The answer is: What is an AI librarian?

To earn a spot on “Jeopardy!” you need more than trivia knowledge, you need a good story. Something that humanizes you and engages the audience.  

Alfred Wallace, a new AI instruction librarian at the Iowa State University Library, had more than a few stories to choose from when prepping his audition on the beloved gameshow. 

Wallace was an aerospace librarian at the University of North Dakota at the time, and he chose a doozy: his best day at work.  

“I was offered a ride in the high-altitude oxygen deprivation chamber to understand what my colleagues in aerospace experience when hypoxia sets in while in the cockpit. I got to go up to 60,000 feet without ever leaving the ground. They pump all the air out of the chamber and your mind slows down. If you don’t get your mask on in time a nurse is present to help,” Wallace said. “I survived and lived to tell the story on ‘Jeopardy!’” 

Go-to guy for AI

Wallace was at the University of North Dakota when ChatGPT was released in 2022.  

“I was already known as one of the more 'computery' librarians,” Wallace said. “I raised my hand to serve on a panel about AI tools for ASEE (American Society of Engineering Education) in 2023 and that began my career as an AI librarian.”  

After the panel, Wallace became the go-to-guy at the library for AI instruction, faculty discussions, and exploration – all of which he’s planning to do in his role at Iowa State. 

Hannah Scates Kettler, associate university librarian for academic services, said Wallace will design and teach workshops about responsible AI use, technology adoption, and the AI information landscape. He will serve as the library subject specialist for AI and further refine the AI components of Library 1600. 

The AI librarian position was created at the University Library with support from the Colonel Gary G. Swenson Ph.D. University Librarian endowment. Colonel Swenson held libraries in great esteem and earned both his master’s and doctorate degrees in economics from Iowa State before serving in the U.S. Army for 30 years.   

“This position has been in the works for a few years, and I am so happy to have Alfred on our team,” said Kettler. “He will build on the critical work our librarians are doing related to AI in this new information ecosystem. His eagerness to learn and partner is a particular boon, as is his perspective and expertise which will round out our services nicely by providing targeted AI support to faculty, staff, and students.”  

Wallace has teaching experience at Penn State and degrees in history (bachelor’s from the University of Texas, master’s from Missouri State), as well as a master’s in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign.  

He was drawn to Iowa State for its land-grant mission and Association of Research Library status. And he was ready to focus on AI as his primary role.  

“I have a lot of empathy for professors learning to adapt learning outcomes and assessment they’ve used for pedagogy their entire careers,” Wallace said. “I spend every day experimenting with AI tools and communicating with other librarians around the world exploring how to bring AI into the academy.” 

Picking up knowledge

To succeed on "Jeopardy!", Wallace said another contestant told him, “you need a mind like a lint roller.”  

Wallace plans to focus his first semester picking up knowledge: listening, learning, and understanding how faculty, staff, and students use AI at Iowa State. 

“I’ve been told at age three I walked to my father’s bookshelf, selected a book, sat down, and began reading it aloud,” Wallace said. 

His parents fed his innate curiosity with more books and with trips to National Parks and historic battlefields. His mother, a mathematician and computer scientist, supplemented his education with home study. His father, an aeronautical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis, got him his own library card at the university’s library when he was eight. It was then he picked up his first textbook on Artificial Intelligence (Philip C. Jackson’s “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence”).  

Wallace intends to keep learning about AI and help the University Library enrich the AI conversation at Iowa State. He’s hoping to visit classrooms, faculty meetings, graduate department cohorts, and more. And he’s teaching two workshops this fall: 

• AI Literacy with Gemini – 1 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 14, 134 Parks Library, open to all.  
• Advanced AI Tools for Researchers – 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 18, 134 Parks Library, designed for grad students, postdocs, staff, and faculty. 

To reach Alfred Wallace, email alfredhw@iastate.edu or connect with him on LinkedIn.  

He’s open to all inquiries about AI, as well as how to score a spot on "Jeopardy!"