Academic librarian competencies and artificial intelligence

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to change employment patterns across the global economy, but it is hard to predict what type of change will happen and how fast. The purpose of this paper is to bring together initial thoughts on the impacts of AI specifically on the work of library professionals, based on a hermeneutic literature review. Generative AI is likely to change the nature of everyday office work, in a way that will impact roles across the library. Changes brought by AI for the information literacy trainer, manager, data specialist and collection manager are considered. Impacts on all library staff competencies are discussed. The final section asks whether the impact on job roles in lower resourced contexts in the global south, such as Kenya, will be different.