Author: Cassandra Belliston

In the 2026 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition video, the statement was made that, “We’re not deciding anymore whether AI is going to shape our environment. That’s the accepted reality.” As a subject librarian in an academic library, as a student, but also just as a person in today’s world, I believe this statement to be true.

As it is the accepted reality, libraries cannot ignore it. What libraries can do, should do, and need to do is figure out how artificial intelligence shapes the library environment. While there are many ways it may be shaping this environment, including the ability to use generative AI to speed up technical tasks, I believe the most prevalent way it currently shapes the library environment is the effect it has on patrons’ lives.

To address this shaping factor, libraries must acknowledge it, regardless of  librarians’ personal feelings. Alison Papini (2023) noted that a librarian’s role is to help people “access and use information as well as emerging tools and technologies, including AI.” The IFLA Trend Report 2024 demonstrates that generative AI changes how we create, share, and use information.  So, to help people in today’s environment, librarians need to consider how to teach patrons about generative AI.

In my role as an academic subject librarian, I am doing this by incorporating a discussion of generative AI into the course integrated library sections I teach. During these sessions, I talk about generative AI in an information literacy context because that’s how students encounter it in their academic lives. Just as Papini does in her article, I emphasize to students that generative AI is not necessarily good or bad, but because it is a pervasive influence in their lives, I want them to understand it. To do this, I begin by asking students if they can tell me how a chatbot works, what hallucinations are, and what the ethical issues there are to consider. In the past year, only a handful have been able to provide answers. After I feel that they have a baseline understanding of the answers to these questions, we then talk about potential ways AI can be used as a tool in the research process and the need to verify information a chatbot may provide. In doing so, I share personal experiments I have conducted with AI as illustrations.

Barry Chudakov put it well: “Our tools and technologies are now more sophisticated, and their influence in our lives is now too pervasive to adopt a use-it-and-ignore-it approach.” (Anderson et. al., 2021) This idea should be reflected in how libraries interact with generative AI (and other emerging technologies). A key approach is beginning with patron education.

References
Anderson, J., Rainie, L., & Vogels, E. A. (2021, February 18). Hopes about life in 2025. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2021/02/18/hopes-about-life-in-2025/

EDUCAUSE. (2026, May 15). The 2026 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8z1yTECbmY

Dezuanni, M., Osman, K., Burton, A., & Heck, E. (2025, January 30). IFLA trend report 2024: Facing the future of information with confidence (Phase 2, rev. ed.). International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions; Digital Media Research Centre. https://repository.ifla.org/items/ae4dfcc0-8def-4318-8c4c-7f0507d15609

Papini, A. (2023, January 27). ChatGPT: A library perspective. Krupp Library. https://library.bryant.edu/chatgpt-library-perspective

Innovation Strategy & Roadmap: Makerspace Workshops

As an academic librarian, the hyperlinked environment I chose to explore was, you guessed it, academic libraries. While I read and viewed the material related to academic libraries, the term “environment” and what that means in the context of an academic library was continually at the forefront of my mind. The definition I came up with was simple: the environment is one’s surroundings. As I considered the surroundings of an academic library, I identified three distinct environments that the library engages with: the internal library environment, the external campus environment, and the digital/technological environment.  These environments are part of the academic library because they are the environments its users occupy.

The Internal Library Environment
There are many components that make up the internal library environment including space, collections, and people. Creating a hyperlinked environment internally in the academic library might mean hiring for “emerging staff positions” (e.g. data management librarians, etc.) (Catalano et al., 2018) or rethinking the library organizational structure that promotes collaboration over optimization (Matthews, 2017).  It may look like acquiring and promoting unique physical collection materials, while reducing other more common physical collections (Staumsheim, 2017). Or it could mean consolidating office/workspace to accommodate another type of space that patrons want. At my library we did this to create space for a library café, something that students had been asking for for years. Since it opened 3 years ago, it has become one of the top earning food service providers on campus!

The External Campus Environment
Although the library is its own entity within the university, it is one piece of the larger whole. As such, it should work to be integrated into the whole. I’ve considered a variety of ways I’ve seen this done in my library including working with student groups on campus to host a Black History Month Concert series; hosting a student and alumni juried art competition; displaying exhibits of library and archival materials related to important campus events like Homecoming; and creating a free seed library so students can grow their own food. These types of activities and services enable the library to be connected, or hyperlinked, to campus.

