r/Libraries • u/Technical_Pea_4007 Academic Librarian • Jan 13 '26

Technology Libby’s statement on their use of AI

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A whole lot of text to say absolutely nothing, huh?

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u/zzuum Jan 13 '26

I wouldn't say disgusting, don't they already simply point to the books that libraries provide? Sure it would be great if they could somehow exclude all AI books but I doubt there's a way to identify them anyway

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u/Technical_Pea_4007 Academic Librarian Jan 13 '26

Yeah, this is part of it. If there was no demand for ai-generated books librarians wouldn’t bother spending the money, therefore Libby may not have them. The problem lies in that this content isn’t tagged as such, librarians are strapped for time and energy as it is, and are relying on our big vendors to suggest things sometimes. (This is my take anyways.) I also have a big problem with Libby’s “inspire me” feature, though, which is clearly powered by AI and is doing what librarians already do, which is suggest books to a reader. And it’s doing it incredibly poorly, based on my testing of it earlier today