World Library and Information Congress (WLIC) Papers and Presentations

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://repository.ifla.org/handle/20.500.14598/1941

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 2057

Not the Answer, but the Ability to Choose: What 19 Years of Research Support Data Reveal About the Librarian's Evolving Role
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-25) An, Yu Gyung
Seoul National University Library started research support services in 2007. Over the past nineteen years, the kinds of requests researchers bring to librarians have changed. This presentation looks at 11,424 requests from 2007 to June 2026, and asks what this change means for the role of librarians in the AI era. The analysis focuses on the type of requests, not the total number. In earlier years, most requests were about finding previous studies and getting full text. In recent years, more requests are about decisions. Which journal should I submit to? Is my search strategy good enough? How should I read this similarity report? In the earliest period, search and access support was 94.0 percent of requests. In the most recent period, decision and workflow support was 58.9 percent. This change matters. Researchers now have many tools, including ChatGPT, that can quickly give answers, summaries, and options. What they often need is not more information. They need to know what is enough at their stage of research. Librarians help with this. We narrow the options. We explain why we recommend something. We also share knowledge from editors, colleagues, and field conversations that is not yet in published papers. The future of research support is not about competing with AI to produce more answers. It is about helping researchers understand their options, judge what is enough, and make the final decision themselves.
Challenges and Solutions in Cross-Border Resource Sharing
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-17) Colombo, Giovanna; Mangiaracina, Silvana; Lomba, Carmen; Maimone Ansaldo Patti, Loriana
The results and the findings of a DDRS Committee promoted survey on the difficulties and barriers of cross-border interlibrary exchanges of physical items (custom duties and delays, payment and shipping methods) and possible international resource sharing solutions adopted and strategies proposed by libraries around the world will be presented. Comments and open responses provided global information from libraries worldwide regarding the challenges faced in cross-border resource sharing and to explore effective approaches that can enhance international cooperation. Special attention is given to possible alternative strategies to overcome the limitations of physical delivery through the supply of partial or complete copies of books using Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) and the Resource Sharing Collaborative and Voluntary Document Delivery (RSCVD) initiative.
When AI Answers First, What Happens to Reference Work?
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-24) Jinio, Martian; Lastimosa, Nikko Angelo
This exploratory qualitative study examines how generative artificial intelligence is reshaping reference and information services from the perspective of library workers. In response to growing concerns about hallucinated citations and fabricated sources, the research explores how library staff describe and respond to AI-related situations in their everyday practice. The study's data consisted of 19 comments collected in April 2026 from researcher-initiated discussion threads on Reddit. These comments, representing library workers across academic, public, science, and archival settings, were analyzed using iterative qualitative coding and thematic analysis. The findings identified four major themes: reference work as verification and repair; workflow adaptation under AI conditions; trust, authority, and librarian mediation; and selective and context-dependent AI use. The study concludes that AI is not replacing librarians but is instead shifting their labor toward the time-consuming verification and correction of plausible but inaccurate information. This shift reinforces the continuing importance of professional judgment and human mediation in digital information environments where credibility is increasingly difficult to determine. The study provides an initial understanding of how AI-generated misinformation consumes institutional labor and highlights the evolving role of librarians as essential mediators who help users navigate environments where plausibility can no longer be mistaken for credibility.
Place as Seen by Creators: Lessons from a Youth Filmmaker Oral History Project for Local History Collection in Public Libraries
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-24) Chen, Xinyu
Public libraries have long collected local history through material change - urban development, architectural shifts, demographic change - while sensory and embodied dimensions remain largely absent from archives. This paper argues that organizing pre-linguistic, fragmentary sensory experience into narrative is a learned ability—one whose subjective, embodied quality conventional documentation struggles to capture. Oral history provides a lens for examining this process, as it foregrounds how narrators remember and articulate place. Creative communities (filmmakers, artists, writers, etc.) are ideal partners for collecting such memories. Trained to translate non-verbal experiential experience into preservable narrative, creators are not merely inhabitants of place but its interpreters. Grounded in an oral history project involving in-depth interviews with young Chinese filmmakers from the Vision Youth Awards (2003-2023), the analysis reveals three experiential patterns: sensory echoes of lost spaces, embodied pathways of memory, and affective layering of place memory. These constitute a personal experiential history of place—a dimension almost entirely absent from existing archives. The paper proposes three strategies for public libraries: expanding collection targets to include local creative communities; enriching metadata frameworks with experiential fields; and establishing collaborative mechanisms with universities, arts institutions, and film festivals to broaden reach and ensure inclusive representation.
