Stony Brook University Libraries Joins Global Effort Shaping Future With AI

Stony Brook University Libraries has joined Artificial Intelligence for Libraries, Archives & Museums (AI4LAM) as a founding member. This marks Stony Brook University Libraries' participation in a growing international community exploring the use of artificial intelligence in research, discovery and public access work across libraries, archives and museums.

The organization includes academic and cultural institutions such as Stanford University Libraries, the British Library, Yale University Library, and the National Library of Norway. Membership in AI4LAM will give Stony Brook University Libraries opportunities to collaborate on shared AI tools and research, ethical frameworks, metadata enrichment, discovery systems, copyright and data stewardship practices, and new approaches for evaluating AI technologies in library and cultural heritage environments. The partnership creates opportunities to participate in working groups and collaborative projects related to AI evaluation, metadata, search and discovery systems and responsible data use.

"For Stony Brook University Libraries, joining AI4LAM is an exciting opportunity to join a community where shared tools, evaluation frameworks, ethical guidelines, and best practices for AI in libraries are being defined," said Nicholas Johnson, inaugural director of artificial intelligence at Stony Brook University Libraries. "It means pooled expertise on the technical and policy questions that no single institution can resolve alone, which ranges from copyright and data stewardship to model evaluation, metadata enrichment, and discovery. It also means lasting relationships with international colleagues working through the same questions we are."

AI4LAM was started in 2018 through a collaboration between Stanford University Libraries and the National Library of Norway. Since then, the network has grown to include universities, national libraries, museums, and research organizations across Europe and North America.

"I have been following AI4LAM since its inception," said Karim Boughida, dean of Stony Brook University Libraries. "As someone who has been involved with AI-related work and conversations for many years, I was very happy to see the initiative grow in prominence and maturity over time as more major libraries, archives, museums, and cultural heritage institutions joined the conversation around AI. For Stony Brook University Libraries, joining AI4LAM means being part of an international community thinking seriously about the future of AI in knowledge, research, discovery, and cultural heritage environments."

In the coming year, Stony Brook library faculty and staff are expected to participate in several AI4LAM working groups and community discussions, including projects related to AI literacy and the use of cultural heritage collections in machine learning research. The AI4LAM conference, Fantastic Futures 2026: Trust in the Loop, is scheduled for September in Washington, D.C. For more information about AI at Stony Brook University Libraries, visit the AI@SBU Libraries website.