Resources

Association of College and Research Libraries · October 2025

The foundational professional framework. Defines four competency areas (Ethical Considerations, Knowledge & Understanding, Analysis & Evaluation, Use & Application) and five guiding mindsets. Sub-competency level detail makes it actionable.

American Library Association · 2026

ALA's values-based framework for library AI, built on six core values: Public Good, Intellectual Freedom, Privacy, Sustainability, Diversity/Equity/Inclusion/Access, and Labor. Directs libraries to treat AI output as drafts needing human review, prohibits entering patron data into unapproved tools, and provides a concrete vendor data-review checklist. The anchor for the ethics, privacy, discovery, and vendor-evaluation modules in this curriculum.

Association of Research Libraries · April 2024

Seven guiding principles including the essential 'No Human, No AI' - consequential decisions must not be delegated entirely to AI. Required reading for anyone developing library AI policy.

Association of College and Research Libraries · 2016 (still current)

Not AI-specific, but directly applicable to AI literacy instruction. The six frames provide an existing vocabulary for teaching critical evaluation of AI output.

Rick Dakan & Joseph Feller · Anthropic Academy · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · 2025

A free 12-lesson course built around the 4D Framework for human-AI collaboration: Delegation, Description, Discernment, and Diligence. Tool-agnostic and designed to remain useful as AI evolves - not a list of prompts that will be outdated next month. The three-mode model (Automation, Augmentation, Agency) and the product/process/performance layers from this course are referenced throughout this curriculum. Full course with exercises and certificate at Anthropic Academy; video-only access via the YouTube playlist.

Clarivate / Choice

The best continuous source for AI in libraries news and analysis. Weekly content. The Clarivate partnership with ACRL/Choice means strong institutional grounding.

Ontario Council of University Libraries + LibTech Insights · Launched August 2025

Bimonthly blog posts evaluating AI tools for library work. Practical, current, neutral tone. Individual installments cover research assistants, speech-to-text, coding tools, task management, and more.

ALA / RUSA

The professional interest group specifically for AI in reference and user services. Programming, discussions, and community for practitioners doing this work.

Clarivate · Annual - most recent: October 2025

Annual global survey of library technology adoption. The authoritative benchmark data for AI adoption rates, training gaps, and institutional confidence. Key 2024 finding: 69% of academic libraries evaluating or implementing AI; 32% of librarians have no training available.

Independent

Visualizes the citation network around a research paper. Not generative AI, but AI-enhanced discovery. Excellent for showing students how scholarship is connected - a strong instruction tool.

Ought Inc.

AI research assistant that searches Semantic Scholar (real papers) and returns AI-summarized results. Lower hallucination risk than general AI because it grounds responses in actual search results. Strong for systematic review workflows.

Consensus AI

Searches peer-reviewed papers and synthesizes empirical findings. Good for quick evidence checks: 'Does exercise improve sleep quality?' - returns real papers with synthesized findings. Free tier available.

Perplexity AI

Combines AI generation with web search and citations. Every answer includes sources. Better for factual research queries than ChatGPT. Academic mode available. Lower hallucination risk on factual questions. Free tier functional.

Anthropic

Strong for long documents, nuanced writing, and instruction design. Handles large context windows well - paste in a full policy document and ask questions. More conservative tone by default. Claude for Work includes stronger data privacy protections.

OpenAI

Most widely used. GPT-4o is capable for most library tasks. Largest user base means the most tutorials, community examples, and third-party guidance available. Free tier rate-limited; paid tier ($20/mo) gives access to more capable models.

Google

Best integration with Google Workspace - Docs, Drive, Gmail. Real advantage if your library runs on Google. Access to Google Search reduces factual errors on current-events queries. Review your institutional Google agreement for privacy terms.

Lovable AI

AI app builder for non-programmers. Describe what you want in plain language; Lovable builds a working web app. Good starting point for library tool-building. Used in Module 14.

Replit

Development environment with strong AI assistance. Good for iterating on small tools with AI help. Free tier available. Widely recommended in library AI literacy contexts (HKU LibGuide).

Zapier

No-code workflow automation connecting 6,000+ apps. Now includes AI actions and integrations. For library automation: connecting forms to spreadsheets, triggering emails, routing data between systems. Free tier for simple automations.

Make

Visual workflow automation platform, more powerful than Zapier for complex workflows. Better for multi-step automations. Has strong AI integrations. Free tier available for low-volume workflows.