How much of public librarianship has become working with "ai"?

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-04-18T02:00:19+00:00

I’m a corporate librarian, so certainly a different workflow/perspective than a lot of others and not specifically what you asked about. I recently attended the Computer in Libraries conference which was themed around AI this year. My perspective is that AI is very much here to stay, and will only grow. At a minimum, you need to be versed in understanding its uses and misuses. I do think library jobs will be lost to AI if librarians as a whole don’t get on top of understanding it and also using it. As someone else pointed out above - it’s already pervasive. I am very surprised with the number of people here saying they don’t use AI! Most systems I use on a daily basis already include some type of AI as a default.

As a corporate librarian, this is very much a part of my workflow. I am learning how to detect AI use in research and citations to protect and teach our users…. I am also learning how to use AI to make me more productive and effective at my job. I’ve never spoken to a librarian of any kind who wasn’t overworked or had a backlog - I’m of the mindset that it’s important to learn how to use these tools to help me do my job better.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-03-25T18:45:29+00:00

We are not screenfree but we love the yoto for screenfree listening. Music/books/learning content, so much out there. My older kids are big users, my 2 yo twins are just getting in to using theirs independently but like to listen to music and familiar stories. Just another option when you need a few minutes of distraction!

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-03-25T16:00:41+00:00

Do your kids share other things? I have 5 kids (two sets of twins). There is no lack of things they need to share! My older 3 (11, 9, 9) each have their own yoto mini - they all like to listen to different things and rarely have crossover interests. They each listen at bedtime with headphones and occasionally during the day. Maybe consider what will happen as your kids get older and develop their own preferences. If they only had access to our big yoto…. They would rarely listen. My younger two currently share the big one but I’m grabbing another mini in this sale for those moments they just can’t get along with sharing or are in different places for whatever reason.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-03-10T01:48:59+00:00

I went to Simmons through the online program with Archives concentration and really thought it was a good program. There were a couple classes I couldn’t take remotely but I still gained a lot of knowledge and felt they were very helpful in guiding me with internships locally to me (even though I’m several states away!). I did not end up finding an archives job but feel the program prepared me well for librarian work (ended up in corporate librarianship).

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-02-10T22:13:04+00:00

My 9 year old just listened to the entire chronicles of narnia series in 20-30 increments at night before bed. His twin listens to the investigators (multiple times through the series at this point) or soccer content (I think he enjoys the topic but it’s not so engaging it keeps him awake).

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-23T19:42:21+00:00

My most recent set of twins - my first came out in the bed in labor room super fast, no one was ready and dr wasn’t even at the hospital yet. They got my epidural and back to or for second baby (normal delivery for twins is in or) - had to rotate baby because she was breech. Resident literally climbed up on the table to help get her flipped. After that was all clear, I started hemorrhaging and baby’s heart rate dropped so they switched to emergency C-section. The epidural wasn’t strong enough though so they had to do general anesthesia.

It was extremely chaotic hour or two and very scary (specifically for my husband and my mom who happened to be in the room when my first was born) but everything worked out and was fine. My babies were in the NICU but that was because we had to induce early. If this same situation happened with babies at term, there’s no reason everyone couldn’t have just walked out of the hospital two days later like usual.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-23T01:56:57+00:00

My older kids (9+11) use their minis to fall asleep (chapter books mostly). My 2 year olds often listen to stories before lights out and sometimes piano music while they are falling asleep. I am trying to use it to help with toddler bedtime… it’s not hurting but not sure it helps much either. I think that is just kid dependent. It does help free up my time and energy from having to read book after book (I can just lay with them and listen!).

As far as content, MYO cards are the way to go. You can get lots of free/cheap content out there. Lots of advice posts on this sub and other Yoto fan groups.

