Learning AI Together: Building an AI-Ready Library Workforce Through a Community of Practice
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping research, teaching, and library operations at remarkable speed, leaving academic libraries responsible for guiding faculty, students, and staff through a rapidly changing landscape. To meet this challenge, the University of South Florida (USF) Libraries established an AI Community of Practice (CoP) as a collaborative, cross-departmental forum for learning, experimentation, and shared decision-making. This panel session explores the development, structure, and ongoing role of this CoP in preparing a unified, AI-literate library.
Panelists will discuss why the CoP was created, how its membership was built across faculty, staff, and administration, and how regular meetings foster safe exploration of complex AI concepts and tools. The session will also highlight how the CoP’s shared learning now extends beyond the library—supporting collaborations with surrounding academic units, colleges, and student success partners—and how these efforts naturally “trickle down” into more confident patron support, improved consultations, and strengthened instructional programming.
The session will highlight key outputs which include shared guidelines, expanded AI workshop topics, toolset spotlights, and the development of internal services such as the LINK AI ChatBot and more. Panelists will also reflect on challenges such as varying skill levels, sustaining engagement, and balancing experimentation with responsible practice. By sharing meeting formats, sample resources, discussion models, and lessons learned, this session provides attendees with a replicable framework for launching or strengthening AI-focused learning communities in their own libraries. The goal of the panel is to demonstrate how a Community of Practice can unify perspectives, reduce uncertainty, and build organizational capability around emerging technologies.
Evan Fruehauf, University of South Florida, US
Evan Fruehauf is an Assistant Librarian for Engineering and Advanced Computing at the University of South Florida (USF) Libraries, where he serves as a subject liaison to the Bellini College of AI, Cybersecurity, and Computing and the College of Engineering. He is an active member of USF Libraries’ AI Community of Practice and has developed and led workshops and instructional programming on AI literacy for students, faculty, and library professionals. His research focuses on the integration of generative AI tools in academic library services, AI-driven research discovery, and the evolving role of librarians in scholarly communication. He has published peer-reviewed work in the Journal of Academic Librarianship and is currently developing LINK, an AI-powered research discovery chatbot for USF Libraries.
Susan Ariew, University of South Florida,US
Susan Ariew has served as a faculty member at the University of South Florida (USF) Tampa Library since 2005. Prior to joining USF, she was the College Librarian for Education & Human Development at Virginia Tech. Her career spans several major academic institutions, including the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago. In addition to her extensive experience as an academic librarian, Susan has also taught English, writing, and composition at both the high school and collegiate levels. Her research and publication interests focus on librarian-faculty collaboration, assessment tools for evaluating library instruction and student learning, information literacy, teaching about open access resources, and AI tools that impact the research process.
LeEtta Schmidt, University of South Florida, US
LeEtta Schmidt is the Director of Integrated Research & Impact Services at USF Libraries. She also serves as the Copyright and Intellectual Property Librarian. As Director, she leads a series of high-quality specialized services dedicated to grant support and the enhancement of faculty research impact. As the Copyright and Intellectual Property Librarian, she provides copyright and intellectual property guidance, education, and outreach. She holds a B.A. in English Literature and a M.A. in Library and Information Science. Her research areas include copyright and associated literacies in higher education, open access, and the interaction of authors with their rights.
