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Rapid innovations due to Artificial intelligence has dramatically altered the ways in which American college students engage with information, highlighting the critical skills librarians play as navigators of informational landscapes. As the lead Instructional Technology Librarian, I am responsible for partnering with faculty to develop student research skills. I see firsthand how students, unaware of the ways in which algorithms curate, filter, and control information they encounter in their everyday lives (Archambault, 2023), struggle to adapt their skills to the complexities of academic research.

Students and faculty alike have expressed the need to learn how to engage with AI technologies effectively and ethically, specifically generative AI. Librarians have long been the shepherds of information, lighting paths on how to first identify what type of information is needed, find sources, critically evaluate information, and maintain standards of integrity in the application of the information (Association of College and Research Libraries [ACRL], 2016). AI has directly impacted Academic Librarianship in three key areas:

1. Information Literacy Instruction: Often called “One-Shot” sessions, Librarians adapt pedagogical practices to include collaborating with AI technologies, like ChatGPT, as part of a critical research process.

2. Plagiarism and Academic Integrity: Through guides and professional development, Librarians set the groundwork for classroom expectations on citing AI generated content in line with citation standards and stand as important participants in discussions of AI detection software, such as Grammarly Plagiarism Checker.

3. Library Management Systems and Database Software: User-facing search functionality feature AI Research Assistants to create summaries, define terms, and suggest alternate sources, such as Clarivate’s product, ProQuest Ebooks.

Rather than making librarians obsolete, AI technologies present an opportunity to reaffirm the core principles of librarianship and ensure that libraries remain vital centers for learning and research in the digital age.

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Higher Education, Academic Librarianship—Information Literacy Instruction & Chatbots

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Higher Education, Academic Librarianship—Information Literacy Instruction & Chatbots

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Information Literacy Instruction is a core responsibility of many academic librarians, and often occurs during a single class session where librarians have “one-shot” to cover research skills within the context of the course. Through integrating AI literacy into library instruction sessions, Librarians can define AI technologies for students (Cox & Mazumdar, 2024, pp. 331-332), teach evaluative skills in demonstrating the capabilities of generative AI, such as formulating Boolean queries using ChatGPT (Kingsley, 2023), and promote critical thinking in prompt engineering using the CLEAR Framework (Lo, 2023). Though, instructional also needs to include consideration and skills to recognize bias and limits related to literature searching, such as hallucinations and unrecognized subscription content, which is common for academic publications (Kingsley, 2023).

In teaching students how to effectively utilize AI tools like ChatGPT within the framework of information literacy, librarians, like me, can not only alleviate some of the general catastrophizing related to the larger impact on education, but emphasize the importance of critical thinking and human evaluation in the research process. New technology can feel overwhelming to students and classroom faculty, and by exploring the potential biases and limitations of AI through exposure and responsible usage, students can become more effective and discerning researchers.

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Higher Education, Academic Librarianship—Using AI in Information Literacy Instruction 

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Higher Education, Academic Librarianship—Using AI in Information Literacy Instruction 

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Using AI for Teaching & Information Literacy

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As generative AI platforms are now widely available to the public, the concern for unethical use and plagiarism has become a big topic in education. Many instructors and faculty have called for plagiarism detection software specifically tailored to recognize AI generated content in student work (Teel, Wang & Lund, 2023), Grammarly, for instance, has developed a free and paid for version as part of their popular suite. Grammarly’s website acknowledges the complications of including AI content in an assignment, and helps student understand how to properly recognize various sources to maintain academic integrity in their work, including citation suggestions (Grammarly, 2025). However, studies have found that policing AI use and penalizing students poses a number of problems, including wrongly flagging student work created in non-standard English or that diverges from dominate culture, often wrongfully accusing underrepresented, minority students (Giray, Sevnarayan, & Madisheh, 2025).

