Centered around a series of pilot projects, the Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL) continues its exploration of AI and machine learning’s responsible, ethical use in the academic library environment while building related knowledge and skills across the OCUL membership and beyond.
The team has expanded with the hiring of Kari D. Weaver, who oversees the projects and capacity building programming, and Furquan Hassan, AI Special Projects Developer, bolstering staffing expertise to support the pilot projects and OCUL’s strategic goals. With this larger team, OCUL has extended the timeline for its initial phase of AI and machine learning experimentation to May 2027.
Engagement with the broader OCUL community is critical to the consortium’s programming and project success. An online survey was distributed in May 2025 to gather diverse perspectives that will inform future decision-making and programming coupled with gaining an understanding in 2025 of the training needs of library workers in Ontario universities. A full report of the survey findings and recommendations is now available. Also in May, two working groups composed of representatives from OCUL member libraries began work on the Enhancing Virtual Reference project. These groups will explore the potential of an AI-assisted chatbot from the existing Ask a Librarian vendor to improve virtual reference services, focusing on user experience, privacy and security, accessibility, and service delivery. Based on initial efforts of the working groups, a new Enhancing Virtual Reference Project FAQ was published in August 2025.
In July, OCUL welcomed Joël Rivard (Head of Research Support Services, Carleton University) as a visiting researcher. His work over the coming year will focus on developing a systematic approach to analyzing artificial intelligence enhancements to existing vendor-supplied tools and supporting capacity building initiatives underway at the consortium.
OCUL continues to foster connections across organizations, and in a significant milestone, was recently awarded a grant from the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO). The grant funds a project that examines how AI-powered tools might improve discoverability and access to a collection of 50,000 historical Canadian government documents.
OCUL Executive Director Amy Greenberg recently spoke on a panel at the GenAI in Libraries Conference on collaborative approaches to capacity building on AI and Kari D. Weaver delivered three invited presentations at the University of Guelph Teaching with AI Conference on AI in educational development, AI in co-curricular learning, and AI disclosure practices highlighting her internationally-recognized work on the Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) Framework. These efforts demonstrate OCUL’s potential to position librarians as thought leaders and expert contributors on artificial intelligence in higher education.
For ongoing updates and detailed information about each pilot project, please visit SPOTDocs, the OCUL wiki.