Your first AI wins: 5 everyday tasks

When you finish, you can use AI for five library tasks with strong prompts and clear checks.

Set up safely

Use public or made-up information in your prompts. Do not include patron names, borrowing records, account numbers, photographs of patrons or reference questions that reveal personal details. Use tools your library or institution has approved where required.

A strong library prompt names the audience, reading level, length and limits. “Do not give specific titles” or “do not add facts I did not provide” keeps the tool from inventing things.

Wins one and two: workshops and handouts

Weak: “Plan a computer class.” Strong: “Plan a 60-minute workshop for older adults new to email, with goals, a timed outline, one hands-on activity, a one-page handout in plain language and three check questions.” Check the timing, the activity on real equipment and whether any instruction assumes knowledge your learners do not have.

Handouts should be tested with a real reader. Hand it to a colleague who does not know the topic and ask what confused them. Check for accessibility: large print, clear headings and compatibility with screen readers.

Wins three and four: reader's advisory and long documents

For reader's advisory, ask for themes and search strategies, not titles. Weak: “Suggest books like this.” Strong: “Suggest themes and catalog search ideas for readers who enjoyed gentle small-town mysteries. Do not name titles.” Then search your catalog. This avoids recommending books that do not exist.

For long public reports, ask for a staff summary with headings and page numbers. Check the key points against the report, especially anything affecting your services or funding.

Win five: checking an AI-produced source list

Patrons often arrive with a list of sources a chatbot gave them. Ask the tool to tell you what to check for each source and where to search, rather than whether it is real. Then search your catalog and databases for the author, title, journal and year.

Sources that cannot be found, or that exist but do not say what the chatbot claimed, are teaching moments. Show the patron how you checked. This is information literacy in action.

Practice now

Plan a workshop with the strong prompt and test the handout on a colleague.
Generate a list of five sources on a topic and check each in your catalog or a database. Note how many you can confirm.

Use any AI assistant you have. Do not paste private, client or patient information into it.

Check yourself

1. Why ask for themes instead of titles in reader's advisory?

2. What is a good test for a handout?

3. A patron brings AI-cited sources. What do you do together?

Ask the AI tutor

Ask anything about this lesson, in any language. The tutor is an AI: it can be wrong, and it never needs your personal details.

Next lesson: Guardrails for librarians

AI-drafted. Checked by an automated validator and a separate AI reviewer; a person has not read every lesson. Translations and tutor answers are AI-made. Found a mistake? Tell us. AI can be wrong. General information only, not professional advice. Not affiliated with any AI company named. Current University is not accredited.