Week 6: Communities of Practice
AI literacy essentials for academic libraries
Choice and Clarivate have teamed up to develop an eight-week, newsletter-based course on generative AI literacy for academic library workers. If you are AI curious—and short on time—then this course is for you!
Each week contains three sections:
- Introduction: An overview of a core AI literacy competency
- In Practice: An interview or case study
- Reading Room: Further reading material focused on the topic
- The module closes with a quiz and discussion questions.
Make sure you’re registered to receive all eight weeks directly in your inbox! Know someone who might be interested in this micro-course? Share the registration page with your colleagues.
In week six, we discuss communities of practice around generative AI.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Generative AI Communities of Practice
by Evan Fruehauf, Assistant Librarian at the University of South Florida
The rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has created a growing digital divide. These technologies are being adopted at an unprecedented pace, leaving many students and faculty disoriented or unsure how to engage with them. Despite their transformational potential, AI tools are often introduced without the necessary support systems. Most users receive little to no formal training, and while some may attend a workshop or touch on the topic in a course, few institutions offer sustained guidance.
We Need a Safe Space for Learning
This gap presents an opportunity for libraries. Libraries are uniquely positioned to serve as hubs for both AI education and critical engagement. Our experience as information professionals, approachable educators, and community-centered spaces makes us ideal facilitators to help patrons navigate AI thoughtfully and responsibly.
Still, we must recognize that many of us in libraries are learning alongside our users. We’re also seeking guidance, training, or even just the space to ask questions. The pace of change can feel overwhelming. Even well-prepared librarians may struggle to stay current. While we have the foundational skills to lead discussion and analysis of AI tools, we first need to create space for these conversations to begin. With institutional policies, curricular goals, and tool access varying widely, every library faces its own unique version of this challenge.
Engaging Across Campus
One of the most effective ways to address this challenge is through a Community of Practice. A Community of Practice is a space—formal or informal—where professionals gather around a shared area of interest. These communities encourage experimentation, discussion, and mutual support. They can take many forms: a regular meeting, a small working group, or even a cross-institutional network. The common thread is community—people coming together from different perspectives, with varying levels of experience, to explore and learn together.
Members of a Community of Practice are encouraged to try out tools, methods, and ideas in their own work—and to share what they learn, even when things don’t go as planned. In the context of AI, this might mean testing the limits of your institution’s tools or reflecting on how effective an AI-powered literature review assistant was in a classroom session. These shared insights are how the group grows—and how we begin to close the gaps in understanding.
Consider the knowledge gaps around you. First, among students and faculty—do they have the guidance and experience to use AI tools effectively? Look at your library team—are your colleagues prepared to help bridge that gap?
For many libraries, the honest answer is typically: “somewhat.” There may be a few experts, and perhaps some guidance scattered across the institution. But imagine bringing those individuals into the same room, giving them space to question, embrace, critique, or challenge AI tools. That collective knowledge—shared openly—can build stronger, more responsive libraries. Not through certificates or advanced degrees, but through experimentation, thoughtful conversation, and mutual support.
It only takes a few people to begin. But the impact can reach far beyond the walls of your library.
In Practice
Brown University’s Critical AI Learning Community
Even in institutions of higher education, we can take for granted the idea that learning is a communal experience. The lone scholar poring over old tomes in a dusty nook of the library remains a stubborn image in the academic consciousness. The “chatbot” interface of most AI-powered tools may update this image, but it reinforces the assumption that our engagements with AI are solitary encounters, a single user interacting privately with a bot. However, as educators, we know that the best learning experiences require not only experimentation but also communication with other learners. In the following interview, Niamh McGuigan, the Director of the Center for Library Exploration and Research at Brown University Library, describes her and her colleagues’ creation of the Critical AI Learning Community to bring together librarians, professors, staff, and students to learn from and with one another about AI.
Click here to read more about how Brown University’s non-hierarchical approach to generative AI.
Niamh McGuigan is the Director of the Center for Library Exploration and Research at Brown University Library. Her work focuses on campus and community engagement, and strategy for research, teaching, and learning services.
What circumstances or challenges prompted Brown’s Library to create an AI learning community?
In spring 2023, a group of library staff at Brown formed an informal AI/LLM interest group to start exploring and discussing AI together. I had spoken with our Library Advisory Board in March, noting the many ways that generative AI was likely to influence library users, and the students and faculty on the Board encouraged the Library to play a role in providing information and education to campus about the potential uses and misuses of AI. Like many universities at that time, Brown did not have a firm policy about AI usage, leaving individual instructors to provide guidance to their students about how to use AI in their courses. As we looked ahead to the 2024 school year, I was eager to offer educational programming for our campus community, but my colleagues pointed out that there was a lot we didn’t know about how students, faculty, and staff were using and thinking about AI.
Why did the Library land on a learning community as its approach to engaging with AI?
We formed the Critical AI Learning Community as a way to learn from our users and gain insights into how to shape future work at the Library in relation to artificial intelligence. Our goal was to form a group where library staff could build their knowledge and expertise in collaboration with our users rather than play the role of AI experts. In particular, we wanted to create a non-hierarchical space for people to share their ideas, questions, and opinions to give equal weight to the voices that are often left out of the conversation in higher education, especially conversations about technology. A recent poll of students at Brown had reported that men were twice as likely as women to have tried ChatGPT, and that helped me realize that there was a strong social component to this issue, and that we’d be wise to pay special attention to the way that power dynamics were shaping the conversation on campus.
