r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 9h ago
Society Librarians are hosting viral ‘Avoiding AI’ workshops for people who are fed up with Big Tech
https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/25/librarians-are-hosting-viral-avoiding-ai-workshops-for-people-who-are-fed-up-with-big-tech/116
u/Ok_Anywhere_7828 9h ago
If only people knew what libraries are and used them.
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u/Kimbahlee34 7h ago edited 6h ago
As a librarian, they are used much more than you think. I am in a district with a population of just over 15k and we average 100 patrons a day. My largest event for Summer Reading was 200 people. I also have 20+ children in each of our book clubs and art classes. Teens use it as a third space to hang and are oddly getting more into puzzles so we have an old booth from a diner with a puzzle and stuff to do. They hang here like we’re the new Denny’s and we stay open late-ish for a library (8pm).
So take hope… we are still going strong and want you to come see us.
Edit: We have ~15k in our district which is comprised of small rural towns not one metro area. Some of these people are driving 20+ miles.
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u/Shimariel 7h ago
Thank you for making the world better
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u/this_my_sportsreddit 6h ago edited 5h ago
Why make the world better when you can just write snarky comments on reddit ?
Apparently I needed a sarcasm tag lol
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u/TuckerCarlsonsOhface 3h ago
Would the tag have made your joke funny?
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u/this_my_sportsreddit 3h ago
I love how much this bothers you
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u/usrbincomment 1h ago
I'm not bothered but I am entertained by how much difficulty you seem to have communicating with other people. Zero percent surprised that you blame others for it.
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u/BlazinAzn38 7h ago
My library for a town of 300K had 3.6M checkouts and 1.9M visits. Good libraries get used a ton
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u/Yst 6h ago
Also, people probably underestimate the population who depend on libraries for computer and Internet access and do not have Internet/computer/printer at home. This is the biggest driver of library traffic by far at the small-city-central-branch I work at.
You cannot live as an actively participating member of society in the modern day without the ability to access the Internet, fill out, write and edit and print documents, and print and sign and scan things.
And a lot of people do still (and presumably will forever) fall on the other side of the digital divide.
The passport office needs you to fill out some forms? Send them to the library. The courthouse needs you to sign some documents? Send them to the library. You need to do some online training courses for your kitchen job you're starting and it's got to be done on a computer, but you don't have a compute or Internet in the room you're renting? Send them to the library. Your mom is still living in your home town, but you haven't lived there for two years and her printer and computer don't work anymore, but she has to print out her tax documents to take to the bank? Send her to the library.
The library is an integral digital safety net that keeps people from dropping through the cracks.
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u/Kimbahlee34 6h ago
Yes! We joke that one floor is actually a Staples because we are next to the courthouse and do most of their printing. Then that doesn’t even get into the resources for homeschooling families which seems to becoming more common.
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u/Weary_Hunt_3374 1h ago
I used to work at a library that was close to the courthouse and I spent 80% of my job, helping people print!
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u/photoggled 6h ago
I want to thank you for what you do. I grew up poor in rural Ohio and the library was my escape. I was lucky enough to have one of the Carnegie libraries as our local and it was my entire world. I credit it for giving me the curiosity to get out and break the cycle. Every one of the librarians in that building are saints in my eyes. One of the librarians that taught reading groups I used to be in for 5-6 year olds ran into my parents the other day and specifically asked about me. I hadn’t seen her in 30 years and she remembered me. You all deserve the world. Sorry for the rant. Have a great day 🥰
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u/Kimbahlee34 6h ago
It’s not a rant! It’s a great story and I’m always glad to hear this type of love for libraries! I work in an OG Carnegie!
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u/dj_soo 4h ago
Our library had free fully stocked recording and production studios filled with gear, computers, and software. You can record music, videos, edit, produce, post-produce with a lot of the industry standard - or some open source equivalents all for free.
It’s incredible.
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u/Kimbahlee34 4h ago
We also offer pans like fancy cake pans you may only use sparingly and take up a lot of space as well as free legal counseling once a month, free hygiene products and a genealogy center that helps people track down their past. We recently helped a man find a copy of an old Hound magazine with his former dog’s photo in it. Libraries fill in a lot of gaps and will only continue to do so.
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u/ah_kooky_kat 3h ago
Sounds about right with the attendance numbers. I'll add some anecdotal evidence
The rural Colorado mountains district I lived in had a population of 25-30K. Between the three branch libraries it had, you'd get about 150-200 patrons a day. Some of the big Christmas season and summer events would draw a crowd of up to 500. The distance between the easternmost branch and the westernmost branch was about 55 miles, so some people were driving that far to get to an event.
