps from curiosity and inexperience with generative AI to hands-on creation of tools for collection management and development. Using ChatGPT at first to generate simple Python scripts, we began in the summer of 2024 to explore affordances, limitations and quirks of genAI. This helped us to identify other potential applications of AI within our organization, a research library focused on Italian Renaissance studies. This presentation considers two currently under development. The first is a tool for collection development, designed to support the work of selectors. Using retrieval augmented generation (RAG), which enhances LLM-generated responses with retrieval of relevant data from custom datasets, the tool evaluates and ranks potential library acquisitions at scale. The second application, for collection management, is a prototype shelf-reading tool which integrates simple computer vision (object recognition) and ChatGPT-powered text extraction in order to identify missing or misplaced books on the library shelves. These two applications respond to needs in our library, but the components, design and integrations that they employ to exploit large language models – and the challenges and setbacks encountered in their development – are transferable to other library use cases.

• Carme Fenoll

  Director of the Area of Culture and Community at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Spain

  Rewriting Cervantes: AI and the Future of Creative Libraries

  This presentation is based on the results of the workshop "What if Cervantes Were a Machine?", a creative writing initiative developed in collaboration with Instituto Cervantes (International Library Network). This innovative practice integrates artificial intelligence tools to inspire participants in exploring new forms of storytelling. By blending AI with cultural heritage, the workshop encourages creativity while raising critical awareness of emerging technologies. We will share insights on its design, implementation, and impact, demonstrating its potential for cultural institutions worldwide.

• Piero Attanasio

  Head of public affairs, academic publishing and R&D programmes, AIE - Italian Publishers Association

  Areas of collaboration between publishers and libraries within the AI disruption

  AI was a disruptive technology even before the explosion of the Gen-AI phenomenon. Data generated by any act in the book value chain (writing, editing, publishing, distributing, reading, reviewing…) can be used to readers' profiling to optimize advertising or to understand cultural trends and readers needs to better serve the reading audience. The disrupting power of AI is even higher with LLMs and general-purpose applications. Publishers and librarians may find areas of collaboration in building trust about Gen-AI, through literacy education and joint R&D to use the AI to answer the AI challenges related to biases, ethic issues, lack of transparency.

• Patrizia Nanz

  President, European University Institute Library, Fiesole, Italy

• Michael Keller

  Vice Provost and University Librarian, Director of Academic Information Resources, Stanford University, USA

• Richard Gallagher

  President & Editor-in-Chief, Annual Reviews; Publisher, Knowable Magazine, USA

Biodiversity at the Margins: Spaces of Innovation in Scholarly Communication

• Convener

  
  Charles Watkinson

  Director, University of Michigan Press, USA

• Carol Mandel

  Dean Emerita, New York University Libraries, USA
  Jenny Evans

  Research Environment and Scholarly Communications Lead at University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom
  Sy Holsinger

  Chief Technology Officer, Operas, Belgium
  Georgios Papadopoulos

  Founder, Atypon, Greece

Biodiversity at the Margins: Spaces of Innovation in Scholarly Communication

• Convener

  
  Charles Watkinson

  Director, University of Michigan Press, USA

Through the Lens of the Humanities

• Convener

  
  Ann Okerson

  Director, Offline Internet Consortium, USA

  Most recently, Ann Okerson is serving as Director of the Offline Internet Consortium, an organization devoted to bringing network-quality information to the half of the human race that does not have broadband. Previously, Ann Okerson joined the Center for Research Libraries in fall 2011 as Senior Advisor on Electronic Strategies, working with that organization to reconfigure and redirect various existing programs into digital mode. She has worked as INASP Associate, responsible for that organization's agreements between developing nations consortia and publishers.

  Prior experience includes 15 years as Associate University Librarian for Collections & International Programs at Yale University; prior to that she worked in the commercial sector, and also for 5 years as Senior Program Officer for Scholarly Communications at the Association of Research Libraries. Upon joining Yale, she organized the Northeast Research libraries consortium (NERL), at that time a group of 28 large and over 80 smaller libraries negotiating for electronic information. She is one of the founding spirits of the International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC). Activities include projects, publications, advisory boards, and speaking engagements worldwide. Over the years, Okerson has also been active in IFLA (including the Serials, Acquisitions, and News Media Committees) and its Governing Board. She responds positively to offers of fine dark chocolate!