What was the process like for assembling the learning community, from idea to implementation?
From our original interest group, a group of four librarians, Jason Cerrato, Emily Ferrier, Cass Wilkinson Saldaña, and I, volunteered to develop and lead a learning community for the 2023–24 school year, with the support of one undergraduate student assistant. We spent time talking through the goals and values of the group and outlined some initial topics that we might address in our meetings. We decided that we’d meet every other Monday at noon, we’d provide lunch to encourage participation, but we would also make all the meetings hybrid to make the group as inclusive as possible. We would plan the first two meetings and then work with the members of the learning community to decide on topics for future meetings. When we began promoting the group, we hoped to get a solid group of 10–15 people, but by the time we held the first meeting on September 18, 70 people had registered, and at least 30 people showed up for that first meeting. The response from our campus was so enthusiastic that we quickly decided to shift to a weekly meeting.
What does a typical meeting of the Critical AI Learning Community look like in practice?
We have a few different meeting formats that we cycle through, depending on the topic and goals for the meeting. Our most common format involves some formal information sharing, such as an explanation of a technical topic, a critique of an AI tool, or a presentation of useful context or background information. We always build in opportunities for interactivity, such as discussion, group brainstorming, or interactive polling, which is often the most interesting part of the meeting. In some cases, we’ll have a dedicated speaker—sometimes an invited guest, but often someone from the Brown community, including students on several occasions—to present on a topic. We’ve also had a lot of “hands-on” meetings, where we encourage people to work in small groups to test out AI tools or explore a specific methodology or creative task.
How has the project developed so far, and what outcomes have you seen?
In our surveys of the group members, the vast majority of people report that the learning community has helped them to develop their understanding of generative AI technology and form opinions about its societal impacts. We’ve also been able to use what we’ve learned from the group to start to develop our AI-related services and expertise in the Library, particularly around AI literacy and around consultations for research projects using AI-driven methodologies.
Other outcomes were more of a surprise. Our initial plan was to run this learning community for one year, but there was a lot of enthusiasm to keep the group going. Membership also steadily increased, with average attendance around 40–50 people. This size has meant that we have had to build in more structure, with less time for some of the free-form, “hands-on” time. But it also meant that we had a chance to engage with so many different people in the university, particularly staff. Staff in departments like campus IT and the teaching and learning center have a huge role to play in how AI is implemented on campus, and this learning community helped to open up new avenues for collaboration and information sharing.
What advice would you offer to other librarians interested in creating a similar learning community?
My first piece of advice would be to recognize just how much libraries and librarians have to offer in this moment. We have found that, as students, faculty, and staff seek to understand AI, they become interested in core information literacy concepts, such as those related to the ethical use of information and the political and social implications of information access and use. Libraries are often highly trusted organizations on our campuses, and we can use that trust to create spaces for dialogue and shared learning across different groups of people.
Our surveys and polls found that people wanted to learn about how others in the university were using and thinking about AI more than anything else. In our meetings, people are very eager to express their own views and perspectives. Creating opportunities for people to share ideas and learn from others, rather than simply sharing expert knowledge about AI technology, has been the most important aspect of the group.
And finally, it’s important to take time for intentional reflection along the way. As people learn more about generative AI, their views will evolve and shift. The goals and values that you lay out when first planning a group like this will probably change along the way. Taking time to check in with community members and facilitators can help everyone be aware of how the landscape may be changing under our feet.
Reading Room
A selection of multimedia content to fit your time commitment.
5 minutes
- Starting a GenAI Community of Practice, by Dr. Heidi Blackburn, Chris Magee, and Trevor Watkins. LibTech Insights, 2025.
- Illinois State launches Redbird AI-AIDE to empower faculty and staff with AI tools, by David Giovagnoli. Illinois State University, 2025.
- AI Refusal in Libraries: A Starter Guide, by Violet Fox. ACRLog, 2025.
10 minutes
- An AI Community of Practice: Results and Insights, by Michael Flierl and Emma Slayton. ACRL 2025, 2025.
- AI Community of Practice (COP). GitHub, 2025.
- 5 essential elements for a successful artificial intelligence community of practice, by Eboni J.D. Freeman, Sabrina Mohamed, and Eric Ewing. Apolitical, 2025.
20+ minutes
- Harnessing the Power of AI: Collaboration, Community, & Communication with Melissa Del Castillo. Library Leadership Podcast, 2024.
- Artificial Intelligence Literacy: Building Competency, Confidence, and Collaboration, by CNI: Coalition for Networked Information. YouTube, 2025. Video below.
- Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Discussion Group. ACRL, 2025.
- Core Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Libraries Interest Group. Core, 2025.
Quiz Time
Test your AI literacy knowledge!
Discussion Questions
AI gives us a lot to think about. Share your thoughts in the Leave a Reply section below!
- Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
- How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
Coming up
Next week, we will examine the climate and social implications of AI and talk to Dustin Fife, College Librarian at Colorado College, about grappling with social and ethical issues around AI on their campus.
Take me to the Table of Contents.
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Learn more about Clarivate and Choice’s LibTech Insights.
76 responses to “Week 6: Communities of Practice”
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I am not sure.
