Perceptions toward Artificial Intelligence among Academic Library Employees and Alignment with the Diffusion of Innovations’ Adopter Categories

Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a topic of interest among information technology innovators. As AI is refined, practical uses of the technology to improve the transfer of information are increasingly investigated, developed, and adopted in a variety of public environments, including in libraries. Given the relatively recent emergence of AI in this respect, it presents an opportunity to investigate the emergence of public perceptions toward the innovation and the relationship this holds with the adoption of emerging technologies, as envisioned in Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations model. This study describes the results of a survey of practicing librarians regarding the adopter category (innovator, early adopter, early majority, late majority, laggard) with which they identify and the relationship of this identification with perceived knowledge and perceptions of AI technology within and outside the library environment. The findings of this survey have both theoretical implications for the Diffusion model within the library technology context as well as practical implications for supporting the process of diffusion of emerging technologies among academic library employees.