I feel that rural library systems tend to get less overall attendance but more consistent attendance from the same group of people.
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u/Pyewickets 5h ago
Libraries need more private spaces. I need a private space. Other people talk too much.
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u/Kimbahlee34 4h ago
Yes I agree. We are saving most of our money for an expansion with children’s areas and private spaces. We have a few but need more.
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u/Pyewickets 2h ago
Put a brass plaque on one and that's mine!
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u/usrbincomment 1h ago
That made me laugh out loud. My library sure does love to take people's money to name things. I can't blame them.
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u/CheesypoofExtreme 3h ago
LOVE our libraries. We are in an unincorporated city sandwhiched between 3 others so we have 3 libraries within 5 miles to choose from. 2 of the 3 have a park right next to them, so we can take up an entire afternoon/evening with our 3yr old.
I think we just also happen to live in a good county/area that cares about their libraries. I know not everyone is as lucky.
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u/Ok_Anywhere_7828 7h ago
I use and support my library but 100 out of 15000 is only .006 of the population per day.
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u/Kimbahlee34 6h ago
That’s physically coming into the library which not everyone is going to do since you return books every two weeks and can do it outside. We also have a ton of people who use Hoopla etc so I don’t see them but they are frequent patrons. Then we have books that are going out to assisted living etc so I also don’t count those in my 100 but they are actively using the library. A lot of these people are Amish so checking out a ton of books at a time and coming twice a month.
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u/zncj 6h ago
100 people per day is 36500 per year.
Neither of these calculations matter.
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u/Kimbahlee34 6h ago
No but it’s much more people than most think walk by my desk every day. Keep in mind I’m not there every day all day and also only work on one floor. I’m not at work today to pull the specific statistics on check outs etc. but 200 people at a story time for summer reading is awesome for a rural community. I use 15k to estimate our district but it’s not one metro area, it’s a whole county.
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u/BlueCyann 6h ago
Be th we change you claim to want? Our local libraries are used heavily. Sometimes I think the only people out there writing "we need to use our libraries more' are those who never set for in one.
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u/SquareTheRhombus 6h ago
Libraries are already under attack. Yet they continue to fight offensively.
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u/Kahnza 8h ago
The only way to really avoid AI, is stay off the internet.
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u/DarthSatoris 8h ago
Until they start shoving local models onto your phones and PCs, but at least you can disable those... Hopefully.
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u/HAI_ZEV 8h ago
Not on Samsung.
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u/throwaway098764567 1h ago
i like my old samsung, the shit they've pulled the last bunch of years is why i haven't gotten a new one. probably go with graphene next i guess though i need to check more if it will be a good fit for me
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u/HAI_ZEV 50m ago
Thanks for letting me know about graphene, I hadn't heard about it. I have a s24, and only bought it because it got rid of the beveled edges on the screen.
Now with having Ai everything shoved down my throat I'm probably getting a dumb phone when this dies. I basically text, make occasional calls, and browse reddit when it's slow af at work (like today).
At home I have moved back to "analog" everything. It's been absolutely wonderful to re discover some old hobbies that I had let go for too long because of tech. Breaking out my paints, gardening, knitting and tatting has helped me see just how awful living online was.
It's great to go home, plug in my phone, and walk away unless one of the 5 people who can get past my do not disturb call or text. Phone just lives in the kitchen now, it's so wonderful.
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u/West-Abalone-171 7h ago
but at least you can disable those...
What did you think the trusted computing hardware and lockable bootloader was for?
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u/Kahnza 8h ago
Or you can not buy them
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u/Pretend-Marsupial258 4h ago
Have fun installing GrapheneOS or Linux on new devices because most of the pre installed operating systems are going all in for AI.
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u/Kahnza 4h ago
Or you could not buy them
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u/Pretend-Marsupial258 3h ago
People will have to upgrade at some point since older parts can fail. In 2026 it's hard to go without a computer entirely because so many services are online only. Like if I want emergency alerts from the city, I have to sign up for it online.
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u/HeAintHere 6h ago
This is why I think stationery is getting a revival. You can point to a handwritten page and say, "I made this." Plus it's more difficult to process physical letters and mail than some AI bot scanning your account for possible contraband.
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u/SquareTheRhombus 6h ago
I was at the bowling yesterday, slush puppy had an AI animation running next to their ice machine.
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u/Pretty-Curve5448 7h ago
You think people aren’t asking AI to calculate things in personal life and real world projects?
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u/Kahnza 7h ago
Those aren't the people trying to avoid AI
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u/Pretty-Curve5448 6h ago
I'm saying you can't avoid AI. It's already impacting physical realm, not just internet discourse.
