Image created by Isabel Virgo using DALL-E.
Introduction
Jennie Miron (Canada–not a Librarian)
Promoting and supporting academic integrity in higher education (HE) is a complex endeavour that requires collaboration across various disciplines and professional roles. Academic integrity includes realizing the ethical principles of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility in all academic work (International Center for Academic Integrity [ICAI], 2021). This commitment to integrity extends beyond individual accountability, requiring institutions to foster a culture where ethical scholarship is a shared priority. Achieving this goal presents unique challenges, particularly in light of the recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and technology, and the changing needs of diverse student populations. Addressing these challenges calls for a collaborative approach that leverages the expertise of faculty, administrators, instructional designers, counselors, and librarians, among others.
Traditionally seen as curators of knowledge and information, librarians are emerging as key players in fostering academic integrity (Garner et al., 2024; Gutton, 2022). Their roles have evolved into information specialists, educators, and researchers, who actively teach information literacy, research ethics, and critical thinking. Students benefit from librarian-led instruction in these areas, gaining skills essential for navigating academic work with integrity (Seeland & Openo, 2024). Recently, in recognition of the International Day of Action for Academic Integrity (IDoA), the International Center for Academic Integrity (ICAI) hosted an online panel featuring librarians and academic library experts from around the world, who discussed their insights and perspectives on supporting student learning. This blog will spotlight contributions from several of these librarian panelists, aiming to encourage your reflection on potential collaborations with librarians within your institutions to strengthen and enhance academic success and integrity.
Librarian Roles in Supporting Academic Integrity
Marie O’Neill Maher (Librarian Ireland)
Librarians play a key role in educating students about academic integrity. This instruction has helped to switch the emphasis of higher and further education institutions globally from surveillance to the systemic promotion of a culture of academic integrity institution-wide, aiming to prevent academic impropriety from arising in the first instance.
Standalone and siloed academic integrity instruction delivered by librarians has limitations. Often students who are already motivated by academic integrity will attend these sessions. To reach all students, academic integrity education delivered by librarians is more effective when designed and integrated into the curriculum. Given the importance of academic integrity to the learning experience globally, it is often surprising that programme-integrated academic integrity instruction by librarians is not more widespread. It is increasing however, enhanced by frameworks such as the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Framework (ACRL, 2016) which encourages students to recognize their contribution to the scholarly conversation in their discipline and the need for sourcing and referencing high-quality academic information to underpin their work. Programme-embedded academic integrity instruction by librarians is particularly important as essay mills, contract cheating sites, and AI platforms proliferate. The increasing focus on meta-literacy by librarians is also helpful as they seek to promote visual literacy by incorporating the proper attribution of images. This is a critical consideration for librarians working in creative arts HE institutions. For many years, librarians have promoted academic integrity via Libguides, which are freely available as part of the global knowledge commons. The Institute of Art Design + Technology (IADT) Library has recently published a Libguide on AI (see: Introduction - Artificial Intelligence - LibGuides at IADT-Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology).
Collaborative institutional approaches to promoting academic integrity by incorporating librarians are more impactful than isolated librarian initiatives. In Ireland, librarians constitute membership of Quality and Qualification’s National Academic Integrity Network (NAIN), alongside academic managers, quality assurance staff, faculty, and students. NAIN has produced a range of resources and guidelines that librarians can draw upon (see resources at National Academic Integrity Network | Quality and Qualifications Ireland (scroll down). NAIN’s annual National Academic Integrity Week has showcased institutional initiatives in which librarians, faculty, students, and student support staff have joined up to promote academic integrity throughout the student journey. I was delighted to write a chapter as part of a book entitled: The Role of the Academic Library in Promoting Academic Integrity edited by a fellow panel member, Josh Seeland. The chapter I co-authored with Naomi Jackson explored the positive impact of the National Academic Integrity Network on promoting an institution-wide culture of academic integrity incorporating librarians in partnership with students and staff. See: The Impact of Ireland’s National Academic Integrity Network: An Exploratory Qualitative Study at CCT College Dublin.
Josh Seeland (Manager, Library Services Canada)
Library staff at colleges and universities have long contributed reactively to academic integrity by identifying and remediating misconduct cases, such as plagiarism. However, in a rapidly evolving academic landscape now influenced by generative AI, their roles can and should expand to include proactive measures, working with students, faculty, and administrators to develop a culture of integrity across HE.
Traditionally, library staff have supported institutions in reactive capacities, especially in identifying plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. They have acted as first responders, assisting in detecting textual overlap through specialized software and helping students rectify unintentional errors related to citation or referencing. For instance, in line with the NAIN framework, librarians aid in academic misconduct case management by assisting with stages from detection and reporting to documentation and support through educational resources.
While these roles are valuable, they represent only part of what librarians can offer to the academic integrity ecosystem. The growing complexity of academic misconduct necessitates expanding librarians' functions to proactive, preventive efforts, allowing them to address integrity issues at their source rather than solely reacting to infractions.