Personally, I’ve used Turnitin in my composition courses with varying degrees of success in the past, but actually stopped because of student perceptions and concerns for some of the flagged content. Students, in my experience, are less likely to take risks with writing if they’re afraid of being penalizing in some way, and the research agrees with my experience (Giray, Sevnarayan, & Madisheh, 2025). Helping students understand the purpose of crediting information is paramount to any research project, and I’m intrigued by Kari Weaver’s (2024) recommendation in providing students with a clear framework, focused on transparency, for their AI usage instead.

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Higher Education, Academic Librarianship—What to do if accused of AI Plagiarism

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Higher Education, Academic Librarianship—What to do if accused of AI Plagiarism

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What to do if you are falsely accused of cheating with AI

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Higher Education, Academic Librarianship—Library Management Systems and Database Software

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Higher Education, Academic Librarianship—Library Management Systems and Database Software

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A recent survey conducted by Clarivate (2024), a software developer for library systems, highlighted the ways in with libraries are preparing for AI applications as part of their workflows and services. Academic libraries, in particular, are exploring avenues for AI implementation that aligns with the core values of any educational institution: student engagement and supporting student learning (Clarivate, 2024). ProQuest, a subsidiary of Clarivate, introduced a beta Research Assistant tool which will be implemented in the coming months. The AI has been trained on using LLM linguistic structure, but will be limited to controlled information in its output, only using data collected from full-text content a user is viewing at the time of use (Choice360, 2024). The AI chatbots will assist users through summarizing content in a specific source, providing “key takeaways” and suggesting next steps, and construct recommendations for brainstorming related to a given research topic (ProQuest, 2024).

While I have some concerns about imbedded bots within academic databases, especially in the sense that students will be less likely to engage with the actual authored information and favor the summarized AI content, I see the value in helping students navigate difficult concepts. And while this technology will help enhance student comprehension of scholarly work, I also have concerns over the potential for students to become overly reliant on summaries and interpretations and hindering their willingness or capacity to deeply engage with information. Clarivate has made efforts to ensure their AI follows ethical practices by allowing and publishers to opt-out of their content being accessed by their AI, and that currently, Clarivate is promising libraries this new technology will not be an additional cost, something many community colleges, like mine, are concerned about (Choice360, 2024). With these potential benefits and concerns, I am reserving judgment until I can evaluate these new AI research assistants myself once they are released.

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Future Trends and Ethical Considerations

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Future Trends and Ethical Considerations

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Institutions of higher education and Academic libraries will need to continue to evolve in partnership with faculty and various industries to prepare students for a world where AI an essential part of everyday life. Librarian, like those at the University of South Florida, will need to create guidelines and tool for their campus communities and work with their academic affairs in constructing new instructional materials and building partnerships to teach both students and faculty avenues to critically engage with AI technologies through responsible information literacy efforts (Fruehauf, Beman-Cavallaro, & Schmidt, 2024). The very foundation of how information is created and its origins is changing, shifting the world’s understanding of authoritative sources and highlighting concerns of copyright infringement and academic integrity (Teel, Wang & Lund, 2023). Looking ahead, AI will create opportunities for increased personalization of library services and resources will be able to tailor content to individual learning styles (Teel, Wang & Lund, 2023; Choice360, 2024). Instructional strategies need in adapt to not only include discussion of algorithmic information curation (Archambault, 2023), but include specific strategies teaching collaboratively with AI tools (Revell, Yeadon, Cahilly-Bretzin, Clarke, Manning, Jones, Mulley, Pascual, Bradley, Thomas, & Leneghan, F, 2024). As the technology advances, so hopefully will the understanding of bias, privacy, and intellectual property in relation to generated content. Personally, I am most concerned with helping students understand how to use AI tools in support of their learning, not as a short-cut, and developing their proficiency in AI technology while developing and valuing critical thinking skills.

