As artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in work, creative pursuits, and the generation of online misinformation, public libraries have a major new role to play in digital literacy

“Make your photos pop with Magic Editor” reads the landing page for Google’s new Pixel 9 smartphone. The new artificial intelligence (AI)–powered feature enables users to “move, remove, and resize people or objects in an image, plus change the background” or even “reimagine your photos, right on your phone.” In an August article aptly titled “No One’s Ready for This,” Sarah Jeong, features editor for TheVerge.com, described how “it took less than 10 seconds” for her to use one of these new phones to generate convincing “reimagined” photos of a cockroach in a box of takeout, a woman sitting on a floor strewn with drug paraphernalia, a crashed helicopter in the woods, and what appears to be a bomb in an empty Brooklyn subway station. Similar features will soon be standard in most new smartphones. What happens, the article asks, when everyone begins to assume that most photographs have been altered—or outright faked—with AI?

“Our basic assumptions about photos capturing reality are about to go up in smoke,” says David Lankes, interim associate dean for academic affairs and Virginia and Charles Bowden Professor of Librarianship at University of Texas at Austin. As AI tools make it increasingly easier to generate misinformation, public libraries will need to be prepared to help patrons navigate this new frontier of information literacy. “When you’re in a school library or an academic library…a huge job is to put people in critical thinking mode…and we have all of these academic supports and curricular supports and teaching supports to help people through this,” Lankes says. “But in the public sector, there’s no professor to say, ‘I’m going to walk you through this’…. There’s no counselor there to say, ‘You’re burned out because every day you’re looking at stuff, and you don’t know what to trust.’ You don’t have that. So public libraries become a mechanism to help people cope with a world in which reality itself becomes questionable.”

In a recent leadership brief, the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) explains that “technology has always played a role in spreading misinformation and disinformation, but the advancement of artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI, has ushered in an era of unprecedented expansion in the volume, sophistication, and believability of falsified information.” Citing a report by NewsGuard, the brief notes that websites with AI-generated false articles have increased by more than 1,000 percent since May 2023. Separately, the brief cites a testimony submitted to the U.S. Senate Artificial Intelligence Insight Forum by Jessica Brandt, a policy director at the Brookings Institution, which describes AI “deepfake” technologies—which generate replica audio or video of a person’s voice or likeness—as a significant misinformation threat.

“We’re really in an unprecedented era,” Brooks Rainwater, president and CEO of ULC, tells LJ. Misinformation “is just going to be even more and more pervasive. And this is where public libraries come in as that trusted resource for community members, being able to talk with those community members…. As people have those conversations about what’s real and what’s not real, I do feel that [libraries] hold a unique position moving forward.”

The brief also connects the problem of misinformation with the rise in social isolation—when real-life social connections erode and people spend more time online, they often become more vulnerable to misinformation and extreme viewpoints.

“One of the ways to counter that is humanizing those conversations,” Femi Adelakun, director of research and data for ULC, tells LJ. “Public libraries are well positioned to do that. You’re more likely to argue over a topic online and never get to a resolution. When you come together in person, [you can] actually have a discussion.”

NEW TYPE OF WRITING Palo Alto City Library hosts “AI Storytelling” events in which patrons learn about ChatGPT, ElevenLabs, Stable Diffusion, and Dall-E by using these AI tools to write and create short story videos. This is an AI-generated frame from Lilly and Zog, a story created by an attendee.

DEMYSTIFYING AI

While the rapid growth of AI-generated misinformation is certainly one of the more pressing issues that public libraries can help address, patrons will likely have other questions or interests involving AI. People may have concerns about how AI will impact their jobs. Parents might have children in K–12 schools that haven’t clarified how AI may or may not be used in their work. And with generative AI in the news so often since the public debut of ChatGPT two years ago, many patrons may simply be interested in learning more about what these tools are, how they work, and how to use them.

As a member of the global Cities Coalition for Digital Rights initiative, the city of Toronto has tasked the Toronto Public Library (TPL) with promoting digital literacy and digital skills, which, in part, led to Fiona O’Connor being appointed to the role of senior services specialist, digital literacy initiatives at TPL. AI has played a growing role in the library’s programming. A program for teens called “The A(i), B, Cs of Artificial Intelligence” has been offered at branches throughout TPL’s system, promising to help attendees learn to “identify when AI is being used, understand algorithms, recognize how algorithms impact AI and reflect bias, and leverage [their] power as a consumer of AI.”

Another TPL program, “How is artificial intelligence impacting creators?”, explored how visual arts, music, and writing are being impacted by AI. Along the same lines, TPL held a concert with a jazz band that combined human performance with AI-generated imagery. TPL has also hosted a series of “Eye on AI” events, including a large virtual panel in partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries that explored the need to create an inclusive and equitable AI system. Instructors include AI in programs on emerging technologies, data and algorithmic literacy, “smart city” initiatives, online privacy, and more. And following a recent digital expo that TPL hosted during Digital Inclusion Week in October, the library is piloting a new program on mis- and disinformation that will, of course, cover AI.

O’Connor says that TPL offers programs “for all ages, and really and truly it is about trying to break the digital divide…and giving people all of the resources that they would need to navigate in this complicated world.”

Palo Alto City Library (PACL), CA, offers a variety of hands-on workshops, lectures, and discussion groups on AI. The library recently hosted a dialog with Dr. Anthony Chow, director of the School of Information at San José State University, on AI and higher education. At the library’s “AI Storytelling” events, attendees are introduced to a variety of AI tools such as ChatGPT, ElevenLabs, Stable Diffusion, and Dall-E, which they then use to create short stories, poetry, images, and AI-generated voices, all used to produce short videos published on PACL’s Reboot Room YouTube channel.

