From Hype to Habits: Updating and Revising AI LibGuides for Today’s Landscape

Build your LibGuides on principles, not products

Posted on September 29, 2025 in Blog Posts

In January 2023, just after the holiday break, I met with my Associate University Librarian to propose creating a LibGuide on ChatGPT and other emerging AI tools that had quickly become a campus talking point. As the Digital Literacy Librarian, I saw it as part of my role to help our community make sense of these technologies during a period of hype, novelty, and uncertainty.

Within two weeks, I launched the first version of our Artificial Intelligence LibGuide, shaped by feedback from colleagues leading AI conversations on campus. Its purpose was straightforward: introduce students to the tools, explain their capabilities, and outline key ethical considerations. The guide provided a timely orientation at a moment when curiosity and concern were running high. By the end of 2023, it had nearly 10,000 views; today, it sits at about 30,000 and has been adapted through its CC license by more than 14 campuses across North America.

Two years later, the instructional landscape has shifted. In 2025, the question is no longer “What is AI?” but “How do we use it responsibly, critically, and transparently?” The LibGuide has evolved accordingly, moving from surface-level introductions to deeper engagement with the literacies students need to navigate AI as a routine part of academic life.

Then & Now: 2023 vs. 2025

When the Artificial Intelligence LibGuide launched in 2023, its design reflected the questions students and faculty were asking. Curiosity about new tools dominated, so the guide provided overviews of platforms like ChatGPT and Midjourney. The three main sections—“For Students,” “For Instructors,” and “AI Literacy”—focused on what the tools were, what they could do, and where they fell short. Content was largely descriptive: how to set up accounts, sample prompts to try, and cautions around use. Ethical guidance appeared as high-level reminders about plagiarism and academic integrity. In short, the guide helped the campus community take its first steps into an uncertain technology landscape.

I’ve always approached LibGuides as a way to tell a story about a topic. As a student librarian at Xwi7xwa Library at the University of British Columbia, I learned that a good guide tells a story, both generally and in relation to an individual reader. Their LibGuides model foregrounded Indigenous knowledge, pedagogy, and ways of knowing, weaving multiple perspectives into a coherent resource. That approach has stayed with me. To me, a LibGuide is not just an information container but an invitation to be curious, encouraging students to think critically about how they use information and what responsible engagement looks like.

By 2025, student and instructor needs had shifted. Generative AI was no longer novel but part of everyday academic work. Institutions have AI policies, and faculty are building assignments around AI. Students no longer needed basic introductions; they needed strategies. Recognizing this shift, I updated the LibGuide so that it no longer introduced AI in general terms but instead offered strategies aligned with evolving academic needs. The updated guide emphasizes evaluating AI outputs, contextualizing and disclosing AI use, and critical thinking skills, like recognizing biases within outputs. AI literacy is now framed as integral to the research process: skills that support transparency, critical thinking, and ethical scholarship. The shift from 2023 to 2025 reflects how quickly the conversation has moved from “What is AI?” to “How do we use it as thoughtful, responsible scholars?”

---

🔥 Stay up-to-date with LibTech Insights by signing up for our free newsletter. Just one weekly email with our new blog posts, top tech news stories, and other bonus content. Check out some posts from our archive:

• Evaluating Web of Science’s AI-Powered Research Assistant
• Developing AI Literacy: Reflections on Teaching a Six-week Course for Library Workers
• Beyond the Job Title: Digital Repository Program Manager

🌟 Register now for our free email micro-course on AI literacy!

---

The Revision Process

Revising the Artificial Intelligence LibGuide through summer 2025 required a new strategy. Instead of racing to document every tool, I aimed to create a resource that would stay useful for at least an academic year. The 2023 version had detailed walk-throughs of platforms like ChatGPT and Midjourney, but these became outdated almost immediately. It was clear that chasing updates wasn’t sustainable. I retired those pages and replaced them with a concise overview that emphasizes core concepts of what generative AI can and cannot do, so the content remains relevant even as tools evolve.

In place of tool-specific content, new thematic areas addressed the deeper questions students and faculty were raising. Conversations with faculty in my subject areas shaped these additions. A page on transparency and attribution explores when and how to disclose AI use in academic work, tying disclosure to intellectual honesty and scholarly lineage. A critical evaluation checklist, using Mike Caulfield’s SIFT framework, helps students probe AI outputs for accuracy, bias, and reliability. These approaches align closely with established information literacy frameworks, showing how existing skills extend naturally into AI literacy.

The guide also stresses that norms vary: what’s acceptable for one course or project may not be for another, and expectations will evolve as AI policies develop. By directing students to clarify with instructors, peers, or supervisors, the guide avoids rigid rules that could quickly become obsolete.

Finally, navigation was streamlined for longevity with fewer clicks and clearer categories The goal was not to anticipate every AI development but to offer students a trusted anchor as the academic landscape continues to shift.

Tips for Other Librarians Updating Their AI LibGuides

When updating an AI LibGuide, it’s tempting to chase every new tool. But that approach quickly exhausts both the guide and the librarian. A more sustainable strategy is to design with futureproofing in mind. My 2025 revision followed a few key principles that may help others:

• Prioritize concepts over tools. Instead of walk-throughs of specific platforms, highlight enduring themes such as transparency, attribution, and bias. These remain relevant even as technologies shift.
  
  
• Highlight what changes vs. what endures. Distinguish between fast-moving details (like tool features) and lasting principles (like evaluation and attribution) so students know where to focus.
  
  
• Emphasize critical habits, not quick fixes. Checklists, reflective questions, and guiding principles give students transferable skills rather than instructions that expire with each new release.
  
  
• Anchor in institutional context. Link to campus conversations: academic integrity policies, AI guidelines, or faculty recommendations. These will change, but local context grounds the guide in reliable practice.
  
  
• Design for curiosity. Good LibGuides spark inquiry, prompting students to reflect on their relationship to information and their responsibilities in using it ethically.

This curiosity principle reflects my philosophy, shaped at Xwi7xwa Library. Each AI LibGuide update is less about definitive answers and more about sparking curiosity, encouraging sharper questions, and fostering responsible, critical engagement. The goal is not to outlast every AI headline, but to remain relevant and trustworthy through the academic year.

Conclusion

The evolution of the Artificial Intelligence LibGuide from 2023 to 2025 shows how quickly student needs and library support of AI shifted in response to emerging technologies. What began as tool overviews and cautions has become a resource centered on critical evaluation, transparency, and attribution, helping students integrate AI into the broader research process. The larger lesson for librarians is that AI literacy is not about tracking every tool but cultivating enduring skills and reflective practices for responsible engagement with information.

Futureproofing a guide means prioritizing concepts over platforms, grounding guidance in institutional context, and remaining iterative through feedback. Equally important is designing for curiosity: effective guides invite students to consider context, question assumptions, and recognize multiple perspectives in knowledge creation.

By combining skill development with ethical reflection, librarians can create resources that remain relevant, trustworthy, and impactful across an academic year. Such guides help students not only use AI, but also understand it, question it, and acknowledge it responsibly, fostering a deeper, more connected approach to information and learning.

–

This post was written with the help of ChatGPT, prompting the generative AI to act as an editor for clarity and conciseness. All content was reviewed, edited, and refined by Bronte Chiang, who bears full responsibility for its accuracy and originality.  

Related Posts