Guest Poster: Rona Gofstein

You can’t get away from it. Artificial Intelligence is everywhere both assistive and generative. Whether you are excited by its possibilities, concerned about its implications, or wishing it would simply go away, AI is changing how we find, evaluate, create, and use information. And that means it is changing our schools and our libraries.

As school librarians, what do we do about it? We lead.

That doesn’t mean you need to become an AI expert. It doesn’t mean embracing every new tool that comes along or even support it. Leadership doesn’t require you have all the answers. But it does require being willing to learn, ask questions, and participate in conversations that affect our students and our schools. And AI is definitely one of those conversations.

AASL has been providing resources to help school librarians navigate this changing landscape. In Leveraging AI in School Libraries: From Basics to Best Practices, AI in education is described as both transformative and disorienting. I suspect many of us can relate to that. But AASL also sees opportunities for school librarians to use AI to support teaching and learning and improve library services. Before you can lead others, however, you need to learn.

Explore. If you haven’t used an AI tool, try one. Ask it a question. Ask it to summarize something you already know well and see what it gets right—and wrong. Learn what terms such as “hallucination” mean in connection with AI. You don’t have to become an expert. You do need to understand the basics.

Ask questions. What AI tools are already being used in your district? Does your district have an AI or anti-AI policy? Are teachers using it? What about students? What privacy issues need to be considered? ALA’s current guidance on AI reminds libraries to consider not only usefulness, but privacy, equity, ethics, accuracy, and the continued importance of human judgment.

Connect it to what you already know. Librarians have been helping students navigate changing information environments for decades. We taught them how to search databases. Then came the internet, Google, Wikipedia, social media, and increasing concerns about misinformation.

Get into the conversation. If your school or district is discussing how AI will be used, school librarians belong at that table. We understand information literacy. We understand copyright, attribution, privacy, research, and source evaluation. We work across grade levels and subject areas. That gives us a perspective few others in the building have.

Last week, you were asked, “Do they know what you do?” Here’s another way to show them. You don’t need to walk into the room with all the answers. Walk in with good questions. Bring what you already know about information, learners, and your school community. Be willing to listen and learn.

AI will continue to change. The tools we’re discussing today may be replaced by something entirely different tomorrow. That’s why this isn’t really about mastering a particular technology. It’s about leadership. Leaders don’t wait until they know everything before they engage with change. They learn. They ask questions. They consider the risks as well as the opportunities. And then they help others find a thoughtful way forward.

Through all the technological changes, our fundamental responsibility remains the same: helping students become thoughtful, ethical, informed users and creators of information. AI doesn’t eliminate that responsibility. It makes it more important.  AI is here. Make sure school librarians are part of what comes next.