First MLA AI Prompt-a-Thon Was a Winner!
Submitted by: Marie T. Ascher
On the last afternoon of the MLA Annual Conference in Milwaukee, the AI Imperative Task Force hosted an AI Prompt-a-Thon immersion session. In a near-full ballroom, task force members Gabe Rios, Marie Ascher, Kristi Holmes, and Sarah Jewell led participants through two scenarios for which their prompt submissions were scored and posted by AI in almost-real time based upon their adherence to the first three principles of the CLEAR prompting framework: Clearness; Logic; and Explicitness.
The two scenarios included one which asked participants to work with a list of Springer-Nature hybrid journals to categorize them by discipline for eventual communication with department members. The other scenario had participants refine a systematic review search topic and use AI to develop an appropriately sensitive search strategy. Participants formed teams of 2-5 members to tackle these problems. Prompts were submitted via JotForm and scored using a rubric developed by the team in advance. Using a Claude-developed scoreboard and a few refreshes, the winners were displayed by the end of the session.
Winners were:
Scenario 1 (Journal Title Analysis)
- The Impact Factors: Molly Knapp and Jessi Van Der Volgen
Scenario 2 (PubMed Search Strategy)
Tie:
- Team Goblin: Victoria Caine, Adorée Makusztak, and MaryDee Ojala
- AI Jedi: Karen Hanus, Sarah McCord, Gurpreet Rana, and Catherine Soehner
Winners were sent home with a selection of microbial infections (stuffed animals).
References
- Lo, L. S. (2023). The CLEAR path: A framework for enhancing information literacy through prompt engineering. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(4), 102720. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720