The library can lead by establishing ethical guidelines and AI policy and also by providing workshops and trainings. -
Yes, libraries can contribute, support students in turning their work into publishable research and technical reports, while also engaging with the wider AI community through conferences, collaborations, and public discussions. These activities help advance knowledge, build research skills, and encourage responsible AI development
Libraries can coordinate institutional conversations around AI by leading the development of AI policies and governance frameworks. As trusted centers of literacy and public learning, libraries can position themselves as the first-place people turn to when they need reliable AI guidance, education, and support.
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Researchers after sharing the skills and knowledge they should also practice going back to the community where they did the research so that they share the findings or knowledge with them.
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Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
Our campus has shown interest in doing this however it remains at professional/administration levels and has not filtered down.How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
Connect as needed to gain seats at tables where these discussions are happening. Set a table and invite others to join us in conversation. Prepare ourselves to be in a position of agility and readiness to offer guidance, training/teaching tools, to collaborate, and to lead. -
Important ideas
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1) Yes, we have fostered community around AI across campus.
2) We can center the librray as a leader in AI adaption at our institution by offering training, having workshops and using AI in an ethical manner while implementing it into our daily worklife.
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Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
-our institution didn’t foster community around AI yet.How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
– we may have to acquire a lot of AI reference books, attend webinars, and research more about AI before we adopt it at our institution. -
We have communities of practice emerging across campus, but there is not one that is centralized. It does seem like an excellent role for the library, as we are experts at facilitating cross- and transdisciplinary dialogues and building community around shared interests for our institutions.
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Our institution has not yet developed a campus-wide community around AI. However, the library can play a central role in leading AI adoption by leveraging its resources and the expertise of its staff to build the capacity of both students and university employees.
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Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
Not really, it’s mostly been sporadic. The institution has not really addressed concerns or established a community of practice. I can see a real need with some departments being early and enthusiastic users and the humanities especially lagging behind and at times refusing to use and learn about AI.
I think librarians see a need especially in information literacy, but workload and time are barriers. CoP approach is a good idea as the person from Brown mentions you’re sharing the load. While our institution has not been very responsive the library collaborative, we are members of has been very supportive and that’s where I get most of my training and information from. -
For my institution, so far as I know, we don’t start with any fostered community around AI across campus.
We may center the library as a leader in AI adoption with forming a team of librarian in AI awareness, make an engagement with faculties involving students and staff in the discussion, then organize the AI literacy class for the first phase.
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For my college, I don’t think a great deal of care has been taken to foster a AI community like the one described this week. There was a 2 hour session about AI that was offered but that was about it and I rarely hear anything about faculty or staff outside of the library using generative AI (though I know the students are using it plenty).
The library has been a center of AI learning and discussion on campus, with librarians and staff being well versed in the pros, cons, and techniques used with AI. We have offered several workshops just on AI usage and the librarians incorporate AI literacy into their teaching whenever possible.
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As a STEM university, our consitutents are very interested in AI. A task force was formed early on to focus on not just it’s use in education but also research avenues. A member of the library faculty is on the task force and we have been engaged in professional development such as this course.
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Yes, my institution has been working to build a sense of community around AI across campus. We’ve created an AI task force with several subcommittees that focus on different areas. These groups bring together faculty, staff, and administrators to share ideas, explore new tools, and discuss best practices for responsible AI use. Instruction and discussions also help keep the campus community informed and engaged.
Libraries can play a key role in leading AI adoption by positioning themselves as trusted guides and educators. Librarians already have expertise in information literacy, ethics, and research support, which naturally extends to AI literacy. By offering training, research appointments, and resources, libraries can help faculty and students understand and use AI effectively. Partnering with departments and integrating AI literacy into existing programs can also highlight the library’s leadership in shaping thoughtful, ethical AI use across campus. -
In my institution, DMP department has considered integrating AI into its databases and repository by ensuring that their will be flawless operations, making them smarter, faster, and more user-friendly. Although we do not have a community of practice as many researchers prefer to have their AI tools for their personal work and knowledge creation. In essence, the end user also benefits from the search, discovery and support scholarly research. We look forward to having an open discussion on creating a community of practice.
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Our doctoral-degree-granting institution has not fostered a community around AI across campus. We are slowing exploring how we want to use AI and where at the university. We have an AI committee with campus wide jurisdiction to assist students faculty and staff with understanding whether and how they might consider using AI. because the university is seeking R1 research designation, the hard sciences and engineering are using AI more than is the humanities, which are instead fighting against AI use. There is much more fear in the College of Arts about AI use since we value creative and original thought and academic production, and faculty especially are finding that student learning is beginning to suffer in the liberal arts because of AI use. Staff in the library are busily engaged in professional development training to learn ways that library personnel in the various library divisions can effectively direct students to use AI, which learning models to use, and how to effectively prompt AI for better results. Many people know about and are using the possibility of hallucinations in AI results as reasons to avoid its use in academic work. We are trying to use this possibility as a reason for students to truly study their fields so that they can verify and expand their breadth of knowledge in their field, which is really something that AI can often short-circuit.
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En nuestra institución ofertan charlas, conferencia sobre la IA la mayor parte son enfocados para docentes investigadores y estudiantes . En biblioteca buscamos cursos como este que se enfoque a las bibliotecas lo cual nos ayudado mucho.
Las bibliotecas son muy importantes para implementar y tener varios programas de IA, creo que si se debe dar prioridad igualmente.
Ayudaría a un acceso amplio al conocimiento y apoyo a la investigación.
