AI or human? A study of university students' awareness of library reference service agents.
Purpose: This study aims to examine university students' awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) acting as the agent in university libraries' reference services. It also aims to identify and discover factors that influence students' judgement. Design/methodology/approach: A within-participant desi...
| Publicado en: | Electronic Library Vol. 44; no. 1; pp. 136 - 155 |
|---|---|
| Autores principales: | , , , |
| Formato: | research tables/charts Journal Article |
| Publicado: |
Emerald Publishing Limited
2026
|
| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=191326512&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 191326512 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 02640473 2OJ jtl: Electronic Library issn: 02640473 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: 2026 vid: 44 iid: 1 pid: 465 pub: Emerald Publishing Limited artinfo: ui: 191326512 191326512 191326512 191326512 ppf: 136 ppct: 19 formats: tig: atl: AI or human? A study of university students' awareness of library reference service agents. aug: au: Wang, Di Guo, Jianting Zheng, Kaiyang Deng, Xizhou affil: School of Information Resource Management, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China sug: subj: Library Reference Services Artificial Intelligence, Generative Students, College Psychosocial Factors Student Attitudes Professional Competence Human Male Female Adult China Funding Source Chatbot Feedback Qualitative Studies Thematic Analysis Data Analysis Software Pearson's Correlation Coefficient Chi Square Test One-Way Analysis of Variance Sex Factors Age Factors Educational Status Adult: 19-44 years Male Female ab: Purpose: This study aims to examine university students' awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) acting as the agent in university libraries' reference services. It also aims to identify and discover factors that influence students' judgement. Design/methodology/approach: A within-participant design experiment was designed for this study. Five tasks covering five disciplines were developed. Two versions (ChatGPT versus subject librarian) of feedback were generated for each task. Participants were asked to judge the identity of the agent (a simplified Turing test) for each task. Think-aloud protocols were used to further analyse the factors affecting students' judgements. Findings: This study indicates students' limited ability to distinguish AI and human agents. They are more likely to mistake librarians for AI agents with complicated tasks. The perceived knowledge, ability and comprehensibility of the AI system and the provided information quality and expression approach, together with AI usage experience, significantly affect students' awareness of AI. Students associate objective, thorough and expert knowledge with AI, while detailed, vivid and colloquial explanations to librarians. Originality/value: This study provides valuable insights into students' awareness of AI versus human agents in reference services by synthesizing a theoretical model to explain students' AI awareness, specifying components for each element and their relationships. It also benefits the effective integration of AI technology in libraries, especially in reference services, by emphasizing the importance of keeping pace with the development of AI and improving students' AI literacy. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: research tables/charts Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
|---|