The AI Reckoning

AFTER COMPLETING THIS COURSE, YOU'LL BE ABLE TO:

• Make sense of the policy, ethical, and civic implications of AI in higher education and what they mean for your library.
• Think more critically about current debates around authorship, academic integrity, intellectual freedom, privacy, and equitable access

You’ll leave with a clearer, more informed perspective on how academic libraries are navigating these questions and where your own thinking fits in.

This course is especially helpful for:

• Academic librarians navigating AI-related questions from students, faculty, or leadership
• Instruction and information literacy academic librarians addressing AI in teaching and research support
• Academic library leaders contributing to institutional conversations about AI policy and direction
• Anyone trying to engage more thoughtfully with the broader implications of AI in higher education

If that sounds like your role, you will likely see yourself in this session.

This course will feel especially relevant if you:

• Are being asked AI-related questions without clear guidance or policy
• Feel like conversations at your institution are stuck at a surface level
• Know the implications are bigger than tools and use cases
• Want a stronger, more informed perspective on what’s actually changing

This course was built for people trying to think more clearly about what AI means for their work.

COURSE PROGRAM

Navigating the Big Questions about AI and Academic Libraries | 2:00–3:00pm ET

Big questions about policy, ethics, and civic responsibilities are shaping how academic libraries navigate AI-related changes. Five library professionals, working with archives, acquisitions, information literacy, and campus sustainability, will share how AI is impacting their professional context and the consequential questions they are actively working through.

Moving Beyond the Hype: Exploring Opportunities for Critical and Civic Engagement with GenAI (panelist: Sarah Morris)

Generative AI is frequently presented as something powerful and even magical. But these narratives can downplay the complexities, nuances, and drawbacks of GenAI tools and obscure the ways in which GenAI is deeply rooted in our society, culture, and civic landscape. By unpacking GenAI hype and the context in which this technology is emerging we can gain a deeper and more critical understanding of GenAI. As librarians and educators, we can draw from approaches found within critical information literacy to demystify GenAi, to equip our learners to make more informed decisions about how they use (or not) AI tools, and to empower the communities we work with to engage more critically with GenAI and to advocate for more human-centered and ethical AI developments. Ultimately, interrogating GenAI hype and borrowing from critical information literacy approaches can be a way for us to explore critical engagement with GenAI as a form of civic literacy.

Investigating Vendor AI Tools (panelists: Eric Phetteplace and Daniel Ransom)

Vendors have already added numerous AI features to subscription database platforms. Whether we like it or not, libraries need procedures in place to evaluate the quality of these features and whether or not they should be enabled. We will focus on practical evaluations using existing AI evaluation frameworks from Loyola Marymount University and Montana State University. We will share our own evaluations of features in two different vendor platforms, but our emphasis is that organizations must first consider their own users and their users' values before coming to a conclusion.

Sacrificing Provenance on the Altar of AI: Rejecting Inevitability of AI Adoption in Memory Work (panelist: Brenda Gunn)

As archival institutions confront mounting pressure to integrate artificial intelligence into memory work, questions of provenance, consent, and access resurface with new urgency. This presentation examines the University of Virginia's Archival AI Protocol as a case study in institutional deliberation and it explores how archivists can honor donor restrictions and divergent community expectations around access while navigating AI's disruptive potential. Rather than treating AI adoption as inevitable, the protocol models a framework for informed, deliberate decision-making that centers stakeholder obligations over technological momentum. Ultimately, this talk argues that stewarding memory work in the age of AI requires libraries and archives to actively choose their relationship to these tools, rather than adopting by default.

Civic Footprints in the AI Age: Sustainability, Policy, and Ethical Stewardship

Addressing AI requires looking past automated outputs to examine the ecological, ethical, and societal footprints left in their wake. Rooted in ALA core values, this session examines how librarians can lead institutional policy on responsible technology adoption while helping campus communities understand their data impact. Ultimately, we will explore how academic libraries can empower campus users to treat their digital footprints not merely as personal choices, but as a shared civic responsibility.

Moderated Panel Discussion and Q&A | 3:10–4:00pm ET

Matt Enis, Senior Editor of Technology for Library Journal, will facilitate a dialogue with the panelists, exploring the common questions and differing viewpoints that are circulating throughout academic libraries right now.

