AI SESSIONS

10 Great Ways to Use AI for Library Outreach
A Library 2.0 AI Workshop with Reed Hepler

OVERVIEW

Library outreach requires creativity, consistency, and the ability to communicate effectively with diverse audiences—yet librarians often face constraints of time, budget, and staffing that make sustained outreach efforts challenging. This workshop introduces ten practical applications of artificial intelligence tools that can enhance library outreach without replacing the human expertise and community knowledge that make library programs successful.

Participants will explore how AI can support social media content creation, event promotion, newsletter development, community engagement strategies, multilingual communication, accessibility improvements, and patron feedback analysis. Each application emphasizes objective-centered AI use, ensuring that technology serves clearly defined outreach goals rather than generating content for its own sake. The workshop demonstrates how librarians can leverage AI capabilities while maintaining authentic voice, community responsiveness, and the professional judgment that distinguishes effective outreach from generic marketing.

Understanding how to integrate AI into outreach workflows carries significant implications for library visibility, community engagement, and resource allocation. When librarians use AI strategically for outreach tasks, they free up time for relationship-building, program development, and direct patron interaction—the irreplaceable human elements of successful library service. This workshop provides concrete methods for using AI to draft social media posts that reflect library voice and values, generate event descriptions that appeal to specific community segments, create accessible versions of outreach materials, analyze patron feedback to inform programming decisions, and develop multilingual content that serves diverse populations. Participants will learn conversation-steering techniques that maintain control over tone and messaging, verification protocols that ensure accuracy in community-facing communications, and feasibility assessment frameworks that help determine when AI collaboration enhances efficiency and when traditional methods prove more appropriate. The workshop emphasizes that effective AI-assisted outreach requires librarians to provide context, objectives, and community knowledge that AI tools cannot generate independently.

By the end of this workshop, participants will have 10 immediately applicable strategies for integrating AI into their library outreach workflows. Attendees will leave with conversation templates for each application, examples of successful AI-assisted outreach materials, and decision frameworks for evaluating when AI collaboration effectively serves outreach objectives. Participants will understand how to maintain authentic library voice while using AI for content generation, how to adapt AI outputs for specific community contexts, and how to verify that AI-generated outreach materials accurately represent library services and values. Most importantly, participants will recognize that AI tools function best as collaborative partners in outreach work—they can accelerate content creation and expand reach, but they cannot replace the community relationships, cultural competence, and professional expertise that librarians bring to outreach efforts. This workshop ensures that librarians leave equipped to use AI deliberately and strategically in service of their outreach goals.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES: 

• Apply ten specific AI collaboration strategies to common library outreach tasks, including social media content creation, event promotion, newsletter development, multilingual communication, and accessibility enhancement
• Evaluate the feasibility and appropriateness of AI use for specific outreach objectives, determining when AI collaboration enhances efficiency and when traditional methods better serve community needs
• Implement conversation steering techniques that maintain authentic library voice, community responsiveness, and accurate representation of services in AI-assisted outreach materials
• Adapt AI-generated outreach content for specific community contexts, audiences, and platforms while verifying accuracy and alignment with library values and messaging standards
  

ACTIONABLE WORKSHOP ELEMENTS: 

Throughout the 90-minute workshop, participants will complete ten brief, focused exercises corresponding to each AI outreach application:

1. Social Media Content Calendar – Generate a week of social media posts for a specific library program or collection
2. Event Promotion Materials – Create promotional copy for an upcoming library event in multiple formats (flyer, email, social post)
3. Newsletter Article Drafting – Develop a newsletter article highlighting a library service or resource
4. Community Engagement Responses – Draft responses to common patron questions or feedback on social media
5. Multilingual Outreach – Translate and culturally adapt an outreach message for a specific community language group
6. Accessibility Enhancement – Generate alt text, plain language summaries, and accessible versions of outreach materials
7. Patron Feedback Analysis – Analyze sample patron feedback to identify themes and inform programming decisions
8. Partnership Outreach – Draft outreach emails to potential community partners or collaborators
9. Program Description Optimization – Refine program descriptions for different audiences (children, teens, adults, seniors)
10. Outreach Impact Storytelling – Create compelling narratives about library impact for grant applications or annual reports

The recording and presentation slides will be available to all who register. 

DATE: Tuesday, June 16th, 2026, 2:00 - 3:30 pm US - Eastern Time