David Lee King, a library tech guy I’ve worked with over the years, just put up a great post on AI Policies over at his blog (check it out at https://davidleeking.com/ai-policies-for-libraries-some-observations/). I’m doing a bit of research on the topic myself, for a possible new project, and one of the things that I have done in response to the lack of info out there about how libraries should approach AI policy making is to try to walk the walk, as they say. Right now, the only thing I’ve gotten done is a policy that I’ve put in my Library Juice Academy class syllabi that outlines expectations around AI use in class. The one I am using in my Project Management class, which is currently in session, says:
AI Policy
This course acknowledges the usefulness, at times, of Generative AI. The only times AI will be used by the instructor is to create case studies or scenarios for projects and assignments to be completed by the class. Gen AI will not be used in any way for grading or providing feedback to students. Students are welcome to use AI as a tool to help brainstorm, identify risks, consider different ways to manage time, money, resources, etc. Students are not welcome to use Gen AI to write, wholesale, project plans or discussion posts or other text based assignments in this class. If there are questions about the suitability of Gen AI use in this class, please contact the instructor at robin.hastings@gmail.com.
I’ve decided to take a middle road here – something that allows use of AI for things it does well (I could see students using a chatbot to brainstorm project risks or to come up with ideas for how to arrange resources in some way, things like that) and does not allow use of AI for actual writing of the homework documents wholesale. It can be useful, but at least for my class, it can’t take on the role of actual person managing a project. The students have to do that! I’m going to put a similar paragraph in my other class syllabi with small changes for the specific class needs, too. I just have to ride that line of being specific enough to be clear about what is and isn’t allowed and being so specific that I give them what amounts to instructions on what to use AI on in their work for my class…
Whichever way you personally lean, some sort of guidance on how staff, administrators, patrons, and other library adjacent folks (vendors? community partners?) are expected to use – or not use – AI will be necessary as more and more of our patrons and vendors and whatnot dip their toes in the waters of Artificial Intelligence!