The information landscape is undergoing a seismic shift, presenting both challenges and opportunities for librarians and info pros serving research communities. This necessitates a transition in librarian roles, from information retrievers to search educators, adept at guiding users through the intricacies of prompt engineering across diverse search tools.
In this dynamic environment, info pros must be critical thinkers, creative sourcers, and discerning evaluators, ensuring their clients not only find the information they need, but also develop the skills to thrive in the ever-evolving information ecosystem. With this in mind, what are some of the current trends in online research that info pros must embrace?
AI: an entirely new search approach
For AI to have a positive impact on research and discovery, it is crucial for librarians and info pros to draw on their extensive experience when their organization considers introducing generative AI tools. They can act as information guides and educators, explaining the capabilities and limitations of generative AI, potential use cases within the organization, and ethical considerations around its use.
Also, info pros can contribute to initiatives within their organizations to create institutional guidelines on the use of AI, working with stakeholders from IT, legal, regulatory, research, and data science groups to ensure that AI tools are built with reliable, licensed content.
Prompt engineering: it’s not just better Boolean logic
The rise of AI has sparked a new frontier in information retrieval and exploration: prompt engineering. This process of crafting effective prompts to elicit desired outputs from AI systems requires a unique blend of domain knowledge, information literacy, and critical thinking skills—a perfect fit for the expertise of librarians. LLMs (large language models) have been trained with a wide range of content, which means that the quality and accuracy of their responses can vary significantly. A poorly crafted prompt can exacerbate these differences and potentially lead to irrelevant, nonsensical, or even biased outputs.
Obtaining the most useful outputs requires not just knowledge of the technical terminology and concepts of their fields, but creativity and critical thinking to frame requests in a way that yields optimal results. Librarians possess this deep understanding, allowing them to formulate prompts that accurately capture the nuances of specific research areas. They also have strong critical thinking and analysis skills essential for interpreting AI-generated responses, identifying potential biases, and ensuring adherence to research standards.
The search for answers, not just information
The universe of information is expanding exponentially—experts are self-publishing on Substack, peer-reviewed literature is available in a variety of access formats, preprints are speeding up the visibility and availability of research by months, and conference presentations and poster sessions enable access to cutting-edge research and new experimental findings and methods years before formal journal publication. Often, the answer does not exist in a single source and must be gleaned from reviewing regulatory comments, clinical trial data, or patent filings.
Additionally, the internet and social media have blurred the traditional distinction between actively searching for information and passively discovering content serendipitously. While algorithms may surface relevant media, users still require core competencies to get quality results. This includes precisely identifying their underlying information need, not just a surface question.
Librarians and information professionals use these foundational search and inquiry skills to craft effective search strategies, scrutinize results for credibility, and extract meaning from sources. Their challenge today is to embrace the mantle of answer-finders and guide users through the information labyrinth.
Dive deeper into this topic
To learn more about the above and other important trends in online research, and how info pros can play a meaningful role in these changes, check out my white paper, “Five Key Trends in the Shifting World of Search.”