“Libraries have become places to experiment,” Gayathri Kanth, library services director for the City of Palo Alto, tells LJ. “I think [AI] is another opportunity for academic libraries and school libraries and public libraries to do the same. Let’s create a constructive, playful space for people to come in and try these things…. As librarians, we’re very natural…at taking a complex topic and then making it very easy to understand.”

Chris Markman, digital services library supervisor for PALC, says that there are “a lot of ‘Aha’ moments that happen” at the AI Storytelling events. “I hope to think that people go to these workshops and then start showing their friends what they learned, or…they walk away with a finished product that they can be proud of, featured on our YouTube site.” Regardless, whether they are working professionals such as lawyers and teachers, or parents attending with their teenagers, participants in these and other events often report that they “already see how they’re going to use this immediately,” he says.

PACL also has an AI landing page on its website that highlights events; encourages patrons to use the library’s Coursera and LinkedIn Learning subscriptions for upskilling; and links to staff-curated reading lists on AI, generative AI, and ChatGPT in the library catalog. In addition, the landing page includes an open call for local tech experts, or even teens with AI skills, to contact the library if they’re interested in presenting a lecture or hosting a workshop or discussion group.

IN-HOUSE EXPERTISE

While libraries can often supplement programming with paid speakers or volunteer experts from their communities, AI is almost certain to remain an important component of any digital literacy program going forward. Patrons will have questions, and public libraries should be prepared to answer them.

Many libraries don’t have the resources that a major system such as TPL can access, but O’Connor suggests that even smaller libraries should still try to offer a range of programming and information on the topic if possible, considering its scope and emerging importance. “Even on a smaller scale, it’s still providing…that information, whether it’s a program or a tip sheet,” she says. And “whoever is in your community who’s advocating for this, bring them into the space as well…. I always say it takes a village.”

As information professionals, Rainwater says that librarians are already “uniquely qualified” to help explain core concepts of generative AI such as prompt engineering. “Helping community members understand how to use those tools—either in their day-to-day lives or from a workforce perspective—libraries are uniquely positioned to do that.”

Earlier this year, Lankes led the creation of the State Libraries and AI Technologies (SLAAIT) Working Group in partnership with the Collaborative Institute for Rural Communities Librarianship, Gigabit Libraries Network, and currently 18 state libraries. SLAAIT’s prospectus explains that “Public libraries from large urban centers to the smallest rural communities can help train workers, support small businesses in linking to vital resources, and provide necessary broadband connectivity to remote workers. Public libraries can be central to advocating for ethical AI and sensitize citizens to the dangers of corrosive AI—the use of deepfakes and AI to undermine trust in democratic institutions.”

Libraries looking for assistance or resources to develop in-house expertise on AI should see what their state library might offer, Lankes suggests. “There are folks in public libraries who are ready and prepared to give training on this kind of work, so you might find those kinds of networks already exist.”

For example, last fall, the New Jersey library cooperative LibraryLinkNJ and the LibraryLinkNJ Tech Advisory Group created an AI Ambassadors program. Presented by Jim Craner, library technologist for the Galecia Group, the professional development course featured three two-and-a-half-hour online sessions and one six-hour in-person event designed to help

20 librarians throughout the state get up to speed with the latest AI tools, trends, practical applications for library operations, and more.

“We believe it’s crucial to be part of the ongoing development discussions, whether you’re enthusiastic about or negative/fearful of AI, so that everyone’s voice is heard in this constantly evolving field, which is significantly impacting our lives,” says Mi-Sun Lyu, director of special projects for LibraryLinkNJ. “Considering that libraries are where people seek information and serve as one of the most reliable community hubs…it should be considered essential for library workers to at least be aware of what’s happening with AI developments. So one of the primary objectives of the series was to create a sustainable framework to keep the conversation going and expand the audience within our member libraries and organizations, which is why we chose the ambassadors concept rather than having one-time program attendees.”

So far, this train-the-trainer model has been a success, according to Jon Braun, online learning and digital content specialist for LibraryLinkNJ. After participating in the program, the AI ambassadors were given a few months to craft their own presentations on AI for patrons and/or their coworkers. In one case, “three of our ambassadors worked together and they offered, I think…40 different trainings since the summer,” Braun says. “And they’ve already trained around 400 people just in their one community, which is fantastic. It’s spreading like wildfire…. Countless courses, whether they were virtual, hybrid, or in-person, were offered…sharing the information with other professionals, sharing it with their governing boards to show an ethical pathway through the introduction of AI in their library system. It has expanded to this thing where now the public is reaching out to our group and saying, ‘Hey, can you come speak to our condo complex and just explain what AI is?” because people living in the complex had been targeted by AI scams, for example. “It helps to have a librarian who people trust and go to for information anyway go out into the community and share ‘These are the basics of [AI]. This is how it functions.’”

Even for libraries without the option of a train-the-trainers program or the funding to hire consultants, Lankes notes that there are plenty of free resources available online for staff who want to study the subject, and one of the best ways to learn about these tools is to experiment with them. “A quick trip to YouTube can provide you with hours and hours of finding out about how to use given [AI] tools,” Lankes says. “But the bottom line is: Try it. Just try it. It may sound silly, but asking ChatGPT how we can learn more about ChatGPT is not a bad way to go in this situation.”

Whatever approach they take, libraries need to prepare to inform their patrons about AI, including generative AI. As Adelakun notes, “If intentional actions are not taken to ensure that people benefit in the new technology-driven economy, then the digital divide is going to get wider.”