International Journal of Librarianship

Seeing Humanity in Technology

Yali Feng — 2025-07-31

AI in Scholarly Publishing

Wenli Gao — 2025-07-31

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as generative AI became more common, its use in academic settings also gained more popularity. Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer (ChatGPT) is an AI powered chatbot developed by OpenAI. It has many benefits for scholarly publishing. However, ChatGPT and related technologies have been identified as disruptive innovations with the potential to revolutionize academia and scholarly publishing (Haque et al., 2022). ChatGPT can only benefit authors when used responsibly. There are certainly ethical issues with using ChatGPT for scholarly publishing. First of all, authorship is a major concern. There are questions about the ownership of the work generated by ChatGPT (Schönberger, 2018). Besides, there may be concerns about copyright as well. When using ChatGPT, users may find it challenging to ensure that quotes, data, or other materials from external sources comply with copyright laws and receive proper attribution (Gillotte, 2019). When the language models are trained on a massive amount of data from unknown sources, it is almost impossible to track the original source. As a result, plagiarism may arise from using ChatGPT. It is not limited to copyrighted text, but also includes paraphrasing, methods, graphics, ideas, and any other product of intelligence that belongs to another person (Gasparyan et al., 2017). With the issues raised above, it is necessary to examine the current state of transparency regarding the use of generative AI in scholarly publishing.

We Are in It Together

Stan Trembach — 2025-07-31

The rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has drawn attention to a multitude of complex ethical issues in AI use, necessitating further steps toward a multidisciplinary AI literacy education framework and more robust guidelines for addressing the challenges faced by the library profession and society at large. In an attempt to contribute to the development of such guidelines, this article draws on the example of selected learning activities of a graduate-level library science course taught at a regional university. The article then discusses the AI literacy through community engagement concept that provides a structure to integrate AI literacy into LIS education and professional practice of librarianship.

What Motivated Them to Assume Leadership Roles

Jingjing Wu — 2025-07-31

This study explores the motivations of former presidents of the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) in assuming leadership roles within the organization. Through inductive thematic analysis of interview transcripts, the study identifies key motivations that drove these individuals to engage in CALA’s leadership and the impact of their experiences on their professional growth and development. The analysis, supported by generative AI tools (ChatGPT 4o mini and Claude Haiku with concise responses), reveals nine core themes, categorized into three overarching groups: Professional Development and Personal Growth, Advocacy, Influence, and Responsibilities, and Organizational Culture. These themes encompass factors such as professional development, career advancement, cultural empowerment, mentorship, and a desire to give back to CALA. The findings offer valuable insights for fostering leadership engagement within CALA and similar professional organizations, highlighting the desire for giving back and cultural connections and empowerment. Additionally, the study reflects on the use of generative AI in qualitative research, demonstrating its potential to enhance the efficiency and rigor of thematic analysis.

Proposing A Critical AI Literacy Framework for Academic Librarians

Cecilia Zhang — 2025-07-31

This article investigates the application of Critical AI Literacy in research strategies in the field of humanities, exemplified by a case study of CNKI SMART, an AI-driven feature in one of the leading databases for Chinese Studies, the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI). As GenAI transforms information access, libraries and librarians bear increasing responsibility for fostering AI Literacy and Critical AI Literacy among patrons to support thoughtful engagement with GenAI-generated content. Addressing this critical gap, we propose a Critical AI Literacy evaluation practice—the RACBAC Standard—combining seven Critical AI Literacy Skills to assist researchers in humanities and potentially other disciplines. The RACBAC Standard evaluates GenAI outputs based on Relevance, Accuracy, Coverage, Bias, Authority, and Currency. Through a case study evaluating CNKI SMART’s responses to a given research question, we demonstrate the application of our proposed RACBAC Standards. Findings highlight the necessity of librarians’ role in assisting researchers to cross-reference and critically examine GenAI-assisted research using the proposed six standards. This article contributes to the emerging discourse on AI Literacy and Critical AI Literacy by advancing strategies that promote responsible use of GenAI tools across academic fields.

Changes and the Challenges of Library Reference Services After the Covid-19 Pandemic

Shu Qian — 2025-07-31

During the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities implemented numerous changes and launched new measures to resume teaching and learning activities, which significantly challenged library reference services. Although institutions are gradually recovering from the disruptions caused by the pandemic, students' learning behaviors have changed considerably. Reference service departments in academic libraries have undergone transformations and are actively seeking new solutions to revive or evolve services to help students who were deeply affected by the lockdown and the new norms that followed.

In this research, surveys and interviews were conducted at New England Liberal Arts College Libraries to understand the changes and challenges faced by library reference services. Despite the significant impact, library reference services are reconnecting with students through various outlets and strategically embracing AI technology to better support teaching and learning in the post-COVID era.

Factors Influencing Book Selection

Ni Tang — 2025-07-31

[Purpose/Significance] Smart library represents a future development direction and an innovation mode for the library world. This article attempts to explore the intelligent transformation of English book acquisition work in public libraries.

[Method/Process] This article constructs a book selection decision-making indicators system for English book selection in public libraries. Logistic Regression, Decision Tree, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) are conducted in order to find the best book selection forecasting model. Then taking a large public library in Shanghai for example, it reveals the key indicators influencing the book selection, predicts the potential value of books, and provides a new perspective for the collection construction of English books under the background of developing smart library.

[Result/Conclusion] By supporting librarians in making more scientific decisions, it can enhance the quality of library collection resources as a new approach to the intellectualized development of English book collections in public libraries.