Artificial intelligence (AI) is powerful, complex, ubiquitous, often opaque, sometimes invisible, and increasingly consequential in our everyday lives. Navigating the effects of AI as well as utilizing it in a responsible way requires a level of awareness, understanding, and skill that is not provided by current digital literacy or information literacy regimes. Algorithmic literacy addresses these gaps. In arguing for a role for libraries in algorithmic literacy, the authors provide a working definition, a pressing need, a pedagogical strategy, and two specific contributions that are unique to libraries.

The field of explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) advances techniques, processes, and strategies that provide explanations for the predictions, recommendations, and decisions of opaque and complex machine learning systems. Increasingly academic libraries are providing library users with systems, services, and collections created and delivered by machine learning. Academic libraries should adopt XAI as a tool set to verify and validate these resources, and advocate for public policy regarding XAI that serves libraries, the academy, and the public interest.

No abstract

This paper examines the nature and characteristics of a “post literacy” culture which would allow it to displace literacy (in the same fashion that literacy has effectively displaced orality). Post literacy is imagined in terms of the development of new tools as well as the evolution of humans and human capability.Cette étude examine la nature et les caractéristiques d’une culture "post-littératie" qui permettrait de déloger la littératie (de la même manière que la littératie a effectivement a supplanté les connaissances orales). La post-littératie est imaginée en fonction du développement de nouveaux outils, de même qu’en fonction de l'évolution humaine et des capacités humaines.

Having the policies and procedures for individuals to easily move into and out of term-limited, administrative positions supports a holistic view of an academic career path. While this is normative for our academic colleagues, it is less common for academic librarians. Typically, librarians in administrative positions (chief librarians for example) either stay in those roles, seek other similar roles, or retire from those roles. Returning to the ranks is surprisingly rare and not wellenabled through transparent processes. This paper explores the experiences of four chief librarians who returned to the ranks following term appointments. It examines the resultant issues and makes recommendations on how to improve the situation. The conclusions offer advice for universities, libraries, and librarian administrators. This paper is based on a presentation to the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Professional Academic Librarians, Brock University, May 25-26, 2014.