“ARE YOU A REAL BREATHING PERSON?” ��CONCEPTUAL REFLECTIONS ON REFERENCE AND DISCOVERY IN AN AI-SATURATED MOMENT

Muga Miyakawa PhD, MEd, MI

CAPAL/ACBES 2026 – Lightning Talk

Monday, June 22 – Concurrent 3C-7

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A CONCEPTUAL REFLECTION, NOT A PRESCRIPTIVE SOLUTION

OPENING QUESTION: HUMAN RECOGNITION IN DIGITAL REFERENCE

Human vs Automated Assistance

Modern students face challenges distinguishing human expertise from AI-driven automated support in digital reference environments.

Shifting User Expectations

Students adapt to fast, efficient, and command-driven digital help, affecting how they perceive relational reference services.

Ethical and Emotional Dimensions

Early-career librarians navigate ethical challenges and emotional aspects of delivering help in AI-saturated platforms.

Reasserting Human Value

Librarianship refocuses on human value by understanding how users actually experience library services amid technology.

CONDITIONS

Technological Influence on Interaction

Conversational interfaces and AI create expectations of quick, human-like responses without personal connection cues.

Institutional Efficiency Pressures

Library chat systems prioritize efficiency and standardization, blurring lines between human and automated help.

Impact of Neoliberal Logics

Help services are framed as optimized outputs, pushing human care and interpretation into the background.

Reasserting Human Value

Recognizing these conditions enables libraries to highlight human labor and interpretive work in digital settings.

REFERENCE AS A SITE OF BECOMING

Relational and Emergent Learning

Reference is seen as a relational space where identities form through interaction and learning emerges collaboratively.

Nonlinear Understanding

Learning follows a nonlinear path with connections, detours, and partial insights rather than straightforward answers.

Interpretive Labor in AI Era

Reference work involves interpretive labor, contextualizing information beyond AI’s frictionless access promises.

Professional Identity Formation

Early-career librarians develop professional identities through ongoing interactions shaped by institutional and user contexts.

NONLINEAR LEARNING AND NEGOTIATIONS OF MEANING

Nature of Nonlinear Learning

Learning unfolds through pauses, missteps, and iterative refinements, actively constructing understanding beyond linear progression.

Negotiation in Digital Reference

Digital reference interactions compress negotiations but require attention to back-and-forth clarifications and co-inquiry processes.

Rhizomatic Learning Perspective

This theory values multiplicity, connections, and non-hierarchical exploration over simple linear knowledge acquisition.

Nonlinearity as Resistance

Maintaining space for nonlinear learning challenges AI-driven immediacy and supports collaborative sense-making and uncertainty acknowledgment.

PRESENCE AS PEDAGOGY

Human Engagement in Digital Spaces

Presence signals human engagement through tone, responsiveness, and contextual acknowledgment in digital communication.

Significance in Online Learning

Small gestures like introductions and reflective questions build presence in environments lacking physical cues.

Pedagogical and Ethical Dimensions

Presence invites shared judgment and resists content-only teaching, highlighting ethical and relational pedagogy.

Supporting Librarian Identity

Cultivating presence builds confidence and frames teaching as accompaniment, not performance.

FROM PROMPTS TO PROBLEMS

Reframing Prompts as Starting Points

Treating brief prompts as starting points encourages deeper inquiry beyond initial queries.

Critical Information Literacy

Emphasizes questioning authority and assumptions embedded in information seeking practices.

Human Judgment in AI Environments

Human judgment remains essential as AI tools generate answers without clarifying questions.

Empowering Early-Career Librarians

Reframes librarians as co-inquirers who help articulate meaningful questions, fostering critical thinking.

HUMAN-IN-THE-LOOP WITH SEAMS SHOWING

Visibility of Interpretive Seams

Critical human-in-the-loop approaches highlight visible uncertainty and decision-making in AI systems.

Transparency in Reference Work

Librarians show provenance and limitations to foster learner engagement and critical thinking.

Ethical Engagement and Trust

Showing seams reframes professionalism as ethical transparency, preserving trust in AI-saturated environments.

REASSERTING HUMAN VALUE AS INQUIRY

Human Value as Ongoing Inquiry

Human value is framed as continuing inquiry influenced by experience and social structures rather than fixed claims.

Ethical and Relational Learning

Critical pedagogy highlights ethical and relational aspects of learning beyond measurable educational outcomes.

Supporting Human Practices

Institutional support like time, training, and recognition are essential to sustaining human-centered care and responsibility.

Collective Reflection on Technology

Framing human value encourages collective professional reflection on integrating and resisting technologies in librarianship.

THANK YOU

m.miyakawa@alumni.utoronto.ca

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