Apologies if this doesn’t quite fit as a Pagebound Club topic, but I figured that, given how passionate most Boundlings are about libraries and about the broad use of AI, this could be of interest to our community here.

Last week, I attended a conference for academic librarians—the Ex Libris Users of North America (ELUNA) conference—and was disturbed by the amount of AI shilling I heard there. I know a lot of librarians/library workers use Pagebound, and I wanted to hear y’all’s experience with this: is it common for your colleagues to use AI in their work? How is AI generally viewed at your library, or by other library professionals you know? How do you feel about AI use in library services/systems, and do you have suggestions for how to respectfully engage in conversations with coworkers about AI’s negative impacts? (I very much welcome thoughts and observations from folks who don’t work in libraries, too! Especially if you regularly patronize a library.)

Some context: Ex Libris develops/sells library software and management systems. They host an annual conference attended by hundreds of their users—predominantly academic librarians/library workers—which is, of course, a chance for them to push more products on us, but it’s largely a professional conference for academic librarians to network, crowdsource knowledge, and generally talk library shop. Most of the conference is devoted to “break out” sessions designed and led by librarians on topics of their choosing.

Given that Ex Libris itself is basically a bunch of software developers and sales/marketing teams, I fully expected to hear AI shilling from Ex Libris representatives at the conference. (They’ve already deployed AI “helpers” for their various systems.) But what surprised and mildly disturbed me was how many of the librarians leading the break-out sessions were promoting AI in their work. I must’ve attended 15 to 20 sessions over the conference, and I heard AI tools mentioned positively at almost all of them (and I actively avoided the sessions that were specifically about AI tools). Not just Ex Libris AI tools, either: I couldn’t stop hearing about ChatGBT, Gemini, etc. and how much easier they made back-end library work. The overall climate of the conference felt very pro-AI, and I guess it just shocks me that people who are essentially professional researchers/information experts would embrace AI to this degree with zero real acknowledgment of the environmental harm it causes, or the ethical nightmare of AI development and training models.

I’ve been feeling kinda down about this since I returned from the conference, so I wanted to hear from other library Boundlings—what’s your experience been? Have you seen a similar broad acceptance of AI in library services, or was my experience perhaps (hopefully) an outlier?

I finished the animated tv adaptation of "Hilda" today and it was so good I cried :') What a beautiful way to wrap up this chapter of the characters' lives. That said, are there any books with similar heartwarming and magical vibes? I know there's the comics, but I'm in the mood for a new story. I've heard good things about T. Kingfisher's fantasy novels, but other than that I'm a bit clueless when it comes to the genre. I just want to read about magical worlds filled with interesting creatures! (oh and I don't mind romantic elements, but I'd rather it wasn't the focus). Thanks in advance!

"And they were everywhere. On main roads. In gullies. On cliffsides. On lonesome stretches between nothing. Everywhere where the land pinched on itself, impassable but for the narrow road that funneled through it, one would find a massive gate of ironwood timber and flexioned rope pulleys to collect the toll and inspect your papers;"

As someone with aphantasia, the abstract, metaphorical descriptions of the geography feel more immersive than literal depictions of shape and color or types of trees and rocks. I can fully grasp the vibes of the landscape this way.

Another example from earlier:

"A stone path begs you to cross the dark water."

Hey guys! So I have recently been struggling with my tinnitus and it has affected my reading. I typically read with something playing in the background but it’s been hard to focus on the words on the page when my brain is busy trying to listen to my tinnitus sound. Does anyone have any tips on how you guys read with tinnitus? Or ways to focus on what you’re reading rather than the sound? Also if you guys know any good book recs about managing tinnitus that would be great to! 🥰

Hey guys! So I have recently been struggling with my tinnitus and it has affected my reading. I typically read with something playing in the background but it’s been hard to focus on the words on the page when my brain is busy trying to listen to my tinnitus sound. Does anyone have any tips on how you guys read with tinnitus? Or ways to focus on what you’re reading rather than the sound? Also if you guys know any good book recs about managing tinnitus that would be great to! 🥰

it’s may, we’re far enough into the year that i think this is a fine question: any trends in topics/genres in your reading so far this year? rabbit holes you’ve gone down? consistent themes you’ve noticed yourself going for? was thinking about this and i’d love to hear!

I'm sorry, I've seen so many people be like "show Mal is so different and the show does his character so many favors" and I honestly don't see any difference in how Mal is portrayed in this book vs season 1 of the show... With the exception of like getting to see his pov in the show and not in the book. He's basically exactly the same from book to screen! Maybe there's something later in the series that differs from how he acts in the show but so far he's pretty much the same imo