From September 16-18, some WRLC staff headed to Baltimore to attend the 3rd Annual Library Tech Immersion Conference, hosted in partnership with UMBC Library. We were pleased to see numerous colleagues from across the WRLC consortium there as well, ready to spend several days exploring emerging technologies and their growing impact on academic libraries.
The conference offered a wide-ranging look at emerging technologies and their implications for libraries. Tech Trends sessions explored topics such as the use of brain and muscle signals to build smarter robotics and the development of AI agents designed to work more effectively with people. Longer, hands-on workshops brought those conversations directly into the library environment, with sessions on practical uses of AI in everyday library work, capturing institutional memory with AI, evaluating AI-assisted research tools, and preparing libraries for AI-supported workflows and services. These sessions ranged from introductory to more advanced applications, giving attendees opportunities to explore both the possibilities of new technologies and the practical (and challenging!) questions libraries are already confronting as they put them to use.
The conference also provided something equally valuable: an opportunity to reconnect with colleagues from across the consortium, with so many of us in attendance. The beautiful UMBC campus, which also happens to be the alma mater of some of our own WRLC colleagues and partner librarians, provided a wonderful setting for learning, conversation, and collaboration.
If you are interested in continuing the conversation about AI and learning how fellow librarians across WRLC institutions are responding to these developments on their own campuses, consider joining WRLC’s AI Interest Group.
WRLC AI Interest Group
WRLC’s AI Interest Group is a community of librarians and library workers who meet online every other month to explore how AI is impacting our work and the teaching, learning, and research missions of our institutions. We talk about a range of topics, including AI tools and library workflows, teaching and learning, scholarly communications, mis/disinformation, and the ethical questions surrounding AI, including bias, privacy, accessibility, environmental impact, and labor.
You don’t need to be an AI expert to join, and both skeptics and enthusiasts are welcome! Bring your questions, experiments, successes, concerns, or just your curiosity. Our goal is to learn from one another and make space for intentional, practical conversations about AI and academic libraries.
The AI Interest Group meets next on October 29, 11-12pm, to discuss approaches for teaching algorithmic literacy: https://gwu-edu.zoom.us/j/94279253584?pwd=zvTw52r9RNFDid30BPwLcxgFe8fFfk.1&jst=2
To join the group’s email list, please email Taylor Baugher (taylor.baugher@gwu.edu) and/or Jacob Hopkins (jacob.hopkins@udc.edu), the group’s co-chairs.