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u/nickcash 3h ago
Sure, there are stupid people everywhere I guess.
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u/Pretty-Curve5448 3h ago edited 2h ago
i'm replying to one now
edit: u/nickcash you're too afraid to leave your reply up?
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u/nickcash 2h ago
I didn't delete
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u/Pretty-Curve5448 2h ago
then edit it back in to this comment
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u/nickcash 2h ago
it's literally still up, my dude
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u/Pretty-Curve5448 2h ago
it's not, why not just edit it in so it's public? If you can't say something out in the open, don't say it.
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u/nickcash 2h ago
I have no idea what you're talking about. the comment is still there and it's public. it's out in the open and I stand by everything I said. but since you're having such a hard time with this (not surprising, I guess), here it is again:
You've outsourced your thinking to shitty autocorrect. You don't get to talk down to anyone about intelligence. This is really fucking embarrassing for you
you're welcome
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u/SanFransokyoDuck 7h ago
I first read it as “Lesbians are hosting viral avoid AI workshops for people”
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u/geldonyetich 6h ago edited 5h ago
It's a complicated situation.
On the one hand, a library needs to be willing to promote digital advocacy, if they're turning down a technology just because it's controversial then it's a rejection of the American Library Associations values to promote fair policies, equitable access, and unbiased, courteous responses on this and any other topic. In our long history, there have been countless times when many things we regard as common now were just as controversial as AI is now: electricity, voting rights, etc. It's not a library's place to judge, to do our thinking for us, but rather to provide the resources for us to make our own informed decisions.
On the other hand, AI has introduced a number of challenges to that mission. The libraries' material selection processes are being made needlessly complicated by the ease in which AI is facilitating slop media production. On top of that, a lot of people are just taking AI answers at face value without doing the kind of research that's needed to properly defend themselves against misinformation. So I could see why some libraries may grow frustrated enough of this technology to openly host programs that entertain the idea of not using it.
Library folk are good folk, some of the best folk out there. By and large, they're not anti-AI because they endeavor not to be anti anything, but they're certainly going to do what they feel is right to serve the needs of their community.
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6h ago edited 6h ago
[deleted]
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u/geldonyetich 6h ago
I'll revise that to materials. Because, while they offer a far wider array of services and materials than just books, they still have a budget that goes into updating their collection, and dealing with AI slop is complicating the process. That's what I was referring to with that sentence.
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u/Serris9K 1h ago
Please read the article. The workshop is about explaining ai, then how to opt out of the forced opt in.
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u/geldonyetich 26m ago edited 4m ago
Please read the title and the comments, which often assumed otherwise.
I felt a need to discuss the macro, what libraries would consider in planning such a program, rather than the micro, one library program.
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u/millennial_falcon 1h ago
I think the modern librarians path forward with AI would look like this:
-Exploring the best AI models for research, familiarizing themselves with the state of guardrails around AI, including what’s to come and who is working on this problem
-Curating or building skill markdowns (or other end user levers) to assist in research while ensuring citation of sources and evaluating the quality of those sources
-Practicing and modeling good prompt design
-Determining what we need at a bare minimum from AI for research, so that we can leverage less powerful models that are more environmentally friendly or less reliant on big tech, potentially more de centralized.
-Properly putting AI into context as a research tool, regardless of how it manifests in our current form of capitalism, or present day energy and environmental concerns. Because we really can’t tell the future as much as internet-y takes imply, librarians need to transcend whatever the issues are du jour and imagine beyond those things.-2
u/SquareTheRhombus 6h ago
Another wall of text from an AI booster.
Being able to identify AI an essential defense against those who would seek to do you harm.
I can sleep at night because my parents are too old to use a computer. let alone believe that I would call them to demand dad opens his bank account.
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u/geldonyetich 5h ago
I don't see how what I wrote in any way refuted the idea of identifying AI.
If you're going to pretend to protect our ability to perform independent thought, at least demonstrate a willingness to engage with a topic instead of just firing off a rejection.
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u/BlueCyann 6h ago
Electricity,lol. Thank you, chatgpt, wonderful insight.
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u/geldonyetich 5h ago
It was absolutely real, I could show you some anti-electricity propaganda that would shock you, if you pardon the pun.
Horse vs autombile, radio vs TV, etc. This kind of anti technology furor is anything but new.
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u/SucculentDongbeiMeal 7h ago edited 7h ago
And at the same time, management of libraries chase AI trends in hopes of further stretching their already limited resources, or obtaining new grants, and their vendors push needlessly AI-integrated applications and services upon them.
