AI Pragmatism: guidance for information professionals

This workshop introduces academic medical librarians to the fundamentals of generative AI technology and its rapidly evolving applications in health information work. Participants will gain a working understanding of large language models, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and agentic search, while exploring prompting strategies and dual-use implications. Real-time demonstrations of multiple AI models will show how these tools can support common medical library tasks such as literature synthesis, instructional design, and reference. Participants will actively experiment with different models, compare outputs to authoritative medical sources, and engage in guided discussions about accuracy, equity, and ethical constraints in healthcare settings. By the end of the session, attendees will have developed their own preliminary plan for whether, and how, to integrate generative AI into their library services and workflows.

Resource URL: Pending

Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

• Explore the different capabilities of existing large language models including RAG, agentic search functions, and data analysis.
• Analyze and compare AI-generated outputs to traditional/authoritative sources of medical information like PubMed to identify strengths, weaknesses, and potential baiseses in ai-generated content.
• Develop a personal approach for whether, or how, to use generative AI for work-related tasks ranging from literature reviews to communications.

Agenda:

Timed Agenda (1 hour workshop)

• 0–5 minutes – Welcome, objectives, and quick poll on AI familiarity (large-group introduction)
• 5–10 minutes – Fundamentals of generative AI: models, RAG, agentic search (mini-lecture with slides)
• 10–20 minutes – Hands-on Demo 1: Exploring prompting strategies (live demonstration + guided exercise)
• 20–30 minutes – Compare AI outputs to PubMed/authoritative sources (small-group activity + debrief)
• 30–40 minutes – Hands-on Demo 2: Non-text generation (data analysis relevant to medicine) (live demonstration + guided exercise)
• 40–50 minutes – Ethical and privacy considerations in medical librarianship (discussion)
• 50–60 minutes – Q&A, reflection.

CE Credits: 1