10 Great Ways to Use AI for Reference Questions
A Library 2.0 AI Workshop with Crystal Trice
OVERVIEW:
Reference work has a new “regular” at the desk. Patrons arrive with answers from AI overviews and chatbots, some helpful, some confidently wrong, and staff are expected to sort truth from fiction on the spot. Meanwhile, the questions themselves have not gotten any easier: they are still vague, still multi-part, and still about topics staff haven’t heard of.
This workshop offers ten practical responses. Rather than treating AI as an answer machine, this session positions AI as a research assistant that helps you find the real question, shape the search, and explain the answer, while the truth-finding stays firmly in your hands. Participants will see real examples and leave with prompts they can use on their very next shift.
Accuracy is the heart of reference work, and that is exactly why reference staff need to understand these tools better than anyone. Used carefully, AI can clear the fog around a fuzzy question and speed the path to an authoritative source, and it can do so without ever replacing the reference interview, the verified answer, or you.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Apply ten specific AI strategies across the reference workflow, from untangling a vague question through searching, verifying, and writing the answer
- Evaluate AI-generated answers against authoritative sources, and model that verification for patrons in real time
- Implement privacy practices that keep patron information out of AI tools entirely
- Respond to patrons who arrive with confident but incorrect AI answers, with kindness and a better source
ACTIONABLE WORKSHOP ELEMENTS:
Over 60 minutes, participants will move through ten focused applications, each illustrated with a real example or a quick demonstration:
- Untangle the vague question. Brainstorm what might sit behind a fuzzy request, so your reference interview starts with better questions.
- Build a stronger search strategy. Generate keywords, synonyms, and Boolean strings you can adapt for your catalog and databases.
- Break down the multi-part question. Split a complicated request into researchable pieces, each matched to the source type that answers it.
- Get oriented on an unfamiliar topic. Gain the vocabulary and landscape of a brand-new subject in two minutes, so you can search real sources well.
- Find the right door. Identify which agency, database, or document type holds the answer, then verify at the official source.
- Translate the jargon. Restate dense articles, legal notices, and government forms in plain language you and the patron can work from together.
- Handle the "AI told me" moment. Understand what AI commonly gets wrong, so you can guide a misled patron kindly to something trustworthy.
- Verify out loud, together. Turn checking an AI answer into a two-minute teachable moment that builds patron information literacy.
- Draft the written answer. Give AI your verified facts and sources and get a clear, friendly draft for email and chat reference.
- Practice before it happens. Rehearse tricky reference interviews with AI playing the patron, before the real one reaches your desk.
The recording and presentation slides will be available to all who register.
DATE: Friday, August 14th, 2026, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm US - Eastern Time
COST:
- $99/person - includes live attendance, anytime access to the recording and presentation slides, and a participation certificate. To arrange group discounts (see below), to submit a purchase order, or for any registration difficulties or questions, email admin@library20.com.
TO REGISTER:
Use the payment box above to register and pay. You can pay by credit card. You will receive an email within a day with information on how to attend the webinar live and how you can access the permanent webinar recording. If you are paying for someone else to attend, you'll be prompted to send an email to admin@library20.com with the name and email address of the actual attendee.
If you need to be invoiced or pay by check, if you have any trouble registering for a webinar, or if you have any questions, please email admin@library20.com.
NOTE: Please check your spam folder if you don't receive your confirmation email within a day.
SPECIAL GROUP RATES (email admin@library20.com to arrange):
- Multiple individual log-ins and access from the same organization paid together: $99 each for 3+ registrations, $75 each for 5+ registrations. Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
- The ability to show the webinar (live or recorded) to a group located in the same physical location or in the same virtual meeting from one log-in: $399.
- Large-scale institutional access for viewing with individual login capability: $599 (hosted either at Learning Revolution or in Niche Academy). Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
ALL-ACCESS PASSES: This webinar is not a part of the Safe Library All-Access program.
With over two decades of experience in libraries and education, Crystal Trice is passionate about helping people work together more effectively in transformative, but practical ways. As founder of Scissors & Glue, LLC, Crystal partners with libraries and schools to bring positive changes through interactive training and hands-on workshops. She is a Certified Scrum Master and has completed a Masters Degree in Library & Information Science, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and Psychology. She is a frequent national presenter on topics ranging from project management to conflict resolution to artificial intelligence. She currently resides near Portland, Oregon, with her extraordinary husband, fuzzy cows, goofy geese, and noisy chickens. Crystal enjoys fine-tip Sharpies, multi-colored Flair pens, blue painters tape, and as many sticky notes as she can get her hands on.