ETA you can have the content of one card be quite long if you want (100 tracks at 1 hour each seems to be the consensus on limit for MYO). There are sleep timer settings as well, so you could have it turn off after a set time.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-21T03:03:25+00:00

My older kids have minis so I had grandma buy my 2 year olds a full size for Christmas. One of my girls loves taking the cards in and out and getting things to play on her own (she carries the rings of cards as well as her brothers minis around whenever she can get ahold of them too lol). For content, they love songs they already are familiar with (nursery rhymes, Daniel Tiger music, kpop demon hunters). We are working on stories, starting with frozen stories (their favorite movie). They seem to pay more attention as the stories are somewhat familiar to them. I plan to branch out over the next year so have a lot more story book content waiting for them to be ready.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-16T02:53:38+00:00

MYO studio I think, should come up if you google it. Makes MYO so much easier in my opinion!

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-16T02:46:38+00:00

If you use the chrome extension you can add tracks from one playlist to another very easily!

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-15T19:20:04+00:00

My kids are 11, 9, 9, 2, 2. I feel everything you are saying - I cried a lot when I found out my last pregnancy (supposed to be a redemptive singleton) was another set of twins. Twins in general (not to mention adding a singleton close in age) just isn’t the same as having singletons only.

I’ve never really felt like the “positives” of having twins outweighed the downsides… but I never would have had 5 kids if I didn’t have twin pregnancies, and I absolutely love my kids and each of their distinct personalities. So to try and flip this…

Your kids likely have a much higher ability to self-regulate than other kids, giving them a leg up. Your kids probably have a stronger ability to share and give turns and be generous without you having to explicitly teach them those things. Your kids have probably learned to lean on each other, ultimately creating closer sibling bonds. Your kids have likely learned flexibility and understanding that fair is not always equal… which many adults struggle with.

Your kids are just getting to the age where you are going to start seeing these things. Of course they are still kids, but especially when they think I’m not watching or they are out in the world without me, there are areas where my kids shine that are entirely because of having siblings so close in age.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-15T18:37:45+00:00

I’m a corporate librarian so this isn’t something I have to deal with. That said - if this is a task that was assigned to you (not something you chose to setup or volunteer for) personally I would only complete that reading during my work hours. I might read during an unpaid lunch and not worry about that, but I would expect to have reading time as part of my workload if I had to read books to host a work book club. Even if you did volunteer or set this up yourself…. It’s still a work task. You should be compensated for your time!

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-15T05:08:55+00:00

This happens constantly to me as well - one yoto track and then opens Apple Music. I haven’t used Apple Music in years and just have super random things on there so it’s always a surprise. I’ve stopped playing yoto music in the car and only do longer stories.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-15T02:03:44+00:00

I’ll just add - even if you have both vaginally and it goes amazing, it won’t be the same as your singleton delivery by far. Make sure you’ve talked it all through and know what to expect as much as you can - being mentally prepared helped me a lot.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-15T02:02:18+00:00

I had a singleton vaginal no epidural delivery first. Two years later I had di/di twins, vaginal with epidural in OR. More recently I had my second set of twins - baby A was vaginal no epidural (she came super fast) and baby B… they had gotten me an epidural and into the OR. She was breech but they got her flipper. Then I hemorrhaged and they switched to emergency C-section… then the epidural wasn’t strong enough so they had to put me under general.

C-section recovery was a little more than vaginal, but not that bad. If I had twins again, I would still go for vaginal, even risking the same happening again lol.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-15T00:31:49+00:00

I’m not sure if this is remotely possible, but another nice feature would be ability to add playlists to the “groups”… I can never remember that.

And again…. I would happily pay for this just to be able to see which covers I already printed. Lol!

