AI in the Research Library
RLUK recognises the impact which Artificial Intelligence, in particular GenAI, is having across our research libraries. AI is reshaping the research landscape and redefining how knowledge is discovered, managed, and shared. Research libraries have a critical role to play as stewards of trusted knowledge, supporting the responsible and ethical use of AI. We are exploring new tools and opportunities to further unlock our collections, while maintaining the integrity of those collections.
RLUK has actively engaged with AI through our conferences, the Digital Shift Forum, and Inclusive Collections, Inclusive Libraries. We have brought together resources that examine the role and impact of AI in research and in the research library, including AI strategy and futures, skills development, open-source infrastructures, ethical and legal considerations, and the potential of AI to support more inclusive and trustworthy knowledge ecosystems.
We will continue to update this page with new resources and events as our work continues and research libraries’ understanding of AI’s possibilities and risks matures.
AI Strategy & Futures in Libraries
Research library strategy for imagined futures: the ARL/CNI Futurescape AI experience
Throughout the second half of 2025, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) held a series of workshops for research library leaders on using the Futurescape Libraries AI Toolkit—a modular resource for integrating the ARL/CNI AI Scenarios into institutional strategy and planning work. Judy Ruttenberg, who leads ARL’s Advocacy & Public Policy and Scholars & Scholarship programs, and Catherine Steeves, Program Director for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), address the development of the scenarios and the toolkit, and the deployment of the workshops in the US and Canada. They also address key themes that arose, lessons learned, and next steps.
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, March 2026 | Slidedeck via Zenodo
‘Just chill’ Thinking Fast & Slow about Artificial Intelligence
This talk by Professor Paul Gooding, Professor of Library Studies and Digital Scholarship at the University of Glasgow, explores the impact and adoption of AI in libraries through the lens of time: specifically how the principles of fast and slow design might allow us to spend productive time with AI.
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, October 2025
Report: RLUK Digital Shift Maturity Summary Survey
The RLUK Digital Shift Maturity Survey, conducted from June to September 2023, provides a comprehensive assessment of the digital transformation across RLUK’s member libraries. The survey identified Engaging with AI (Principle 11) to be one of the least mature areas for research libraries. An accompanying blogpost reflects on the use of ChatGPT to re-analyse the survey.
Published: July 2025
Harnessing the Transformative Potential of Generative AI in Research Libraries
This session shared the experience of ITHAKA and the University of Leeds libraries in their work with these AI technologies with presentations from Kevin Guthrie, President, Ithaka and Masud Khokhar, University Librarian, University of Leeds. ITHAKA brings nearly five years working with AI to this conversation, with an emphasis on the research work done by Ithaka S+R and practical delivery of GenerativeAI supported capabilities on the JSTOR platform. The University of Leeds libraries, building on insights from ITHAKA’s research, shared a case study on how they are leveraging recent advancements in Generative AI to enhance their role as digital pioneers, partners, and providers within the institution.
RLUK25 Conference, March 2025
Panel: How can libraries leverage the benefits of AI and what is on the horizon?
A panel discussion, organised by RLUK, SCONUL and UKSG with representatives from library and educational software vendors and sector bodies exploring how libraries can navigate this journey, what role the software sector can play, and how libraries can support the ethical adoption of AI. Chaired by Wendy White, University of Southampton.
Panellists:
- Michael Webb, Director of Technology & Analytics, Jisc
- Christine Stohn, Senior Director of Strategy & Innovation, Clarivate
- Thomas Padilla, Deputy Director, Archiving and Data Services at the Internet Archive
- Ashleigh Faith, Director of AI and Semantic Innovation, EBSCO
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, June 2024
The academic library and artificial intelligence: some possible futures
Andrew Cox, University of Sheffield, explores the evolving role of AI and data science in higher education, their impact on research and employability, and how academic libraries can support these developments through content, platforms, and collaborative initiatives.
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, September 2021
Engaging with Artificial Intelligence in Research Libraries
Amanda Wheatley & Sandy Herviuex, McGill University, Canada share North American academic librarian perceptions of AI, as well as the current state of AI strategic preparedness from research universities. They discuss a series of workshops that they created to educate academic library users on artificial intelligence.
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, June 2021
Plenary: AI and Innovation in the Library
We’re Pretty Sure It’s Not a Calculator: The Role of Research Libraries and IL in Navigating the AI Landscape Jennie Blake, Head of Teaching and Learning Development, University of Manchester Library Bonnie McGill, Learning Developer, University of Manchester Library
ChatGPT Made Me Do it: Creating Workshop to Increase Equitable Use of AI Technology Sandy Hervieux, Head Librarian, Nahum Gelber Law Library, McGill University Ana Rogers-Butterworth, Liaison Librarian, McGill University
The Use of AI Techniques in Automating Systematic and Literature Reviews Andrew Horne, Project Manager, University of Edinburgh
RLUK24 Conference, March 2024
AI Tools and Technical Skills
AI, Research and the Research Library (Collections and Research Support)
AI, Research and the Research Library (Collections and Research Support)
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, December 2025
Prompt engineering in libraries
In this talk, Liam Bullingham, Oona Ylinen, and Beth Burnet from the University of Essex share some early reflections on prompt engineering in libraries.
