Description
How do you integrate AI into the library in an accessible and equitable way? This book shows you how!
The AI Toolkit for Librarians offers a clear and encouraging way to make sense of today's fast-moving world of artificial intelligence. Written for academic, public, and K-12 settings, it helps readers understand how AI fits into everyday library work while staying grounded in the values of access, equity, and learning. The book explores AI's biggest opportunities and challenges, breaks down essential concepts in everyday language, and shows how AI can strengthen reading, writing, research, instruction, and programming.
Each chapter includes practical strategies, Quick Tips, discussion questions, and interviews with 25 respected leaders representing a variety of library settings and roles. Throughout the book, real-life examples and personal experiences help make these ideas practical and relatable. The AI storytelling chapter includes a ready-to-use AI Playground Event, a 90-minute workshop that invites learners of any age or skill level to explore AI through a fun, hands-on approach.
The book concludes with the Bridge Framework for AI Readiness, a simple model that helps libraries move from experimenting with AI to adopting it in thoughtful, ethical, and sustainable ways.
How do you integrate AI into the library in an accessible and equitable way? This book shows you how!
About the Author
Mike McQueen is the librarian at Missouri School for the Blind. Mike has authored several professional books that explore connections between literacy, libraries, and technology. He loves speaking at conferences and leading AI workshops with schools, libraries, and other organizations. Mike is also designing a series of online courses to help librarians build confidence, take initiative, and become leaders in the age of AI. To explore his podcast, ePortfolio, and professional development offerings, visit www.MikeMcQueen.com.
Reviews
This toolkit meets librarians where they actually work, in classrooms, learning labs, and community spaces where AI is already reshaping expectations. I value its insistence that librarians are not bystanders, we are educators who can help students and workers build the skills and judgment they will need in an AI saturated world. The book offers practical starting points for programs that connect AI literacy to real futures in study, work, and civic life. -- Leo S. Lo, University Librarian and Dean of Libraries, University of Virginia, USA
If you want to see immediate results in your organization, read this book.
After Mike McQueen shared insights from his draft at our 2024 Board Retreat, the impact was instantaneous: we launched AI Boot Camp programs, initiated AI Leadership training, and hosted a series of public AI programs that met our community's urgent needs.
This isn't just a book of theories; it is a proven blueprint for institutional transformation.
Book Information
ISBN 9798216195764
Author Mike McQueen
Format Hardback
Page Count 328
Imprint Libraries Unlimited Inc
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
