by Dorothy Ogdon   Robots are automated machines usually intended to replace or lessen human effort in tasks. Cobots are automated machines designed to work collaboratively alongside humans. Twenty-one years past the start of the 21st century, robots and cobots of all kinds are present in libraries, as a popular feature of STEAM, STEM, and Makerspace activities. In addition to their popularity as part of literacy and…

by Peter Hyun How should I start this blog post? Maybe I don’t need to start it at all… “Artificial intelligence today is more complex than ever before, and there’s a growing number of companies and research groups working on ways to make it more intelligent. One such company is called the Brain in a…

by Shelly Black Many digital humanities and grant-funded projects have involved the application of machine learning techniques to analyze and reveal new insights from the historical record. These efforts often involve many collaborators and large collections. Can special collections and archives use these same tools to improve description, and consequently access, on a smaller scale…

by Julie Marie Frye Nearly five years ago, I observed Jamie McQueen, introducing Whitby School 7th grade learners to Boston Analytics’ Atlas during his Language & Literature course. Learners were captivated with Atlas’s technology and began reimagining a future where artificial intelligence (AI) ran the world. Jamie’s See, Think, Wonder on Atlas impelled learners back to the common reader for the course,…

by Win Shih For non-native speakers, people with regional lilts, dialects, drawls, or people with speech impairments or mobility issues, it can be frustrating sometimes when voice assistant seems not getting their utterance. “Sorry, I can’t help with that,” “Sorry, I’m having trouble understanding right now,” or “Sorry, I didn’t get that.” It is not uncommon…

by Gigi Mohamad According to AASL, school librarians are instructional leaders, technology integrationists, Collaborators, and program administrators. Budget cuts in many school libraries deprived librarians of any personnel assistance and restricted them from extending their reach outside of their library spaces. With the advances in AI technology, the possibility of making up for the loss…

by Anchalee (Joy) Panigabutra-Roberts I thought about AI (artificial intelligence) and it took me back to a book I read many moons ago by Ellen Ullman, a woman computer programmer, with the title, Close to the Machine: Technophilia and its Discontents (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 1997). It is her memoir as a female computer…

by Cas Laskowski Great AI applications require deliberate application, thoughtful planning, and meaningful data. Unfortunately, many projects are subject to various pressures that work against best practices. The seemingly never-ending hype around AI, and more specifically machine learning (ML) creates serious institutional fear of falling behind and losing opportunities. Budget cuts exacerbate these pressures as…

by Ismail Msuya I believe that the adoption of Artificial Intelligence in libraries and information environments would open the door to transformative opportunities for increasing library usage and enhancing the overall user experiences. A prime example of such opportunities includes the implementation of visual sensors that utilize AI technologies in a library setting so that…

by Tienya Smith A few years ago, I began to notice that my public library’s out-of-school time (OST) environment was changing. My OST colleagues at the New York Hall of Science and the American Museum of Natural History were using tools like evidence-based learning models and design thinking to enhance their curriculum. Their organizations integrated…