From Ghost Stories to Trust Stories
From Ghost Stories to Trust Stories: Academic Libraries as Narrative Architects in the Age of AI (virtual presentation and discussion)
Presented by Chris Rosser, First Year and Transfer Experience Librarian at Oklahoma State University and co-author of Generative AI and Libraries: Claiming our Place in the Center of a Shared Future, published by the American Library Association (2025).
What if the stories we tell about AI create the realities our students and communities will inhabit? As academic librarians, we're not just responding to artificial intelligence; we're actively shaping how our institutions and communities understand and engage with these technologies through the narratives we craft in our policies, pedagogies, and daily practice.
This presentation explores how academic libraries can move beyond inherited "ghost stories" about AI—narratives of replacement, surveillance, and academic dishonesty—to "trust stories" that position libraries as leaders in collaborative intelligence. Drawing on recent discussions within library communities about AI ethics, evaluation frameworks, and professional responsibility, we'll examine how librarians are uniquely positioned for narrative leadership in this transformative moment.
Rather than choosing between uncritical adoption or wholesale rejection, academic libraries can claim the center as story architects who design ethical frameworks for AI integration. We'll explore practical approaches for crafting transparency-based narratives that honor our core values while building community trust and discuss how coordinated storytelling across library ecosystems amplifies individual voices into unified professional influence. We'll also consider how these narrative choices play out in instructional contexts, where librarians help students and instructors develop critical AI literacy through the stories we tell about collaboration, academic integrity, and learning partnerships.
Participants will leave with tools for narrative leadership within their contexts, understanding how everyday choices about AI policies and practices become the "ghosts" that will haunt future technological engagement, and frameworks for moving from reactive anxiety to proactive story-crafting that serves human flourishing.
About Chris Rosser:
From 2009-2024, Chris served as an instructional and theological librarian, developing expertise in pedagogy, instructional design, and innovative approaches to learning, including gamification and AI-empowered education.
Currently, Chris works with students, librarians, and faculty to build capacity for ethical AI integration in academic contexts, focusing on how narrative choices shape technological engagement in libraries and classrooms. His work on AI literacy, transparent technology use, and collaborative intelligence has been featured at the American Library Association annual conference, Association of College and Research Libraries, American Theological Librarian Association, Oklahoma Library Association, and other professional venues.