AI power hour: Addressing the challenges and opportunities
July 08, 2026
AI power hour: Addressing the challenges and opportunities 8th July 2026
A* recording of the webinar* is now available
In this free Higher Education Library Technology webinar, our panellists will used their experience of AI to address the challenges, strains, adaptions, and opportunities for libraries and their users.
- Scraping and infrastructure: How aggressive AI scraping impacts system performance, and how to balance access with system security.
- Streamlining staff workflows: Practical ways library teams are integrating AI into daily processes and systems management.
- Changing student search: How AI is reshaping expectations and the way students and researchers find information.
- Introducing AI functionality: How to approach integrating AI into library tools.
- AI ‘maturity levels’
The panelists:
- Dave Rowe, Libraries Hacked
- Jonathan Field, Open Fifth
- Sam Goldsmith, Open Fifth
- Kerry Steeden, Blackpool & The Fylde College
Martin Wheatley, Leeds City College
AI MATURITY LEVEL SURVEY Survey link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/NC79RHV At the end of the webinar there was a short discussion about AI ‘Maturity levels’. Maturity level assessments are structured diagnostic tools used to evaluate an organization’s current capabilities. As part of Higher Education Library Technology (a free open access and open data community resource), Ken Chad Consulting has developed a draft AI ‘maturity model’ for UK HE and FE libraries. It measures library capability, not simply the number of AI tools deployed. It is informed by work with libraries, published literature and the work by Jisc on institutional maturity models to support their Digital Transformation work. Many libraries are experimenting with AI, but maturity depends on governance, workforce capability, integration with services, and alignment with changing student expectations. We now wish to validate our draft model to improve it and make it more useful to libraries to help them characterise/understand where they are and how they might progress in terms of their maturity level. You can optionally enter for the prize draw (£50 Amazon gift voucher)