Preface - While I have read some about artificial intelligence (AI) and listened to some podcasts, I am not certain I fully understand artificial intelligence and why it is getting so much attention. This writing is my attempt to understand AI in the context of libraries and librarianship.
Growing up, my parent’s World Book Encyclopedia, proudly purchased by my father, provided the answers to unanswerable questions. My father directed me to the article in World Book when I wanted to know if Harry Houdini really escaped from a locked truck that was dropped into the Hudson River. When I asked my Mother who Hitler was, she directed me to the World Book. If we had a question my parents couldn’t (or didn’t want to) answer they turned to the World Book.
The World Book, it seems to me, is related to AI. The concept of an encyclopedia is thousands of years old. The desire to collect and organise the most useful and important knowledge led to scholars assembling and publishing collections of encyclopedias.
Unlike AI that depends on computers to collect and organize information, encyclopedias use people’s knowledge and expertise. Each article in an encyclopedia such as the World book, is authored by a subject expert. Many encyclopedia articles even include the name of the article’s author in small print at the conclusion of the article.
Librarians in many ways perform tasks similar to those involved in assembling an encyclopedia, and artificial intelligence. Librarians seek, collect and organize knowledge, according to the needs of the specific environment they are working in.
AI uses computing power and algorithms to perform the same tasks used to assemble encyclopedias and build library collections. In many ways the difference between AI, librarians and encyclopedias is a matter of time and scope. Encyclopedia authors and librarians work slower and in more defined ways than AI.
For me, understanding the similarities between AI, encyclopedias and librarianship, is akin to the revelation, in the Wizard of OZ, that the wizard is really a man. It is less complex, less of a mystery, and less of a necessity, when I realize that the purpose and uses of AI are thousands of years old. AI is not as mysterious, when compared to an encyclopedia or librarianship. AI is essentially something old rebranded as something new.
