Tsekea Stephen, Mandoga Edward
Department of Information Science and Records Management, Zimbabwe Open University, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Department of Teacher Development, Zimbabwe Open University, Harare, Zimbabwe.
Front Res Metr Anal. 2025 Jan 17;9:1522423. doi: 10.3389/frma.2024.1522423. eCollection 2024.
The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionised higher education teaching and learning. AI has the power to analyse large amounts of data and make intelligent predictions thus changing the whole teaching and learning processes. However, such a rise has led to institutions questioning the morality of these applications. The changes have left librarians and educators worried about the major ethical questions surrounding privacy, equality of information, protection of intellectual property, cheating, misinformation and job security. Libraries have always been concerned about ethics and many go out of their way to make sure communities are educated about the ethical question. However, the emergence of artificial intelligence has caught them unaware.
This research investigates the preparedness of higher education librarians to support the ethical use of information within the higher and tertiary education fraternity. A qualitative approach was used for this study. Interviews were done with thirty purposively selected librarians and academics from universities in Zimbabwe.
Findings indicated that many university libraries in Zimbabwe are still at the adoption stage of artificial intelligence. It was also found that institutions and libraries are not yet prepared for AI use and are still crafting policies on the use of AI.
Libraries seem prepared to adopt AI. They are also prepared to offer training on how to protect intellectual property but have serious challenges in issues of transparency, data security, plagiarism detection and concerns about job losses. However, with no major ethical policies having been crafted on AI use, it becomes challenging for libraries to full adopt its usage.
人工智能（AI）的出现彻底改变了高等教育的教学与学习。人工智能有能力分析大量数据并做出智能预测，从而改变整个教学过程。然而，这种兴起引发了各机构对这些应用道德性的质疑。这些变化让图书馆员和教育工作者担心围绕隐私、信息平等、知识产权保护、作弊、错误信息和工作安全等主要伦理问题。图书馆一直关注伦理道德，许多图书馆会不遗余力地确保社区了解相关伦理问题。然而，人工智能的出现让他们始料未及。
本研究调查了高等教育图书馆员在高等教育界支持信息道德使用方面的准备情况。本研究采用定性研究方法。对津巴布韦各大学有目的地挑选出的30名图书馆员和学者进行了访谈。
研究结果表明，津巴布韦的许多大学图书馆仍处于人工智能的采用阶段。研究还发现，各机构和图书馆尚未为人工智能的使用做好准备，仍在制定人工智能使用政策。
图书馆似乎准备好采用人工智能。他们也准备好提供关于如何保护知识产权的培训，但在透明度、数据安全、剽窃检测和对失业的担忧等问题上面临严峻挑战。然而，由于尚未制定关于人工智能使用的主要伦理政策，图书馆全面采用人工智能变得具有挑战性。
