Mo's Library Bulletin

Introducing Mo's Library Bulletin & Symposium Review

Greetings, River Otters! 

We are kicking off our first ever library newsletter, Mo's Library Bulletin at Great Falls College! Mo's Library Bulletin will cover library news, tips, tricks, resources, and other topics. 

2024 Montana Academic Library Symposium

On May 22-24, Great Falls College hosted the annual Treasure State Academic Information & Library Services (TRAILS) Symposium, which featured presentations on academic freedom, artificial intelligence and censorship. Librarians from across the state gathered to share information and learn about current trends and challenges facing academic libraries. 

Highlights from the symposium include:

• a keynote address from Cory Doctorow, a science fiction author, activist and journalist. He presented the keynote: "Overcoming the Enshittocene: Why Everything is Terrible and What to Do About It," in which he describes the pattern of decreasing quality in online services and products as a byproduct of capitalist greed; 
• presentations from PEN America and the Montana Free Press that discussed the terrifying reality of legislation that targets academic freedom and promotes censorship. See more at the PEN America Book Bans webpage; PEN America Educational Censorship webpage; Montana Free Press education coverage;
• and many presentations addressing the reality of Artificial Intelligence in higher education and our daily lives. Some key takeaways are:
  • Generative AI, like ChatGPT, relies on statistics. It can add in random "flavor" to make things more interesting, it learns over time and relies on context. 
  • AI tools can have different output including visual/graphics, driving, speech, and video. 
  • It is important to examine ethical issues that arise when using new technologies. A literature review published by Sara Mannheimer et al. (2024) as a part of a larger grant funded project, identified the following ethical concerns related to AI and libraries, museums & archives: privacy, consent, accuracy, labor, digital divide, bias, and transparency. The full literature review can be read in a Special Issue of the Journal of eScience Librarianship. The primary author and a number of co-authors for the Responsible AI in Libraries and Archives Project are affiliated with Montana State University Bozeman and the University of Montana. 

Attendees also had the opportunity to visit our local academic libraries at the University of Providence & Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Great Falls, and the Charles M. Russell Museum and The Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art. 

Thank you everyone at Great Falls College who made the symposium possible and lended a helping hand: Dr. Stephanie Erdmann, Ashley Hayley, Ginny Pierce, Toni Quinn, Kristi Voboril, Quincie Jones, Selena Coburn, Charla Merja, Michelle Bruner, Catherine Joshu, Jordan Laverdure, Shannon Marr, Chris DiSalvatore, Phil Carr, Gary Smart, Ben McKinley, Christopher Gilleo, Lindsay Hampson, Teresa Partridge, Josh Petersen, Leanne Frost, Josh Archey, Steve Halstead, Courtney Brooks, Marie Cherry and Ben Truman. 

Stay tuned for next month's bulletin!