Library and Information Week - Truth Be Told

AI Advice for studentsAI Advice for Staff

Welcome to Library and Information Week 2026

Library and Information Week celebrates the work that library and information workers do all around Australia. This year's theme, 'Truth Be Told', will shine a light on misinformation and disinformation.

“Truth used to feel like something you could point to. These days, it’s harder to pin down — shaped, stretched and sometimes distorted in a crowded information landscape. In some cases, the truth isn’t just blurred — it’s buried.

That’s where libraries come in. Built on the careful keeping and sharing of knowledge, they help communities cut through the noise — supporting people to question, verify and understand what they encounter, and to navigate misinformation and disinformation with confidence” (Australian Library and Information Association). 

In the age of GenAI, critically evaluating information is more important than ever! Check out CQU Library’s Evaluating Resources page for tools and methods you can use to assess the information you find.
 

AI Literacy

Generative AI, especially Large Language Models (LLMs), have many limitations and potential that must be considered before using them as a part of your research and study. Due to the way they compile information from multiple sources of varying quality and accuracy, you need to apply caution to using the provided information. Compare the output to more reliable sources such as your lecture material or other scholarly publications on the topic. A great way to think about content generated by LLMs is similar to Wikipedia, it can be useful as a starting point to get a better understanding of a topic, but should not be directly quoted or used as a primary source.

More information on this topic is available from MyCQU for students and StaffNet for staff.

Some library databases have integrated AI tools on the platform itself. These can be used without breaching copyright.

Below is a list of the databases with AI tools:

  • ProQuest
  • EbscoHost 

More databases are adding AI tools over time, so it is worth checking on your preferred databases to see if they have added new tools.

  • ChatGPT and other generative AI are not information sources themselves. They are information gatherers that harvest information from multiple sources.
  • When asking these AI where they sourced the information, you won’t get a definitive answer.
  • They will mention what types of sources information is pulled from but won’t specify the exact sources.
  • Even when they do produce references, they look real but are often fake; the journals or webpages may be real, but the authors, titles, and specific information may not exist. These are known as hallucinations.  
  • To see the damage this can cause in practice, check out this article from the ABC "This US lawyer used ChatGPT to research a legal brief with embarrassing results. We could all learn from his error".
  • AI hallucinations are still occurring, so critically evaluating the information that ChatGPT and other tools, like CoPilot and Claude, provide is essential! See, for example, ABC's AI hallucinations and the dilemma of false or misleading information.