• Joy Connolly

  President, American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), USA

  Joy Connolly began her service as President of the American Council ofLearned Societies on July 1, 2019. Previously, she served as provostand interim president of The Graduate Center at the City University ofNew York, where she was also Distinguished Professor of Classics. Shehas held faculty appointments at New York University, where she servedas Dean for the Humanities from 2012-16, Stanford University, and theUniversity of Washington. Committed to broadening scholars' impact onthe world, as provost at the Graduate Center Joy secured generoussupport from the Mellon Foundation to foster public-facing scholarshipthrough innovative experiments in doctoral training. She has publishedtwo books with Princeton University Press and over seventy articles,reviews, and short essays. Connolly earned a BA from PrincetonUniversity in 1991 and a PhD in classical studies from the Universityof Pennsylvania in 1997. She was elected a fellow of the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.

  Fighting system failure with a quiet revolution

  Perennially criticized and under-funded, the humanities in America entered a high risk phase in the 1980s that after the financial shocks of 2008-09 became a state of emergency. In the same period, in a revolution that has been under-reported and widely misunderstood, humanists made extraordinary progress in their scholarship and teaching that shows great promise for the future – if we can prevent system failure. In this talk, focusing on the past 25 years, I will describe the most important elements of humanists' boldest moves and how they underpin the efforts currently underway to renew and rebuildt he humanities, by changing academic culture and policy as well as public opinion.

• Karla Pollmann

  President, University of Tübingen, Germany

  Karla Pollmann is President of the University of Tübingen. She was formerly Executive Dean and Professor of Classics and Theology at the University of Bristol, and before that held deanships at the Universities of Reading and of Kent (Canterbury). Her research focuses on literature and culture of the Roman Imperial period and early Christianity. She has authored several key monographs, including The Baptized Muse (Oxford University Press, 2017) and serves on several editorial boards. She is renowned for her defining work on Augustine of Hippo, including as Editor-in-Chief of the 3 volume Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine (2013). She is a member of the Academia Europaea, a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and in 2020 she was awarded the Humboldt Research Prize for her distinguished contributions to international research. In 2023, she received an honorary doctorate from Dōshisha University (Japan). She is actively involved in shaping higher education policy in Germany, in particular as Vice-Chair of U15.

  Open Access to the Humanities - an Open and Shut Case?

  We live in an age where the humanities appear to be on the losing side. But most recently, strident digital progress, geo-political changes, culture wars, and pressing issues of sustainability have thrown the nature of the humanities as cluster of disciplines into sharp relief. There is a renewed need for them to reflect on ethical implications of technological developments, to offer unique possibilities for knowledge diplomacy, to (re)define values that have been taken for granted for too long, and boldly to raise the question whether sustainability issues can only be resolved by further material advances.

  Together with humanities scholars, libraries as gatekeepers and gateways of knowledge will need to serve a double function for societies of the 21st century: both as platforms of interaction for academic experts, and as disseminators and educators for a wider public in a world where knowledge (or what looks like it) is increasingly difficult to navigate. Simply opening up resources will not suffice to ensure responsible and meaningful engagement with what the humanities have to offer. The paper will outline some implications for the "Open Humanities" of the future.

• Kristine Rose-Beers

  Head of Conservation & Heritage, Cambridge University Library, UK

  Kristine Rose-Beers ACR is Head of Conservation and Heritage for Cambridge University Libraries. In this role, she is responsible for the strategic leadership, development and delivery of the conservation, preservation and heritage science functions for physical collections held by Cambridge University Libraries.

  Kristine is an active figure in the field of Islamic and Western manuscript conservation. She has held roles at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin and The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Her approach is based on her understanding of materials and technologies gained through historical reconstructions as well as academic studies. She has published widely in this field and taught and lectured internationally. Kristine is an accredited member of the Institute of Conservation (ICON), a regular tutor at the Montefiascone Project in Italy, and a member of the Kairouan Manuscript Project (KMP).

  Advocacy for Books: balancing access and preservation for special collections at Cambridge University Library

  Contemporary research libraries have multiple stakeholders and multifaceted roles. These have evolved rapidly in the 21st century, and exponentially since the Covid-19 pandemic. These changes are mirrored in the Conservation profession, which has grown to include heritage science, collections care and practice-based research, all of which inform interactions with every user, including librarians, archivists, scholars and the public. As a result, Conservation now plays a crucial role in research library strategy, ensuring libraries and their special collections can be accessed and interpreted by a global community.