How Can Libraries Bridge Heritage and Community Memory in the AI Era? A 5A Framework
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-24) Wei, Jingzhu; Chen, Zhipeng
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how cultural heritage is digitized, organized, retrieved, interpreted, and reused, while also raising concerns about weakened cultural context, algorithmic bias, limited community representation, and long-term preservation. Using an interpretive multiple-case study, this article examines four Chinese initiatives: the National Library of China’s China Memory Project, Shanghai Library’s genealogy services, the digitization of ethnic minority classics in Guangxi, and the Digital Dunhuang Open Materials Library. It proposes a 5A framework comprising Access, Awareness, Agency, Accountability, and Afterlife. Access enables cultural resources to enter the public knowledge sphere; Awareness supports contextualized understanding; Agency determines whether communities can participate in interpretation and reproduction; Accountability governs collection, algorithmic processing, access, and reuse; and Afterlife depends on preservation, provenance tracking, rights management, and sustained use. The cases reveal a distinctive pathway centered on institutional preservation, platform development, low-resource script processing, and tiered openness, but also expose gaps in community co-governance, algorithmic transparency, and user-impact evaluation. The framework reframes multicultural literacy as a shared governance capacity involving libraries, communities, and technical systems, offering an analytical tool for AI-enabled heritage projects and cross-national comparison.
Libraries as Co-Creators: Developing a Living Digital Encyclopedia with Communities
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-24) Pandiyan, Azhagiya; Jailani, Haliza
The Encyclopedia of Singapore Tamils (EST), launched in August 2025 by Singapore’s President, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, is the first bilingual digital reference work dedicated to documenting the 200-year history, heritage, and contributions of the Tamil community in Singapore. Developed jointly by the Centre for Singapore Tamil Culture (CSTC) and the National Library Board (NLB), the EST represents a significant milestone in community-led knowledge creation and culturally inclusive librarianship. With more than 400 entries each in English and Tamil spanning history, arts, literature, education, media, organisations, politics, religion, and notable personalities, the EST addresses longstanding gaps in accessible and authoritative information on Singapore Tamils. This paper examines the EST as a model of collaborative digital heritage development, highlighting how volunteer contributors, researchers, educators, and cultural practitioners worked alongside librarians, cataloguers, and digital heritage specialists to create a sustainable and publicly accessible resource. The paper discusses the technical and curatorial frameworks underpinning the encyclopedia, including bilingual metadata structures, multilingual accessibility, digital discoverability, and community editorial workflows. It also explores the concept of the EST as a “living encyclopedia” , designed to evolve continuously through ongoing community participation and editorial stewardship. By presenting the EST’s development process, governance model, technical innovations, and community impact, this paper offers insights for libraries and cultural institutions seeking to co-create heritage knowledge with communities. It argues that collaborative digital encyclopedias can play an important role in amplifying minority voices, strengthening cultural resilience, and enriching national memory within increasingly diverse societies.
No Dedicated IT Team, No Limits: Automating Research Output Management with AI at ETRI Library
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-20) Bae, Seongjin
Accumulating research outputs in an institutional repository does not guarantee discoverability. The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) Library, part of Korea's largest government-funded ICT research institute, addressed the low visibility of its repository records in Google Scholar as a metadata quality problem rather than a search engine optimization issue. Using AI-assisted coding, the library developed scripts to inspect metadata and monitor indexing status, which improved Google Scholar indexing. Missing abstracts emerged as a major challenge, so for papers whose abstracts were unavailable from external databases, the library created a workflow combining OCR and a large language model (LLM) to identify abstract sections directly from original PDFs. Building on this work, the library is expanding automation through Codex-based agents and robotic process automation (RPA) to collect official conference and journal URLs and support the entry and verification of publication records. This case shows that libraries can achieve meaningful innovation without dedicated IT specialists or large budgets by improving metadata, automating repetitive tasks, and keeping final validation in human hands.
