iSchools Book Talk
AI for the Information Professional: A Critical Guide
presented by Andrew Cox
The Book
Is artificial intelligence (AI) a question answering machine, a helpful companion, a persuasive storyteller, a deceitful often hidden system, or a global industry?
In this authoritative and thought-provoking guide, Andrew Cox invites library and information professionals to reflect on the exciting and troubling concept of AI and the impact it is having on their work and the library and information sector more broadly. Blending practical tips and activities with critical insight, the book equips readers to make informed choices about when – and how – to use AI, answering a range of key questions such as:
What is AI and what is the history of the idea?
How is AI changing information behaviour?
What are the ethical issues around AI?
How can we make sense of AI's impact on the environment?
How can we boost the AI capability of our own library?
What should every librarian know about AI?
What are the elements of AI literacy or competency?
How is AI changing research and what are the implications for libraries?
How will libraries employ their own chatbots?
What is the future of AI?
With a distinctive narrative approach, AI for the Information Professional is an engaging, accessible exploration of the stories we tell about AI – and how those stories influence its role in our institutions. Written by one of the leading experts on AI in the sector, this book is an essential, hands-on companion for librarians and information professionals seeking to navigate uncertainty, champion responsible innovation, and shape the future of their field.
The Author
Andrew Cox is Senior Lecturer in the School of Information, Journalism and Communication at the University of Sheffield. He has been working in the LIS field for two decades and been writing about AI and libraries for nearly half that time. He is convenor of the IFLA Special Interest Group on AI and is a past chair of the ASIS&T SIG on AI. He has previously published AI for Knowledge (co-authored with Mike Thelwall).
What makes this book special?
In Artificial Intelligence for information professionals: a critical guide, I share my thoughts from nearly a decade of researching developments in the way AI is changing libraries and access to knowledge - key issues for ischools. As well as considering more obvious debates, such as how to define AI literacy or how to prompt LLMs effectively, I reflect on the cultural meaning of the concept of AI. For how we think about AI is shaped by the metaphors we use for it, and how it is pictured. Part of the way I investigate the meaning of AI, is through thinking about narratives of AI, including fictional accounts. This could be in Speculative Fiction, but it could also be in more everyday fictions like system or ethics scenarios or as developed for futures thinking. Part of the contention of the book is that in often unacknowledged ways, fictional narratives play quite an important part in professional work. Fiction also has a powerful potential role in research and for sharing research results. I think acknowledging this fictional and narrative view of AI helps unleash a more imaginative, more daring vantage point from which to query or shape its meaning.
What could be a more fascinating blend than thinking about stories and AI!
Why should people read this book?
How AI impacts library and information work has been a central debate for information researchers and professionals for the last few years. There does not seem to be any end to the debate - with the evolution of LLMs, the gradual embedding of AI in real information services, and now the appearance of agentic AI. The book offers material to open up the key questions about the benefit of AI and the profound ethical issues associated with it. In the context of increasing pushback against AI, I think its vitally important for everyone in ischools to engage with it.
What will people learn from this book?
Some of the kind of questions I respond to in the book are:
• What is AI? What is the history of the idea? What different perspectives are there on it? Is it anything more than just another technology?
• How is AI changing information behaviour: how people search and use information? Does it increase access to knowledge or feed a sense of information crisis?
• What are the ethical issues around AI? Do we have to use it? What would constitute transparency for AI? What does human-centred AI mean? How can we make sense of AI’s impact on the environment?
• What questions should we be asking to evaluate potential AI applications in libraries?
• In what ways can AI be used in libraries? How might different library sectors respond to AI differently?
• How can we boost the AI capability of our own library?
• What are the elements of AI literacy or competency?
• What should every librarian know about AI?
• If we are making use of generative AI, how can we design our prompts effectively? And what questions should we be asking about its outputs?
• How is AI changing research and what are the implications for libraries?
• What is the future of AI? What visions for AI in libraries can we imagine?
The book contains many activity suggestions that can be used for engaging teaching sessions on AI.
iSchools Book Talk is a new iSchools feature series spotlighting books that members of iSchools would recommend to the iSchools community. These books can be presented either by the authors themselves or by any other iSchools member.
Please contact admin@ischools-inc.org in case you would like to feature a book as well.
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