Jose Ruiz-Vazquez writes: “Public libraries are dealing with budget cuts, book bans, and the usual existential questions about whether anyone needs physical collections when they can Google everything. And now artificial intelligence (AI) shows up, and everyone assumes libraries are about to get steamrolled by it too. But watch what’s happening at reference desks: Patrons ask how to determine whether an IRS email is real or a phishing attempt. Small business owners are trying to figure out which AI tool won’t steal their marketing copy. These aren’t edge cases. This is what reference work looks like now.”