***BEFORE YOU REGISTER FOR THIS ON-DEMAND WEBINAR PLEASE REVIEW IMPORTANT REGISTRATION INFORMATION BELOW***
Most public libraries exploring AI right now are figuring it out as they go. There is no established playbook, and the communities and staff we serve have well-founded reasons to be skeptical.
King County Library System (KCLS) in Washington state serves one of the most economically and linguistically diverse regions in the country, with a significant existing digital equity gap. KCLS believes public libraries have a role to play in making sure AI works for everyone, not just people who can already access it. With little existing research on what library patrons actually want from AI programs, KCLS conducted structured listening sessions and surveys with both staff and community members—including communities that are often left out of technology conversations entirely. The goal was not to build consensus around AI, but to understand what patrons actually need, what concerns they have, and what conditions would have to be true before they would trust a library AI tool.
In this on-demand webinar learn how those engagement programs were designed for skeptical audiences, what the facilitation approaches looked like in practice, and what staff and community members actually said. It also covers how findings were analyzed using a structured qualitative method adapted for a small team.
Leave with practical tools they can adapt: session question guides, a facilitation framing tested with resistant audiences, and an analysis approach that does not require dedicated research staff.
Recorded live on October 21, 2026.
Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of this on-demand webinar, participants will be able to:
- Design staff and community engagement processes to inform AI pilot or program decisions;
- Anticipate and address skepticism and concern about AI tools in public library communities; and
- Translate community and staff input into concrete AI pilot design decisions; and
- Apply a structured qualitative analysis approach to engagement data in a low-resource, one-person team context.
Who Should Attend
This on-demand webinar is intended for library staff at all levels who are curious about AI, facing skepticism from their communities or colleagues, or want to ground their program decisions in real community input before committing to a direction. Especially useful for staff exploring or beginning to plan AI programs or pilots, including emerging technology administrators, library directors, and program managers.
Panelist
Grace Miles (she/her) is the emerging technology administrator at King County Library System, where she leads the design and strategy of AI pilot programs across forty-nine community libraries, with a focus on digital equity and responsible technology adoption in a public sector environment. Grace holds an MPhil in Sociology of Marginality and Exclusion from the University of Cambridge and an AB in Sociology with honors from Princeton University. Her research examined how structural dynamics shape who belongs and who gets left out of technology communities. That grounding in how technology can reproduce societal harm, combined with training in both quantitative and qualitative methods, directly informs her approach to equity-centered program design and community engagement at KCLS.
Important Registration Information
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Accommodations
This on-demand webinar is closed captioned in English (United States).
If you have a physical or communication need that may affect your access to this on-demand webinar, please contact us at plawebinars@ala.org or 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752) prior to registering so we can attempt to provide appropriate accommodations.
Attendees are prohibited from using any artificial intelligence, machine learning, large language model, automated decision-making tool, or any other software or tools to record this event and from using this event to train, develop, or improve any artificial intelligence system, machine learning model, or similar automated technology. This does not preclude attendees' personal use of AI notetaking tools for accessibility purposes.
Tech Requirements
To play this on-demand webinar you should use a browser with native HTML5 support. Please use the most up-to-date version available of Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, or Edge. A fast Internet connection and computer is recommended.
Contact
This webinar is presented by the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA).
If you have questions or problems accessing a recording, send a message to plawebinars@ala.org or call 800-545-2433 ext. 5PLA (5752).