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Innovation leads to change, which often drives narratives of fear. Librarianship is no exception. The role of libraries and their place in society hasn’t changed since the first American library was opened to the public, for free, in the late 1700s based on the ideas of Benjamin Franklin. Libraries offer access to information to everyone, without censorship, discrimination, or questions. Period. But how information is made accessible has drastically shifted as technology has advanced, and with each new technological shift, Librarians have expressed concern over the sustainability of their positions and value within society, this was particularly evident in the Internet revolution and the introduction of Wikipedia. But, libraries are still a core part of society and institutions of higher education. As technology advances, so too do Librarians skills and approaches in guiding students in ethical and responsible information seeking and applications. American society is bombarded with information at every turn, most exposure driven by capitalism and/or political agendas. As information creation and dissemination are increasingly influenced by AI, librarians are more vital than ever in guiding students and faculty through this evolving technology. By embracing AI and integrating it into library services and instruction, librarians can empower communities to navigate the complexities of the digital age, ensuring that critical thinking, ethical engagement, and a deep understanding of information literacy remain at the forefront of learning and research (Udell, 2024). The cultural narratives around intellectual property and authority are changing as a direct result of generative AI platforms. The introduction of AI has not made librarians obsolete, if anything, the technology has made them essential to navigating the information landscape of today.

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I am highly invested in leveraging my role as an academic librarian to adapt information literacy skills to the modern world. My investigation into the ethical and societal implications of this technology built a timely foundation to support faculty, students, and my colleagues that will support future efforts to address the challenges and opportunities AI technology brings to libraries. As this technology is advancing so rapidly, I was surprised by the outdated information I found, even from last year, in the research and studies currently being published. Much of the research I found to be the most useful are from conferences and have yet to be adapted into peer-reviewed journal articles. The very nature of our understanding of the information cycle is changing, and as an information professional, it is fascinating to witness in real-time, as even my own habits are changing, the more I experiment and learned about AI technology in the lens of research. This process helped me gain the framework to build new instruction methodologies and ideas to share with my colleagues.

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Association of College & Research Libraries. (2016). Framework for information literacy for higher education. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework

Archambault, S. (2023). Expanding on the frames: Making a case for algorithmic literacy. Communications in Information Literacy, 17(2), 530–553. https://doi.org/10.15760/comminfolit.2023.17.2.11

Chan, C. K. Y., & Hu, W. (2023). Students' voices on generative AI: Perceptions, benefits, and challenges in higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20(1), Article 43. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-023-00411-8

Choice360. (2024, October 25). Leveraging AI innovations to improve student outcomes [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/71pyMSDGlNI?si=nvIXFW6ZiI6q_Kpk

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Giray, L., Sevnarayan, K., & Ranjbaran Madiseh, F. (2025). Beyond policing: AI writing detection tools, trust, academic integrity, and their implications for college writing. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 1–34. https://doi.org/10.1080/10875301.2024.2437174

Grammarly (2025). Plagiarism checker. Grammarly.com. https://www.grammarly.com/plagiarism-checker

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Kingsley, D. (2023). Can generative AI facilitate the research process? It’s complicated. College & Research Libraries News, 84(9), 342. doi: https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.84.9.342

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Lo, L. S. (2023). The CLEAR path: A framework for enhancing information literacy through prompt engineering. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(4), 102720-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720

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ProQuest Video. (2024, June 11). ProQuest research assistant expands [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/WcRx0rb6JfE?si=SpErN2XG_G7oiTmE

Revell, T., Yeadon, W., Cahilly-Bretzin, G., Clarke, I., Manning, G., Jones, J., Mulley, C., Pascual, R. J., Bradley, N., Thomas, D., & Leneghan, F. (2024). ChatGPT versus human essayists: an exploration of the impact of artificial intelligence for authorship and academic integrity in the humanities. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 20(1), 18–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-024-00161-8

Teel, Z. A., Wang, T., & Lund, B. (2023). ChatGPT conundrums: Probing plagiarism and parroting problems in higher education practices. College & Research Libraries News, 84(4), 158–160. https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/25931/33857

Udell, E. (2024, March 1). The world of AI. American Libraries Magazine. https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2024/03/01/the-world-of-ai/

Walker, L. (2023, May 7). What to do if you are falsely accused of cheating with AI [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKc4R1PsnUo&ab_channel=DrLyndonWalker

Weaver, K. (2024). The Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) framework: An introduction. College & Research Libraries News, 85(10), 407. doi: https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.85.10.407