LTI’s Most Buzzworthy Pieces from 2024

Presenting some of the most buzzworthy pieces LTI we’ve published over the past year

Posted on December 23, 2024 in Blog Posts

At LibTech Insights, we love all our posts equally. Working with such talented and engaged librarians has opened our eyes to not only the creativity of the library tech field, but also the generosity of a group of professionals seeking to help other professionals enter into a dynamic and sometimes intimidating field. Below are some of the most buzzworthy pieces we’ve published over the past year. It was excruciating to limit this list to only five picks, so during your winter downtime, we invite you to check out our post archive and discover even more amazing reads. You’ll see for yourself why we struggled to choose from all your favorite reads!

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😮‍💨 Giving Up the Good Fight?: Librarians and Information Literacy

“‘Information literacy’ has become a watchword for librarians—not merely a pedagogical aim but a moral obligation in a digital and political landscape riddled with misinformation. The clear necessity of information literacy in society belies a more difficult question: Should librarians be the ones to take on the full weight of this mantle? This is not merely a theoretical question but one that opens up challenging and important conversations about the material resources and professional opportunities librarians actually have to effect this change in academic settings.”

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💻 ChatGPT as a Tool for Library Research – Some Notes and Suggestions

“It has been just over a year since OpenAI’s ChatGPT was made available to the public. Since that time, there has been a vast amount of news reporting and debate in academia about how to use it. In the middle of the year, I decided to learn about ChatGPT and about prompt engineering as a part of my ongoing professional development. ChatGPT and similar products currently have plenty of value when used as tools for writing original content, but nothing really seemed to be written about them as tools for library or database searching. I found this to be curious. Whilst learning about AI engineering and prompt engineering, I collected information and ideas about ChatGPT and library or database searching that I considered worth sharing with a smaller audience—now I am offering it to a wider one.”

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♿️ Ready for It? Ensuring Web Content Accessibility in Libraries

“In April, the Department of Justice (DOJ) updated its regulations to Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This act ensures ‘nondiscrimination on the basis of disability in state and local government services.’ Many people with disabilities encounter barriers while trying to access information on state and local government websites, including public libraries, public schools, and public universities. For example, an inaccessible website may not enable keyboard navigation or the use of screen readers, limiting users from potential library resources or services. 

“The update ensures web content will be accessible for people with disabilities in libraries. According to the ADA Fact Sheet, ‘web content is defined as the information and experiences available on the web, like text, images, sound, videos, and documents.’ Under this rule, all local and state governments will need to meet international accessibility standards for online services and online electronic documents (WCAG 2.1 level AA) by 2026. While this may be a lengthy but necessary undertaking for many libraries, there are several easy things you can start doing now to ensure your web content is accessible.”

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🧠 Considering RAG when Evaluating Generative AI Tools

“It all comes down to Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). RAG is a framework that creates an application for generative AI LLMs. While it’s fun to play around with ChatGPT and Chatbot Arena, they aren’t particularly useful for scholars. […] While RAG doesn’t solve all these problems, it begins to address the concerns of the academic community. It’s the first step toward creating an LLM tool that is actually useful for higher education. At its core, RAG is the difference between generative AI for fun and generative AI as a legitimate research tool.”

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📊 Top 5 Tips for Librarians Creating Surveys

“Three things are certain in this world: death, taxes, and librarians sending out surveys. We are a patron-focused profession, and we crave user feedback. Moreover, some of us yearn for peer feedback for articles we write or hypotheses we test. When you create a survey—if you haven’t yet, it’s just a matter of time—there are a few things you should keep in mind. These tips will improve your survey and help make it more likely that people will respond.”

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