Small libraries face the same challenges as larger institutions, but with fewer resources, which is why it was so fascinating to talk for ATGthePodcast with Russell “Rusty” Michalak, Library Director at Goldey-Beacom College in Delaware. Despite having only 1300 students, Goldey-Beacom has experimented with a wide range of AI tools, and, explains Michalak, they were able to devote time to these new tools by letting go of other tasks that simply were not so important. Their priority is clear: “Our job is to help our students make an informed decision about what tools they do or do not use … we’ve had some really interesting and deep conversations about AI, that we weren’t having with information literacy.” The tools they use include Grammarly for writing, Scholarcy for evaluating information, and Litmaps for literature review, and for which they won an ALA Innovation Teaching Award for their adoption, Suggestions for new tools can come from the students themselves, which is facilitated by the small class sizes, or discovered by the library or by faculty.
Students are asked to use AI for their assignments (although they can opt out if they prefer). In this way, the newly qualified students can say in their job interviews they have experience of working with AI – it becomes part of their culture. As for the library, there is certainly a culture of innovation. It benefits from an “outside-in” perspective, being outside the individual faculties, but there is also an atmosphere of trust, so that faculty are willing to try new things, for example, JSTOR’s Seeklight, to provide feedback to students’ work for their visual expression assignment, through the reverse evaluation framework. Even so, there are still cases of AI refusal, and in these cases, Michalak talks to the students, and teases out the reasons for their negative views – for one student, it was a specific example of a new data center using local water, rather than a blanket rejection.
All in all, the experience of Goldey-Beacom College demonstrates how small institutions can be as innovative, or even more innovative, than larger institutions.
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