This guest post is by Cathal Madigan, Library Assistant at TU Dublin.
On Wednesday May 13th, 2026, I had the privilege to attend the LIR Annual Seminar 2026. Hosted in the ASIERA Offices in Dublin and recorded over MS Teams, the Seminar had a theme of “Supporting Emerging Literacies,” and asked the question of how libraries design and deliver new literacy programmes. The presentations had a shared idea of literacy, with each presenter showcasing how libraries could hope to use these programmes to bolster services and assist clients.
The Seminar opened with a keynote from Dr Andrew Cox, Senior Lecturer at the School of Information, Journalism and Communication, University of Sheffield. Focusing on the emerging use cases of AI and how
librarians could integrate it, Dr Cox provided an examination of the potential
costs and benefits of AI integration in libraries, exploring the importance of
knowing how best to safely integrate it into library structures and be aware of
how students are using it in their daily activities.
Ann Byrne, Digital Librarian for Hibernia College, spoke about “digital literacy
for all” and reflected on the process of creating a course in digital literacy
for Hibernia College, a process that began in 2023 in the aftermath of COVID-19
as staff realised that students had no real instructions for how to use digital
literacy. This made it a good choice for an open course system as it is a
universal need. The pilot programme launched in 2023 and was deemed a success
as part of UNESCO's Global Media and Information Literacy Week and Be Media
Smart campaign from Media Literacy Ireland. The success prompted a second phase
in 2025, which added new lessons and incorporated feedback like a dedicated
module on AI.
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| ASIERA Offices, North Wall Quay, Dublin 1, where the event was hosted, from archdaily.com |
Ronan Madden, Learning & Teaching Team Lead at UCC Library, discussed the new Digital and Information Literacy Framework that UCC had begun developing. A new team, the
Framework provides tailored classes on request with a focus on increasing
awareness of the different forms of literacy across the university, such as
information, digital, media and AI literacy. Ronan outlined how the Framework
had been developed and used by students and faculty at UCC, how students
assisted with peer review, and how it is intended as a living document that is
always innovating and expanding.
Siobhán Dunne,Teaching, Research Support and User Experience, TCD, spoke about the concept of
Sustainability Literacy (i.e. the knowledge of the relationship/conflicts between
humanity and the environment), discussing the Sustainability Action Plan that
Trinity had launched in February 2026 after a survey for students requested
sustainability awareness. One of the major components of the plan was that
Sustainability Literacy would provide a new opportunity to position the library
as a trusted information resource for students and staff. As an example of this,
Siobhán shared how part of the Action Plan involved creating a space where
students could learn about AI and its impact on the
climate, and share their concerns.
Patrick Keegan, Learning Specialist Librarian at RCSI, discussed a pilot workshop for
postgraduate learners which included AI Literacy, or learning when would be an
appropriate time to use AI. The concept of "cognitive offloading" was discussed (i.e. how the brain can only process so much information so steps must be taken to
know ways to offload). Patrick emphasised how important it was to train
graduates to be ready to avoid detrimental offloading when in the workplace, and that being able to retain cognitive prowess when working with patients is a key
skill. The workshop he worked on provided three examples of issues healthcare
students may face as AI usage becomes more commonplace; how to critically
evaluate suggestions from AI, how it can disrupt learning journeys, and how to
explain the choices one makes in their day-to-day operations. Patrick ended
with the key takeaways from the workshop and suggested a “human in the loop”
style of AI oversight where suggestions made by AI are always run by a skilled
professional first before being implemented.
Dr Simone
Fühles-Ubach, Library and Information Science at TH Köln, and Professor Elisabeth Kaliva, Computer Scientist and Educational Researcher at TH Köln, opened the final stage of the Seminar with a shared presentation on a research project they had been undertaking since 2020, based on the “Data Literacy” research project at TH Köln. They presented the progress and research findings of their project, focusing on the contribution and collaboration of academic libraries
and the impact this had on students. The Data Literacy Initiative (DALI) at TH Köln has become a
centralised shared working space for students and staff, creating an
infrastructure to advise students on data literacy and usage of it while researching.
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| Ben Lee from Shared Intelligence, speaking about future literacy at the LIR Seminar 2026 |
The final
speaker of the day was Ben Lee, director of think-tank consultant group Shared
Intelligence. His event was named “Come Rain or Shine: futures literacy for
libraries, and the role of libraries in building futures literacy among their
users and communities.” Ben discussed how a report was made in 2023 to discuss
the challenges facing public libraries in the United Kingdom and how to
increase awareness and usage in local communities. The report suggested finding
new ways to reverse declining attendance rates in libraries, and to beware the
retirement cliff. Ben spoke of Futures Literacy, i.e. the concept of using the ideas of
the future to inform the actions of the present. This led into a group exercise
where Ben asked those in attendance to combine two uncertain future concepts on
a graph to create different versions of the future, showing the different paths
an uncertain future can generate, before the Seminar concluded.
The LIR
Seminar proved to be a stimulating day. I was pleased to get to attend and
found the experience very enlightening. The overall questions raised in the
introduction of the Seminar of how libraries design and deliver new literacy
programmes was appropriately answered and elaborated on. Each of the different
representatives discussed how their own libraries oversaw new programmes to
increase awareness of digital literacy among their clientele, providing a wide
variety of alternate perspectives that showed how each of the guest speakers
came to their conclusions. This allowed for improvements in their offered
services and allowed for each facility to be more adept at handling queries
asked by the modern library customer.