Librarians possess the skills and resources to take on more proactive roles in cultivating academic integrity. They can develop educational programs, workshops, and resources that promote ethical research practices, appropriate use of citations, and correct referencing techniques. Integrating academic integrity into the curriculum through library instruction can help prevent students from encountering integrity issues in the first place. Programs focused on plagiarism prevention and correct use of sources help embed integrity into the educational experience from the onset.
Moreover, librarians can extend their reach beyond students to engage faculty and administrative stakeholders in promoting integrity. Faculty workshops on academic integrity and the implications of AI in academia, for example, help instructors design research assessments that minimize opportunities for academic misconduct, while librarians can support administrators in refining institutional integrity policies. Collaborative development of guidelines on responsible technology use, such as AI in academic work, is another area where librarians can provide critical insights, enhancing campus-wide understanding of integrity issues.
The rise of generative AI marks a transformative opportunity for librarians to expand their roles in academic integrity. AI-driven tools like text generation and automated writing assistants present unique challenges, as they can facilitate both intended learning support and potential misconduct. Librarians are uniquely positioned to mediate this technology, helping students and faculty understand its ethical use while discouraging misuse.
This moment is reminiscent of the early internet’s impact on libraries. Just as librarians spearheaded efforts to integrate online resources and adapt to digital catalogues, they now have the chance to shape responsible AI usage in academia. Indeed, academic librarians are critical in helping institutions navigate new technologies while safeguarding academic integrity.
Librarians can proactively provide guidance on AI-assisted research, including sessions on using AI responsibly, avoiding contract cheating, and maintaining transparency in AI-aided assignments. Additionally, AI can be harnessed to improve library services, from supporting the identification of academic misconduct to offering customized learning resources, further embedding integrity in academic support, and modeling responsible AI use.
Librarians’ involvement in academic integrity can also extend to collaboration with broader institutional stakeholders, including faculty, administrators, and student services. A coordinated, holistic approach to integrity, where librarians play a central role in developing integrity-focused programs, will reflect the values and goals of the institution as a whole.
For instance, collaborating with academic departments to design integrity-focused courses, holding workshops with student services on ethical research practices, and co-developing integrity policies with administrators can collectively bolster a culture of integrity. Thus, libraries can serve as hubs for academic integrity resources, offering physical and digital spaces where students and faculty can learn and discuss integrity-related topics. This alignment with the institution's broader mission is consistent with best practices in strategic library management where the library operates as an enabler of institutional success.
Javier Oyarzun (Librarian Chile)
Librarians at academic institutions play a crucial, yet often overlooked, role in supporting research for all patrons, including students, academics, and staff. As research and assessment tools evolve, so do our services. However, we maintain the same core focus: developing the skills of our community, regardless of how advanced these tools become.
Generative artificial intelligence has significantly impacted our work with its rapid evolution and widespread availability of applications that benefit users through speed and ease of output production. This stands in contrast to older technologies, which evolve at a slower pace, thereby permitting a more extended and natural period of adoption.
The rapid rise of generative AI is pushing academic librarians to rethink how we design instructional sessions and online materials for digital skills development. It's no longer enough to simply teach students how to use traditional databases or evaluate websites. We now have to equip them to navigate a world where AI tools can generate text, code, and even multimedia content with incredible speed and ease.
This means our instruction has to address a whole new set of skills. We need to help students develop their critical thinking abilities to evaluate AI-generated content, understand the ethical implications of using these tools, and learn how to leverage AI effectively for research and learning while avoiding potential pitfalls like plagiarism or bias.
The challenge is that generative AI is evolving at a breakneck pace. New tools and applications are constantly emerging, and the capabilities of existing ones are rapidly expanding. This requires us to be incredibly agile and adaptable in our approach to instruction. We need to constantly update our materials, experiment with new pedagogical strategies, and stay abreast of the latest developments in the field.
It's an exciting but demanding time to be an academic librarian. We have a vital role to play in helping our communities develop the essential digital literacy skills they need to thrive in this new era of AI. Despite the rapid evolution of tools, core skills remain highly valued as they define our unique contributions as individuals. Librarians exemplify this by providing valuable services to their institutions and patrons, demonstrating the enduring significance of these fundamental abilities.
Isabel Virgo (Librarian, UK)
In the 7 years that I've been employed in my current role as an Academic Liaison Librarian at Oxford Brookes University, I've seen considerable changes to the nature of the profession. Teaching sessions that would once have been focused purely on the technical process of referencing have expanded to include much more on WHY we reference, especially in the context of a proliferation of information sources and new techniques for extracting knowledge, such as AI-powered summarisation and writing tools. Academic integrity is more complex and more important than ever.