Sería una ayuda para mejorar el descubrimiento de recurso con metadatos generados por IA y podría optimizar la referencia virtual. -
Our institution hasn’t fostered a community around AI across campus.
And concerning how the library can be centered as a leader in AI adoption within our institution, this can be achieved through utilizing library resources, including skilled staff in the area of AI, to capacity build students and university staff. -
At Chapman University, the library has started an AI committee with some librarians, and we have begun to teach AI literacy and first year foundation courses. The University is also starting an AI taskforce with members from different departments across campus. AI adoption is still new but it’s gaining traction quickly so the library has to be updated on all new AI technology and recent news.
As the library has already been offering AI related workshops and instructions, along with the information systems and technology department and educational technology department, the early adopting departments could help guide other department on campus to adopt AI tools and teach AI literacy. -
Our library has a meeting once a month where someone will talk about an AI tool they have used. We get the hands on experience by trying the tools out ourselves. This group is going to start working on introducing more AI into the library setting. We are going to work on a AI policy to use with in the library and train staff on using AI.
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We don’t have any kind of fostered community around AI, in fact, we haven’t even started to talk about it.
Library can be a leader in AI adoption at our institutions – for example, it can provide AI literacy educations for all students and university staff.
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We haven`t event started talking about AI.
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¿Su institución ha fomentado una comunidad en torno a la IA en todo el campus?
Estamos en el proceso de identificar, analizar, escudrinar y evaluar desde lo basico de la AI. Han solicitado que coja estos cursos que han estado de excelencia para luego reunir al cmoité y poder aportar con el conocimiento adquirido.¿Cómo podemos posicionar a la biblioteca como líder en la adopción de IA en nuestras instituciones?
En la educación continua, trabajando en equipo con el IT, profesores, especialistas en el tema. -
Our system has an AI community of learning. I have yet to attend any of the virtual sessions, but after reading the information from this week, I am going to make a more intentional effort to join in.
Libraries need to make sure that they have a seat at the table when it comes to discussions about AI.
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At my institution, AI conversations are happening in pockets—some faculty experiment in courses—but there isn’t yet a coordinated community. This is where the library can take the lead: by creating safe, neutral spaces for discussion, hosting Communities of Practice, and offering training that blends technical awareness with our core values of access, ethics, and critical thinking. In doing so, the library can position itself as a campus hub for thoughtful and responsible AI adoption.
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At a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping education, research, and everyday life, the library has a unique opportunity to step forward as the hub of responsible AI adoption. More than a space for books, today’s library can become the place where curiosity meets guidance, and innovation meets ethics.
Imagine a library where students not only learn how to search but also how to prompt AI effectively and critically. Workshops on AI literacy, curated guides to trusted tools, and hands-on labs could position librarians as navigators in a fast-changing digital landscape. Just as libraries once taught information literacy, they can now lead in AI literacy—helping the campus community understand not just how to use AI, but how to question it.
The library can also integrate AI into its own services, from smarter catalog searches to chatbots that provide 24/7 reference support. By experimenting with these tools transparently, the library model’s ethical adoption and sparks dialogue on what responsible AI use should look like.
Equally important, the library can be a convener. By hosting hackathons, cross-disciplinary projects, and debates on AI ethics, it becomes the gathering place where students, faculty, and researchers test ideas and shape the future of learning together. And as faculty explore AI in their research, the library is well-placed to provide tools, support, and a trusted repository for new knowledge. -
At United States International University–Africa (USIU-Africa), Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just a topic for the classroom, it’s becoming a shared passion across campus. Through conferences, student clubs, and hands-on projects, the university has been fostering a vibrant AI community that bridges learning with real-world impact.
The journey began with flagship events such as the Technology & Society Conference in 2021, hosted in partnership with Google Africa and ACAT. Here, students, faculty, and industry leaders came together to explore how AI can drive economic growth. In 2024, the momentum continued as USIU-Africa co-hosted the third regional Applied Machine Learning Days (AMLD) conference, which drew participants from across Africa to discuss how AI is shaping healthcare, cultural preservation, and economic empowerment. These gatherings have established the university as a hub for dialogue, training, and collaboration around emerging technologies.
On the ground, student energy is fueling much of the AI movement. The IT Club and the Google Developer Student Club (GDSC) offer platforms where students learn from each other, experiment with projects, and explore the frontiers of technology. At the same time, faculty-led research has taken AI into the community, with initiatives such as using citizen-contributed data to train models that identify road hazards—an example of technology being applied to everyday problems.
Together, these efforts are transforming AI at USIU-Africa from a subject of study into a culture of innovation. The campus is becoming a place where ideas are tested, collaborations are born, and technology is used not just to imagine the future, but to improve lives today. -
Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
AI has been a priority on my campus for the last several years, with members of the Computer Science faculty leading several campus and city initiatives, but I wouldn’t say that the university has fostered very much community around AI.How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
Libraries have the potential to be AI leaders at their institutions because they usually are outside (but alongside) academic departments and support all students and faculty regardless of discipline. I see AI tools as another type of resource that academic libraries can offer. We already offer support across disciplines, are used to selecting resources that will support the campus as a whole, and provide instruction about effective and ethical uses of information literacy. I think we really just need to start centering ourselves in these conversations. Starting a campus-wide community of practice is a great way to do that! -
Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
Yes, with a group called AI Explorers
AI Explorers, a faculty and staff interest group at JCCC, provides a venue for members to discuss Artificial Intelligence in higher education, covering such topics as accessibility, detection, ethics, student trends, tools, and strategies for use. All campus employees are welcome to join the Microsoft Teams group and attend monthly meetings. The group conducts presentations across campus and regularly updates the Online Learning Advisory Council (OLAC) on their efforts. This group has an active role in researching and recommending tools, guidelines, and policy to guide the use of AI at the college.How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
I think that first, we need to have an open mind about the potential use of AI, but we need to be careful about adopting all things AI without proper vetting and transparency. As a library, we could lose credibility if we go jumping into it headlong. We could offer space for learning, and we could offer a facilitator’s role, being aware to invite as many voices as possible to the learning opportunities. I can also see our library beginning to incorporate AI into our media and information instruction. -
1. Our institution has not yet fostered a community around AI across campus. It has drafted a policy on AI and has invited contributions from units within different campuses.
