NEWS
Blood pressure monitors
HAMPSHIRE’s library service is the latest to say it will make blood pressure moni- tors available for loan at all its libraries. “If left untreated, high blood (hyperten- sion) can lead to strokes, heart attacks, coronary heart disease and heart failure but, worryingly, a third of people in the UK who are affected, are unaware,” said Liz Fairhurst, Hampshire County Coun- cil’s Executive Lead Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health. Steve Forster, Executive Member for Education, said: “This is a fantastic example of how our libraries are providing a growing range of vital community services.”
£8.5m for AI safety testing
THE Government has announced up to £8.5 million of research grants to improve society’s resilience to the risks posed by new AI technologies. Christopher Summerfield, UK AI Safety Institute Research Director, said: “This new programme of grants is a major step towards ensuring that AI is deployed safely into society. “We need to think carefully about how to adapt our infrastructure and systems for a new world in which AI is embedded in everything we do. This programme is designed to gener- ate a huge body of ideas for how to tackle this problem and make sure great ideas can be put into practice.”
Election changes library’s fate
REDDITCH’s new borough council leader has reversed the plans to relocate and demolish Redditch Public Library in line with 73 per cent of respondents to a con- sultation over the library’s move who had disagreed with the plans. Joe Baker said “We’ve listened... The library
is not going to be moving into the town hall.” The council’s previous Conservative administration had said it would regener- ate the town centre. The plan would have used £4.2m of £15.6m of Town Deal fund- ing secured from the government in 2021 for a new three-storey mixed use building and public plaza.
6 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
New digital platform for Welsh libraries
THE Welsh Government has announ- ced a £900,000 investment in a new digital platform for all public libraries that could lead to a national library card.
In a statement the Welsh Government said: “The shared platform will increase the range of materials available at peo- ple’s local libraries by allowing them to share their resources with other librar- ies. Once implemented the platform will enable library services to work together on other developments such as a single Welsh library card.” The procurement process of the plat-
form, from supplier SirsiDynix, saw a number of Welsh local authorities working together. The new platform will be imple- mented over the coming months and is expected to go live later this year. The requirement to tender for a new system led councils across Wales to create a central system development team, with Gwynedd agreeing to act as the Lead Authority on the project. Lesley Griffiths, Cabinet Secretary for Culture and Social Justice in the Welsh
Government, said: “Libraries are an
important part of our communities, they’re a great place to access free books and resources. This new digital library platform will encourage and support even more people to benefit from the services libraries are able to offer.” Nia Jeffreys, Cyngor Gwynedd Deputy
Leader and Cabinet Member for Economy and Community, said: “The new nation- al digital library platform for Wales will provide numerous benefits for library customers, staff, and other stakeholders, placing the user at the heart of everything we do. It will also ensure that we deliver a quality service, underpinned by service improvements for all our users across Wales, designed around their needs.” Nicola Pitman, Chair of the Society of
Chief Librarians Cymru, welcomed the new platform and the possibilities it brings for library users, saying: “We can’t wait to see what can be achieved with the new Platform. SCL Cymru is very grateful to the Welsh Government for this investment and their recognition of the vital role that Libraries play to their communities.”
Researchers use AI but don’t trust it
SEVENTY-SIX per cent of researchers have used a form of AI tool in their prac- tice despite concerns over the loss of crit- ical thinking skills, respect for intellectual property (IP) rights, and mistrust in AI providers, an OUP survey has revealed (
https://tinyurl.com/2b5e9apj). The survey, which found that machine translation and chatbots were the most popular AI tools among researchers, had 2,345 usable responses from across a num- ber of subject disciplines and geographies. Over half (67 per cent) said they felt it
had benefitted them in some way but only just over a quarter (27 per cent) said they were excited about the prospects of AI for academic research.
Only eight per cent trust that AI com- panies will not use their research data without permission, while just six per cent said they trust companies to meet their data privacy and security needs.
Three in five respondents feel that the use of AI in research could under- mine intellectual property, and result in authors not being recognised appropri- ately for use of their work. David Clark, Managing Director of OUP’s Academic division, said: “This research will help us to understand how researchers are thinking about AI and its use in their work. “This is a fast-moving, complex area – but we strongly believe that publishers like OUP are well positioned to act as a bridge between research authors and tech provid- ers, making a real difference as these tools continue to evolve.
“We are actively working with compa- nies developing LLMs, exploring options for both the responsible development and usage, to not only improve research out- comes, but also recognise the vital role that researchers have – and must continue to have – in an AI-enabled world.”
June 2024
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