The Digital/Technological Environment
From personal observation and experience, as well as examination of past ACRL academic library trends reports and Ithaka Library Survey reports, it is clear that the digital realm is a major environment that students and librarians interact with. It consists of virtual reference appointments, collection and database material, research tools, data management…and the list goes on. To successfully be a hyperlinked environment, academic librarians must continually learn about, become familiar with, and even adopt tools and materials in the digital world as technology evolves. Right now, the biggest technological evolution is generative AI. Whether or not librarians like it, they need to understand it and incorporate it into the academic library experience to effectively meet students where they are and facilitate a hyperlinked environment.

References:
Catalano, A. J., Glasser, S., Caniano, L., Caniano, W., & Paretta, L. (2018). An analysis of academic libraries’ participation in 21st century library trends. Evidence Based Library and Information Practice, 13(3), 4–16. https://doi.org/10.18438/eblip29450

Carroll, E., Bergstrom, T., & Hulbert, I. G. (2026, May 14). US Library Survey 2025: Under Pressure. https://doi.org/10.18665/sr.325599

Mathews, B. (2017). Cultivating complexity: How I stopped driving the innovation train and started planting seeds in the community garden. VTechWorks. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/78886

Planning and Review Committee. (2026). 2026 Top Trends in Academic Libraries: A Review of the Trends and Issues. College & Research Libraries News, 87(6), 233. https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.87.6.233

Straumsheim, C. (2017, March 24). The library has never been more important. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/03/24/arizona-state-u-library-reorganization-plan-moves-ahead

This week, through the readings and resources, I learned about the hyperlinked community in relation to libraries generally and considered what the hyperlinked community looks like in my work setting, an academic library. The video about the Bronx “Wash & Learn” Pop-Up Library Program particularly stood out to me, because that library was leaving the library space to meet their users—those who they may not reach otherwise—where they were at. In thinking about my academic library, I’ve considered ways that we are currently trying to do this and other ways we could try to do this.

One segment of the population that we don’t often seem to reach is our student athletes. Just this week, a colleague had a discussion with one of the athletic directors about ways the library can better support them. A simple idea that they came up with and which we are going to implement is to have subject librarian profile pages filter through on the monitor located in the common area of the Student Athlete Building. These profiles will have QR codes that the students can scan with their phones to contact us or set up in-person or virtual appointments. By doing so, we are trying to meet the athletes in a place they spend quite a bit of time.

Another idea that we are going to try this coming Fall semester is to have a “Research Help” booth in the Student Center around midterms and finals. During this time, library student employees and some full-time librarians will man the booth and be available to help students learn about helpful library resources for research papers and projects and demonstrate how to use them and locate sources. We’re hopeful that by going outside of the library, we’ll be able to help more students than we otherwise would.

As the Art & Design subject librarian, something that I am considering is having set “office hours” in the Arts building. I will need to reach out to the department chairs of the Art and Design departments and see if they are amenable to this and have a space for me. If they are and do, my hope is that I will become more integrated into those departments, that more faculty will recognize my and the library’s value, and that the students will become familiar and comfortable with me.

All of these proposed ideas are experiments and they may not work. If they don’t, however, I still wouldn’t consider them a failure. We will have tried something and in that trying, we will have learned more about our community. That will inevitably lead to more ideas of other things we can try and eventually, something will connect and we will have a stronger hyperlinked community.

“The user is the sun” and “You cannot change the user, but you can transform the user experience to meet the user.” (Schneider, 2006)

“Old or new, the ultimate success of any service is determined by the library user.” (Casey & Savastinuk, 2007)

 “How can we delight our users and customers?” (Denning, 2015)

“Librarian 2.0, then, is the “strategy guide” for helping users find information, gather knowledge, and create content.” (Stephens, 2006)

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These quotes illustrate to me a standout theme that seems to run through all the modules we’ve explored in The Hyperlinked Library up so far: the importance of the library user. For libraries to succeed and retain a status of value and relevance, librarians need to prioritize user needs and desires above their own and adapt to meet them. This may mean making changes that librarians personally may not want, like, or approve of—or, conversely, not making changes that librarians personally want and think are important.

In thinking about how the academic library that I work in has taken a user centered approach, I identified two examples of ways where I believe we’ve successfully prioritized users and implemented changes accordingly.

