“From Automation to Artificial Intelligence” was the theme of today’s course. In many ways, it also mirrors the journey I have travelled through my own career.
I was invited as a Resource Person for the Refresher Course in Library and Information Science conducted by the University of Mysore, being held online from 19th August to 3rd September. My turn came today, 31st August, with two sessions back to back and a fifteen-minute breather in between.
From 2:00 to 3:30 pm, I spoke on *“From Automation to Intelligent Systems: AI Applications in Library Operations.”* After a short break, from 3:45 to 5:15 pm, the conversation shifted to *“Cybersecurity and Data Protection in AI-Enabled Libraries.”*
Two sides of the same coin, really.
The first session was about what AI can do for libraries — from improving routine operations to supporting better services and decision-making. The second was about what we need to protect while bringing these technologies into our professional environment.
That second conversation matters just as much. In fact, many discussions about AI tend to focus on what the technology can do and spend far less time asking what could go wrong, what data we are exposing, and who remains responsible when systems become more intelligent.
The theme of the course — *“Reinventing Libraries: From Automation to Artificial Intelligence”* — therefore felt particularly appropriate. It is not just a change in technology. It reflects a gradual shift in how we think about library work, professional skills and the role of librarians themselves.
What made the afternoon especially worthwhile was the audience, or rather, the screen full of faces.
Faculty members and library professionals joined from different parts of India. Some were nodding along; others were visibly thinking about how they might explain MFA, data protection or AI-related risks to their systems staff back home.
That is the audience I enjoy speaking to most.
Not people who already know everything, but people who leave a session quietly reconsidering what Monday morning might look like.
I am grateful to Dr. N.S. Harinarayana and the Department of Studies in Library and Information Science, University of Mysore, for the invitation and the trust.
Automation got us this far.
What we do with intelligence — artificial or otherwise — is now up to us.