  Finding a balance between our enduring responsibility to preserve historic collections and contemporary needs for openness, accessibility and research remains a challenge, but new perspectives can offer alternative solutions. These expand understanding and the availability of collections to new audiences. The Conservator's work has often been hidden behind closed Library doors, but their work is no longer siloed and offers increasingly important new avenues for research and access, for an ever-widening audience.
  As Cambridge University Library heads towards its centenary in its current building, this paper will offer a timely exploration of the importance of inclusion, sustainability and preservation as it permeates all aspects of the collecting research library.

The Broad Topic of Metrics: Examining Two Aspects. Measurement and Monitoring in the Digital Age, Lessons Learned and Perspectives

• Convener

  
  Julien Roche

  University Librarian and Director of the Libraries, University Lille, France; LIBER President

• Laetitia Bracco

  Co-coordinator of the Open Science Monitoring Initiative, University of Lorraine, France

  How to measure open science? The Open Science Monitoring Initiative (OSMI)

  Over the last fifteen years, numerous recommendations and guidelines, both national and international, have fuelled the development of open science policies throughout the world. These policies have made it necessary to create monitoring indicators to steer their effectiveness and track the progress of open science within scientific communities. Countries and institutions have therefore set up their own monitoring tools for different purposes. While UNESCO's general recommendation on open science now provides a framework for its development, there is currently no equivalent for its indicators, making it difficult to compare and reuse existing initiatives.
  A first text for common principles of open science monitoring was proposed to a panel of international experts at a conference organised at Unesco in December 2023. This workshop was the starting point for OSMI, the Open Science Monitoring Initiative, which held its first public meeting in December 2024. The Principles have been the subject of an international consultation, with feedback from every continent, and OSMI has launched its first working groups. This presentation will provide an update on the initiative, its work and future projects.

• Tasha Mellins-Cohen

  Executive Director, COUNTER, United Kingdom

  How COUNTER evolves with the knowledge community to create an equal playing field for measuring usage

  Since 2003, COUNTER has brought together libraries, publishers, and technology providers to establish a mechanism for tracking and reporting normalised usage metrics. Over that time we have moved far beyond our roots in book and journal usage, covering everything from massive databases to streaming media and data repositories. Our content-agnostic Code of Practice is now facilitating syndicated usage reporting - critical for a realistic understanding of OA usage - and we're working with the whole community to understand what metrics are needed to effectively measure AI. In this session, COUNTER's Executive Director will touch on the importance of ensuring measurements do not become targets, how to gain community buy-in to maximise the value of a metric, and why usage is a missing piece of the impact puzzle.

• Christine Dunn

  Senior Director for Research and Analytics, Clarivate

  From Here to Integrity: the battle for trust in an increasingly complex research ecosystem

The Broad Topic of Metrics: Examining Two Aspects. The Perverse Arithmetic of Prestige

• Convener

  
  Charles Henry

  President CLIR, USA

• Stephen Rhind-Tutt

  President, Coherent Digital, USA

  Introduction and Framing of the Issues

• Michael Levine-Clark

  Dean, University of Denver Libraries, Colorado, USA

  Rankings and Reputation: A First-Hand Report

  While few university administrators believe that institutional rankings are a true indicator of quality or value, many institutions invest time and effort to retain or improve their position. Following a brief overview of the history and purpose of institutional rankings, we will get a first-hand report on the actual effects and consequences of rankings on a university and library subject to those rankings.

• Alison Mudditt

  Chief Executive Officer, PLOS, USA

  Reinventing Scholarly Publishing: Rewarding Open Science Practice and Promoting Inclusivity

  Our interconnected world needs Open Science not only to make science more transparent and inclusive, but also to help solve the complex social, economic and environmental challenges we face. But both scholarly publishing and research assessment are still focused on articles – artifacts of the days of the printing press – at the expense of other contributions such as date, code, and methods. The emergence of the Article Processing Charge (APC) as the dominant business model for Open Access relies upon and further embeds the article as the unit of value. How might we shift to a comprehensive "knowledge stack" where all contributions to science are visible, attributed, credited, and trackable? And how might we transform the underlying financial structures of scholarly publishing to create an equitable, sustainable system for all researchers regardless of discipline, geography or career stage?

