NCLA Con 2025

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into our daily lives is transforming the landscape of information access and research. This presentation explores the practical strategies and challenges of integrating AI into college-level information literacy and library research courses. We will share our experience in equipping students with the knowledge and skills to effectively and ethically utilize AI tools for research. Learn how our librarians are teaching students to navigate the evolving information landscape, critically evaluate AI-generated content, and understand the ethical implications of AI in academic research. We will also discuss the obstacles encountered and lessons learned during the implementation process, offering valuable insights for librarians seeking to incorporate AI into their library instruction curriculum.

AI-generated content has jumped full-force into an already overloaded information landscape, creating murky waters for both the novice and sophisticated information user. As it becomes an integral part of everyday technology, users must develop strategies to control when and how AI-generated content appears in their research. AI tools, such as Google's AI Overview, often provides helpful summaries on general topics, but can also present incorrect, unnecessary, or distracting information for more specific topics that require more depth and nuance in the search process. This session explores a couple of easy workarounds for toggling the AI-generated results on and off, such as using Google's search string operators, incorporating certain profanities, and other keywords that temporarily dismantle the AI tool. However, not all profanity and keywords trigger this effect, and understanding which terms work can empower users to take a more active role in getting research results. Participants will learn about the methodology behind this study, examine real-world examples where AI-generated results either enhance or hinder research, and discuss best practices for navigating search engines with AI integration. This session will also explore ethical considerations, potential biases in AI-generated summaries, and future implications for research practices in libraries and academia. Attendees will leave with practical strategies for managing AI-generated Google search results, ensuring they have greater control over their information-seeking process. This session highlights the evolving role of librarians in digital literacy, equipping patrons with the knowledge to navigate AI-enhanced research effectively.

Burnout, or chronic job related stress due to work-imbalance issues and career disillusionment, has always been a significant problem for library information science professionals, but it has become a major crisis in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic (Bury 2024, Kenyon & Henrich 2024). Academic librarians are in a state of burnout as the values of librarianship come into continued conflict with the neoliberal corporate models that have been broadly adopted within academia (Nardine 2019, Wood et. al. 2020). As part of this on-going conversation, the researcher will showcase how they used assessment tools and techniques to create an "anti-burnout" plan for their team of librarians and support staff that make up the First-Year Writing (FYW) library instruction program at a large four-year research university. While acknowledging the limitations of individual-driven solutions in combating burnout, they share their work with the hope of encouraging participants to develop their own plans to reduce burnout in their own instruction programs. While the focus of the presentation is on academic FYW instruction, the tools shared are applicable for all forms of library instruction and applicable for those with minimal assessment knowledge. These tools include visualizations created using instructional request data, predictive models, and guides for structured conversations on teaching capacity. The researcher used the information gathered from these tools to create realistic boundaries for librarian teaching capacity; while recognizing that the process of saying "no" to an instruction request is difficult and comes with the fear of harming relationships with faculty members. To reduce this pressure, the researcher and their team developed infrastructure that would support saying no to instruction requests. In addition, the researcher will discuss how their team balanced the necessity of saying no to some instruction requests with the reality of the poor labor conditions of the contingent faculty and graduate students who disproportionately make-up the instructor pool for FYW programs. By engaging with the researcher's presentation participants will walk away with practical strategies for creating an "anti-burnout" plan tailored to their instruction programs, informed by tested assessment tools and techniques. They will begin the process of setting realistic boundaries with faculty, while fostering team accountability and as a result, address the impacts of neoliberal decision-making on librarians.

This thesis investigates the intricate relationship between librarianship and the coined concept of vocational awe, as articulated by Fobazi Ettarh. Vocational awe, characterized by an intense emotional investment in library work that works to place librarianship and libraries beyond critique, has surfaced as a critical lens for examining the culture of the profession (Ettarh 2018). Ettarh contends that idealizing librarianship can result in unrealistic expectations, burnout, and an unhealthy blending of professional boundaries. Drawing parallels between vocational awe and historical sentiments, reminiscent of Robert Leigh's "The Library Faith"; this study explores the enduring nature of the unnamed features of librarianship that inspire unwavering devotion. By connecting the concepts of library faith and vocational awe, the research aims to elucidate how individuals' sense of calling to librarianship influences work motivations and perspectives. Using a triangulated mixed methods approach, A quantitative survey, utilizing the Calling and Vocation Questionnaire developed by Duffy et al., alongside inquiries into the presence of negative vocational awe impacts works to inform the qualitative interviews. Interviews function as the primary data source and will delve into participants' work motivations, perceptions of librarianship, and the influence of these factors on negative job experiences. This paper will work to identify a) if a sense of being called to librarianship/library work influences devotion to the library faith or a sense of vocational awe, b) values that current librarians/library workers have with library work, c) their experience with negative features of vocational awe, and d) if there are perceived supports in place to mediate these problems. Studying this adds to the ever-growing literature on vocational awe in librarianship and can provide a basic assessment of workers' experiences with vocational awe, which can be used to inform workplace support infrastructure and implementation of critical librarianship.