Wednesday 21st May 2025
Session One: Academic Libraries in the AI Age
10:00am–1:30pm BST
Session Two: Amplifying Your Library’s AI Impact
10:00am–12:45pm EST | 3:00pm–5:45pm BST
Join Technology from Sage on Wednesday 21st May 2025 for a free live event: Librarian Leadership on the AI Frontier: Librarian Futures Virtual Summit. We’ll be joined by librarians, partners and the team at Technology from Sage to celebrate the launch of the upcoming fourth white paper in the Librarian Futures series.
The free virtual event consists of talks, presentations, roundtable discussions and workshops exploring the key themes and findings in the upcoming report, and actionable strategies for librarians.
Note: Can’t attend at the live time? If you register anyway, we’ll send you the recordings after for you to catch-up!
What you can expect:
Time: 10:00am–1:30pm BST
Focus: AI in the academic library, the role of libraries in addressing AI issues and librarian skills for dealing with AI. Sessions include:
Time: 10:00am–12:45pm EST | 3:00pm–5:45pm BST
Focus: How librarians can contribute to institutional conversations and initiatives on AI and the complementary skills librarians can develop in order to ensure that the library is seen as an authoritative voice on AI. Sessions include:
Please see the agenda so far below – we will be updating this as sessions are confirmed.
Session One: Academic Libraries in the AI Age
| Time | Session | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 10:00–11:00am BST | Introduction and Keynote - Learn about the Librarian Futures series of reports, discover the key findings of latest report and hear from a Library Director on AI and the library | Matt Hayes, Managing Director, Technology from Sage |
| 11:00–11:45am BST | Partner Session | To be announced |
| 11:45–12:00pm BST | Break | |
| 12:00–12:45pm BST | Librarian Discussion Group 1: ChatGPT is now a firmly embedded tool in the student workflow, with over half of students using it at some stage in their process. In this discussion group, librarians are encouraged to consider key questions about student use of AI and to share examples from their own institutions | OpenAthens and Adam Barry, Development Manager, Technology from Sage |
| 12:00–12:45pm BST | Librarian Discussion Group 2: AI is here, and it isn't going away. The most common uses of AI in students' research seems to be to make life easier - summarising resources, breaking down complicated topics, proofreading. Are librarians comfortable with these uses of AI? Join the discussion as we discuss: - How your institution encourages students to use AI - The benefits and pitfalls of using AI for summarisation - What uses of AI you are comfortable with, and which would consitute academic misconduct. | Tim Otto, Consultant, Business Development, Cassyni and Becca Richards, Head of Product, Technology from Sage |
| 12:45–1:15pm BST | Librarian Session | To be announced |
| 13:15–1:30pm BST | Closing Remarks | Matthew Weldon, Library Patron Consultant, Technology from Sage |
Session Two: Amplifying Your Library’s AI Impact
| Time | Session | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 10:00–10:30am EST | 3:00–3:30pm BST | Introduction and Key Findings | Matthew Weldon, Library Patron Consultant, Matt Hayes, Managing Director, Technology from Sage, library speaker to be announced. |
| 10:30–11:20am EST | 3:30– 3:20pm BST | Librarian Roundtable Discussion – Addressing AI and Being Seen Doing It – Raising the Profile of the Academic Library | Ken Chad, Director at Ken Chad Consulting Ltd, Sean Rife, Head of Academic Relations, scite, Thomas Shaw, Deputy Director, Libraries and Collections, Kings College London and Matthew Weldon, Library Patron Consultant, Technology from Sage |
| 11:20–11:30am EST | 4:20–4:30pm BST | Break | |
| 11:30–12:00pm EST | 4:30– 5:00pm BST | Discussion Group 1: Our latest data suggests that just 6% of students would reach out to a librarian if they were feeling overwhelmed by academic work - less than would reach out to an AI chatbot. In this breakout room, librarians will be invited to share their thoughts on this, and will consider questions like: - What is the role of the academic library in supporting overwhelmed students? - How can librarians raise the profile of the library to ensure students engage with the full range of library services? - How do librarians balance this in a time of signficant financial challenges? | Kirsten Lorenzen, Senior Marketing Specialist, Springshare and Amy Sparrow, Marketing Director, Technology from Sage |
| 11:30–12:00pm EST | 4:30–5:00pm BST | Discussion Group 2: When asked who provides guidance on AI use at their institutions, librarian respondents to our latest survey identified themselves: librarians. Data from students however seems to indicate they are unaware of the libary's role beyond the collection. In this discussion session, librarians are invited to share their thoughts on a range of questions: - How can we communicate the value of library services and librarian expertise to students? - What should librarians looking to develop their confidence with AI do? - As well as AI skills, what other skills might librarians want to develop? | Kelly Terry, Senior Customer Success Manager, Skilltype, Clare Chan, Senior Customer Success Consultant, Technology from Sage |
| 12:00–12:30pm EST | 5:00–5:30pm BST | Dipping Your Toes into the AI Waters. Artificial Intelligence is no longer just a buzzword—it's rapidly becoming an integral part of librarian workflows. In this session, we will discuss how AI is transforming our behind-the-scenes workflows. Discover how we got started using AI and how we’re leveraging it now to align blogs and research guides with the topics users care about most. | PJ Purchase, University Librarian & Director of University Library and Alexis Soard, Associate University Librarian, Systems & Operations, University of Phoenix |
| 12:30–12:45pm | 5:30–5:45pm BST | Closing Remarks - Find out who has won prizes from the day | Matthew Weldon, Library Patron Consultant, Technology from Sage |
We look forward to seeing you at the event in May.
Librarian Futures is a series of research reports by Technology from Sage, exploring librarian-patron relationships in the digital age and the ever-changing role of the academic library. This award-winning series investigates a broad range of topics, including the knowledge gap between students and librarians, the librarian skills landscape, and student perspectives on AI.
This latest report will share findings from a global survey of over 1,200 students and librarians, exploring the ways in which students and librarians are using AI to enhance their work, and perspectives on the future of AI in higher education.
This event is aimed at all academic librarians at Higher Education institutions who are interested in AI in Higher Education including: how academic libraries can be frontiers in the use of AI, how students are using AI and their perceptions, and how AI might increase research productivity. It may also be of interest to Academic Librarians, Directors or researchers who are interested generally in librarian-patron relationships in the digital age.
You are welcome to register for Session One, Session Two or both, and can drop in and out of the sessions which are of most interest to you.
Note: Can’t attend at the live time? If you register anyway, we’ll send you the recordings after.
Q: Should I join Session One or Session Two?
A: The agendas are slightly different for both sessions. Session One will cover AI in the academic library, the role of libraries in addressing AI issues and librarian skills for dealing with AI.
Session Two will cover how librarians can contribute to institutional conversations and initiatives on AI and the complementary skills librarians can develop in order to ensure that the library is seen as an authoritative voice on AI. If you are able to make the times of both sessions, please feel free to register for both!
Q: I can’t attend either of the sessions live, will I still be able to watch them?
A: If you can’t attend either of the sessions live, please register anyway and we’ll send you the recordings after.
We’re looking to plan an additional session to suit additional time-zones for those who can’t attend live.
