All Sessions

The partnership between Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) Libraries and the Digital Intelligence & Innovation (DI2) Accelerator reflects the university's deep commitment to collaborative digital transformation in higher education. From the very beginning, both organizations recognized the power of joining forces—uniting the Libraries’ role as the campus gateway to knowledge with DI2's expertise in digital innovation.

Through their joint initiative, the AI Curriculum Corps, they are cultivating a campus-wide community of practice around artificial intelligence. By bringing together librarians, technologists, and educators, they are developing practical strategies for integrating AI into library services and academic programs. The work centers on meaningful collaboration, experiential learning, and sharing lessons learned as we navigate the evolving role of AI in supporting discovery, education, and innovation at WashU.

Swift changes brought about by AI mean that libraries must rapidly forge a new path to remain an important part of campus conversations. Join our panel discussion to learn how an instructional program is taking a kitchen sink approach to AI – trying it all and seeing what works. From live and asynchronous instruction to faculty partnerships and direct marketing, Southern Methodist University (SMU) Libraries is steering the discussion on AI literacy with a goal to foster better comprehension, thoughtful applications, and critical reflection. Learn about SMU Library's multimodal, multiprong initiatives that center the AI conversation on campus in the libraries.

Participants will identify:

• Instructional strategies for shaping AI literacy on campus
• Marketing approaches for highlighting the library’s AI innovation
• Ways of partnering with faculty

Digitized archival and historical documents represent massive potential for research, exposing rare or hidden information to the public online. These documents also often represent a challenge: digitizing them is often relatively fast, but transcribing, describing, or turning written information into computable data takes human workers many more minutes or hours per image. For many of these documents, traditional optical character recognition software is either ineffective or also takes many additional hours of post-processing. In this session, we will describe how we are working with generative AI models and related tools to analyze and extract useful descriptions, transcriptions, data tables, and other information from challenging digitized documents such as medieval manuscripts, research notebooks, archival records, magazines, and more.

This session presents a practical approach to applying AI tools to metadata creation. Drawing on experiments with Alma AI Metadata Assistant, ChatGPT custom GPTs, Gemini Gems, and a local RAG-based system, the presenter will demonstrate how a structured fixed prompt can generate Connexion-ready MARC records across AI platforms. The session compares platform strengths and limitations and shows how fixed prompts improve consistency, support catalogers during metadata creation, and reduce time on repetitive tasks. Examples include real workflows where AI-generated metadata can be directly pasted into OCLC Connexion, along with the benefits of mobile image uploads for quick record creation. The session also highlights lessons from pilot testing and explores how structured prompting can extend beyond cataloging to streamline other repetitive library tasks, offering a practical path toward more efficient and consistent AI-supported workflows across library operations.

Discover how artificial intelligence can become a helpful partner in your family history journey. This program will explore practical ways AI can assist genealogists. Everything from transcribing old handwritten documents and answering paleography questions to writing simple ancestral biographies. Learn how AI tools can suggest strategies for breaking through research "brick walls," summarize or present your findings in new ways, and even provide historical context to bring your ancestors' stories to life. This session will also look at how AI can help restore and enhance old family photographs. Whether you’re new to technology or a seasoned researcher, you’ll leave with fresh ideas for integrating AI into your genealogical toolbox.

There are many innovative ways to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into library work. This presentation will begin by sharing practical examples of how AI can enhance everyday library workflows. Building on these examples, the presenter will demonstrate strategies for maintaining human values, judgment, and oversight alongside AI use. As AI becomes a frequent collaborator in professional and creative tasks, librarians face the challenge of ensuring that technology supports—rather than replaces—human expertise and accountability. This session offers concrete methods for keeping human direction at the center of AI integration. Participants will leave with adaptable strategies to promote transparency, ethical decision-making, and continued human leadership in an AI-supported library environment.