COURSE INSTRUCTORS

Matt Enis, Senior Editor, Technology, Library Journal magazine

Bio coming soon.

Brenda Gunn, Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Preservation, The University of Virginia

Brenda Gunn is the Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Preservation at the University of Virginia Library. She has co-written a monograph on United States archival revolutions since 1980 to be published this fall by the Council on Library and Information Resources and is co-editing a special section of the American Archivist journal on artificial intelligence in archival enterprise. A certified archivist and a Distinguished Fellow of the Society of American Archivists (SAA), Brenda currently serves as SAA’s 81st President.

Sarah Morris, Director and University Librarian, Oglethorpe University

Sarah Morris is a librarian, educator, and curriculum designer whose research and work focuses on critical information, media, and AI literacy, mis/disinformation, civic engagement, and library and information science education. Sarah is currently the Director and University Librarian at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Georgia. Previously, Sarah coordinated instruction programs at Emory University and the University of Georgia. She holds an MA from the University of Chicago and an MSIS from the University of Texas at Austin. Sarah is currently working on her PhD in Information Studies at Dominican University. 

Eric Phetteplace, Assistant Director for Digital Programs, Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium

Eric Phetteplace is Assistant Director for Digital Programs at the Statewide California Electronic Library Consortium (SCELC). Prior to SCELC, Eric was Systems Librarian at California College of the Arts for twelve years and Emerging Technologies Librarian at Chesapeake College in Maryland for three years. He has been a fellow at the inaugural Institute of Open Leadership organized by Creative Commons, a mentor with CLIR/DLF's Authenticity Project, and an EDUCAUSE Horizon Report expert panelist. He holds a Masters of Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelors of Arts and Sciences in English and Mathematics from Stanford University. 

Daniel Ransom, Head of Instructional Services, Santa Clara University Library

Daniel Ransom is the Head of Instructional Services for the Santa Clara University Library. Previously, he was the Instructional Services Librarian at California College of the Arts. He chaired the California Conference on Library Instruction in 2023 and was an American Library Association Emerging Leader in 2014. Daniel approaches AI as he does all emerging technologies: by situating himself in the role of the user to better understand how it will change their experience conducting research, for both better and worse, in order to help them succeed.

Sarah Tribelhorn, Sciences and Sustainability Librarian, San Diego State University

Sarah Tribelhorn is the Sciences and Sustainability Librarian at San Diego State University, driving the intersection of information science and environmental action. From spearheading the library's Sustainable Libraries Initiative certification program to mapping workflows against the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, Sarah is redefining the role of academic libraries in global sustainability. A champion for community engagement, she also leads citizen science programs and critical AI literacy initiatives. She believes that every role, no matter the field, has a stake in climate action, and viewing AI through an environmental justice lens, sees it as her responsibility as a librarian to teach ethical AI use that accounts for its real-world environmental impact.

AI is forcing academic libraries to confront questions that don’t have simple answers. Issues around authorship, intellectual freedom, privacy, and access are becoming more complex, and institutions are still working out how to respond.

This session focuses on those bigger questions. Through expert perspectives and discussion, you’ll explore the evolving policy landscape, the ethical frameworks being applied and debated, and the broader civic implications of AI for scholarship and information access. The goal is not to give you a template, but to help you engage more thoughtfully and confidently in the conversations shaping your institution.

SESSIONS AND PRICING

This is a live online session. If you can’t attend in real time, you will receive access to the recording.

COURSE FORMAT

This is a live, 2-hour online session. You can attend live or watch the recording afterward.

EXPECTED TIME COMMITMENT

Plan for approximately 2 hours for the live session, plus optional time for reflection and applying what you learn.

ON-DEMAND ACCESS

You will have access to the session recording for six months after the live event.

CREDIT & CERTIFICATE

You will receive 2 professional development credit hours and a Library Journal certificate of completion.

ACCESSIBILITY

All sessions include auto-captioning. If you require accommodations, please email course-support@libraryjournal.com upon registration and we will make our best efforts to support your needs.

SUPPORT

For technical or course-related support, please contact course-support@libraryjournal.com.