2. It will be left up to the library take the lead in building community around AI adoption at our campus. Here’s how. Since our campus knows very little about the use of AI among students, libraries that haven’t yet taken advantage of the “research assistant” feature being offered by (multidisciplinary) database providers can consider a trial of the research assistant feature offered by these vendors and engage both faculty and student researchers to participate in those trials. The library could then create an online platform or forum for users to meet and to talk about their discoveries and experiences with the new feature. The forum should continue after the trial has ended and should have stated goals, include a moderator and weekly presenter for questions/problems that emerge that need some explanation. The library can review and use the feedback to help inform the content for information literacy workshops and its own contribution to the campus AI policy.
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We have started a community of practice through working on this course together and reflecting. We are definitely more open to discussing AI openly with each other but there is still some work to involve more parties and focusing as the Library as a leader in AI.
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1. Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
Not yet but our library has formed AI Task Team. Its role is to assist students and staff on the effective use of AI. We still have to develop terms of reference, and I will be playing a leading role because this course has equipped me with essentials and basic skills that are needed for effective use of AI especially Gen AI.2. How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
Academic libraries have been the heart of institutions of higher learning. They have been playing a big in supporting teaching, learning and research through information literacy. We can play that role once again in this age of AI – add value across our institutions and become leaders in adoption of AI because we have the necessary information literacy skills that we can modify to fit the AI literacy adoption. We have been well positioned and been recognized for years. We can demonstrate that knowledge once again and become leaders in AI adoption in our institutions. -
I wouldn’t say that there is a dedicated CoP, but folks in the library are working with other departments regarding policy updates and library events surrounding AI. Since the library here is already a hub for events, I think it is well positioned as a leaser in AI adoption at our institution. That said, I personally wouldn’t promote AI but I am working on a libguide about AI literacy and with a couple other librarians on a game that students can play to learn more about AI. Personally, I think it would be great to incorporate AI as a non authoritative source in basic information literacy courses. For example, have students view AI as another type of information like how they would view a wikipedia article.
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We have not created a community yet, but a taskforce to recommend next steps has identified a support service that would serve as a lab and gathering “place” as something to implement. The library could serve in a leadership role, and our librarians are involved with AI, but time, space, and staffing will probable prevent us from taking larger leadership role beyond our own instruction offerings and vendor based tools available at this time.
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Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
While it may not be a formal initiative, ever since AI was embraced by our university, with our President actively encouraging its use and suggesting we share tools and their strengths, it has naturally evolved into a community of practice. -
I just checked our educational development website and our institution already organized events like bootcamps and talks, there are also courses and resources like frameworks about AI ethical use, but I’m afraid they fall into acritical and too optimistic speeches for my taste. There’s no discussion group to talk about the negative sides of AI use. I’d gladly start one but I’m afraid it could be too controversial.
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Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
Our Office for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning and the Provost’s office have held some sessions, and some of them have been useful. Unfortunately, the timing doesn’t work for everyone, and notes/demos have not been distributed as promised. I really would like to hear about how my colleagues are using these tools, but I have missed opportunities to make the most of the tools we have access to as a result.How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
Fortunately, as faculty, librarians at my institution are able to participate in high-level conversations. We often get involved as a result of responding quickly to calls for volunteers and sharing expertise in a variety of fora. Finally, we created a LibGuide to provide a baseline understanding for students, faculty, and staff, and have shared it widely. -
En mi universidad se están iniciando a capacitar y hablar sobre el tema
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1 Output quality (accuracy, consistency, completeness of responses, level of bias detected…), usability and accessibility, security and privacy, scalability and technical sustainability (capacity for integration with library management systems, economic impact, ethical and environmental impact).
2 Verify reliability ( check the accuracy of the information by comparing it with academic sources databases, catalogs, repositories), review biases, privacy, traceability (properly cite AI responses as support, not as a primary source), technical limitations, responsible use (take advantage of it to support writing, generate ideas, or summarize). -
Other than a committee to craft an AI policy for Academic Integrity, I don’t know of any groups on campus specific to AI.
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Has your institution fostered a community around AI across campus?
Officially, no, but some employees share ideas, challenges, techniques, and practices through emails and discussions.How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
The liaison librarians and faculty engage in continuous discussions. -
Our institution as an AI Community Teams channel where we share ideas, successes, ask questions, and talk about use cases. This hasn’t been fostered at the institution level and is driven by those of have an interest, so everything is very minimal right now across the institution.