• Charles Henry

  President CLIR, USA

  All the Money in the World

  Securing grants from foundations and philanthropic organizations is highly competitive, much sought after, and considered especially prestigious in higher education. "Grants" is a category in most evaluations for tenure and promotion. Focusing on the ACLS national commission report, Other Stories to Tell: Recovery Scholarship and the Infrastructure for Digital Humanities, this presentation explores the current state of academic philanthropy, how it is typically structured and assessed, and the often dire, if unintentional, conditions these funding patterns can entail, impeding sustainability and long term program development and utility of projects essential to humanistic study, more sophisticated knowledge organization, and equitable access.

• Buhle Mbambo-Thata

  University Librarian at National University of Lesotho, Lesotho

  Inclusivity in knowledge development: a strategic imperative

Equitable Partnerships for an Equitable World of Knowledge

• Convener

  
  Giannis Tsakonas

  Director, Library & Information Centre, University of Patras, Greece

• Sharon Memis

  General Director of IFLA, The Netherlands

  Equitable partnerships: a cultural relations perspective

  In uncertain times when political tensions are high, genuinely equitable partnerships can transcend politics to benefit individuals, institutions, and society more broadly. My talk will explore the concept of equitable partnerships through the lens of cultural relations, including the concept of 'mutuality' and the importance of first holding the mirror up to ourselves. Through examples from international cultural relations, development, and higher education, I will argue that a cultural relations framework applied to equitable partnerships can enhance collaboration and lead to more sustainable and impactful outcomes. How can the principles of equity, such as fairness, inclusivity, and reciprocity, be integrated into partnership frameworks? What are the challenges and barriers to achieving equitable partnerships and sustainable futures for all? And how is this 'outside' perspective relevant for the world of libraries and information?

• Mpho Ngoepe

  Professor and Executive Director of the University of South Africa Library, South Africa

  "Let us go together to reach unchartered territories": academic library partnerships and collaboration with stakeholders in South Africa

  The adage "alone a youth runs fast, with an elder slow, but together they go far" is attributed to the Luo people of East Africa. This proverb also applies to academic libraries, particularly those that function in low-resource environments. This paper shares best practices on partnerships and collaboration by an academic library in a comprehensive open distance e-learning (CODeL) environment with non-governmental organisations, municipality libraries, and other academic libraries. In an attempt to assist remote students with their research, teaching, and learning, the CODeL library signed memorandums of agreements. In implementation of the MoU, the CODeL library achieved numerous milestones including core curricula on issues relating to indigenous languages such as reading and writing, remote student access to library resources including those that are in prison. However, there were also difficulties in the collaboration, including budgetary constraints, agreements that did not benefit both parties, and high expectations from partner libraries. The paper highlights the advantages and difficulties of collaboration, as well as lessons learnt. It was established that through partnerships and other activities emanating from such, the CODeL library was able to attain some of the SDG objectives such as Goal 4, 10, and 17. It is concluded that to optimise resources (financial, human and technological) libraries should pursue formal partnerships through signing of MoUs.

• Heli Kautonen

  University of Turku, Finland

  The tender trap: perceptions of collaborations and partnerships in the context of library technology

  Research libraries' core operations and services rely heavily on information and communication technology products, such as library management systems and digital repositories. Since the 1970s, libraries and their technology providers have established relatively balanced and predictable relationships for technology development, acquisition, and deployment, mainly characterised by the process of public tendering. However, recent technological advancements and innovations have disrupted this balance and altered the power dynamics within the entire knowledge ecosystem. Libraries are acutely aware of these changes and are eager to navigate the new landscape of library technology. To obtain evidence-based guidance for the future, the Danish Research Library Association (DFFU) and the European Research Library Association (LIBER) conducted a study on collaborations and partnerships in the context of library technology. This study focused on Danish research libraries and their technology providers during 2023–2024, offering insights into the current state of affairs and future recommendations for improved collaboration. The study revealed that libraries and their technology providers have fundamentally differing perceptions of their relationship. While libraries tend to view providers as mere vendors and expect to negotiate a customer-supplier relationship, the companies seek active engagement from libraries and expect the building of enduring partnerships and user communities. The study implies that this discrepancy of perceptions may hinder successful idea exchange and innovative co-development of new technologies. In my talk, I will present this study's findings and discuss its recommendations for bridging the gap between libraries and technology providers to foster more effective collaborations.

• David Worlock

  Chief Research Fellow, Outsell, United Kingdom