RECENT LEGISLATION AFFECTING LIBRARIES & LIBRARIANS
Public libraries have found themselves smack-dab in the middle of the culture wars raging in this country and Erin, one of the NOPL Branch Managers, is keeping a close eye on the developments.
WGEM reports that Illinois is enacting legislation to treat threats against libraries, such as bomb threats, similarly to how they are treated against schools. CNYCentral reports that a public library in Idaho is set to become “adults-only” as a stringent state law, (HB710) was enacted enabling “anyone to sue the library if children are exposed to inappropriate or adult material”. This legislation is apparently in lieu of asking parents and guardians to monitor the reading habits of their children and have age-appropriate conversations about what their kids are reading. This Idaho library does not have the resources to deploy staff to monitor children or the funds to defend against lawsuits.
Being a librarian has become a lot more interesting, in fact downright frightening, since I started working in libraries in high school. I hope libraries continue to act sanely and practically in the face of new threats to every individual’s freedom to read. As the ALA puts it in the Library Bill of Rights, “libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.”
OPENAI FAILS TO ACKNOWLEDGE THE HANDS THAT FEED IT
Speaking of perceived threats to libraries, did you hear? OpenAI, a leading company making “generative AI” tools that summarize, synthesize, and create passages of written language, poetry, recipes, and even repair instructions based on directions from users, has a library of books at the center of its headquarters. This article, “The Old-Fashioned Library at the Heart of the A.I. Boom” (available for free through the library’s Gale New York Times database) points out the irony of this fact: OpenAI’s products have processed many, many, many published books in order to create an understanding of natural language so users can feel as though they are having a competent conversation with a creator, writer, or expert in the topic of the user’s choice. However, many publishers and authors have not granted permission for this use of their property, and some are taking OpenAI to court.
CNET journalist Imad Khan’s recent piece about Google’s annual keynote event, I/0, pointed out the lack of acknowledgement of the publishers and creators whose works and property serve as a foundation for the booming AI industry.
Khan explains that the pre-AI version of Google search pushes users to content creators’ links directly. The new AI-powered version of Google search, a type of SGE (search generative experience), will likely keep users in the Google environment longer. This is because users don’t click through but remain on Google’s site for summaries and processed synthesis of the information instead of clicking on source links in Google results. This may end up harming creators, authors, artists, and companies that rely on pulling traffic to their sites to sustain their operations and livelihoods. AI might end up causing its own demise by pushing content creators out of business.
On a side note, I wonder if OpenAI employs a librarian in this library or if visitors wander the cozy, two-story traditional setting without a guide. My guess is they use recommendations from their co-workers, friends or family, or from OpenAI’s product, ChatGPT, as their guide. If that is the case, the recommendations may be very limited, since the process of “reader’s advisory”, as it is known in the library world, involves a series of follow-up questions to get to the heart of what a reader enjoys or needs. ChatGPT is not currently able to ask follow-up questions to add clarity or specificity to its responses.
LIBRARY ART TOOL
If you happen to be a creative that works in the realm of digital art, you may want to check out this handy art brush by @DevinElleKurtzArt that quickly and cutely creates stacks and rows of books to speed up your renderings of cozy library settings! I would love to see what you create with this tool!