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1. There are projects and initiatives at my institution that demonstrate the existence of active communities around Artificial Intelligence, with an interdisciplinary and transversal nature, encompassing research, teaching, ethics, outreach, linguistic innovations, and public-private collaborations.
2. Offer interdisciplinary workshops and training sessions on AI applied to research, integrate AI services into catalogs and queries, incorporate AI-based assistants to assist with bibliographic searches, personalized recommendations, semantic navigation, or automatic generation of text summaries, lead spaces for interdisciplinary reflection on AI, and disseminate knowledge through digital resources (a repository or digital newsletter highlighting institutional advances in AI and practical guides for the responsible use of AI in research and teaching).
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1) Has your institution fostered a community around AI across campus?
I’m still learning myself about all the options here at my institution as a new librarian, but there is the development of a committee that is working on creating frameworks for AI at the university. I think the community is developing with this committee, as members of the university are reaching out to faculty, developing frameworks, and listening to questions. We have our centre for teaching and learning, which is also already integrating teaching AI tools to help teachers, librarians, and faculty use them, and how to navigate assignments and other tasks.
2) How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
I think being involved in AI processes and integration into some of our services. I think workshops for students and staff members would be a great way to spread awareness of the pros and cons of AI, but also show how it is developing. This is a tool that will not be going away, and we all must adapt. I think libraries can spearhead this by teaching about these tools and creating a discussion through programming. -
Our Institution has fostered a community of practice around AI built mainly around the Teaching and Learning Centre, the Educational Technology centre and the Academic Staff in the institution. If the place of the library is at the heart of the academic venture, teaching information literacy and critical evaluation skills to the students, it is vital to keep the library part of any discussions about AI. It follows then that it is important to keep the library involved in the conversation and this could be started by using the library as a venue to host discussions, by introducing carefully vetted AI tools and asking for feedback from the academic community and by creating and maintaining AI libguides and tutorials.
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AI gives us a lot to think about;
My institution is trying to foster community around AI by engaging the students and staff, providing guidelines for use and more trainings are done around AI and ethical issues affecting its applications .The library is in the forefront to ensure that this trainings are done to enhance integrity and academic success through learning and experience. -
At the University I work at, the development of AI communities like the Generative AI Learning Community and the AI Playground, demonstrate how intentional collaboration can foster exploration and innovations across campus. As librarians, we are uniquely positioned to build on this model and serve as leaders in AI adoption at our own institutions. The library can act as both a hub and a guide: curating trusted resources, offering workshops and AI “clinics,” and creating hands-on learning spaces where faculty, staff, and students experiment with tools like ChatGPT in responsible, ethical ways. We can advance AI literacy by teaching critical evaluation, transparency in attribution, and thoughtful integration of AI into research and coursework, including the use of reflective “AI appendices.” By ensuring equitable access to licensed tools, aligning practices with institutional policies, and foregrounding conversations about ethics and privacy, the library not only supports academic integrity but also demonstrates leadership in shaping how our campuses engage with emerging technologies. In this way, the library becomes not just a resource, but a community anchor for thoughtful and inclusive AI adoption.
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Yes, my institution has begun fostering conversations about AI, but we’re still in the early stages. Most discussions take place within individual departments, so there’s a clear need for a more centralized and collaborative approach. A cross-campus community of practice could help us share best practices and align strategies.
To position the library as a leader in AI adoption, we need to leverage our role as trusted guides for information literacy. We can offer workshops on ethical AI use, bias awareness, and prompt engineering, and integrate AI literacy into existing instructional programs. By providing both training and a neutral space for dialogue, the library can become a hub for responsible and informed AI integration.
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We started having meetings about AI last year. We gathered into smaller groups throughout several computer labs. We are now working on creating a committee on campus.
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Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
Not sure. At this stage, there’s no clear indication of coordinated efforts to build a campus-wide AI community.
How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
To position the library as a leader in AI adoption, I suggest creating literacy and awareness programs through workshops, training, and engagement with organized resources that support academics in understanding AI’s role in their research and learning. We could implement AI into library services, such as reference services, to find resources that users can discover and engage with, thereby enhancing the user experience and demonstrating AI uptake. The library can collaborate with faculty and researchers to enhance AI-related courses and programs, thereby moving forward, while also supporting connections and mentoring in data management, ethics, and open access components.
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Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
From my observations, there is little community fostering across campus, but there are many opportunities to explore multiple facets of AI.
How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
The library at my institution could offer itself as a hub of the disparate explorations of AI on campus. The library could attempt to foster a campus-wide community of AI users.
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During the fall 24 semester our library took the initiative to create an AI Committee with a wide range of campus involvement from IT to Career. We broke up into subcommittees that consisted of AI Literacy, Responsible Use, and Classroom Pedagogy. After our subgroups were established we planned to launch an all day training event for faculty and students for National AI Literacy Day. With the success of this event our campus is seeking partners and consultants for long term trainings, policies, and curricular adaptions/adoptions.
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We focus on active engagement and continuous improvement as part of innovation. the library focus on AI capacity development.
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In our library we various communities at our campus, in the library and outside of it. The focus is on research and teaching with AI.
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Has your institution fostered community around AI across campus?
I was only brought on in my current role at the beginning of summer so I do not know if there is a CoP on campus that I am not yet aware of. There has been a very big push around AI including a conference, a minor in the CompSci department, and a number of other initiatives. Most folks seem to have been left largely to their own devices, though.