Another key development that's important to consider is the emergence of evidence on the impact of academic integrity processes on students’ well-being. Many students feel pressured to achieve high grades to compete in the job market, while an increasing number are juggling current employment and other commitments that impact the time they can commit to their studies. The diversification of the student body has also led to the recognition that some groups may need more support than others to interpret institutional policies (Davis, 2022).
Academic integrity tends to be a significant source of anxiety for students - they are especially keen to find out what kind of 'score' they should be aiming to 'achieve' when they submit their work to similarity-checking tools. A student recently asked me "how much plagiarism is allowed?" - she wasn't being cheeky, but confusing plagiarism with similarity. I often need to explain how these are different and that there's no perfect score! It's vital to consider the diversity in students' prior educational experiences, especially with an increasingly international student population. Additionally, we must find teaching methods that recognize neurodiversity and minimize anxiety. As Moist (2024) suggests, perhaps we can learn some lessons from positive pedagogies used in secondary education. For librarians, not being involved in the grading of assignments can be an advantage, enabling us to present ourselves as supportive and approachable people who students can consult about their academic integrity concerns without fear that it will impact their grades.
As other contributors have highlighted, it's also important for librarians to collaborate with colleagues across faculties and professional services to ensure that students are receiving appropriate training on academic integrity principles and practices. At OBU, librarians work closely with our study skills service (the Centre for Academic Development), with academic staff, and with our Digital Services team, who support Turnitin. One key example of a collaborative effort is our compulsory online Academic Integrity course recently updated to include a module on AI. This has received positive feedback as an engaging tool for students to learn about academic integrity. However, it's always necessary for library staff to work together to reinforce these messages in classrooms and one-to-one interactions with students to provide academic integrity support in a way that is tailored to students' prior learning experience and appropriate to their academic discipline.
Jennie Miron Conclusion (Still not a Librarian)
Librarians play a pivotal role in promoting academic integrity and should be included in the planning and integration of curriculum that supports the successful incorporation of integrity content. Their proactive efforts, supported by evidence-based frameworks such as the ACRL Information Literacy Framework, and tangible support seen through documents like library guides, significantly enhance integrity initiatives. The rise and ubiquity of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) have dramatically transformed the educational landscape, making the librarian's role as an expert and diplomat in supporting students' understanding of this new technology even more crucial. Librarians' involvement in guiding the ethical and responsible use of genAI in writing and research, in collaboration with other stakeholders across HE, will establish strong foundational links for students. There is no doubt that librarians will continue to contribute to the quality of teaching and learning environments, which is essential to ensuring the integrity of the qualifications and awards conferred by HE institutions. By continuously adapting to students’ learning needs with evolving tools and technologies, librarians ensure that academic integrity remains a core focus, benefiting the entire academic community.
References
Association of College and Research Libraries. (2016, January 11). Framework for information literacy. https://www.ala.org/sites/default/files/acrl/content/issues/infolit/Framework_ILHE.pdf
Davis, M. (2022). Examining and improving inclusive practice in institutional academic integrity policies, procedures, teaching and support. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 18(14). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40979-022-00108-x
Garner, B., Snyder, T., Wise, J., & Walters, R. (2024). From tradition to transformation: Academic librarians as key players in online education. Advances in Online Education, 2(4), 2798-203.
Gutton, L. (2022). Librarians as drivers of academic integrity for student success at university. Journal of Australian Library and Information Association, 71(2), 156-170. https://doi.org/10.1080/24750158.2022.2063101
Institute of Art, Design + Technology. (2024, October 24). Artificial intelligence introduction. https://iadt.libguides.com/AI
International Center for Academic Integrity. (2021). The fundamental values of academic integrity (3rd ed.). https://academicintegrity.org/images/pdfs/20019_ICAI-Fundamental-Values_R12.pdf
Moist, S. (2024). Grounding academic integrity education in positive and proactive pedagogy. In J. Seeland & J. Openo (Eds.). Academic integrity and the role of the academic library (pp. 89-100). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65731-3
O’Neill, M. & Jackson, N. (2024). The impact of Ireland’s national academic integrity network: An exploratory study of at CCT College Dublin. In J. Seeland & J. Openo (Eds.). Academic integrity and the role of the academic library (pp. 17-45). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65731-3
Quality and Qualifications Ireland. (2021). National Academic Integrity Association. https://www.qqi.ie/what-we-do/engagement-insights-and-knowledge-sharing/national-academic-integrity-network
Seeland, J., & Openo, J. (2024). Academic integrity and the role of the academic library. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65731-3
Contributors
Jennie Miron, ICAI Board Member, Chair ICAI-Canada, Canada
Marie O' Neill Maher, Deputy Librarian, Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT), Ireland
Javier Oyarzun, Coordinator de área Docencia y Aprendizaje Bibliotecas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Josh Seeland, Manager Library Services, Assiniboine College, Canada
Isabel Virgo, Academic Liaison Librarian (Business), Oxford Brookes University, UK
The authors' views are their own.
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