The Frenemy Relationship between Academic Libraries and Artificial Intelligence: Navigating the Transformation

Abstract

Purpose - This paper examines the relationship between academic libraries and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the evolving information environment, focusing on the opportunities and challenges AI presents to academic libraries and librarianship, particularly within developing countries such as Nigeria.

Design/Methodology/Approach - The paper adopts a conceptual and analytical research design involving a literature review.

Findings - The paper argues that AI has created a frenemy relationship with academic libraries, serving simultaneously as a valuable partner and a potential competitor to traditional library functions. AI enhances information retrieval, automates routine tasks, improves metadata management, supports personalized services, and strengthens user experience. At the same time, it raises concerns relating to increasing user self-reliance, changing information-seeking behaviour, and threats to the professional identity of librarians. The paper maintains that while AI can efficiently perform technical and repetitive tasks, it cannot replace the ethical judgment, critical thinking, information mediation, and user-centered expertise provided by professional librarians.

Practical implications - Academic libraries must strategically embrace AI while preserving their core mission of equitable information access and knowledge support. The paper recommends the integration of digital fluency, AI literacy, and interdisciplinary competencies into Library and Information Science education, alongside continuous training and retraining programmes to equip librarians with the skills required to remain relevant and effective in the digital age.

Originality/Value - The paper's original contribution lies in its conceptualization of the academic library–AI relationship as a "frenemy" dynamic, capturing a dual character (both partnership and competition) that existing literature tends to treat as separate rather than intertwined, and in situating this analysis within the specific context of developing countries such as Nigeria.

Paper type – Position paper

Keywords: Frenemy, artificial intelligence, academic libraries, opportunities, librarians.