How can we center the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
I’m not entirely convinced the library should be centered or even a part of AI adoption in our institutions. The skills that libraries and librarians specialize in around information storage and retrieval from structured databases and fostering Information Literacy as articulated in the ACRL’s Information Literacy Frameworks are in many ways antithetical to the idea of using AI tools as they currently exist. There maybe instructional uses for the tools in other disciplines, but as the library is focused on the very intentional and foundational engagement with information in the discovery process any attempt to insert automation into that process beyond clarifying discovery processes or facilitating serendipitous discovery will ultimately undermine the mental processes engaged in information discovery. Brainstorming questions and keywords are as vital to thinking about how we approach an investigation as actually reading the documents we find. Outsourcing that work or the work of discovery will leave us with a poorer academic community, not a richer one.
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I’m not sure my institution has actively built a community around AI yet.
Libraries can play a key role in AI adoption by offering up-to-date tutorials, workshops, and open discussions on AI tools. Many students and faculty aren’t fully aware of the resources we already provide—databases, research guides, and catalogs. By centering the library in AI education, we can reach more people and help them use these tools effectively. Workshops could even count for academic credit, reflecting the growing importance of AI in everyday academic and professional life. Personally, having access to such programs would have been extremely helpful, especially as I consider pursuing a master’s in library science.
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My institution has had a lot of discussions and presentations about AI; what it is, how to use it for good and not evil, the potential pitfalls, and its place in higher education. We have yet to adopt a formal policy, but we are (like everywhere) falling into the people who love it, the people who hate it, and the people who admit it can be useful but have questions and concerns.
Our library (myself included) has done at least one informative presentation about the Big Questions surrounding AI, and one about using AI research tools. Still waiting on that official policy, and for me, personally, I hope we choose a “middle way” approach; cautious use. -
We have an institutional AI community of practice which has been fairly active with regular meetings for the past year or so, and then an informal AI CoP within the library itself, which is focused more on AI upskilling and creating resources and learning opportunities that the library can present to our patron community. I would like to see more widespread integration of all the disparate smaller CoPs across our institution into the larger one, so we have a more diverse pool of viewpoints on AI than what we have now.
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Yes, they have.
Academic departments need to collaborate with the library to provide trainings and education to the institution’s community on the AI tools usage and policy. -
Unfortunately, in our little corner of the world, AI education and resource sharing are fairly minimal (there are whole communities in this area with no access to the internet, for example, which means digital and internet literacy are still fairly low). However, my institution is currently drafting a college-wide AI policy. This policy aims to provide guidance while allowing wiggle-room for faculty to adapt to their departments’ specific needs. What this means in practice remains to be seen, but the sentiment is a good one, at least.
As for how we can center the library, the usual adage applies: Be involved. For example, while many faculty don’t have AI policies in their syllabi, the library is continuously updating our AI LibGuide and we’re drafting our AI library instruction outline to go along with it. Even small gestures like that can keep your library up to date (and in the running) in regards to AI use and policymaking–not to mention implementation!
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Many institutions are beginning to foster AI communities across campus through workshops, discussion forums, and collaborative projects that bring together faculty, staff, and students. These initiatives encourage knowledge sharing, experimentation, and cross-departmental collaboration, helping to build a vibrant AI-focused community.
The library can serve as a central leader in AI adoption by creating learning hubs with workshops, tutorials, and drop-in sessions for exploring AI tools. Curating resources, guides, and ethical use policies further supports responsible and effective AI use across campus.
By fostering communities of practice, assisting faculty and students with AI integration in research and teaching, and leading discussions on ethics and data privacy, the library can position itself as a trusted hub for AI learning, collaboration, and innovation.
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There are many topics to discuss now about AI literacy.
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At our library we have a Digital Scholarship Centre that also focuses on AI. AI Sandboxes (workshops) are presented on a regular basis throughout the whole community of our institution. The Digital Scholarship Centre in cooperation with other academic departments’ experts and professionals take the lead in the introduction and embracing of AI tools.
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In this module, the idea of Communities of Practice (CoPs) as a learning tool to address the AI and allied issues has intrigued me a lot. After all, learning is best addressed as a collective endeavour. In this regarded, I am reminded of Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger’s concept of CoPs, as elaborated in their famous tome Situated Learning. To my mind, this approach of Lave and Wenger is most suited to address critical issues like AI ethics and AI literacy. Furthermore, it helps to refine upon the craft of library programming, particularly with regards to integration of emerging tech tools.
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Currently, seminars and workshops are being held between librarians and professors, as well as between librarians and students. In these sessions, librarians typically present topics and lead discussions. As a result, discussions about AI implementation are centered around the library. However, seminars and workshops for staff members are not being held. This is because professors and students are focused on topics related to learning and research (which is a topic that academically utilizes AI), but, as a librarian, I have not yet been able to lead discussions on AI in a way that would be helpful to the work of our staff. This week’s topic made me realize the need for such discussions, which is an important achievement in this week’s class.
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In my Institution we’ve not had a broad AI Community of Practice, but our Teaching & Learning practitioners are working towards it – librarians would play an active role. Our small library team have weekly ‘huddles’ of no more than 30 mins duration and we discuss topical issues – I regularly post on out ‘Teams Chat’ new AI tools that I’ve uncovered or heard students discussing, web links and findings as we actively play with the many emerging tools – our AI Sandpit has quite a few ‘castles’ that get regularly demolished and rebuilt – the virtual grains of sand are very ‘malleable’….