     

Physical Space
My library is currently undergoing a 10-year internal renovation (of which we’re on about year 7). Several changes have been made to the physical space to meet users’ needs including the relocation of offices on each floor to a central area. This relocation:

1. 1. Makes it easier for students to find librarians.
   2. Gives students more study space with natural light.

While I and other colleagues have found it painful to relocate our offices and forgo our windows to the outside world, this change will serve our users better.

Technological Trends
In the past 10 years, the library has kept pace with technological trends. We have become an “e-book preferred” institution, leading to a substantial increase in books purchased in electronic format and digital resources. The following spaces were also added:

1. 1. Experiential Learning Studio
   2. Makerspace (recently enlarged and expanded)
   3. Sound recording studio
   4. Video production studio

These changes came about because the library solicited feedback from users and examined usage data and took what was learned to implement positive changes, exactly as libraries should do. While this is admirable, upon reflection, these things occurred largely because the library had institutional priorities—using allocated renovation and collection money wisely and keeping up with technology trends—that required user input or aligned with user needs. However, when these types of institutional priorities are not being considered, we have work to do in being user centered. Two examples highlight this.

Foreign Language Graded Reader Collections
According to colleagues who have been here much longer than I have, users have been asking for dedicated collections of foreign graded readers for language learning for years. Due to a variety of reasons, including our institution’s preference for e-books and reluctance to create dedicated spaces, these requests were disregarded by upper management. But, after a colleague’s continued, yearslong advocacy, an Asian languages graded reader collection was finally created one year ago. It has been so successful that now others are being created. If the library had prioritized the user’s needs and wants when they were initially identified, regardless of the traditional format and the space concerns, this success could have happened years ago.

Intentional Interaction
The location of the library I work in is the heart of the university campus. As such, we have a real opportunity to draw in and engage with our primary users (students) in intentional and interactive ways. While librarians regularly interact with students in library instruction sessions and reference appointments, outside of these, the library does little to intentionally interact with users. The library rarely hosts activities or events; those that it does are often tailored to a specific subset of users. The library rarely solicits feedback; when it does, it is on specific and predetermined issues that meet current administration concerns. If we genuinely want to understand and connect with users, we need to intentionally engage with students through events and requests/avenues for all types of input. Although this will require extra work, effort, and expense, this intentional interaction will help the library become the true heart of campus.

The readings and practical illustrations demonstrate that for a library to become hyperlinked and succeed, users must be the central focus in guiding the state of library collections, services, and strategies.

References

Denning, S. (2015, April 28). Do we need libraries? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2015/04/28/do-we-need-libraries/?utm_campaign=ForbesTech&utm_source=TWITTER&utm_medium=social&utm_channel=Technology&linkId=13831539

Casey, M. E., & Savastinuk, L. C. (2007). Library 2.0: A guide to participatory library service. Information Today, Inc.

Schneider, K.G. (2006, June 3). The user is not broken: A meme masquerading as a manifesto. Free Range Librarian. https://freerangelibrarian.com/2006/06/03/the-user-is-not-broken-a-meme-masquerading-as-a-manifesto/

Stephens, M. (2006). Into a new world of librarianship: Sharpen these skills for Librarian 2.0. NextSpace, 2, 8. https://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/publications/newsletters/nextspace/nextspace_002.pdf

Hi, friends!

My name is Cassandra. I currently work full-time in an academic library in Utah as the Art & Design Librarian and plan to do so for the forseeable future. Next semester is my last semester of the MLIS program at SJSU and the only thing I’ll be working on is my e-Portfolio–so this summer I’m taking my last two classes!

I was interested in this course because in my job, I work directly with patrons (primarily students, faculty, and staff), collections, and services and I’m constantly trying to evaluate ways I and the library can better engage and serve our community. This course seems like a great way to learn strategies and skills to do this!

A little bit about me: I have the cutest 9-year-old rescue dog named Essie; my dad was an academic librarian, so libraries are part of my DNA; my background is in art history and museum studies and prior to my current position, I worked 6 years in two of the Smithsonian’s art museums; in my currently limited free time, you’ll find me reading, watching TV, playing Forza Horizon 6 (courtesy of my husband), hiking, going for motorcycle rides (also courtesy of my husband), or taking a nap.