AI Chatbot Comparison

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University of Nebraska, Omaha *

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4710

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English

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Oct 30, 2023

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1 AI Chatbot Comparison Hayley A. Irvine Department of Teacher Education, University of Nebraska Omaha TED 4710 — Research and Inquiry Dr. Melissa Cast-Brede September 26, 2023

2 AI Chatbot Comparison After speaking with Kent Mulcahy, the genealogy and local history manager at the Cincinnati Public Library, I was informed that the Cincinnati Public Library had merged their reference and genealogy departments in order to combat the issue that reference services were being used less and less over time (K. Mulcahy, personal communication, September 8, 2023). Some of the other challenges Kent faces in the 21 st century, according to him, include the possibility that some patrons may not even want to leave their house anymore (especially after the COVID-19 pandemic), remaining relevant, and promoting library services via social media in a suitable manner. When prompted with, “What are some of the challenges that reference librarians face in the 21 st century?” ChatGPT listed changing patron expectations and remote reference services as relevant challenges (OpenAI, 2023). Changing patron expectations are in line with Kent’s statement that some people don’t want to leave their house anymore so the reference librarians have had to come up with ways to bring services to people remotely or to their local branch rather than the main branch in downtown Cincinnati, where reference services reside (K. Mulcahy, personal communication, September 8, 2023). It also ties into offering remote services, another response from ChatGPT, as Kent specifically spoke about patrons being able to make appointments with reference librarians via Zoom so that reference services may be done from the comfort of the patron’s own home. There is vast research showing the shift of reference librarianship to a virtual service, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Many reference librarians in the past have been visible at a reference desk, but reference services have been offered online more and more as time goes on (Johnson, 2018). Librarians must remain visible and connected to patrons even when they no longer sit at a visible reference desk. The aim of reference librarians is still to connect patrons to the information they need, however the methods in which reference librarians deliver this information has changed and will continue to change with the development and advancements in technology. During the pandemic

3 especially, reference librarians often had no choice but to migrate their in-person reference services to web-based services (Dar, 2021). The changes in communication have also proved a challenge to reference librarians. The expectations of immediate responses for some patrons using a web-based reference service have been a huge barrier in communication, even causing some libraries to add automated responses to let patrons know that librarians were assisting someone else and would be with them momentarily. Moving to virtual or web-based reference services has clearly been an ongoing issue for reference librarians in the 21 st century. The expectations of patrons has also changed immensely in the digital age, and reference librarians must take those changes into account when assisting patrons. Being approachable even when physical reference desks have become obsolete and adapting communication style to fit a patron’s needs is imperative for reference services to remain relevant in libraries.

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4 References Dar, M. (2021). Remote reference. Library Journal , 146 , 10–13. http://search.ebscohost.com.leo.lib.unomaha.edu/login.aspx? direct=true&db=llf&AN=153491446&site=ehost-live&scope=site Johnson, A. M. (2018). Connections, conversations, and visibility: How the work of academic reference and liaison librarians is evolving. Reference & User Services Quarterly , 58 (2), 91–102. http://search.ebscohost.com.leo.lib.unomaha.edu/login.aspx? direct=true&db=llf&AN=134186681&site=ehost-live&scope=site OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Sept 25 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat