New Article on Bluesky for Libraries 19 Mar 8:01 AM (20 days ago)

Check out my newest article, Up, Up, and Away: Exploring Bluesky for Libraries, in the March 2025 edition of Computers in Libraries magazine.

Sorta connected with that – I’m giving a Social Media update for 2025 at the Computers in Libraries conference next week! Make sure to attend if you’re at the conference.

What’s in the article? I’ve included a brief history of Bluesky, how it’s different than X/Twitter and some of its competitors, and some starting pointers to posting on Bluesky as a library.

And yes – I’m on Bluesky (but not doing a lot there yet). Feel free to follow me there!

Anyway – read the article, and I hope to see you next week at the conference if you plan to attend!

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Say Hi at Computers in Libraries 2025! 20 Feb 7:46 AM (last month)

I’m speaking at Computers in Libraries 2025, and I’d love to say Hi!

Computers in Libraries 2025 is being held on March 25-27 (March 24 for preconference sessions) in Arlington, VA, and is always a great conference full of library techie goodness.

I’m giving three talks this year:

Community Partnerships & Programs (Preconference workshop – please sign up!): Supporting our communities and aligning with the regional, enterprise, or academic campus priorities and challenges can make a big impact and bring in new engagement possibilities. Explore strategies and community actions that have indeed made a big splash! See highlights from real community actions, learn from their successes and mistakes, and get ideas and insights to apply in your community.
AI for Web Design, Marketing & Social Media: Explore how AI is being used to empower search, web presence, and marketing for libraries. This isn’t a discussion of ChatGPT, but various tools and techniques that are powered by AI.
Community Leaders: Public library staff have always supported their communities, from early learning children’s programs, teen groups, and specialized activities, discussion forums, and more. Today, they are also an integral part of city or regional programs to help with community economic development, upskilling the workforce, supporting health and wellness, and providing access to new technology and tools. Hear what our panel has been doing and what they plan for the future. This is a fun panel session with me, Scott Hargrove, and Tod Colegrove.

So, if you haven’t yet – register for the conference and come learn with me and many others!

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New Article about Using AI for your Library’s Web Presence, Marketing, and Social Media 9 Jan 3:00 AM (2 months ago)

I have a new article up at Computers in Libraries magazine, titled Using AI to Supercharge Your Library’s Web Presence, marketing, and Social Media.

Here’s the intro paragraph: “Generative AI (gen AI) made a huge splash on Nov. 30, 2022, when OpenAI released the first publicly accessible version of ChatGPT. Since then, gen AI has been quickly integrated into the tools we use and the work we do. This article explores how AI is being used to help libraries with social media content, our web presence, and even marketing.”

In the article, I cover:

General Concepts
Web Design and Management
Marketing
Social Media
Things to remember with AI

Each section covers AI tools that can help create or manage content, or some general ideas and philosophies when using AI.

Hope you enjoy the article – please go read it!

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Handy Library Marketing Resources from Innovative 26 Nov 2024 1:30 PM (4 months ago)

Check out Innovative’s blog post Top 10 Resources for Library Marketing Inspiration. There’s some good stuff here, including:

Webinars from Cordelia Anderson and Kathy Dempsey
A handy TikTok Tipsheet from Dallas Public Library
A link to two marketing-focused publications: Marketing Library Services – lots of handy how-to tips for marketers, and to the Marketing Libraries Journal – for the more academically-minded side of library marketing
A case study on using Vega Program (an event management platform)
Two “library influencers”: The way-cool Mychal Threets … and me.

Anyway – check it out, click the links, and find some handy marketing tips in the process! And Innovative – thanks for the mention!

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My Life is Pretty Connected (online, anyway) 6 Sep 2024 7:37 AM (7 months ago)

Just thinking about my last 24 hours …

I’m sitting at the Hyundai dealership, having some recall work done. I booked the appointment because of a recall letter I received (snail mail!).

But then I scheduled the appointment online.

The recall? A software update.

I’m in the waiting area, using wifi. Typing this blog post on my laptop (in Google Docs). And checking emails from work while I write. Ok, and watching a recap of the Chiefs opening game too. On the huge big screen tv.

Last night, I went to dinner with some friends. Two of them commented on a video I made – the 27-year old watched it on TikTok, and the 75-year old saw it on Facebook.

My phone is beeping, letting me know I received some text messages.

Oh, and before I left for the car dealership, I messaged my department to let them know I’d be late … using Microsoft Teams.

My life is pretty connected/wireless/online (except for the snail mail!).

I realize I’m the weirdo here. In the waiting area at the dealership, I’m the one writing on a laptop/checking email in multiple accounts/looking at my phone for messages/generally being a bit ADHD. There are three other people here – one’s watching tv, one’s reading a magazine, and one is glued to his phone.

And I know a lot of people either don’t want to be that way, or would like to be a bit more that way but can’t.

That’s why I’m glad libraries offer wifi, broadband, computer access, training classes, job skills development, etc. That’s why I’m involved with local digital inclusion initiatives. I’m glad some libraries are going after the grant money currently available for digital inclusion, better broadband, and cybersecurity improvements. It’s a way to help our communities connect online.

Because the world is quickly moving online. We live in a world where a car requires a software update and the car dealership has free wifi for customers (and free water, too!). Even my snail mail could probably be moved online. One of our goals, as libraries, should be to help our communities move as online as they are willing and able. Because that’s where we’re headed – in some cases, that’s where we already are.

And now – software update complete. Time to head to work!

Internet sign image by Leon Seibert, from Unsplash

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Recording Studios in Libraries – new Article! 16 Jul 2024 5:00 AM (8 months ago)

I have a new article in the July/August 2024 edition of Computers in Libraries! It’s titled Why Your Library Needs a Multimedia Studio and How to Add One. Go read it!

In the article, I focus on:

Different types of studios, prom editing labs to recording studios, and then some.
Examples of libraries that have different types of studios. There are quite a few these days! In fact, the 2023 Public Library Technology Survey done by PLA says that about 25% of public libraries have some type of digital media production equipment for customers to use.
Things to Consider. Finally, some things to consider when creating a multimedia or studio space in your library.

So – check out the article … and start recording!

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AnthroDesk Standing Desk Review 8 Jul 2024 7:50 AM (9 months ago)

My video review at YouTube

Out of the blue, AnthroDesk (at AnthroDesk.com) asked me if I’d like to review their AnthroDeskSit to Stand Height Adjustable Programmable Standing Desk Workstation with Table Top. That’s a loooong name for a “sit to stand desk.”

Basically, I create some reviews, and I get to keep the desk. [So yeah – this is a sponsored post!].

Guess what? I like the desk! Here’s my review.

I mostly work at my office (in the basement of the library), and don’t have a home office setup. During the Covid shutdown when everyone was working from home , I quickly discovered that working at the dining room table for 8 hours or more (mostly more) a day wasn’t that much fun.

I’m one of those tall, gangly people that tends to slump and stretch out a bunch. So my back and my bum get a bit sore after awhile!

Now that we’re back at the office, I still get to work from home once in awhile. So having the opportunity to try out a standing desk was a no brainer!

The desk works great. The AnthroDesk has easy-to-use programmable controls, so I can set it for my optimal sitting and standing height, and then use the memory buttons to raise it or lower it to my favorite positions.

It also has an app that can do a couple of things:

It can control the desk from the app. Not quite sure why I’d want to do that, but ok!
It can remind you to sit or stand. For example, you can set a reminder for every 10 minutes.
Even cooler – it can automatically raise or lower the desk at a pre-set time! So set it for moving up or down every 10-20 minutes, and you’re all set!
The app also tracks your hours sitting and standing, and how many calories were burned. A desk that counts calories – that’s pretty cool.

One not so cool thing (that was mostly my fault). The screws that hold the table top to the frame are not the strongest in the world. I found that out because I assembled the desk in my basement, and then (of course) decided that the table really needed to be in an upstairs bedroom. I moved the desk upstairs (I had some help with that!) … and later on I found a trail of screws that had fallen off of the underside of the table top!

So – my bad (we should have held onto the base instead of just the table top), and easily fixed with a trip to Ace Hardware to get some slightly thicker screws.

But that’s the only negative thing I found. Assembling the AnthroDesk was easier than something from Ikea, and it seems to work well. The app was easy to download from the app store. There’s a QR code on the bluetooth connector cable that didn’t seem to point to anything. However, the QR code in the instruction booklet went right to the correct app store for me – so your mileage might vary a bit there! And the bluetooth thingie for the app was easy to connect to my phone.

The controls for sitting and standing and the memory buttons all worked great for me.

So – a desk for when I’m working from home. And one that is trying to keep me healthy by standing up more, and helping me to have better posture.

All from a desk. Pretty cool! If you’re curious or want more info, go visit AnthroDesk.com!

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Protect your Library from a Ransomware Attack! 30 May 2024 8:47 AM (10 months ago)

Recently, there have been some ransomware attacks on library systems – Seattle Public Library, Toronto Public Library, Hamilton Public Library, the British Library … and probably a few others. In addition, local governments are experiencing the same things, and this can also affect a city library.

Closer to home, Wichita and the Kansas Court System have both experienced ransomware attacks.

Ransomware attacks are pretty nasty, and it makes sense to do as much as you can to protect your organization against these types of attacks. What can you do to help prevent them? Quite a lot. Here are some ideas to help tighten up your cybersecurity:

Up-to-date software. After awhile, software companies no longer support older software. So it’s good to do those updates and upgrades. Some of those updates are security patches that help plug holes or inconsistencies that the software company discovered.

Awareness training. Unfortunately, staff are the weak link when it comes to ransomware attacks. So it’s a good thing to educate staff on simple things, like how to handle suspicious emails, etc. We use KnowBe4 to help with that. It provides online training, and also sends fake spammy emails, and keeps track of how staff respond to them. It’s a handy learning tool.

Vishing too. Vishing is similar to Phishing … but uses a phone call instead of an email – the caller convinces the staff person to enter a username and password at a phony website … and then they can use that username and password to access the network, etc. KnowBe4 includes this as part of our training.

Two-Factor Authentication. Turn that on whenever you can. Two-factor/multifactor authentication needs more than one thing for logging in – i.e., a username and password, but also something else, like a code sent as a text message, using an authenticator app, etc. We do this for Microsoft 365, and found out that some of our staff don’t have a cell phone – so they can’t necessarily use two-factor authentication. So we’re exploring other ways to help with this, like a separate USB dongle that acts as an authenticator key. Fingers crossed this works! Prince has a blog post about using two-factor authentication in Library Management Systems – might be worth exploring!

Strong passwords. Just a reminder here to not re-use the same password everywhere, to update passwords regularly, and to create strong, unique passwords.

Regular backups. If you can back everything up every day, that can help a lot with ransomware attacks – because you can just revert back to the last backup, and you won’t lose everything. But that means frequent backups, in multiple places – onsite, offsite, etc.

Set up good email spam filters. A lot of ransomware attacks start via spammy emails. So make sure you’re using good email spam filters.

Zero trust approach. “With zero trust, the system starts by assuming that the device or user requesting access is not authorized. It requires proof of authorization, such as using multifactor authentication.” (From https://www.proof.com/blog/how-to-protect-your-business-against-ransomware-attacks).

There are other things to do, as well. Will these steps ultimately protect your organization from ransomware and all other cyber attacks? While I can’t really predict that, I can say following these steps will definitely help!

Articles for more info:

Image from pxhere.com

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See you at Computers in Libraries 2024? 22 Feb 2024 10:47 AM (last year)

I’m getting my presentations in order for the upcoming Computers in Libraries 2024 conference, and hope to see some of you there!

Like I often do, I’m giving a couple of talks at the conference. Here’s when I’m speaking and what I’m speaking about:

Monday: Emerging Trends in Libraries pre-conference workshop.
Tuesday: Recording studios, video production studios, etc. in libraries
Tuesday: A couple of fun & creative AI projects my library has done
Wednesday: Tech tools – web-based services and tools that help us do our jobs better
Wednesday: Social media update – this is a fast and furious cyber tour talk!

If you’re planning to come, I’d love to see you at one of my talks! If you’re not registered yet … here’s the link to take care of that!

See you in March!

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Social Media Trends for 2024! 2 Feb 2024 8:45 AM (last year)

Pew Research just released their newest report on Social Media – there’s some really interesting stats!

Here’s a very brief overview:

What social media platforms do Americans use the most? You can probably correctly guess this one:

YouTube (83%)
Facebook (68%)
Instagram (47%)

They also included BeReal (and removed NextDoor). BeReal has a whopping 3% use.

TikTok is steadily growing in use. It’s up to 33% (from 21% in 2021).

Also … younger adults are still the primary users of social media. Adults under 30 are far more likely to use social media than are older adults. Especially for the newer platforms. TikTok for example – 62% of US adults under 30 use it, while just 4% of adults age 65+ use it. Same thing with Instagram – 78% of adults under 30 use it; 15% of adults over 65 use it.

YouTube and Facebook are the only two platforms that a majority of all age groups use.

Adults age 30 – 49 use LinkedIn, WhatsApp and Facebook the most. This makes sense to me. The LinkedIn use are young to middle-aged professionals working on networking with a more professional or industry-specific crowd. Facebook – everyone’s on it. WhatsApp? There is a lot of use with minority groups. I also know that a lot of small groups use these types of apps, like little league ball teams, to communicate about games and practices. That type of use definitely hits that 30-49 age group.

Twitter? Holding pretty steady at 22%. At this point, people who got uncomfortable with all the weirdness of Twitter/X/Elon have moved on, the people/orgs still finding some value there are still there.

What should libraries be thinking about for social media in 2024?

Social media is visual. Don’t be afraid to use video and photos! The top three social media platforms are all highly visual, and have a strong focus on video of all types.
Be on the Top Three Platforms. As an organization, you should probably be active on Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram.
Think about TikTok. Go ahead and experiment with TikTok, at least as an individual! Also, don’t think of it as a teen platform. 62% of young adults (under age 30) use TikTok. I’m guessing you can easily create content for them!
Tools for staff. If you haven’t, you might think about either purchasing tools for staff to make posting to social media easier. For example – do you need to purchase a mobile phone with solid video/photo features for your staff that post to social media?
Twitter and Snapchat? You can ignore those, I think. If you’re already there, and it’s working for your organization … great! Continue using them. With Twitter/X, that might be longer or shorter, depending on what happens. I don’t necessarily think “it’s time to dump Twitter” like some people are saying. See if you have a large, active audience there. If you do, and you still get traction, then keep using it. If it’s something your organization either hasn’t used in awhile, or you haven’t been consistent there … then feel free to move on!

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Social Media Review and Strategy Update for 2024 19 Dec 2023 5:00 AM (last year)

Hey – check out my newest article in Computers in Libraries (Dec 23 edition) – “Social Media Review and Strategy Update for 2024.”

In the article, I cover:

Some social media stats for 2023
a very brief social media platform update
Some Twitter/X alternatives (and the current weirdness of that platform)
General trends for 2024
Impact and Application for Libraries

Click the link and see what’s in store for 2024!

PS – also check out the article AI and the Library Community: The Experts Are In, by Amy Affelt. It’s focused on the current state of AI in the library world, and it’s a good read (Amy interviewed me and a bunch of what she calls “preeminent experts!” for the article).

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AI Art Project at the Library 12 Dec 2023 5:00 AM (last year)

My library has an art gallery … and earlier this year, they experimented with generative AI! Read the article on my library’s website for more info.

The basics: library staff teamed up with Topeka Magazine, and played around with AI: They uploaded images of paintings into AI software and asked for a description of the image; then they used those descriptions to have Dall-E2 and Midjourney create AI-based art.

The results? They’re currently on display at the library. Fun project!

Here’s a link to Topeka Magazine, so you can read the article and find out a little more about the process and the results.

How is your library experimenting with generative AI tools?

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Kansas License Plates … and Only Focusing on Internal Issues 30 Nov 2023 5:00 AM (last year)

Sometimes, Kansas makes the national news for the silliest things. This time, we made the news because of a poorly redesigned license plate (see the accompanying pic). The governor announced the change … and then 6 says later, announced that Kansas is re-thinking that!

The new license plate design has some issues. It’s ugly (I think so, anyway). It apparently looks a bit like a New York license plate; it uses the University of Missouri’s colors (Kansas arch-rivals in sports); and it also reminds people of … Texas (i.e., the stars).

It’s also a great example of how NOT to do something!

Reading into it a bit, here’s what I think happened. My guess is that this project was instigated internally. The state highway patrol wanted license plates that are easier to read, so they asked for a new design that’s easy to see from a distance, with highly contrasting colors. Also, apparently some of our older license plates have letters that are peeling off. About 5 years ago, Kansas switched to print-on-demand, and the newer plates don’t have letters that peel off.

So … they figured out what would work best for them … internally. And designed that. Then someone piped up and said “hey, we need to have some sort of Kansas connection.” So they translated part of the state motto (“Ad astra per aspera,” or “to the stars through difficulty”), and added the “to the stars” phrase, with two stars as a bonus in the design.

Then, after everyone internally was happy with it … they shared the new design with Kansans. And 6 days later they had to backpedal (because no one likes the new design). Now, we’ll probably get 4-6 potential designs to somehow vote on.

What should Kansas have done differently?

Asked Kansans up front about the design. Maybe created a taskforce with graphic designers or something … and included some parameters, like “has to be easy to read, can’t peel, etc.”
Perhaps stuck to the newer version of the current design, which doesn’t have problems with numbers peeling off, and just re-issue license plates to people who have the older version.
Set up a way to vote from the beginning.

Any lessons for libraries here? Oh yes indeed.

Don’t redesign unless you really need to! Maybe there’s a much smaller way to do things (i.e., just re-print the older license plates) that fixes the problem, rather than a complete re-do.
Have a customer-facing plan. Yes, there are staff needs (i.e., clearly legible license plate numbers). Yes, planning with an internal focus fixes the internal issue. But fixing the internal issue sometimes makes a larger customer-facing issue. So … work on getting customer input. Which leads us to #3.
Always put the customer first. For example, with the license plate thing … let Kansans have a say in what goes on their cars, and what represents Kansas – shoulda done that first! For a library … actually ask your customers/patrons about it. For example, if you are building a new Kids area, ask kids and parents what works and what doesn’t in the current space.

I’m glad our Kansas state government was able to pivot and go another way after they received input from Kansans. Guess what? You can do that too!

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AI Poetry Project – Creative Writing using ChatGPT 5 Sep 2023 5:00 AM (last year)

Robot reading by Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

A few months ago, I was part of an AI poetry project, which culminated in an article in Topeka Magazine – It’s Not a (Beep! Beep!) Poet (and it doesn’t know it).

The project team included me, a professor, the current poet laureate of Kansas, and a local writer. My part was fun! My job for the project was to use ChatGPT and generate some AI-written poetry.

You’d think that would be easy, right? Just prompt ChatGPT to “write some poetry” (which it can do). But we were a bit more specific than that. We wanted six poems, which included a sonnet, a sestina, and some Kansas prairie focused poems. Some of these poems would be based on sample poetry that I inserted into ChatGPT as examples to mimic.

This was a bit more challenging that you’d think! ChatGPT seems to like structure quite a bit. It had (mostly) no problem with the sonnet or the sestina poems; both of those have a very specific structure to them.

ChatGPT was also good at knowing that you wanted to write something about Kansas, and pulling out the things you’d normally think of about Kansas. It could find “Kansas-y things” pretty easily.

The difficulty came from finalizing the poems. ChatGPT had trouble creating a specific number of lines for a poem. For example, if I asked for 30 lines of verse … I’d get 20. Or 50. Then I’d prompt ChatGPT to cut that down to 30 lines, and it would cut too many (or not enough). I finally had to resort to asking it to “supply 10 more lines of poetry” and things like that.

We also wanted some contemporary non-rhyming verse on some of the poems. That was hard – ChatGPT is positive that poems should rhyme, and kept providing rhyming lines of text, no matter how many times I asked it to not rhyme.

But I was able to provide some poems for the group to examine. Were these great poems? Nope. Would they get a passing grade in a high school creative writing class? Probably so.

Will AI creative writing improve? I’d guess so – let’s give it five or so years, and see where it is then. In the meantime, please read the article. Even better – experiment with more creative AI projects on your own, and see what happens!

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Can The News come from a library? 17 Aug 2023 5:00 AM (last year)

I read this article (found via infoDOCKET) earlier this week and found it pretty interesting!

Could a local library … that’s already a community hub … that people trust … also be the place for local news?

The article definitely shows that it could be a possibility! From the article, it looks like some libraries have done some limited experiments to show that it can, in fact, work.

Heck – my library has talked about doing some form of that (in passing – no actual projects!).

But it kinda makes sense. Many libraries already focus on a community’s history. They even keep a vertical file of interesting tidbits of information and history, just in case. So – we have the past covered.

How about the present? We’re already connected (or should be, anyway) to a lot of the non profits, chambers of commerce, city and county governments, action committees, etc. in town. We know at least some of the local movers and shakers.

So … we’re already connected to many of the organizations that know what’s going on in town. Possibly the next step is meeting with some of those people and organizations, and pulling that “what’s happening” story out of them.

We wouldn’t need to cover car accidents, road closures, crime, etc. Leave that to the evening news. But how about the good news in town? The “what’s happening next week” news? The “here’s what’s coming next year” type of news?

We just might be able to pull that off – because we already have those connections. We just need writers. And some of us already know how to do that, as well. Or we can hire writers and journalists to do it for us. Or it could be in a video format. That works too!

Assuming you’re able to hire, and can shift some jobs to do something new. I know – some big “ifs” there!

Could libraries pull this off? Maybe so. Definitely something to think about!

Read more:

***

Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

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Librarians as AI Prompt Engineers 27 Apr 2023 6:19 AM (last year)

I heard about an interesting new job while at Computers in Libraries 2023 (great conference, by the way!) – an AI prompt engineer.

What’s a prompt engineer? Here’s a description (from Computer Hope):

The idea of a “prompt engineer” came in response to AI text and image generators, which people noticed would produce higher-quality content when users give specifically-phrased prompts, as opposed to just asking naturally. The title describes people who are supposedly skilled at selecting the right phrasing so that AI tools generate the most accurate and relevant responses.

As the speaker talked about prompt engineers, and then moved on, I started thinking – hey, isn’t that sorta what librarians do? Sometimes, we just help find the answer … but often, our role is to help our customers ask a better question. Heck, some of us even have whole pages on our websites devoted to how to ask better questions.

We are trained to broaden, narrow, and refine a customer’s question, so that they can hone in on the answer they were looking for. To me … that kinda sounds like a prompt engineer.

And yes, I know – it’s not a complete picture. A “real” AI prompt engineer helps the large language model refine its output, so answers are accurate, sound conversational, and sounds like a human.

But the librarian-sounding parts, to me, seem like a pretty traditional librarian job. We help people figure out what they’re really looking for through refinement of their questions, by helping them narrow down a broad topic, or by adding important details to their search. Through the reference interview.

This is one reason I’m not too worried about our soon-to-be AI future when our search engines are also a type of answer engine. They’re only giving answers to the things people input into the system. In this new AI world, librarians will still be serving a very traditional role – helping to refine the question. And with generative AI tools, we might just be able to see the answers getting formed, as well.

Go forth and generate better questions!

Image: Generated from this prompt: “Cool-looking futuristic librarian answering a patron’s question” from Stable Diffusion Online

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Are We There Yet? Conversation with Paul Signorelli 16 Feb 2023 3:00 AM (2 years ago)

I had a fun conversation recently with Paul Signorelli as part of Arizona State University’s ASU ShapingEDU | Are We There Yet? Capturing the Evolving New Now in Learning discussions.

We touched on a lote of topics, mostly around Covid and post-covid best practices – topics like what my library did during the pandemic, broadband in our county and the library’s response to that, what new services appeared, and my library’s digital branch.

Anyway – fun conversation with a good friend and colleague. Watch it and share!

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3 AI Tools to Check Out (plus 1 bonus!) 10 Feb 2023 3:00 AM (2 years ago)

Yes folks, the AI chatbot era has hit, big time. Some of you have been playing with ChatGPT, which has made a huge splash in recent months. It does a good enough job of writing things (i.e., student research papers, etc) that the company has also released a tool that can tell if a chunk of text was written by AI or by an actual person.

