Artificial intelligence is reshaping the research and information environment in consequential ways. To help research library leaders think strategically about those changes, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) have released the report from our Strategic Implications Workshop, Futurescape Libraries: Mapping Possibilities for Tomorrow’s Information Hubs. The report is designed to support leaders as they consider how advances in AI may affect the roles, responsibilities, and future direction of research libraries.
Four near-term priorities emerged from the workshop with particular urgency for library leaders:
- Invest in workforce now. AI literacy programs, flexible position descriptions, and safe opportunities for staff experimentation are foundational regardless of which AI future materializes. Waiting for the landscape to stabilize before upskilling is a strategic risk.
- Leverage unique collections. Research libraries hold assets—special collections, digitized archives, curated corpora—that commercial AI systems cannot replicate. Using these to responsibly train or inform local AI models and developing AI-first approaches to metadata and collection management represents a distinctive institutional opportunity.
- Lead on governance and ethics. Establishing AI governance frameworks, ethics boards, and evaluation processes for bias is not only an institutional responsibility, it is a competitive differentiator. Libraries are positioned to lead campus-wide conversations on responsible AI use, data privacy, and informed consent in ways few other units can.
- Build and deepen partnerships. Forging cross-campus collaborations with AI researchers, integrating libraries into institutional AI strategies, and strengthening collective action across the library community on copyright, licensing, and shared standards are essential to maintaining library influence and relevance.
Since the workshop convened in December 2024, the most consequential shift has been the move from AI as a tool researchers use to AI as an agent that acts on their behalf. That shift makes governance, authorization, and quality control operational requirements, not future considerations. The authors have updated the report to reflect this and other developments from the past year, including new drivers and signals, a scan of emerging institutional practice, and expanded strategies responsive to a quickly changing environment.
The window for proactive positioning is still open but narrowing. Research libraries that treat AI governance, workforce development, and collection strategy as integrated priorities will be best positioned to lead their institutions through an uncertain but consequential decade and to shape what research libraries become by 2035.
Download, read, and share the report, Strategic Implications of AI Futures for Research Libraries: Workshop Report, by Karen Estlund and Cynthia Hudson Vitale.
This project was supported by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) (grant RE-256859-OLS-24). The views, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this report do not necessarily represent those of IMLS.
About the Association of Research Libraries
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) is a nonprofit membership organization of research libraries and archives in major public and private universities, federal government agencies, and large public institutions in Canada and the US. ARL champions research libraries and archives, develops visionary leaders, and shapes policy for the equitable advancement of knowledge.
About the Coalition for Networked Information
The Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) is a joint project of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and EDUCAUSE that drives the future of scholarship and education through the creative use of information technology. With a dynamic membership of over 200 organizations spanning higher education, publishing, information technology, scholarly societies, professional organizations, foundations, and leading library institutions and organizations, CNI is at the forefront of shaping how knowledge is discovered, shared, and advanced. Learn more at www.cni.org.
