Artificial intelligence in the library: gauging the potential application and implications for contemporary library services in Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose: Libraries may become obsolete in the twenty-first century unless they begin to harness new technology and improve information and service delivery. This paper examines the potential application and implications of artificial intelligence for contemporary library services in Nigeria. Methods: This paper adopts the expository research approach to evaluate the application and implication of artificial intelligence in contemporary library services in Nigeria. Through systematic analysis of literature, the study addresses how academic libraries can utilize artificial intelligence to support innovative library services. Findings: The column emphasizes that, academic libraries in Nigeria have not yet adopted and applied AI, in spite of the potential that it holds for libraries. Given that there has been relatively little study linking artificial intelligence (AI) to librarianship, this may be because there is a low degree of awareness and adoption of AI's importance in libraries.Conclusions: This column is the original idea from the authors and does not reflect on any copyrighted materials. The column recommended that, academic libraries in Nigeria should fully embrace artificial intelligence like chatbots, barcodes, RFIDs, and robots for delivering quality services and libraries should also leverage on the opportunities presented by artificial intelligence to reconnect their remote users, and consequently re-establish their relevance among the user community.

Artificial intelligence as enabler of future library services: how prepared are librarians in African university libraries

“…Another critical concern relates to user privacy and data security. AI systems often require access to user data to provide personalized recommendations and services (Oyetola et al, 2023). Librarians are cautious about how user data is collected, stored and used by AI algorithms, fearing breaches of privacy and potential misuse of sensitive information.…”

“…It is expected that librarians should have a foundational understanding of what AI is, its capabilities, limitations and various AI techniques such as machine learning, natural language processing and data mining. Since AI relies on data for training and decision-making, several studies have indicated that librarians should be proficient in data literacy, including understanding data types, sources, quality, privacy concerns and ethical considerations related to data collection and usage (Lund and Wang, 2023;Neumann et al, 2022;Oyetola et al, 2023). Awareness of algorithmic transparency and interpretability is crucial to ensuring the fairness and accuracy of AIdriven services.…”

Support vector machine with optimized parameters for the classification of patients with COVID-19

“…Knowing the clinical condition of the patient and classifying it according to the clinical range is the first step for its treatment and stabilization, which should be done as early as possible (Lalueza, et al, 2015;Castellanos & Figueroa, 2023; Aljameel, Khan, Aslam, Aljabri, & Alsulmi, 2021). In hospitals where there is a continuous increase in patients with COVID-19, the classification process must be automated (Aftab et al, 2022) to be a support system for the health professional and provide a timely response from classification (Dinar, et al, 2022;Olusegun Oyetola et al, 2023). Within the traditional alternatives, the statistical methods, minimum distance, and maximum likelihood of category are the statistical classifiers that depend on the multivariate normal distribution of the data of each class.…”