Technology

Over the past year, I’ve found myself replacing my favorite conversation starter—what are you reading?—with a new question: How are you using AI?

This month, we focus on: Claude, Sora 2, and the State of AI in business and organizations.

A growing number of libraries are exploring or implementing artificial intelligence (AI) in 2025 (67 percent, compared with 63 percent in 2024), although the majority are in the earliest evaluation stages, according to Clarivate’s second annual “Pulse of the Library” report, based on a global survey of 2,032 librarians from 109 countries representing academic, public, and national libraries. The report also notes that there is a wide variation between academic and public libraries with AI adoption.

This spring, the Kansas State University Libraries, in Manhattan, KS, will launch a Mobile Innovation Lab, in partnership with the Sunderland Foundation Innovation Lab. The towable trailer—packed with innovative technology and programming resources designed to inspire curiosity, spark innovation, and support digital equity—will deliver hands-on, STEM-focused learning experiences to middle and high school students across the state.

The Gwinnett County Public Library’s (GCPL) Learning Labs this spring hosted the library’s fourth annual Game Jam and GameDev Showcase, this year including 45 game developers and drawing more than 1,300 attendees who had an opportunity to meet the developers and try their games.

AI, natural language search, and integrated platforms are driving the latest advances in discovery at libraries.

Aileen Ayala was a math kid and assumed she would go into market research—but she also grew up feeling the library was her “safety net,” and valued volunteer work. The data analyst role at Denver Public Library merges those interests and her degree in quantitative psychology, letting her dig into the “people impact” of library stats. 

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and the Independent Publishers Group (IPG) today announced a new model that will give libraries ownership rights to ebooks purchased from Austin Macauley, Arcadia Publishing, Dynamite Entertainment, Dover Publications, JMS Books, and dozens of other independent publishers.

Nevada’s libraries have long been an important part of the state’s workforce development programs, and in June, the state’s Board of Examiners approved a new librarian-in-residence program for two municipal systems—the North Las Vegas Library District and the Carson City Library—that will boost those efforts. For two years beginning last month, these librarians-in-residence will facilitate an Individual Career Mapping and Training Delivery Model program developed by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development with libraries throughout the state. The program includes innovative features such as hands-on virtual reality “field trips” and access to NCLab’s Career Readiness Assessment to build STEM skills.