All that to say – this version of AI is a pretty big deal, and one that you need to pay attention to. I think there’s the potential for AI to change a bunch of stuff in our lives; certainly a bunch of stuff related to our jobs.

Including how we search the web. Pretty soon, we won’t be looking for search results. We’ll be looking for answers. And AI chatbots will provide those answers for us.

Lazy? The most amazing thing since sliced bread? You’ll have to be the judge of that.

For now, here are three pretty new AI technologies to start learning about:

1. ChatGPT (the “granddaddy” of the new AI chatbots).

What is ChatGPT? Here’s how they describe themselves, from their website: “ChatGPT is an advanced AI chatbot trained by OpenAI which interacts in a conversational way. The dialogue format makes it possible for ChatGPT to answer followup questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”

ChatGPT basically looks like a search box that you type something into. Or copy/paste a bunch of text into. You can ask it questions of all sorts, or ask it to do something (i.e., write a new bio for me), and then it provides a response.

2. Microsoft’s new AI-powered Bing search.

Microsoft has their own version of an AI chatbot that works through the Bing search engine. To use it, you have to visit Bing, put yourself on a waitlist … and then use Microsoft’s Edge web browser to check it out (I’m on the waitlist).

This one uses the newest version of OpenAI’s large language model. It’s the successor or next-generation version of the AI model that ChatGPT isn’t yet using. It’s apparently been customized for search.

The Bing model provides search insights (not just search results). They’re pitching this as bringing together search, browsing, and chat into one unified experience.

Through that unified experience, the goal is this: when you do a search, you’ll get search results, just like normal. But you’ll also get an answer. For example, if you search for how to make a chocolate cake, you’ll get the usual cake recipe results. But you’ll also get detailed instructions for making a chocolate cake.

And of course, it’s a Microsoft product. So they really, really want you to download the MicroSoft Edge web browser to try out the new chatbot.

3. Bard by Google.

Google also has an AI chatbot that will be released soon. Their product is named Bard, and should be released in the next couple of weeks. Bard is a conversational AI service, powered on Google’s LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications).

Bard sounds similar to ChatGPT and the new Bing product. One of Google’s examples is to “explain new discoveries from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to a 9-year-old.” That sounds very ChatGPT-like to me!

Google is also planning to add Bard into Google Search. So again, instead of just asking for search results, you can ask for search insights (i.e., answers).

Bonus #4! Quora’s Poe app.

Quieter, but also interesting – Quora has launched a new AI chatbot app called Poe. The Poe app lets you ask questions (sorta like you do with Quora). The difference is that you’ll get answers from a range of AI chatbots, including OpenAI and Anthropic. They’re hoping this app helps evolve their Quora service. It’s only an iOS app at the moment, so iPhone users, test it out!

There are definitely other AI services starting to appear (photo and video AI generators come to mind). But these, for the most part, have all appeared in the last couple of weeks.

And I think these all have the potential to change the web as we know it!

Read more about AI Chatbots:

An important next step on our AI journey. Google’s CEO introducing Bard.
Reinventing search with a new AI-powered Microsoft Bing and Edge, your copilot for the web. Microsoft’s announcement for the new version of Bing with AI capabilities.
OpenAI’s ‘next-generation’ AI model is behind Microsoft’s new search.
Quora opens its new AI chatbot app Poe to the general public.
Why AI Is Never Going to Replace Subject Matter Experts and How to Choose the Right SMEs

The post 3 AI Tools to Check Out (plus 1 bonus!) first appeared on David Lee King.

Playing with ChatGPT 23 Jan 2023 5:02 AM (2 years ago)

Have you played with ChatGPT yet? I’ve been doing that the last couple of weeks. It’s fun! First – if you’re not familiar with ChatGPT – it’s basically an AI chatbot that is very conversational, and seems … well … pretty smart. Ask it questions, and it will provide a (usually) pretty good response!