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How can we centre the library as a leader in AI adoption at our institutions?
There are several ways the library can act as a leader in AI adoption. Firstly, and as libraries have done with information literacy, we can help our communities build AI literacy skills by encouraging the critical evaluation of AI outputs and actively discussing and highlighting ethical implications. Secondly, we can make sure that access is equitable to ensure all of our users engage with AI. We can also collaborate and partner with faculty to discuss ways to successfully integrate AI to support teaching and research. Finally, we need to ensure that the library is part of discussions around use and policy. Establishing a GenAI Community of Practice provides a model and framework where these aspects can be intentionally explored and enacted.
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This year I will be offering a series of programs about AI tools, ethics, practical usage, etc. It is my hope to generate a better understanding among students and staff/faculty about the strengths and weaknesses of AI and when and where its use is appropriate and most useful. I have also thought about starting a Community of Practice, which I may implement if sufficient interest is shown in these programs.
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Undoubtedly, the topic of AI is broad and complex. The extent to which LIS professionals and libraries are considered within the community will determine the place the community as a whole grants them: as leaders in the field of AI or not. Responsibility is shared, although, in a scientific work environment, professors and students bear greater responsibility.
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We just begun talks and workshops on AI use in teaching/learning. I think libraries have lots to contribute. The library can position itself as a leader in AI adoption by serving as the central hub for ethical, equitable, and practical integration of these technologies across the institution. By offering workshops and resources, it can build AI literacy for everyone, not just students. It can also demonstrate the practical value of AI through support for research, data management, and discovery tools, showing how these innovations can enhance scholarship and learning. It is through collaborations, experiemnting across departments, and showcasing AI that the librarians can show their relevance.
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I will assume the responsibility of my school’s AI Innovation Committee in a few weeks. Thinking about this week’s reading, I will propose that we update the committee name to AI Community of Practice or AI COP. We are teaching high school students from all over the world; we need to help students learn how to value and use AI tools. We do not need to adopt AI automatically. Using AI tools has serious ethical and environmental concerns. The potential negative effects of some AI tools on the students’ individual learning are disturbing. We also have a strict budget so we can’t automatically invest in the newest and most popular tools. A community of practice mindset will promote active evaluation of how AI tools work in our high school curriculum.
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This module emphasizes that AI Communities of Practice are most effective when they provide space for shared exploration, critique, and support. Productive activities like discussions, guest talks, and interactive sessions strengthen engagement, while intentional reflection ensures the community can adapt to evolving needs and the rapidly changing AI landscape.
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Where I work, an internal staff group that looks at digital scholarship has taken the lead in artificial intelligence. There has been debates on and off about AI based on reading articles in advance. Staff from this group have also become involved in shaping the library’s policy on AI so hopefully, the discussions that have taken place have fed into this policy. This policy will hopefully steer the rest of the organisation towards how to approach AI in their area of work.
Specific to my role in which business databases have started to incorporate AI tools as an additional search function, I have asked if my team could have a session in which we all practice using these tools so as to have an agreed assessment. I think this would be useful when engaging with readers. -
We are trying to fostering AI into campus community through meetings together with experts and different professional groups. Library is the place where AI fans can use practically as well as get experts opinion through open discussion with various people. Thus the library is the hub for students, teachers and researcher to embrace the AI technology
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Our campus has struggled with establishing community around AI, its uses, and the disruptive nature of the technology. This has been a source of disappointment for the librarians because we, as a group, are trying to engage with these systems and their implications for our students and faculty. But it’s a risk that’s hard to calculate given shifting priorities of our institution (and whose institution isn’t shuffling priorities?) and the disruptions to education that comes from AI.
The library can and should have a leadership role in AI because it is fundamentally an information system (even if its relationship to information and knowledge deserves severe scrutiny). Users are going to chatbots as though they were search engines, and search engines are incorporating AI in order to turn users away from sources of information. So every bit as much as we have a leadership role in information discovery we have a leadership role for the evaluation and implementation of AI. -
Most everything I have read or listened to from Leo Lo has been really excellent.
I am enjoying the content in this class so far.I have ordered a lot of recent material on artificial intelligence at my library. It is more preparation and understanding the changes at this point. I have talked to some of my patrons about the subject, but there is not yet a formal program. Some of the staff are definitely using AI for things like marketing and writing. The director is using AI is well, but not as part of an official process. It is more ad hoc right now.
There is a term for this, shadow use. https://fortune.com/2025/08/19/shadow-ai-economy-mit-study-genai-divide-llm-chatbots/
This is about learning. I am going to suggest a few more titles to read. Thad Mcilroy has a book, the The AI Revolution in Book Publishing: A Concise Guide to Navigating Artificial Intelligence for Writers and Publishers, c2024. It is indirectly related to libraries because it focuses on books and e-books. There is also Artificial Intelligence in Libraries and Publishing, Edited by Ruth Pickering and Matthew Ismail, Against the Grain, c2022. It is a Charleston Briefing from the Charleston Conference and is a short collection of articles.
Also, the Verizon Skill Forward program offers certification through edX. Many of the classes are technical in nature, there are quite a few technical certifications that are AI focused. It is free for anyone over 17 in the United States. While not specifically library related, it has been useful in understanding AI, Data Analytics, and helped with some basic coding. https://partnerships.edx.org/verizon/
Take me to the Table of Contents.
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