Generative AI Literacy at UVic Libraries – Adding Scripts to Libraryh3lp to encourage conversations about Generative AI

By Tina Bebbington and Christian Schmidt, UVic Libraries

Context at UVic:

UVic Libraries has embraced AI Literacy as a core competency for all librarians and library staff, and are working towards this goal across several platforms, including the creation of an AI Literacy Task Force in 2023. One of the group’s explicit goals was to “[develop] a sustainable structure and resources for AI literacy and the support of AI-literate instruction and research”.  We also want to be the leaders in promoting AI literacy for students, especially in the context of UVic’s new Digital Learning Plan.

Students are using generative AI in a variety of ways, which have implications for learning and academic integrity, but also for mastery of academic skills and tasks like finding, assessing, and citing sources.  At UVic, policies or advice around permissible AI usage are made at the course or departmental level, in keeping with our overall Academic Integrity Policy, so students may be dealing with varying guidance and different rules in different contexts.  Generative AI is also not a single tool, but a variety of different tools, with different strengths, weaknesses, and ethical considerations. There is equally varied advice on citation or attribution of AI generated content. 

Why did we add scripts to AskAway?

In addition to training, practice, and much conversation about the use of generative AI in the classroom, UVic Libraries’ AI  Literacy Task Group have created a variety of tools to support the development of AI literacy in reference and instruction (reusable workshops, libguides, and slide-decks, available here) that are sharable, adaptable and promoted across campus. These tools help instructors and librarians support students’ AI literacy development, as well as their own professional knowledge.  

To provide this support for UVic’s  AskAway providers, Christian Schmidt, one of UVic Libraries’ AskAway service providers, and then-chair of the AI Literacy Task Group provided Tina Bebbington, UVic’s AskAway coordinator, with a group of scripts, (or canned messages as they are called in Libraryh3lp), for use in our information services and reference work. Our  goals in writing and making these available are to:

• Promote academic integrity and encourage users to consider ethical implications.
• Help AskAway providers feel confident in the information they are sharing, and to develop their own knowledge and confidence.
• Provide quality, consistent information quickly, and provide resources that save students time and help them to avoid errors in practice or judgement.
• Facilitate student success in developing positive academic practices, skills and knowledge.

The scripts, their purpose, and their intended audiences:

These scripts respond to frequently asked questions and common misunderstandings around AI and learning in the UVic context.

The first set of scripts we’ve added to our Libraryh3lp profile are about academic integrity and permissible uses, and are designed to address the needs of specific scholars or scholarly tasks. For example:

For undergrads, writing papers:  It seems that you are intending to use Generative AI like ChatGPT in your assignment. Have you clarified with your instructor whether and in what capacity the use of generative artificial intelligence is permitted in your coursework?

For researchers, using data:  Do you intend to use Generative AI in a research project that involves qualitative data collected from human participants? We recommend that, in addition to obtaining approval from your supervisors and consulting institutional policies, you familiarize yourself with the ethical implications of such an approach, as well as the specific terms of service of the tool you choose in order understand how said tool will process and store the data you might put into it.

Christian also provided a document explaining the guiding principles or ground rules behind each statement, linking them to campus policies or academic best practices, and describing when we might use each script. Each rationale considers the audience and scholarly tasks that to which the script is responding.  

Tina will use this in our local AskAway provider training, and as a springboard for deeper conversations about how we can support students and researchers navigate these topics.    

To see the complete set of scripts and their documentation, check this document.

Christian Schmidt is the Special Projects Librarian at the University of Victoria.

Tina Bebbington is the Student Learning and Engagement Librarian at the University of Victoria, and Askaway’s Local Coordinator for UVic.