Here are some examples of questions I’ve recently asked ChatGPT. The first thing I asked it to do was to write a blog post about my library (Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library). It created an accurate, nicely-written blog post, describing my library.

Last week at a conference, I was talking to someone about it. He told me that he asked it to write a Python script for him … and it did an acceptable job.

So, more experiments. I just asked ChatGPT to “create a bio for David Lee King” …. here’s what it created:

“David Lee King is a library professional and author who has dedicated his career to exploring the intersection of technology and user experience in libraries. He is currently the Digital Services Director at Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library, where he leads the library’s efforts to innovate and improve the digital experience for patrons.

King is a recognized expert in the field of digital libraries and has written several books on the topic, including “Designing the Digital Experience” and “Digital Libraries, Technology, and User Experience.” He is also a frequent speaker at library conferences and events, where he shares his insights and expertise on how libraries can best serve their communities in the digital age.

King is passionate about helping libraries understand and make use of technology to improve the patron experience and help patrons discover, use and create knowledge. He is a creative problem solver, and always looking for new ways to improve the patron experience.

David Lee King is a respected figure in the library world, and his work continues to shape the future of libraries and the way they serve their communities.”

Um … dang. That’s pretty good. The bio is a bit long … and I have never written a book titled “Digital Libraries, Technology, and User Experience.” Though it does sound like something I’d write Otherwise … I’d use that as a bio – it’s actually a bit better than my normal one!

For my last question for ChatGPT, I asked this: Should ChatGPT replace news stories? Here’s what it said:

“ChatGPT is a powerful language model that is capable of generating human-like text, but it is not intended to replace news stories written by professional journalists. Language models like ChatGPT can be used as a tool to assist journalists by generating summaries or helping with fact-checking, but it cannot replace the human element of research, analysis, and interpretation that goes into a well-written news story. Additionally, it is important to be aware that language models like ChatGPT have been trained on vast amounts of text from the internet, which includes biased and unreliable information. Therefore, it is important to always verify any information generated by a language model with credible sources.”

Use it as a tool, just like you would many other tools at your disposal!

Good advice, from an AI chatbot.

The post Playing with ChatGPT first appeared on David Lee King.

Three Thoughts on Social Media and Twitter 29 Nov 2022 3:00 AM (2 years ago)

It’s really weird to see [what was] a pretty stable social media channel like Twitter falter. Especially since it’s 16 years old! It was founded just before I moved to Topeka, and at this point I’ve used it for a large chunk of my professional library life.

What the heck, Elon!

Since Twitter’s currently going through some major road bumps (and might not survive those) … should your library still use it? I have some thoughts on that.

First Thought: don’t delete it yet.

Why not?

It might survive. Twitter might make it through the major changes and craziness going on at the moment. If so … it’s still a pretty useful tool. My guess is it will continue to be so (if it survives the craziness).
Do you actively use it? If so … it’s still working, so continue doing what you do (for now).
Do you have customers there? My library has over 7000 followers on Twitter. We still get questions and comments there. Why would we stop responding and posting? […I mean, other than if it crashes and burns…]

Second Thought: It’s just an outpost.

Remember that Twitter, and all the social media tools you use, are just outposts. Your website is your home base. You should continue having multiple outposts. Think of these as ways to reach outside the walls of your building (both your physical and digital walls).

Those outposts should point back to your home base. Keep most of your focus on your website, your building, and on all the cool stuff your library does. Use your outposts to share all that stuff … and invite people back to your home base.

Third Thought: Time to Reassess.

It’s probably a great time to examine what you’re doing with social media, and perhaps tweak your focus a bit. Try out a new social media tool. For example, Mastodon, Hive Social, Post, etc. are all possible Twitter replacements (you can find me on Mastodon!).

Make more video. Social media is more focused on video formats these days, and especially short-form video. I’ve been enjoying what Milwaukee Public Library’s been doing on Tiktok – fun stuff! Check them out at https://www.tiktok.com/@milwaukeepubliclibrary .

Maybe don’t leave Twitter just yet, especially if you’re still getting some good use out of it. At the same time, figure out some improvements that you can make in your approach to social media, and start making some positive changes!

The post Three Thoughts on Social Media and Twitter first appeared on David Lee King.

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