THE DIRECT(OR) APPROACH: (top l.) Denver Public Library; (top r.) Larry Neal, Kelvin Watson, June Garcia; (bottom r.) Directors’ Summit attendees, engaged and enthusiastic

LJ’s 2025 Directors’ Summit looked at artificial—and very real—intelligence from multiple angles

If there was any doubt about what issues are on the minds of today’s library leaders, Library Journal’s 2025 Directors’ Summit, held October 16 and 17 at Denver Public Library (DPL), had some ready answers: AI and people.

Nick Tanzi hit both notes handily in his keynote, “Getting Your Public Library AI-Ready.” Tanzi, assistant director of South Huntington Public Library (SHPL), NY, and technology consultant at The-Digital-Librarian.com (and a 2025 LJ Mover & Shaker), began with a reminder of other at-the-time “disruptive” technologies, starting with a 1994 clip of Today Show anchors first encountering “@” and “.com.”

During most of this digital change, he noted, libraries had the technologies before many patrons and could lead the way. Now everyone has access to some form of AI, but it’s poorly understood. And access without understanding is a staff problem as well as a patron problem.

So, what does it mean for a library to be AI-ready? Start with policy and training, said Tanzi, and then translate that to public services, rather than the other way around. Library policies need to be AI-proofed, beginning by looking at what’s already in place and where it might be stressed by AI: policies governing collection development, reconsideration of materials, tool use, access control, the library’s editorial process, and confidential data. Staff are already using some form of AI at work—do they have organizational guidance?

Tanzi advised fostering AI literacy across the library. At SHPL, he formed an AI user group; it has no prerequisite for participation and staff are paid for their time. Members explore new tools, discuss best practices, complete “homework,” and share feedback, which also allows Tanzi to stress-test policies. It’s not a replacement for formal training, but helps him discover which tools work best in various departments and speeds up learning.

We need to demystify AI tools for staff and patrons, Tanzi noted, and teach ethics around them. Your ultimate goal is to create informed citizens; libraries can build community around AI education, partnering with the local school district, colleges, and government. 

AI WATCH—AND LISTEN

Members of the Libraries Lead! podcast, recording live from the Summit, had plenty to say on the subject of AI, too—it’s a regular topic of discussion among cohosts Beth Patin, Dave Lankes, and Mike Eisenberg in the “AI Watch” portion of the podcast.

Lankes took a critical look at the text-to-video OpenAI model Sora, now in its second iteration, finding it dismaying because it was released as a social media app that made it easy to create a “cameo” of your likeness and voice. “They’re building it specifically to create, frankly, deceptive information as a creativity engine,” he said.

The Syracuse University (SU) School of Information Studies, where Patin is an associate professor, recently purchased Anthropic’s Claude. Patin decided to test the model, uploading a PDF from the LIS Forward initiative that she and Lankes worked on to see what kinds of talking points it would give her to argue for strengthening SU’s MLIS program. “It did a really great job,” she reported. “Because I knew the content, I felt really comfortable with the kinds of things that it was sharing with me.” On the other hand, when she asked, Claude did poorly scheduling meetings.

Eisenberg took a look at MIT’s NANDA (Networked AI Agents in Decentralized Architecture) project, which stated in its “The GenAI Divide: State of AI in Business 2025” report that 95 percent of AI pilot implementation projects fail. “It’s not because the models don’t work. The algorithms are great. It’s because the organizations don’t work,” he said. “The problem is poor integration, vague goals, and organizational resistance to what they call friction.”

AI teams tend to build in isolation, he noted, without involving frontline users, gathering feedback, or adapting tools to real-world needs. Hearkening back to Tanzi’s keynote, he suggested that libraries are well-positioned to help businesses and organizations in their communities better use and implement AI.

Sponsor presentations throughout the event—from Hoopla, Communico, Springshare, Clarivate, and OCLC—focused on AI almost exclusively as well.

ALL AGES IN A VOLATILE WORLD

The Summit’s speaker panels, in contrast, focused mainly on the power of the people in libraries.

“Leading Multigenerational Organizations” looked at the dynamics in three libraries from the viewpoint of their directors: Natalie Draper of Northfield Public Library, MN; Kimberly B. Knight of Virginia Beach Public Library; and Kristen Sorth of St. Louis County Library, MO.

Despite workforces spanning new Gen-Z hires through ready-to-retire Boomers, the conversation was refreshingly free of an “us vs. them” dynamic. But disconnects in styles of communication, boundaries around work-life balance, and the extent to which personal values should be part of day-to-day work all require constant negotiation, all three said. And the current volatile state of the world and the library landscape are weighing heavily on everyone. A workforce increasingly inclined to describe itself as traumatized, whether from outside forces or within the library itself, needs management that is both compassionate and steadfast.

Younger staff may want to bring a highly principled stand to library practices and policies when the reality of local or board politics requires idealism to be more tempered; suggesting places and causes outside the library where they can channel those energies can provide a pressure valve.

Helping employees see the difference between “what’s a conflict and what’s a conversation” goes a long way. Social media has changed interactions, not always for the better—conflict drives engagement on screens, but isn’t a useful tool in real life. Both older and younger staff members still struggle with setting boundaries. But, all agreed, meeting everyone where they are goes a long way toward building the relationships necessary to demonstrate to employees that a chaotic world doesn’t necessarily mean a chaotic workplace.

ADVOCATING, TRANSITIONING

Denver City Librarian Nicolle Davies; EBSCO VP of Library and Government Relations Scott Bernier; and Lisa Kropp, executive director of Lindenhurst Public Library, NY, talked to LJ and SLJ Editorial Director Hallie Rich about library advocacy as seen from a variety of angles.

As national narratives get increasingly complicated, panelists agreed that it was important to understand the facts about the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)—for example, that Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds actually increased slightly in the proposed federal budget, and the Grants to States program still exists, although the agency may not have the personnel necessary to manage them. This is a reauthorization year for the Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA), which will need to pass both the Senate and the House—but the money has not disappeared.

Building relationships at a local level, as always, is key, they added, as is using language accordingly: frame the fight as helping kids to read. All agreed that professionalism is critical. Libraries have become political because of the national situation, but “we need to have a better poker face,” said Kropp. “I represent Denver Public Library 24-7,” added Davies. “I can be an activist when I retire.”

Before retirement, however, library leaders may be considering lateral moves. Library consultant June Garcia spoke with directors Larry Neal (Clinton-Macomb Public Library, MI) and Kelvin Watson (Las Vegas–Clark County Library District, NV) about transitioning from one library to another—the importance of mentors, watching what worked and what didn’t for other directors, and learning to navigate local politics where you land.

Getting your staff up to speed so they can eventually step into leadership roles is key as well. Neal gives them challenging projects “that they might not think they’re ready for”; Watson always makes sure to clearly explain his decision-making process to those around him, and to advise aspiring leaders that the work changes drastically in a director role. Both made use of the airplane pilot analogy—Neal noted that he has to simultaneously see what’s on the horizon miles away and listen to people complain about their peanuts. “Turbulence comes with the job,” said Watson.

TRUTH AND TRUST

For the summit’s closing conversation, Dr. Joseph Janes, associate professor at the University of Washington Information School, had everyone close their laptops and put down their phones. His topic—although the conversation took many turns—was truth and trust. Those two words were once a given when it came to the content libraries provided, but AI and political polarization has done much to undermine both concepts. How do we think about the changes taking place in libraries now, he asked the room, and people responded honestly—and off the record.

Libraries, Janes told the assembled directors, “are the universe understanding itself.” He added, “It’s your job to make that happen.”