Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2936-2174

Document Type

Book

Publication Title

AI, Digital Transformation and the Future of Knowledge: The Next Generation Library

Abstract

The paper discusses the developments in human information access across three historical paradigms including physical scarcity, digital abundance, and synthetic algorithmic mediation with Generative AI. History is discussed with the philosophical aspects of Floridi’s Philosophy of Information, Christine Borgman’s Digital Scholarship Framework, and S R Ranganathan’s Normative Library Science. This conceptual paper explores the transition from finding documents to creating answers with AI it has changed human thinking and reliability on information. This transition has changed how people believe and trust the source of information. This paper looks at the material ethics regarding how commercial large language models (LLM) are updated with the human knowledge by the companies ‘buy, scan, destroy’ practices known as ‘Project Panama’ is discussed here as a case study. A new conceptual framework for Ranganathan’s Five Laws of Library Science that fits an AI-mediated ecosystem is suggested by the authors. The turnaround in the framework is the Fourth Law from ‘save the time of the reader’ to ‘saving the attention and cognitive autonomy of the reader.’ The authors claim that the Fourth Law requires an update because human focus needs protection. This work describes the need for change in the professional identity for Library and Information specialists in the field of trusted knowledge surrounding settings and protectors of the original source. Human information access remains the focus as these skilled information specialists guard the truth.

Publication Date

9-23-2026

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