2024 Keynote Presentations

Opening Keynote: Human Responsibility in the Age of AI

Kasia Chmielinski | Stanford PACS

In today’s rapidly evolving and increasingly pervasive tech landscape, it’s crucial to build algorithmic systems that work well for everyone. Recent advancements in large-scale AI systems, growing consumer anxiety around surveillance capitalism, and a lack of meaningful regulation have all created momentum behind building proactive and practical approaches to responsible AI. Join us for a talk that will go beyond the hype and offer a path forward around how we can develop, build, and deploy AI systems for humanity.

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Kasia Chmielinski, a nonbinary person, wearing a black suit jacket, tan shirt, dark pants, and red tinted glasses standing next to a wooden podium with a laptop and microphone and Camp ER&L sign attached to the front.

Closing Keynote Panel: Unpacking Emerging Threats to the Culture of Learning and Academic Libraries

John Chrastka | Executive Director, EveryLibrary

Nancy Kirkpatrick | Dean of University Libraries, Florida International University

Kathleen McEvoy | Senior Policy Fellow, The EveryLibrary Institute

Roger Schonfeld | Vice President, Ithaka

The dangers making headlines for school libraries and public libraries are beginning to impact academic institutions and their content and technology providers. State-level threats to academic libraries come from mandated shifts from the social sciences and the humanities to STEM at state-funded universities, the elimination of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and other programs, the elimination of tenure, and changes to accreditation processes. National threats to research and academic freedoms include subpoenas, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and lawsuits against social science researchers who have investigated new and emerging areas, including disinformation, misinformation, election interference, and public health messaging. Understanding the threats to the culture of learning through academic libraries is critically important if we hope to avoid social and political contagion from other sectors while maintaining a leadership position in our institutions. John Chrastka, Executive Director of EveryLibrary, the national political action committee for libraries, will convene an expert panel to discuss and assess these threats. Please join us to hear from Nancy Kirkpatrick, Dean of University Libraries at Florida International University, Roger Schonfeld, Vice President for Libraries, Scholarly Communication, and Museums at Ithaka S&R, and Kathleen McEvoy, Senior Policy Fellow at the EveryLibrary Institute, to unpack and consider the future.

This whitepaper is open for comments until mid-April.

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4 individuals sitting on a stage with black background and black draping. Individual 1, John Chraska, weating a black suit jacket and blue shirt, Individual 2 Kathleen McEvoy wearing a tan shirt, Individual 3 Nancy Kirkpatrick wearing a white suit jacket and multicolored shirt, Individual 4 Roger Schonfeld wearing a dark suit coat, light colored shirt, and blue necktie.