From Collection to Community: Reframing the Documentation of Local Wine Heritage at Katsunuma Library
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-18) Furuya, Michiru; Tanahashi, Yoshiko
This paper examines how Katsunuma Library, a public library in Koshu City, Yamanashi Prefecture, documents and transmits local wine heritage through its long-running “Grape and Wine Exhibition” and related practices. Rather than treating exhibitions and public programs as temporary outreach activities, the paper argues that they function as part of a documentary cycle through which local memories, oral history interviews, photographs, booklets, and other materials are gathered, organized, preserved, and reused, and connected to everyday reference service. The case also shows how the library makes visible aspects of local life that had long remained undocumented because they were too familiar to be recognized as records. In addition, the paper discusses how trust has been built between the library and local residents, growers, and winemakers; how local culture is translated into accessible forms for children and visitors through kamishibai picture-card storytelling, outreach, and wine tourism-related learning and the activities of Come Come Club; and how digital projects expand the reach and discoverability of these local records. Taken together, these practices suggest that Katsunuma Library serves as a curator of local memory, making local wine heritage visible, durable, and capable of being shared across generations.
Community Memory in the Age of AI: Post-Custodial Frameworks from Kula: Library Futures Academy
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-18) Huculak, Matt; Bengtson, Jonathan
Libraries have long inherited the role of custodian: keeper of the collection, guardian of the record, arbiter of what memory endures. Yet the heritage most in need of safeguarding today — the contested, the dissonant, the politically inconvenient — rarely arrives at the library's door in a form the institution knows how to receive. It lives on phones, in private drives, in activist networks working at the edge of censorship, conflict, and climate disruption. In the age of generative AI, the ground beneath such material shifts again: fabrication grows cheaper, provenance thinner, and the line between preservation and erasure harder to hold. This paper introduces Kula: Library Futures Academy at the University of Victoria Libraries — a library-based institute of advanced studies built as a transdisciplinary collider for emerging research methods. Kula treats AI not as a neutral accelerant but as a technology requiring ethical stewardship grounded in the communities whose memories are at stake. Three initiatives anchor the approach: 1. Fellowship Programs to build new expertise in the profession; 2. LENS@UVicLib is building an endowment for digitization, metadata enhancement, and AI-enabled analysis of library collections; and; 3. Liberating Knowledge Partnerships supports co-custodial collecting — most visibly through Project 35, preserving oral histories of Indigenous leaders who negotiated Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution. One might reasonably argue that the AI moment compels libraries not to consolidate their custodianship but to distribute it: to become, in short, infrastructure for others' memory work. Whether the profession is ready for that shift is what Kula means to ask.
From Transcriptions to Memory: Libraries as Curators of Community Questions in the Age of AI
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-18) Young Kang, Keun
Libraries have long preserved recorded knowledge, but not the questions patrons ask. Every reference interaction produces a question, a moment of curiosity or uncertainty expressed in natural language. Current practice reduces these questions to transaction counts and category labels. Recent studies have applied machine learning and natural language processing to reference transcripts, mainly to classify question types or improve service workflows, not to preserve them as culturally meaningful data. Drawing on a reconceptualization of librarianship as the facilitation of knowledge creation through conversation, we propose that libraries are equally positioned to preserve traces of that conversation. Patron questions, collected and analyzed over time, may constitute a form of community memory, revealing shifts in community concern and gaps between institutional knowledge and public understanding. During a pandemic, for example, patron questions expose uncertainties that published documents rarely capture. We outline a conceptual framework for question-based community memory, discuss how AI can support structuring and interpreting such data at scale, and address ethical considerations around patron privacy.
Transforming legacy card catalogs with AI
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-18) Byström, Karin; Forsberg, Asa; Nolgren, Markus
Legacy card catalogs constitute a major barrier to discovery in research libraries, as they remain largely disconnected from modern digital infrastructures. This case study presents a large-scale implementation at Uppsala University Library, Gothenburg University Library and Lund University Library, where a hybrid AI-driven pipeline has been developed to transform digitized catalog images into structured metadata information, integrated into Libris (the Swedish union catalog). To date, 770,000 holdings have been added or updated in Libris enabling streamlined request workflows, and each record linked to the original catalog image via persistent identifiers. This paper presents the pipeline which includes scanning and analyzing the catalog, segmentation and transcription of text, metadata extraction, matching existing bibliographic records, and adding holding information. We discuss methodological choices, technical challenges, evaluation strategies, and implications for research accessibility, and focus on four key contributions: (1) handling heterogeneous and historically complex catalog data, (2) a flexible pipeline combining AI tools and classic library and systems skills, (3) large-scale metadata matching against Libris using multiple matching strategies, and (4) systematic quality evaluation using ground truth and sampling. The study demonstrates how AI can be operationalized within library infrastructures beyond experimental settings, combining programming and prompting skills with core librarian competencies in cataloging and metadata.
