AI Chatbots in Academic Libraries: Adapting to emergent technologies is a constant for the Information Science field. For Academic Librarians, the question is how to best approach these emergent technologies, and how to adapt them to their institutions to continue to serve their patrons of students and researchers effectively and efficiently. Several academic libraries have adopted the use of AI powered Chatbots to help augment and improve services in research and reference. This white paper aims to look at and discuss the benefits, challenges, and potential costs/downsides of implementing chatbots into their systems. In the research it was found that AI Chatbots can add a lot of value to the academic library ecosystem through increased efficiency and faster interactions with patrons. There are still plenty of downside to the implementation of AI however that need to be considered, including public disdain for the technology, as well as its overall cost to implement. This paper concludes that AI Chatbots are a technology, that when implemented correctly, increases the efficiency and effectiveness of academic library institutions, with a few caveats for cost and culture weariness.

Matthew Cartwright is a graduate student in the Master of Library and Information Science program at San Jose State University, with a focus on Archives and Records Management and Digital Curation. He is interested in technological trends and how they will affect the information sciences field in coming years but is especially passionate about the topic of video game preservation. Outside of his academic work, Matthew enjoys modifying Gameboys and doing art.