AI Lunch and Learn Series
News item published on: 2026-08-21 11:49:00
Join University Libraries for a virtual Lunch and Learn series exploring how AI is reshaping information practices, from creating better research guides to navigating questions of trust and verification.
Information Without the Information Professional? October 2 | 12 - 1 p.m. Presented by Sara Gonzalez Registration
What happens when we stop searching for information and start asking AI for the answer? Generative AI can summarize dozens of sources into a few sentences, often without users ever seeing the original material. This Lunch and Learn session explores what may be lost when AI becomes the intermediary between us and information, including context, attribution, competing viewpoints, and even the source itself. We will consider how this shift could change research, information literacy, publishing, and the way we decide what to trust.
Building Better Guides with AI October 6 | 10 – 11 a.m. Presented by Dr. Shelby Ware and Sara Gonzalez Registration
AI can support nearly every stage of building and maintaining a LibGuide, from getting a new guide off the ground to refreshing one that has not been updated in years. This Lunch and Learn session demonstrates practical ways to use AI to plan guide structure, draft and revise content, create clearer descriptions, improve accessibility and usability, and identify opportunities for more engaging content. We will walk through examples and prompts you can adapt to your own guides, with an emphasis on using AI to make the development process faster and more manageable.
When Seeing Is No Longer Believing: Trust and Verification in the Age of AI November 12 | 12 - 1 p.m. Presented by Sara Gonzalez Registration
What happens when a photo or video is no longer proof that something happened? Generative AI can now produce images, audio, and video convincing enough to pass as real, and the tools for catching them are struggling to keep up. This Lunch and Learn session explores how AI is reshaping the way we verify what we see and hear, including deepfakes, synthetic media, and misinformation, and what new habits of verification might look like when the old ones no longer hold.
Speaker Bios Sara Gonzalez serves as the AI librarian for University Libraries and an instructor in the School of Library and Information Science. She holds an MLIS from Southern Miss, along with a graduate certificate in archives and special collections. Her professional background includes digital initiatives, metadata, special collections, and library technology. Sara’s interests center on AI literacy, emerging technologies, and the practical use of artificial intelligence in libraries, particularly how these technologies are changing the ways people find, use, and interact with information.
Dr. Shelby Ware is an educator, librarian, and learning technologist with more than two decades of experience in education and library services. She holds a PhD in learning technologies and a Master of Science in Library Science from the University of North Texas. Dr. Ware’s experience spans school and academic libraries, teacher education, instructional technology, curriculum development, and library leadership. Her teaching and research interests include school librarianship, emerging technologies, mixed-reality simulation, information and digital literacy, and innovative approaches to teaching and learning.
Links for the virtual sessions will be emailed to all registrants.
For questions or additional information, contact Sara Gonzalez at 601.266.4255 or .