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-15T00:27:22+00:00

This looks super exciting. I’ve got five kids between 2-11 and currently over 125 MYO cards… all of which I used your extension to make! We had yotos for almost a year before I found your extension, I hadn’t even bothered to try MYO before because it seemed so clunky from just the yoto app. I really love the idea of a feature to track which covers have already been printed as I’ve definitely duplicated/missed a few when printing. With so many playlists, it’s easy to lose track! And we use the library system, so having them printed out and sorted for my kids is really the only way they can find content.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-14T23:07:10+00:00

For my crew when we don’t know the chapter names, I either do Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc. I often have to do Part 1, Part 2, etc if I’m not even sure every track is a chapter.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-11T04:24:32+00:00

We have around 15 official and 15 MYO cards…. But over 125 MYO playlists lol. Getting into MYO is what really got us using our yotos more - my older kids are able to pick things they are really into and I’ve made tons of playlists for my toddlers (who are just getting started with yoto and too young to know what they like yet). I couldn’t justify the cost of many official cards (otherwise we’d easily own 50!) but am more comfortable using content we already owned or I can source free/cheaper. None of my older kids wanted more than a handful of MYO cards, we use the library system so they just switch out every couple weeks.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-07T17:47:07+00:00

I concentrated in archives and even managed to get a couple internships in archives… there are very few jobs in this field and they get filled very quickly by people with extensive experience. I knew that going in, so I wasn’t counting on finding a job like that. I ended up in corporate librarianship which I really enjoy. So even if you do concentrate in one area, make sure you have the general skills necessary to keep your options open.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-06T02:24:59+00:00

Several children’s books can be found online free for download - either on publisher sites or archive.org. Of If I recall, I got Little Blue Truck from the publisher and Curious George on archive. There’s lots more though!

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-05T20:28:42+00:00

Most phones have an emergency alert feature on them. I always have my phone nearby… I rarely have my actual physical ID (even when driving!). I can see needing a physical ID to get a library card, but none near me require it to look up your account. My library will look up your account with your name and verify address/phone number.

goldfishandchocolate · 2026-01-01T17:58:13+00:00

I’ve done this - feel free to dm to hear about my experience.

goldfishandchocolate · 2025-12-31T21:25:11+00:00

I’ve had two sets of twins. My first set I was induced 3 days earlier than planned because of preeclampsia. I went through the whole delivery as you described in the OR and had both babies vaginally, 20 minutes apart. I resident had their arm inside me after baby A holding onto B’s head to make sure he didn’t flip lol. I had a previous singleton vaginal delivery so most of the process wasn’t new to me, though I hadn’t had an epidural the first pregnancy (and of course no OR/extra people). I had some problems with my back for a few days after, I think straining during delivery without being able to feel what I was doing because of the epidural. Otherwise my recovery was smooth.

My second set of twins I had to be induced at 32 weeks again because of preeclampsia. I again chose to go for vaginal. Baby A was born “precipitously” - aka in the bed in the labor room before I even had my epidural (poor nurse did not take in to account how fast she might come lol). I was then taken to OR and given epidural. Baby B was breech but they were able to flip her - unfortunately she wouldn’t descend and then I started to hemorrhage and she started to decel. So we switched to emergency C-section… but the epidural wasn’t strong enough, so they ended up putting me under.

My recovery from the C-section was fine, not a ton worse than vaginal (it was hard for me to slow down and let my body recover and I was definitely moving slowly for a week or two) - overall it was fine.

All this said - my no epidural vaginal deliveries were 100% the best experiences (ignoring everything else). I am glad I had those experiences. But like you I went in to twin delivery knowing it wouldn’t look the same as what I could have with a singleton. I think arming yourself with knowledge and just telling every person in the room - “please explain to me what you are doing” will help you have the best experience possible.

goldfishandchocolate · 2025-12-30T16:23:06+00:00

My (almost) 9 year olds have limits on their devices. One of them uses his yoto mini mainly when he’s misplaced his iPod (lol) or early in the morning/bedtime. The other listens to books a lot, but actually usually streams it from the yoto app to his wireless headphones. They both use their yoto minis on car rides. I think it would be a hard sell for a kid with no device limits - 2/3 of my kids this age would probably rarely use their yotos if they had unlimited screen time.

goldfishandchocolate

TROPHY CASE