UK librarians’ views of chatbots: a study based on fictional scenarios

The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in libraries, including use of chatbots, has been widely discussed in recent years. This paper investigates how library professionals see the role of chatbots in the library context. As a data collection method, the study used the arts-based approach of fictional scenarios, which are short, crafted stories representing possible futures. Participants (UK librarians) responded to researcher-authored fictional scenarios and wrote their own. In response to the fictional scenarios authored by the researchers, participants were negative about giving chatbots agency or human-like characteristics. Resource issues and ethics also appeared in their responses as barriers. Participants were more positive about time saving applications and data analysis. In the fictional scenarios participants wrote themselves they tended to imagine rather narrow, low-level functions for AI. The theory of professions is drawn on to interpret the resistance of professionals to more capable AI and the assertion of human agency.