Artificial intelligence technologies, or as they are now often called, AI, are rapidly entering or, rather, breaking into all spheres of public and private life. A new reality is being born right before our eyes. AI can help people in a variety of ways, but, as some scientists warn, it can also be harmful in other ways. Nevertheless, its triumphant march across the world continues. It is really useful, and soon we may not be able to imagine our lives without this tireless assistant. Recently, AI started working in the Scientific and Technical Library of KPI. Library director Yevheniia Kulyk told KP about what it will do there and what it is already doing. By the way, in Ukraine, Hryhorii Denysenko STL became the first library to implement this technology in its activities.
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- Yevheniia Volodymyrivna, is the introduction of artificial intelligence a tribute to fashion or a real necessity for our university library?
- Given the current popularity of artificial intelligence technologies, we decided to analyze whether and how other university libraries, especially those abroad, use it. And we saw that various AI technologies help libraries organize and optimize the provision of a number of services and facilitate communication with users at various parts of the library's work. And so we also started thinking about what process we could optimize here. This is where artificial intelligence can help us. Of course, there were many different options, but we settled on a chatbot that can help with navigation through the library, its resources, its spaces, and the events that take place in it. It is a kind of “librarian-communicator”. We have a service called “quick reference” that is provided by people, our librarians. But they can provide it only during library hours. That's why we came up with the idea that we could employ another such library specialist, but one based on artificial intelligence. So we started studying the experience of creating and using chatbots. Our Information Education and Research Support Department took over the implementation of this initiative, and the library formed a working group consisting of young people who were interested in such technologies. They began to study which platform we could use for our chatbot.
- And which one did you choose?
- We chose BotpressGPT. We decided to use this particular platform because the important characteristics for us are security, affordability, and a friendly interface, because it would be difficult for librarians to solve any programming tasks. Therefore, we chose the one with the most intuitive, so to speak, user-friendly interface, and settled on this platform because it is quite versatile. Botpress is a development of a Canadian company, and libraries, not only university libraries, have already gained experience using this platform, so we decided that it would be suitable for us.
- You have studied the experience of foreign libraries. Are there any other libraries in Ukraine that use AI in their work besides ours?
- Not among those available on the Internet. We were the first to use BotpressGPT to create such a virtual “librarian navigator”.
- When did your artificial “navigating librarian” start working and what can it do?
- We started using it in mid-October, so we have been working with it for the second month. For the first week we used it in test mode, or rather, it was testing mainly our employees. We did not announce the start of its work - those who saw it used it. It was important for us to understand how it would behave and how to organize our work with it. Now the chatbot provides quick consultations on how the library works, what services it provides, etc. It immediately directs the user to the right page of the library website, tells them where an event is taking place, and which hall they should go to. These are mostly quick consultations. We analyzed the previous statistics, and in the first two weeks of operation, our chatbot answered more than 140 questions and provided more than 250 answers.
- Are there any common questions?
- Of course, there are. For example, how to get the UDC service for scientific papers, where researchers-authors of scientific publications can be told their Hirsch index, whether the library is open on Saturdays and Sundays, questions about events held by the library. Or whether there is electricity in the library at this particular time, whether the generator has been connected, etc. But in fact, the questions are quite different. And I should note that the chatbot works around the clock.
- How do you find the chatbot on the NTL website, how do you access it?
- You need to go to the library's website and in the lower right corner of the page there is a crimson-colored “message” box. Click on it and start chatting. By the way, we named our chatbot Prometheus. First of all, there are art objects depicting Prometheus in the library, and a modern sculpture of Prometheus with solar panels that distributes Wi-Fi near the library, so we decided that it would be appropriate to name our chatbot that way. It gives people the information they need, so let it be called Prometheus.