PoSTER SESSION

Presentation Description:

Generative AI in Higher Education consists of various discourses and initiatives across institutions. The University Library, as part of this educational ecosystem, has a key role to play in supporting staff and students navigate a world with generative AI. This presentation will detail how a University Library in Australia, Western Sydney University Library, with over 100 staff and serving one of the most socially and economically diverse regions in Australia, developed a Generative AI Working Group and a Program of Work based around three key initiatives: 1. Cultural Shift in Library Staff Perceptions of Generative AI, 2. Encouraging Generative AI Investigations and Experiments, 3. Promoting the Library to the wider university as the Generative AI Conversation Hub.

These initiatives reflect the Library’s goal of staying responsive to the evolving needs of the university in a climate of rapid technological change. In addition, a collaborative evaluation process based on a Theory of Change model (Ramia et al, 2021) was developed to understand the impact of the Working Group’s efforts on fellow colleagues and the broader university community. This collaborative approach ensured the Group’s goals remained adaptable to ongoing change, situating the Library as an exploratory learning hub that adopts innovative practices to remain relevant in a competitive information climate, where public versus commercial interests can be in tension.

The Library, with its purpose to enable open, equitable and easy access to information, has an important role to play in ensuring generative AI engagement aligns with the public good and that we champion critical and rational thought for our students and community (Western Sydney University Library, 2025). As members of the Working Group, our reflections on developing and evaluating the Program of Work are detailed, alongside engagement with critical literature on how Libraries have navigated technological disruption in the past and actively encouraged skill-building among staff. Through this critical engagement with the literature and the initiatives and evaluation of our own Program of Work, we identify similarities and differences in skill-building for Library Staff in the age of generative AI compared to previous technological disruptions. Similarities include the need for a coordinated and collaborative approach, that is not prescriptive but actively encourages staff to shape their own learning. While differences include navigating a technology that is still contentious in the Higher Education with many differing views particularly through the lens of ethical practice, and public versus commercial interests. Through our framing of the Library as the “Generative AI Conversation Hub of the University” we propose how we navigate this contention and at the same time use this as an opportunity to encourage active skill-building among Library Staff, to ensure the Library is best-placed to lead the university in the critical discussion of Generative AI.

References

Ramia, I., Powell, A., Stratton, K., Stokes, C., Meltzer, A., & Muir, K. (2021). Roadmap to social impact: Your step-by-step guide to planning, measuring and communicating social impact. The Centre for Social Impact. https://apo.org.au/node/313992

Western Sydney University Library. (2025). Western Sydney University Library Strategy 2025 – 2027. https://library.westernsydney.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/2087742/The_Library_Reimagined_-_Library_Strategy_2025-2027.pdf