“In a world where technology seems to move on faster than our reading lists grow, it’s more important than ever for libraries to stay on the cutting edge,” wrote Google’s Gemini artificial intelligence (AI) model in response to a prompt for opening remarks for this year’s “Top Tech Trends” panel by the panel’s moderator, Amanda Gray Perry, web and digital user experience librarian at University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. “I’m still surprised, and even a little alarmed, at AI output like that,” Perry admits.
The June 30 panel at the American Library Association’s 2025 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Philadelphia gathered library technology experts to discuss ways that AI—and other technologies—are impacting libraries this year and how they may evolve in the future.
AI technology is developing rapidly. “Usually a cycle of technology is a decade long,” says Marshall Breeding, an independent consultant and editor, “but here we’re already on the third generation of the use of AI in library systems.” He says the first generation, around 2022, was marked by “nice-looking but terrible results,” such as generating MARC records with the correct fields but nonsensical ISBNs and publisher information. The second generation includes the kinds of AI-enabled search tools that are now being integrated into systems. And the third is more “gen-tech,” he says, with focuses on automating processes and increasing efficiency. “I don’t think I’ve seen a technology that’s turned as fast as this one,” Breeding says.
Specialized AI tools, which work from either more limited pools of data or by customizing existing large language models, are proving powerful for library workers. Jennifer Goodland, reference and instruction librarian at San Juan College (SJC) in Farmington, New Mexico, shared how she used a customized ChatGPT instance to generate open educational resources. SJC is a Native American–serving nontribal institution and must meet reservation education requirements. By importing tailored materials, Goodland was able to use AI tools to create custom multimedia textbooks that reflect the student body and even integrate materials from tribal elders. This has increased local control over education, which, “if you’ve ever worked with any tribal institution or reservations, you know what a struggle that is,” she says.
For Jarrod Wilson, head of technology services at Kalamazoo (Mich.) Public Library, using Google’s NotebookLM has allowed him to explore data that previous systems couldn’t parse. The library’s incident reports, for example, include narrative sections that aren’t easily searchable and aren’t categorized. “Being able to interact with large volumes of unstructured data in a conversational way is huge,” he says, and because the system is using only data that Wilson imported, hallucinations are rarer. NotebookLM accepts simple queries, generates concept maps, and will even summarize information as a 20-minute podcast. “That’s a drive in the morning listening to whatever dataset you gave to it,” Wilson says. Patron privacy is also protected, since the platform—at least at the enterprise level, Wilson notes—doesn’t use the data you import to train its large language model.
Brian Pichman, director of strategic innovation at Evolve Project, predicts that computer vision will soon play a larger role in AI tools in libraries. You could take a picture or video of your stacks, and then AI could tell you which books are out of place and which might be missing. He also suggests that the time savings from efficiency tools like meeting transcriptions and summaries and email tools that organize and summarize your inbox are worth exploring. These are tools that “aren’t scary, aren’t black box or evil,” he says.
While AI dominated the conversation, it’s not the only technology on the rise in libraries. Amber Reichert, director of content strategy for communications and UX at University of Virginia, highlighted some unsung but powerful technologies. QR codes, which have seen increased use since the COVID-19 pandemic, have improved a lot in recent years with integrated readers in cell phone cameras. At her library, when presented with a QR code or a short link, users are choosing the QR code 97% of the time. However, she cautions that using only QR codes presents a technological barrier, since they require smartphones to use.
Finally, Reichert highlighted zines as a rising technology. While not new—she traces them back to the Harlem Renaissance—they are on the rise. “I counted 20 sessions here” about zines, she says. They exist outside the traditional publishing ecosystem, are generally passed along in person, and can be created anonymously. “There are a lot of reasons for that appeal right now,” she says.
