Using AI in libraries

Karlsruhe, 10 September 2025 – Prof. Dr. Franziska Boehm and Fabian Rack from the Intellectual Property Rights department (IGR) were guests at the ZBW – Leibniz Information Centre for Economics on 17 September 2025. At the ZBW, they contributed to the Compliance Day with a presentation on AI regulation and AI and copyright law. They focussed was on the question: How can artificial intelligence be used meaningfully and legally in libraries?

The two researchers provided an overview of the AI Act with its ‘risk-based approach’ on the one hand and copyright law on the other. This was supplemented by specific use cases and legal policy discussions. AI-supported applications also play an important role in libraries, whether in inventory management, document analysis, personalised recommendations or for researchers who use libraries and their services. At the same time, these institutions face the challenge of complying with numerous regulations relevant to the use of AI.

Events such as these can help libraries and other institutions to develop their own AI guidelines and stimulate discussion on how AI can be used without infringing on the rights of those affected.