Libraries and Cultural Diversity: Comparative Study of  Multicultural Library Practices in the Philippines and Sri Lanka
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-18) Eugenio, Lucan L.; Weerasinghe, Sandun
Academic libraries contribute to inclusivity through equitable access to information, representation of diverse cultural perspectives, and responsiveness to the needs of multicultural communities. This study examined and compared multicultural library practices in academic libraries in the Philippines and Sri Lanka from the perspectives of library users and library personnel across five dimensions: collections, services and programs, staff competencies, policies and institutional practices, and community engagement. The study employed a mixed-methods convergent parallel research design. Quantitative data were collected from library users through structured questionnaires, while qualitative data were gathered from library personnel through open-ended questions. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative data were analyzed through thematic analysis. Academic libraries in both countries incorporated multicultural principles into their collections, services, staff competencies, policies, and institutional practices. In the Philippines, multicultural librarianship was primarily associated with cultural representation, preservation of local knowledge, and the visibility of diverse cultural identities. In Sri Lanka, inclusivity was more closely associated with language accessibility and equitable access to information across diverse linguistic communities. Inclusive collections, supportive staff-user interactions, equitable services, and institutional support contributed to perceptions of inclusivity, while challenges remained in resource development, staff preparedness, community engagement, and institutional capacity. Multicultural librarianship is context-dependent and requires approaches that respond to the cultural, linguistic, and institutional characteristics of the communities served. An integrated approach to multicultural librarianship remains important in supporting inclusive and culturally responsive academic library environments.
From Custody to Capability: Enabling Communities to Care for Their Own Documentary Heritage
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-18) Esson, Rachel
At the National Library of New Zealand, we are transforming the way we engage with communities to enable them to collect and protect the resources that are important to them. We are deliberately collecting less as the National Library and are building a pathway to a post-custodial engagement with our indigenous and other communities. Alongside our sister organisation, Archives New Zealand, we have a strategic objective to “Grow Capability & Partnerships” with a focus on growing capability and partnerships to strengthen communities to care for their own collections. We will do this by helping to deepen critical skills and expertise for the future documentary heritage and information workforce. We have partnered with other cultural sector organisations to deliver a programme, Te Pūranga, that works with indigenous archivists to strengthen their knowledge and confidence in caring for their own collections. Commencing in August 2023, it introduced the participants to the culture and heritage agencies, the work we do and the ways we can support them with their work. It has continued with regular online workshops and in-person seminars. Feedback from participants included that the programme has improved their confidence and knowledge which has had direct benefits for their communities.
International students’ autoethnographies toward understanding multiculturalism and libraries’ role as an essential infrastructure supporting multiculturalism
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-18) Lee, Sukwon
This paper challenges the existing approach by reconceptualizing international students as agents who produce cultural knowledge. Autoethnographies can provide international students with systematic opportunities to reflect their multicultural adaptation, while fostering multicultural literacy and communication skills. If libraries support this proposal, they can fulfill a vital role needed by the community as an inclusive and diverse and inclusive space. Theoretically, this research proposal can contribute to a better understanding of the research agenda regarding Intercultural Communication Competence (ICC) and cultural adaptation. Existing methods for measuring ICC have often demonstrated limitations by relying on generalized concepts out of context. This paper aims to suggest a new framework of measuring ICC based on culturally sensitive approaches, grounded in each student's lived experiences. In practical perspective, two research directions are envisioned. First, it collects autoethnographies centered on the experiences of Korean international students in the United States. Second, the scope of this proposal is expanded to international students in Korea, particularly those from Southeast Asia. By integrating reflective writing of autoethnographies, this proposal offers a framework for strengthening multicultural literacy, and cross-cultural understanding across transnational educational settings. Moreover, academic and public libraries are repositioned as democratic infrastructures for multiculturalism.
