Libraries as Engines of Education
From information literacy to AI literacy – the advent of large language models in higher education has created new frontiers for academic librarianship. In this webinar, we learn from two innovators who are building educational programs for students and faculty alike.
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The second 2026 De Gruyter Brill EMEA webinar for librarians took place on Thursday 21st May. The speakers were Jane Hammons, Associate Professor and the Head of Teaching and Learning at Ohio State University Libraries and Jenny McGarvey, Digital Skills lead in the Library Study Skills Team at the University of Exeter.
The speakers set out to investigate two separate but related issues: how best to maximise use of academic content now that it is delivered in a multiplicity of online formats; and how to deliver it in ways that meet the needs and prior experiences of today’s students and academics. Jane Hammon’s research explores the intersections of information literacy, pedagogy and faculty development; Jenny has developed creative educational techniques to infuse playfulness into responsible use of artificial intelligence.
Jane is particularly interested in faculty development, by which she means enabling faculty to teach digital literacy themselves. Her presentation began with a light resumé of the librarian’s role as an educator, a role which she said has become more defined over the past fifteen years as the technological sophistication of academic resources has developed. It is now the norm for many librarians to adopt information literacy as their core instructional focus area.
“What if the librarians’ main educational role was teaching the instructors, not the students?”
Traditional approaches to information literacy can take many forms: course integrated instruction; librarians “embedded” in course delivery; credit-bearing information literacy courses; asynchronous resources (modules, videos, tutorials, etc.); and reference interactions (on-the-job assistance). However, all have one thing in common: that they are focused on direct delivery to the students. Jane’s “provocative question” at the heart of her presentation was, “what if the librarians’ main educational role was teaching the instructors, not the students?” Librarians have a long tradition of supporting faculty in all sorts of ways; but this has not before been described or thought of as “faculty development” – though some librarians have long been interested in this.
Led by Jenny, Ohio State has developed a comprehensive faculty development program to deliver digital literacy. Some of the components of this program can earn faculty credits upon completion. In Ohio State, 87 faculty members have now completed the Teaching Information Literacy Endorsement and 56 have completed the Meaningful Enquiry endorsement (the latter consists of two half-day workshops). Jane’s argument is that by supporting faculty development, librarians help the institution as a whole to achieve its goals; and in the process, raise both the profile and the visibility of the librarians and the library. By both temperament and training, librarians have the necessary qualities to deliver faculty development.
Institutions wishing to promote faculty development as part of their information literacy programs should incorporate it clearly into the library’s goals and mission; be committed to the idea that it is as or more valuable than working directly with students; if possible, dedicate librarian roles to its delivery; and provide opportunities for faculty to participate and for librarians to engage with them.
Jane Hammons and Ohio State University Libraries encourage other institutions to use the resources they have developed. More information can be found at the following links: Teaching Information Literacy Endorsement; Teaching Information Literacy Certificate; Teaching Information Literacy Workshops; Meaningful Inquiry Workshops.
Jenny McGarvey’s presentation focused more specifically on artificial intelligence and teaching – primarily students, but also academics – how to use it effectively and ethically. She said that when AI first reached university communities in 2022, the personas of those who engaged with it could be variously described as the Panicker, the Curious Tester, the Helper, the Rule Explainer and the Bigger-than-this Thinker. Some people – including Jenny herself – pass through stages of being all these types.
The University of Exeter decided to embrace all that AI could offer and develop a comprehensive strategy, policies and what she called a “catalogue” – list of resources – to support those using it. Responsible use of AI in research and guidance for how to use it in assessments was the goal of this approach. The guiding principle was: “AI should not replace or override the decisions or insights of our people. It is a supplementary tool, not a primary decision maker.” This overarching principle informed five others: that use of AI should be human-centric and socially beneficial; fair and unbiased; transparent and documented; secure and safe; and accountable.
It was the particular role of the library to equip students and staff with the knowledge about AI that they would need to observe these principles. Jenny, building on her experience as a teacher of English as a foreign language, knew that to encourage participation in AI training, the sessions needed to be enjoyable as well as informative. She set up digital skills workshops “to be fun, friendly, interactive and build real skills.” Participants were given a clear understanding of the limitations as well as the capabilities of AI. Some of the sessions took the form of games. Some of the workshops employed incentives, including free food and prize draws.
As these sessions were praised and became better known, faculty in individual disciplines also requested sessions to support their students. They enabled more tailored advice on how to use generative AI for specific assessment types. Jenny emphasised at every stage that AI literacy involves a kind of Venn diagram of overlapping subject knowledge, AI knowledge and human-centred skills.
The success of the programme has already been significant: workshops have been attended by more than 1300 people; the online resources developed have achieved more than 30,000 views. Future plans include higher level workshops, module-specific examples that are relevant to students’ assessments, and more in-person sessions. Jenny also intends to launch a campaign to encourage students and staff to talk about AI more openly.
“AI should not replace or override the decisions or insights of our people. It is a supplementary tool, not a primary decision maker.”
The University of Exeter encourages other institutions to use the resources that it has developed. More information about these may be found here and here.
Both Jane Hammons and Jenny McGarvey were inspired speakers who held the audience spellbound, not only during their presentations, but also in the Q&A session that followed and De Gruyter Brill thanks them very warmly indeed for sharing their skills and insights. This brief post is only a taster of what they talked about. For the full webinar, please click here.
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[Title image by Slim3D/iStock/Getty Images]