Librarians Leading AI-Ready Programs
San Diego State University recently concluded its pilot implementation of a new faculty development program designed to provide faculty teams with an opportunity “to step back [from the demands of regular commitments to teaching, scholarship, and service] and assess what’s already happening with AI” in their courses, departments, and disciplines. “Leading AI-Ready Programs” (LAIRP) is one of several initiatives aimed at students, staff, and faculty across SDSU designed to support AI literacy across campus, promote critical inquiry into the impact of AI tools and technologies on the academic enterprise, and expand awareness of student success and professional development tools made available to the SDSU community, including the Academic Applications of AI micro-credential and the ACORN Toolkit.
With an instructional services program that reached almost 12,000 students in 2024-25, librarians are deeply engaged in discussions of AI literacy at SDSU and serve as a critical component in any discussions, such as those fostered by LAIRP, of how to provide structured and sustainable support to faculty across the curriculum in considering how to employ traditional library resources, digital library resources, and AI tools and technologies (including those integrated into library resources) to promote student learning and engagement both with the library and the disciplines across the curriculum. For this pilot LAIRP offering, the library was represented by Margaret Henderson, Health Sciences and Research Data Services Librarian and Head of Research, Instruction, and Outreach Services, and Rebecca Nowicki, Online Learning Librarian. Reflecting on her participation, Henderson said, "It was gratifying that faculty from all disciplines were interested in the library perspective that centered information literacy in our explorations of AI. Rebecca and I reminded faculty to encourage their students to use the library because our resources are more accurate and complete than using AI, and learning research skills helps promote critical thinking."
In discussing the potential for collaboration between librarians and classroom teachers pursuing a more coordinated and critical approach to teaching and learning in the “Age of AI,” Henderson and Nowicki highlighted key concepts in AI literacy, including critical thinking about information resources (a foundational skill in any facet of information literacy), technical knowledge about the design, current state of development, and current limitations of the knowledge base underlying AI tools and technologies, especially those influencing information inquiry and discovery, and awareness of ethical concerns about the development of AI tools and technologies and their use in the academic enterprise, including those related to curation of library collections, ethical use of information resources, and environmental sustainability.
A recent survey of “AI initiatives” currently underway throughout the CSU library system identified almost 100 campus initiatives in areas of library work including teaching and learning, research support services, search and discovery services, cataloging, and special collections. Reflecting the focus for the LAIRP (and related initiatives at SDSU), the most common areas of focus for library engagement with AI tools and technologies were in AI literacy instruction and professional development for library faculty and staff. The most significant initiative shared across the CSU was its participation in the Ithaka S&R “Defining and Implementing AI Literacy” project, a nationwide effort to “[create] institutionally specific frameworks for AI literacy and [build] the programming and resources necessary to integrate it into undergraduate education.” SDSU Ithaka project team included librarians Lucy Campbell and Keven Jeffrey, as well as D. J. Hopkins (Theatre, Television, and Film; Center for Teaching and Learning) and E. J. Sobo (Anthropology; AI Faculty Fellow). Both of these projects were presented to a national audience as part of the second annual CSU Libraries Conference in June, and the final report of the Ithaka S&R study is expected later this month.
If you would like to know more about library contribution to “leading AI-ready programs” at SDSU or to discuss how to integrate the library into your discussions of AI literacy and the assessment of student learning in your course or department, please contact Margaret Henderson or your liaison librarian.
