How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bot

As a law librarian, I find emerging technologies to be a source of both inspiration and concern. While I love learning about new technologies and considering how I can incorporate them into my instruction and reference work, I also can’t help but consider how they might subsume some of my traditional functions and require me to adapt.  In response to this concern, while simultaneously experiencing some burnout toward teaching, I set out to learn a new skill: building a chatbot.  In this session, I will discuss my experience building a chatbot, as well as my thoughts on its potential usefulness in reaching library patrons.  Attendees will leave with an awareness of resources available for creating a chatbot, an understanding of how they work, and, hopefully, the inspiration to build one for their own libraries.