Official Meeting Blogger: AI and searching

_{PHOTO CREDIT:  Michelle Cawley presenting during MLA’19.  Permission to use photo granted by M. Cawley.}

The last full-day of MLA’19, I had the pleasure of attending a fabulous Information Services Immersion Session entitled “Harness the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to change the way you approach large, complex research questions.”  This session was active, informative, well-thought-out, and a pleasure to be in. Originally not planning to attend this session, I changed plans when encouraged to attend by one of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill librarians at the Systematic Searching SIG. I am so glad I changed my plans.

• Michelle Cawley, UNC Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library, provided an overview of the different ways their library is using AI tools when searching complex research questions.
• UNC librarians were then stationed around the room, and small groups of attendees travelled between stations to see each tool demonstrated.
• We then wrapped up with a Q&A session.

Since we learned that we can’t purchase the remarkable programs demonstrated, I look forward to an upcoming webinar where Michelle will discuss how individual libraries might implement something similar at their institution.  

For more information, all materials from this session can be found online at https://guides.lib.unc.edu/automation.

[Link removed (Find all MLA ’19 Elevate blog posts here)]. 

If you missed MLA ’19, you can still register for an e-Conference to catch up.