Building Inclusive Archives: Expanding Academic Library Collections to Document Underrepresented Community Histories
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-18) Kim, Ellie
This paper explores how the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa Library has developed the Korean War Archive through a process of community collaboration and locality documentation. The project originated from a partnership between the Korean War Veterans Association (KWVA), Hawai‘i Chapter 1, and the Korean Consulate in Honolulu, which began in late 2023. Unlike institutional archives developed solely within academic settings, this project demonstrates how an overseas university library can serve as a bridge between scholarship and the lived experiences of a local community. The Hawai‘i Korean War Veteran Collection was built not through formal acquisitions or research grants, but through direct engagement with veterans, their families, and the local Korean community, many of whom share deep historical and emotional ties to both Korea and Hawai‘i. By highlighting this case, the paper argues that community-based archiving represents a powerful approach for libraries to extend their role beyond the academic sphere into the social and cultural life of their communities. Although grounded in archival principles, the project also embodies a practice of locality documentation—recording the intersections of geography, identity, and memory across national boundaries. This paper traces the project’s evolution, from its inception and relationship-building to the collection, preservation, and digitization of records, and finally to its use in education and outreach. It concludes by reflecting on how such collaborations can reshape the mission of academic libraries in documenting marginalized histories and transnational experiences.
Future Challenges in the Digitization and Public Access of Hyakunin Isshu Materials as Historical Resources.
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-18) Hasegawa, Yukiyo
The Atomi University Library has developed one of Japan's leading collections of Hyakunin Isshu, a classical anthology of one hundred waka poems by one hundred poets, together with a wide range of related historical materials. Since 2008, the collection has been progressively digitized and made publicly accessible through a digital archive. This study examines the significance of the collection, its digitization, and its educational and scholarly applications, while also addressing future challenges for sustainable digital archiving. The research is based on a review of the collection's history, a case study of its digital archive, an interview with TRC-ADEAC Inc., and a comparison with overseas initiatives, including the UC Berkeley Digital Collections. The findings indicate that the digital archive has enhanced research, education, and community outreach by improving access to historical materials. At the same time, sustainable funding, effective promotion, metadata standardization, and interoperability remain critical issues. The study argues that future digital archive projects should integrate both technical and operational perspectives to improve usability and facilitate cross-institutional access. Such efforts will contribute to the long-term preservation, accessibility, and educational value of historical cultural resources in Japan and beyond.
Teaching College Students How to Seek Missing Voices: Possible Roles for AI
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-18) Reed, Emily
College students often defer to trusted search habits when assigned a new research project. Unfortunately, most college students have only been taught a few strategies and tactics for research, and they often choose research methods that are the most convenient, methods that are timesaving, efficient, and easy. Those methods may result in high grades for some projects, but they do not lead to students learning how to think like researchers. This paper highlights how I have taught students to go beyond using the search bar for their research projects and to seek missing voices and perspectives. I share key components of my lesson plan, assessment strategies, and foundational theories that ground the lesson. The success of this lesson depends on students’ understanding of critical concepts including publishing processes that exacerbate inequities, multicultural ways of knowing, biases, ethnocentrism, and censorship. There is a focus on strategies shared with students for searching for missing voices. The final part of the paper addresses how to engage with students about AI when seeking missing voices. Points of consideration for discussion with students include how AI could positively help to elevate missing voices or perspectives, concerns about AI harming already disenfranchised communities, and the ethics of using AI tools for research as college students.
