AI-mediated discovery - Information Matters

Library search tools aren’t just returning results anymore. They now summarize, suggest, and sometimes even interpret information for us. Search tools once helped users find materials. Now they are beginning to offer answer-like interpretations of what a collection appears to mean. Sure, it feels helpful. But it also quietly changes how people decide what is credible, what is complete, and what feels neutral. Before libraries ask people to trust AI-mediated discovery, they need to explain what the system is doing on the user’s behalf.