Exploring the effects of Generative AI on Academic Libraries

What will be the effects of Generative Artificial Intelligence on Academic Libraries? This key question for everyone involved in academic libraries is addressed in this White Paper. After a description of what a librarian should know about generative AI, we discuss the effects on the environment of academic libraries: on science and on the behaviour of library users. We foresee a paradigm shift in discovery and discusse the impact on the usage of library collections. In a next step of this explorative tour, we discuss the potential uses of AI in metadata production and the opening up of heritage collections for Q&A interactions. Finally, we touch on a few issues that so far has gotten little attention in the literature: the question of allowing access by commercial AI chatbots to library collections, the need to redevelop library course on information literacy, the effects of AI on Open Science and the effects on the organisation of academic libraries.