Building Digital Resilience through Metaliteracy: A Meme-Based Pedagogy to Counter AI-Driven Disinformation
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-17) Wu, Changhong; Mackey, Thomas P.; Zhang, Weirui; Zou, Jiatong
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has unsettled how information is produced, circulated, and trusted. Deepfakes, synthetic text, algorithmic curation, and model hallucinations now interact in ways the retrieval-and-evaluation model of information literacy was never designed to handle. This paper argues that metaliteracy—an integrative, self-referential framework spanning the behavioural, cognitive, affective, and metacognitive domains—offers a stronger foundation, and that digital resilience is the capability metaliteracy yields when learners face AI-driven disinformation. We report on a meme-based pedagogy taught at the library of Northeast Normal University, a Chinese “Double First-Class” institution, which turns abstract metaliterate objectives into visual, memorable, shareable artefacts. Surveying 183 undergraduate participants, we find consistently high competence across all four domains (means 4.18–4.29 on a five-point scale), strong agreement that memes support recall and reflection, and robust verification behaviour in scenarios involving an unsourced disaster image, a fabricated AI citation, and a deepfake video. We also examine the “dual transformation dilemma” facing Chinese university libraries—reconciling top-down digitalisation mandates with grassroots responses to AI disruption—and how the librarian’s role shifts toward proactive educational designer and steward of information integrity. We offer the model as a scalable, culturally adaptable contribution to information literacy in a disrupted ecosystem. Keywords: metaliteracy; digital resilience; meme-based pedagogy; generative AI; AI-driven disinformation
Curating Trust and Connections: Transforming the Information Ecosystem with Instruction, Grounded Curation, and Open Pedagogy
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-17) Oberlander, Cyril
In an era of context collapse and a disrupted information landscape, where the origins and authority of information are increasingly obscured, this presentation demonstrates how Cal Poly Humboldt Library is advancing AI literacy and skills, while also developing innovative trusted digital environments. By leveraging the expertise of library professionals in curation and information literacy, we can transform AI from a source of misinformation into a powerful tool for discovery and learning. This session presents a multifaceted case study from Cal Poly Humboldt, highlighting a spectrum of AI integration, from AI Worldcafés, to AI workshops, to the creation of custom, source-grounded AI applications within an open pedagogy framework. The instructional approach ranges from Slice of AI & Pie, to AI SkillShops, designed to help students, staff, and faculty move from using general AI chatbots to utilizing grounded systems. Unlike general models that rely on broad internet datasets, the instruction focuses on finding and uploading trusted sources in AI tools. These AI Skillshops address a need to share techniques to build trust and AI literacy using grounded tools informed by user-uploaded trusted sources that improve AI citing directly to high quality works, enhancing critical thinking, and reducing opportunities for hallucinations and unsupported claims. The presentation further details the development of Ask Alex Humboldt, a collaborative research project that utilizes a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline. This application leverages the library’s Digital Commons institutional repository as knowledge source to a vector database, connecting academic repositories to large language models. Our goal is to ground AI responses in peer-reviewed scholarship and specialized open science repositories, our Library seeks to add meaningful connections of academic research with community science and observations. Crucially, these projects employ an open pedagogy approach, involving students as active co-creators in the design and testing of agentic AI. By working under the constraints of open-source and proprietary models, students learn the mechanics and realities of AI; such as document parsing with Docling and parallel processing with Ray clusters, while grappling with the ethical implications of algorithmic bias and data privacy. This hands-on collaboration empowers students to move from passive consumers of AI to informed architects of trusted information systems. Ultimately, this session demonstrates that the role of libraries in the age of AI is not just to teach literacy, but to lead the development of scholarly-informed AI agents. By combining expert curation with agentic AI design, libraries can strengthen authority and transparency within the digital information environment, ensuring that the future of research remains both innovative and trustworthy. Keywords: AI literacy; grounded curation; retrieval-augmented generation; open pedagogy; information trust
Media quiteracy and the role of AI refusal in information literacy programs
(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), 2026-08-17) McElroy, Kelly
This paper uses the idea of media quiteracy to carve out a role for AI refusal in information literacy programs. As proposed by Good and Ciccone (2025), media quiteracy posits that media literacy can and should include opportunities to resist and reshape specific technologies. Libraries host media, tech, and information literacy programs, often through teaching our users how to use tools like databases or LLM tools. But what opens up when we also teach about how to not to use those tools? While we are currently deep in a hype cycle promoting broad and numerous uses of generative AI, serious reservations include issues of accuracy, data privacy, copyright, labor exploitation, bias, and environmental harms. AI literacy that focuses exclusively on teaching the use of AI tools forecloses discussion of those serious issues. Media quiteracy suggests that taking tech refusal seriously empowers learners: by centering user autonomy, learners become active participants in shaping the future of technologies. I use emergent examples of library programming in public and academic libraries in the United States to show how AI quiteracy fits into AI literacy and information literacy programs, and will offer practical responses to potential backlash.

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