ALA Releases Guidelines on Use of Artificial Intelligence in Libraries

Public backlash against artificial intelligence is driven by a wide range of concerns, including the environmental impact of AI use, biases in AI systems, the potential for job loss to automation, and more. Now the American Library Association (ALA) has released its Guidance on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Libraries, offering a values-based approach to evaluating, selecting and using tools and AI-powered system features. It begins by considering AI in the context of ALA’s core values—Public Good; Intellectual Freedom; Privacy; Sustainability; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access; and Labor—and offers recommendations to librarians for developing policies that align with each. For example, of interest to many librarians will be the section on Sustainability, which urges librarians to favor AI tools that can provide evidence of having a lower environmental impact and to require vendors to disclose the amount of energy consumed by AI tools.  

A General Guidance section outlines ethical practices around the evaluation and use of AI, recommending that AI use always serve a clear purpose and to always keep in mind that AI outputs are not infallible: 

Treat AI outputs as drafts requiring human review, not authoritative answers, especially for complex reference, local context, or community-sensitive issues. Explain that AI may support routine tasks in some contexts, but human expertise remains necessary for nuance, originality, contextual judgment, accountability, and trust.

Finally, an appendix provides an AI Ethics Framework outlining ethical principles to keep in mind when using AI and offers recommendations for applying them. For the full text of the report, visit the ALA website.