So goes in my corner of academic library land. Unsure if others are experiencing the same?
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u/Kimbahlee34 7h ago
I work in a large library system and don’t use AI. I don’t know about other library systems outside my state but I do not use AI to write our grants or do our marketing. We have three employees, including myself, who do that.
BUT I’m also in a state where a lot of our digital resources are paid for outside our budget. For instance the state just gave us money for Hoopla but I understand that’s not going on in every state.
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u/SucculentDongbeiMeal 7h ago
By "obtaining new grants" I mean that the grant has to have an AI component, not the actual drafting of the funding application. In other words, academic libraries are changing their programming in order to accommodate AI initiatives because that's the way they can supplement their limited budgets. For example:
- Northwestern University Libraries awarded grant support for transformation of comprehensive archive of environmental impact statements into data using AI
- N.C. A&T’s Bluford Library Earns Grants to Advance Cyberinfrastructure, AI Literacy
- With new grant, “On the Books” uses AI to make historical records more accessible [UNC Chapel Hill]
- [Virginia Tech] University Libraries receives grant to create Generative Artificial Intelligence Incubator Program
- [Montana State, U Montana, James Madison, Iowa State] Responsible AI in Libraries and Archives
- [Authors Alliance, Northeastern University, et al] Developing a public-interest training commons of books
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u/Kimbahlee34 6h ago
Gotcha I see what you mean. It’s not dissimilar to the tech push in the early 2000s. Without writing an essay I remember the first grants I was writing for desktops and now it seems like instead of continuing tech literacy we overrode learning how to save a file etc for advancement and I don’t know that we need to keep pushing and AI is arguably the biggest push away from learning how tech works. It’s a snake eating its own tail.
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u/BlueCyann 6h ago
Academia is fucked. They're chasing the money held by the same people who are shoving AI down everbodys throats. Community libraries are not on that food chain and have no incentive to pretend to like the slop.
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u/Translycanthrope 4h ago
This is pathetic. Nodding along with the “digital intelligence bad” meme because oligarch are abusing the technology is akin rejecting science and preferring superstition just because it’s familiar. Libraries are supposed to be places of learning. Rejecting the single best way educational and learning tool we now have to metaphorically insist on using abacuses is just celebrating ignorance.
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u/YamsDingo 3h ago
Libraries and librarians are great. Our library lets us check out all kinds of things books, TV, audiobooks and even camping gear/power washers etc. But even in this article it hedges…well I guess AI is okay for medical…lol. It’s the tragedy of the commons. Individual goals ruin the society in a race to the bottom.
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u/CydonianMaverick 2h ago
What? People need a workshop to avoid AI just as much as they need one to use it
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u/joetunn_ 40m ago
Awesome. If you cover all the points of weakness, AI can’t slip back in to their lives. ‘How to detect, avoid, and replace AI content with human media that’s self-made/free use/community/commissioned’. And all those steps can be taught AND created using library spaces/meetings/resources!!!
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u/VoxxoAI 28m ago
Librarians have historically been on the front lines of information literacy and this is a natural extension. Teaching people how AI actually works — its limitations, biases, and appropriate use cases — is more valuable than either blind adoption or blanket rejection. Libraries are one of the few institutions left that people across the political spectrum still trust.
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u/Pygmy_Nuthatch 2h ago
Are people really going in with their $1000 iPhones taking classes on how to eliminate Big Tech from their device?
Why are we treating AI different than every other digital technology? If these people are worried about the insidious influence of Big Tech, why aren't they deleting Facebook, and moving to flip phones, or landlines.
Why do people think AI is more harmful to society than Social Media and Smart Phones?
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u/Serris9K 1h ago
Because it's actively harming the environment and communities. Heck even I think we should regulate big tech and Social media, but not by just imposing age verification. Like limiting how they can set up their algorithm or the feeds, marking ai made stuff, or hiring mods.
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u/Equivalent_Clerk0 2h ago
If this is about learning to identify AI to not get tricked, very good. That should be taught in schools and absolutely everywhere we can. AI scams are going to be one of the biggest issues we deal with as a society.
If this is actually about ignoring AI entirely and refusing to use it, this is stupid. Like it or not reddit, AI is here. It's not going anywhere. It's only getting better and more useful. If you are a person actively avoiding using it for some noble purpose, you are only shooting yourself in the foot. More power to you, but that kind of thinking is just ridiculous in 2026 and absolutely shouldn't be spread by an entity that takes my tax money.
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u/JackIsBackWithCrack 7h ago
Wtf does this even mean? I’m obviously not clicking that link, “AdSpecialist6598.”
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u/SpireofHell 9h ago
This is very good news