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• AI & Ethics: Considerations for Information Professionals

  • When
    22 Jan 2025
  •  
    11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
  • Location
    Virtual - Zoom link will be sent to registrants 24 hours prior to the event

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  Event Description: 

  The topic of artificial intelligence is inescapable in many spheres, and libraries, archives, and cultural heritage institutions are no exception. As organizations incorporate AI into their policies and strategic plans—and as the question “what if we used AI?” increases in frequency during our conversations with colleagues—it is becoming increasingly important for information professionals to be able to discern when and how to use AI, if at all, in our work. Additionally, amidst genuine interest in learning new technology and the frequent discussions of the boundless potential of AI, the inherent ethical considerations are often either downplayed or ignored completely.

  In this program, three speakers will present their own experiences working with AI for various library projects. They will share both the benefits and challenges of incorporating such technologies into their work, as well as considerations for mitigating potential harm and biases that the use of AI may introduce or proliferate in our systems, applications, and shared information landscape. 

  NOTE: AI energy use and environmental impact are outside of the scope of this event, but NYTSL encourages attendees to learn about the information processing differences between Generative AI vs. Discriminatory AI, which directly relates to Luccioni, Jernite, and Strubell’s conclusion in their 2023 paper Power Hungry Processing: Watts Driving the Cost of AI Deployment? that “generative tasks are more energy- and carbon-intensive compared to discriminative tasks.”

  
  

  Speaker Bios: 

  Kathryn Ruddock is the Director of Digital Services at the University of Calgary. She is passionate about facilitating access to unique digital collections through sustainable repositories. Kathryn collaborates with faculty, staff, and students to develop digital collections that support research, teaching, and cultural heritage, as well as to manage digital assets. She holds a Master of Library and Information Studies degree from Western University in London, Ontario.

  Ingrid Reiche is the Digital Metadata Librarian in Libraries and Cultural Resources at the University of Calgary. Ingrid's work focuses primarily on metadata for digital collections and repositories, and metadata support for research projects. Her current interests include equity, diversity and inclusion in metadata, AI tools that support bulk metadata creation, mapping cultural objects, and text encoding. Ingrid has a Master of Information in Library and Information Science from the University of Toronto, and a Master of Arts in English with a specialization in the digital humanities from Carleton University.

  Lori A. Perine is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics, Statistics, and Data Science at Montgomery College (Maryland) and a Research Fellow at the Advanced Information Collaboratory at the University of Maryland.  She explores innovative uses of data science in social science and humanities applications, with an emphasis on sociotechnical dimensions of technology development and applications. Most recently, Perine presented a research paper and served on the planning committee for the 9th Computational Archival Science (CAS) Workshop at the December 2024 IEEE Big Data Conference . A dedicated advocate for bringing technology and innovation expertise into government to improve policy and services, Perine also is a special advisor to the Maryland Insurance Administration for implementing data and AI management and governance. From 2021 to 2023, she was a visiting researcher with the Trustworthy AI team in the Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, where she co-authored its Special Publication 1270, Towards a Standard for Identifying and Managing Bias in AI, and participated in the development of NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework and its associated Playbook. In addition to teaching and research, Perine has forged a distinctive career as an intrapreneurial alliance executive, STEM policymaker, and consultant, focused on advancing innovation for the public good. She has served on a Presidential Transition Team, held executive positions at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and in international technology alliances, and sat on intra- and intergovernmental councils and advisory groups for STEM and energy.
  

  
  

  A Note on Registration Fees:

  Since 2020’s transition to virtual events due to COVID-19, NYTSL has been offering our programming both online and free of charge. Luckily, NYTSL had enough funds to continue offering free programming through 2021 and 2022. However, in order to provide honoraria to our invited speakers as well as cover the cost of website operations, we will need to resume program registration fees.

  Especially since NYTSL will continue to offer programming in a virtual environment, our updated fees are significantly lower than they were for our pre-pandemic in-person programs:

  Regular Member: $6.00 (updated fee) vs. $15.00 (pre-pandemic)
  Student member: $5.00 (updated fee) vs. $10.00 (pre-pandemic)
  Non-member: $15.00 (updated fee) vs. $40.00 (pre-pandemic)

  If you would like to attend our virtual programming with a group of co-workers, please purchase one registration and make a suggested donation of $6 for each additional viewer.

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