This report looks at how academic libraries are using AI tools that are specifically designed for scholarly discovery and summation. The report gives detailed data on librarian use of applications such as ResearchRabbit, Elicit, Semantic Scholar, Connected Papers and many others. Librarians also evaluate how important it is for them to provide training to patrons in the use of AI discovery tools and estimate how such tools have impacted their own personal productivity. They relate the level of demand that they see from library patrons to learn about such AI driven discovery and summation resources, and in open ended question responses discuss their plans for AI-driven discovery and summation technologies. The study is based on data from 51 academic library directors and other high level management officials, predominantly from the USA. Data is broken out by size and type of institution, by tuition level, for public and private institutions and by other variables.
Just a few of the many findings from this 55-page report are:
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15.38% of Research University library leaders in the sample used ResearchRabbit
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Women were far more likely than men to use Elicit
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51% of those surveyed considered providing training on AI research tools to library patrons to be a modest priority.
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31.73% of those sampled said that the use of such AI research tools resulted in no change in their personal work productivity.