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, June 2024
AI & Machine Learning in Libraries
This talk by Nora McGregor, British Library explores the role AI and Machine learning can play in our libraries, the platforms we use, the challenges we face and the opportunities we have. This is an accessible and gentle introduction to key concepts and applications in the library context and is ideal for beginners and those new to these concepts but may also be of interest to colleagues across the sector exploring AI and Machine Learning.
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, May 2024
Roundtable: Librarians as prompt engineers and emerging skillsets for library users
Librarians are trained in information retrieval, and this is a valued part of our skillset. However, generative AI tools based on LLMs rely less on keywords, Boolean operators, and proximity searching. Library users meanwhile, must address their information needs through optimal prompting to avoid poor quality or irrelevant outputs. Librarians can reassert our reputation for expert information retrieval by skilling up as prompt engineers and sharing this knowledge with users through training. Library users should also take an informed and critical approach to AI tools, evaluating generative AI outputs and understanding ethical implications such as academic integrity, copyright, and authorship. This roundtable draws on some early experiences from University of Essex Library & Cultural Services in which we explore uses for AI tools in library workflows and processes and the related skill and development needs. Chaired by Liam Bullingham, University of Essex.
RLUk24 Conference, May 2024
AI Bias, Law and Ethics
Keynote: Trust, Integrity, AI and the Research Library
Keynote: Trust, Integrity, AI and the Research Library
Ciaran Talbot is the Director for the Directorate of AI and Ideas Adoption (AIIA) at the University of Manchester’s RLUK25 Keynote talk on Trust, Integrity, AI and the Research Library.
RLUK25 Conference, March 2025
Panel: ‘Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL’: AI and Trust in Libraries
Panel: ‘Open the Pod Bay Doors, HAL’: AI and Trust in Libraries
This panel session provides a rich range of perspectives on the relationship between AI and trust in libraries, offering valuable insights and potential next steps. It was an active and engaging roundtable session bringing together experts from different sectors to explore how AI can be deployed and used ethically and effectively in libraries including concerns about trust, data privacy, transparency, and bias. Chaired by Ed Fay, University of Bristol.
Panellists
- Katie Eagleton, University of St Andrews
- Simon Tanner, King’s College London
- Bella Abrams, Jisc
- Cristina Blanca-Sancho, Clarivate
RLUK25 Conference, March 2025
Plenary: Embedding Ethics in AI
Plenary: Embedding Ethics in AI
Plenary session on embedding ethics in AI with Karen Jackson, Research and Academic Support Manager, University of Warwick on “Shaping AI Guidelines” and Graeme Kemp, Senior Librarian, University of St Andrews on “Keeping the Human in the Loop”.
RLUK25 Conference, March 2025
Machine Learning Approaches to Gender Bias in Archival Curation
Machine Learning Approaches to Gender Bias in Archival Curation
Lucy Havens reports on research combining Machine Learning (ML) and human-centered research methods to identify gender biased language in archival catalogue metadata descriptions. Though the ML community has achieved significant advances in language modeling, state-of-the-art models still have social biases encoded within them, the implications of which are under-explored. ML researchers and practitioners have focused more on minimising and removing bias than on understanding and managing bias. Adopting pre-trained ML models thus risks harm to marginalised communities that information and heritage professionals have been working to better represent. Motivated by information and heritage professionals’ desire to manage bias, as well as the scalability and efficiency that ML offers, Lucy has been investigating a new use case for ML: identifying bias
RLUK Inclusive Collections, Inclusive Libraries, February 2025
The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law
Ryan Abbott, Professor of Law and Health Sciences, University of Surrey and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA argues that the law should not discriminate between AI and human behavior and proposes a new legal principle that will ultimately improve human well-being.
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, April 2022
Making not breaking: a cybernetics approach to responsible AI design
At Australia’s national university, a new approach to engineering responsible AI systems is being explored, drawing on reinvigorated cybernetic concepts. In this talk, Ellen Broad, Research and Senior Fellow, School of Cybernetics, Australian National University explores cybernetics – the trans-disciplinary mid 20th century movement from which AI and computer science emerged – as an organising framework through which to reconsider how we build, maintain and use AI systems. Drawing on not only the technological elements comprising AI systems, but their human and ecological elements, cybernetics offers a way of reimagining the way we engineer AI today and the role it plays in our future. At Australia’s national university, a new approach to engineering
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, March 2022
AI and Open Source Infrastructure
The Open Source Movement and AI
Sayeed Choudhury, Associate Dean for Digital Infrastructure and Director of the Open Source Programs Office (OSPO) at Carnegie Mellon Libraries, provides an overview of the growing open source movement within universities and its implications for AI, particularly as it relates to infrastructure development. Openness has played a key role in more than one digital shift, including open access to articles and open data infrastructure. As open source software continues to play a critical role in digital infrastructure, there is a growing movement around openness in AI, as exemplified by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) community-led co-design process to create the Open Source AI definition (OSAID).
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, December 2024
How can libraries make the most of open-source AI and machine learning?
Daniel van Strien, a Machine Learning Librarian at Hugging Face, explores practical ways in which libraries can leverage AI and machine learning, and why this often doesn’t necessitate the use of generative AI. Daniel also advocates for more libraries to consider adopting and contributing to open-source AI.
RLUK Digital Shift Forum, July 2024