The last few years has seen a wave of excitement and hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots and their potential to create, according to some, a Fourth Industrial Revolution. This seems to have touched every sector of work from agriculture and retail, through to scientific research. The need for AI in health applications has been accelerated by COVID 19.
Yet there are also strong public concerns about the ethics and responsible design and use of such automation (Jobin et al., Citation2019). It is important to recognise that the application of AI in consumer technology creates an industrial complex based on intensive use of energy, raw materials and often low paid labour (Crawford, Citation2021).
Libraries and information services like every other sector are likely to be changed, even transformed by AI and robots (Cox, Citation2021). In many ways they are already being reshaped by AI in search and recommendation, with their implications for data and AI literacy. As user contexts change through AI, so LIS roles supporting them will have to alter too. For example, new uses in scientific research will impact scholarly communication and how it is supported (Jones et al., Citation2019).
Most directly library and information services are using AI and robots in their own operations, such as through the application of machine learning to collections (Cordell, Citation2020); the use of robots in book retrieval (McCaffrey, Citation2021); the use of chatbots and voice assistants (Hopkins & Maccabee, Citation2018; Mckie & Narayan, Citation2019); and applications of AI in learning and teaching in schools and public libraries (Nguyen, Citation2020). Libraries are also using AI to take advantage of big data and data analytics both in their operational and service-oriented aspects (Garoufallou & Gaitanou, Citation2021).
Wider societal concerns about the ethics of AI and robots apply to these uses and their potential impact on user privacy, freedom of expression, and the risk of bias (Cordell, Citation2020; Padilla, Citation2019). There is a fundamental question about the impact on human agency, as well as directly on work and jobs, including those of information professionals. We should also take pause to reflect critically on how discourses of technological solutionism such as commonly found around AI and robots impact LIS thinking (Mirza & Seale, Citation2017).
This special issue of The Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association (JALIA) calls for papers on AI and robots for the library and information professions. The following are some suggested topics – these are not exhaustive, and we are happy to also receive creative and innovative papers on the topic, whether related to research or to practice:
Training of users in data and AI literacy
Applications of machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision etc. to LIS collections and operations
Library and information service roles in supporting communities of users of AI
Procurement of AI platforms for LIS users
Applications of AI to data about users, such as through sentiment analysis of social media or user surveys
Chatbot use by libraries and information services
Voice interfaces and voice assistants
Implications of AI on research support, research impact, and scholarly communication.
Applications of robotic process automation in library and information work
Use of robots in library and information work
LIS Curricula and workforce development initiatives to support AI and robots
Research on the ethics of AI, such as touching on issues of bias, privacy and the impact on human work and agency
Governance issues in the creation and use of AI in knowledge work
Critical analyses of discourses around AI and robots
The Journal
JALIA is the official journal of the Australian Library and Information Association and published by Taylor and Francis. Instructions for authors and a link to the journal’s submission system are available from the JALIA’s web pages at: https://tandfonline-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/toc/ualj21/current.
The JALIA editors encourage authors to post an open access version of the full text of the Accepted Manuscript (AM) version of their paper to an institutional or subject repository and if they wish also to personal or departmental websites, immediately upon publication. For more information see here: https://authorservices-taylorandfrancis-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/zero-embargo-green-open-access/
Papers can be in any of the JALIA categories: Research, Research-in-Practice, Information-in-Practice, or scholarly opinion pieces. Please refer to the Instructions for Authors page for further information.
Timeline
Due date for submissions:Extended until Monday 14 February, 2022
First review:February to April 2022
Revisions etc. (if necessary):April to June 2022
Manuscripts due to publisher:14 July 2022
Issue published:September 2022
Contacts
For further information on this special issue, please contact the guest editors:
Dr Andrew Cox, The University of Sheffield, [email protected]
A/Prof Bhuva Narayan, University of Technology Sydney (UTS), [email protected]
Edward Luca, The University of Sydney, [email protected]
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
References
- Brodie, M. (2012). Building the sustainable library at Macquarie university. Australian Academic & Research Libraries, 43(1), 4–16. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/00048623.2012.10722250
- Cordell, R. (2020). Machine learning + libraries: A report on the state of the field. Library of Congress. https://labs.loc.gov/static/labs/work/reports/Cordell-LOC-ML-report.pdf?
- Cox, A. M. (2021). The impact of AI, machine learning, automation and robotics on the information professions: A report for CILIP. https://www.cilip.org.uk/general/custom.asp?page=researchreport
- Crawford. (2021). The Atlas of AI: Power, politics and the planetary costs of artificial intelligence. Yale University Press.
- Garoufallou, E., & Gaitanou, P. (2021). Big data: Opportunities and challenges in libraries, a systematic literature review. College & Research Libraries, 82(3), 410. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.82.3.410
- Hopkins, P., & Maccabee, R. (2018). Chatbots and digital assistants – Getting started in FE and HE (Report.). JISC. https://repository.jisc.ac.uk/7125/1/chatbots_and_digital_assistants_report.pdf
- Jobin, A., Ienca, M., & Vayena, E. (2019). The global landscape of AI ethics guidelines. Nature Machine Intelligence, 1(9), 389–399. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1038/s42256-019-0088-2
- Jones, E., Kalantery, N., & Glover, B. (2019). Research 4.0 interim report. Demos. https://demos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Jisc-OCT-2019-2.pdf
- McCaffrey, C. (2021). Planning and implementing an automated storage and retrieval system at the university of Limerick. In Technology, change and the academic library (pp. 143–150). Chandos Publishing.
- Mckie, I. A. S., & Narayan, B. (2019). Enhancing the academic library experience with chatbots: An exploration of research and implications for practice. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 68(3), 268–277. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2019.1611694
- Mirza, R., & Seale, M. (2017). Who killed the world? White masculinity and the technocratic library of the future. In G. Schlesselman-Tarango, (Ed.), Topographies of whiteness: Mapping whiteness in library and information science (pp. 171–197). https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2016.0015.3.
- Nguyen, L. C. (2020). The impact of humanoid robots on Australian public libraries. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 69(2), 130–148. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2020.1729515
- Padilla, T. (2019). Responsible operations: Data science, machine learning, and AI in libraries. OCLC. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.25333/xk7z-9g97