Use of AI in Research

Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 1:00pm-2:30pm, Central Time

Due to limited enrollment, this session is not included in the CE Passport.

This workshop, a part of the MLA Research Training Institute curriculum, is intended for health sciences librarians who are interested in the use of AI in Research.

AI can already perform much of the research pipeline. This webinar asks what that means for information science expertise and what tasks you ought to let AI do, then gives you a way to answer both within your own work.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Explain how large language models generate text and use that mechanism to account for the limitations these tools exhibit in research tasks.
• Describe how AI use affects learning and distinguish productive cognitive offloading from cognitive surrender.
• Apply the Compliance–Verifiability–Disclosure framework to identify which research tasks are good candidates for AI.

Audience

Health sciences librarians who are interested in research.

Presenter

Alexander J. Carroll, MSLS, AHIP, is the Associate Director of the Science and Engineering Library at Vanderbilt University. Previously, Alex worked as a science and engineering liaison librarian at NC State University and the University of Maryland, College Park. Alex is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Medical Library Association (JMLA) and a Distinguished member of MLA’s Academy of Health Information Professionals (AHIP). He received his MSLS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his BA from James Madison University.

Alex’s research interests include studying the information seeking behaviors and data practices of STEM researchers, designing library liaison services, and improving information literacy instruction for students in the sciences. He has published on these topics in journals such as College & Research Libraries, portal: Libraries and the academy, The Journal of Academic Librarianship, and the Journal of the Medical Library Association. His work has been recognized by the ALA Library Instruction Round Table with “Top Twenty” awards in 2019, 2020, and 2025, and by ASEE’s Engineering Library Division with Best Publication Awards in 2020 and 2022. He also is an author of Essentials of STEM Librarianship, a monograph from ALA | Neal-Schuman published in October 2025.