Geospatial Information and Artificial Intelligence (AI): Opportunities and Challenges for Map/GIS Libraries

Vardakosta, Ifigenia Geospatial Information and Artificial Intelligence (AI): Opportunities and Challenges for Map/GIS Libraries., 2026 . In 20th International Cartographic Association Conference on Digital Approaches to Cartographic Heritage, Budapest (HU), 29-31 October 2026. (Unpublished) [Conference paper]

[thumbnail of Vardakosta_20thICA_DACH_Budapest_text.pdf]
Preview
 Text
Vardakosta_20thICA_DACH_Budapest_text.pdf - Accepted version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share Alike.
Download (748kB) | Preview

English abstract

Map/GIS libraries manage large volumes of digital or hybrid heterogeneous geospatial materials, historical maps, metadata, and digital records. They perform a variety of specialized functions related to the cataloging, metadata and classification, reference and user support, discovery and search services, collection development and management, instruction and user education, geospatial preservation, and geo-spatial research data management. These areas are increasingly affected by the rapid advancement of arti-ficial intelligence (AI). While AI has attracted growing attention across library and information science, its implications for the specific service context of Map/GIS libraries remain underexplored. Given the limited research in this area, this paper explores the role of AI in Map/GIS libraries, focusing on how AI technologies (including machine learning, large language models (LLMs) and generative AI) are reshaping each of these core library functions. Methodologically, the study relies on a literature review of international bibliography published primarily between 2020 and 2025, across the fields of library and information science, Map/GIS libraries, and AI research. Results demonstrate that AI has substantial opportunities for Map and GIS libraries in all the above essential functions and services. Furthermore, the literature review highlights significant challenges related to skills, technical requirements and AI ethical use. Finally, the study suggests that Map/GIS librarians are the most qualified professionals to guide and instruct patrons in the use and implementation of AI tools in their daily lives considering that they are pioneers in the adoption of new technologies aiming the provided services improvement.

Item type: Conference paper
Keywords: Map/GIS libraries, artificial intelligence, GeoAI, spatial data literacy, geospatial metadata, literature review
Subjects: D. Libraries as physical collections. > DH. Special libraries.
F. Management.
I. Information treatment for information services
J. Technical services in libraries, archives, museum.
L. Information technology and library technology
Depositing user: Ιφιγένεια Βαρδακώστα
Date deposited: 04 Nov 2026 06:47
Last modified: 04 Nov 2026 06:47
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10760/49080

References

Abutayeh, N. (2025). Bringing DeepMind Technology to the Table: Envisioning Library Services Using DeepMind Visualization AI. Public Library Quarterly, 44(1), 21–31.

Adewojo, A. A., and Dunmade, A. O. (2024). From big data to intelligent libraries: Leveraging analytics for enhanced user experiences. Business Information Review, 41(3), 104-109.

Ailakhu, U. V. (2024). Digital preservation strategies for historical records in the age of AI and the metaverse. Library Hi Tech News.

Ajakaye, J. E. (2025). Exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) Tools for Curating and Managing Library Collections. In K. Sacco, A. Norton, & K. Arms (Eds.), Navigating AI in Academic Libraries: Implications for Academic Research (pp. 1-16). IGI Global Scientific Publishing.

Ali, M. Y., & Richardson, J. (2025). AI literacy guidelines and policies for academic libraries: A scoping review. IFLA journal, 51(3), 588-599.

American Library Association. (2026). Guidance on the use of artificial intelligence in libraries. https://www.ala.org/tools/standards-and-guidelines/guidance-use-artificial-intelligence-libraries

Andrews, J. E., Ward, H., and Yoon, J. (2021). UTAUT as a model for understanding intention to adopt AI and related technologies among librarians. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 47(6), 102437.

Anna, N. E. V., Novian, R. M., and Ismail, N. (2023). Enhancing virtual instruction: Leveraging AI applications for success. Library Hi Tech News.

Asim, M., Arif, M., Rafiq, M., and Ahmad, R. (2023). Investigating applications of Artificial Intelligence in university libraries of Pakistan: An empirical study. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(6), 102803.

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2022). Framework for visual literacy for higher education. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/visualliteracy

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2025). AI competencies for academic library workers. https://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ai

Bahgat K. and Runfola D. (2021). Toponym-assisted map georeferencing: Evaluating the use of toponyms for the digitization of map collections. PLoS ONE 16(11): e0260039.

Baker, D. (2025). The Future of Libraries, Librarianship, and Information Services in Encyclopedia of libraries, librarianship, and information science, 1, Elsevier Ltd (2025), pp. 31-37, 10.1016/B978-0-323-95689-5.00218-2

Barsha, S. and Munshi, S. A. (2024). Implementing artificial intelligence in library services: A review of current prospects and challenges of developing countries. Library Hi Tech News, 41(1), 7-10.

Basak, R., Paul, P., Kar, S., Molla, I. H., and Chatterjee, P. (2024). The Future of Libraries With AI: Envisioning the Evolving Role of Libraries in the AI Era. In K. Senthilkumar (Ed.), AI-Assisted Library Reconstruction (pp. 34-57). IGI Global Scientific Publishing.

Bishop, B. W., and Larsen, K. L. (2025). Validating Current Core Competencies: A Survey of Map and Geographic Information Librarianship Practices to Inform the Knowledge Base for Curricula. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 66(4), 384-405.

Boateng, F. (2025). The transformative potential of Generative AI in academic library access services: Opportunities and challenges. Information Services and Use, 45(1-2), 140-147.

Borgohain, D. J., Bhardwaj, R. K. and Verma, M. K. (2024). Mapping the literature on the application of artificial intelligence in libraries (AAIL): a scientometric analysis. Library Hi Tech, 42(1), 149-179.

Bradley, F. (2022). Representation of libraries in artificial intelligence regulations and implications for ethics and practice. Journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, 71(3), 189-200.

Bridges, L., Lopezosa, C., CentellesVelilla, M., &Ferran-Ferrer, N. (2025). Moving towards critical AI literacy in LIS education: a scoping review and syllabi analysis. The Electronic Library, 43(5), 798-817.

Bubinger, H., and Dinneen, J. D. (2024). “What could go wrong?”: An evaluation of ethical foresight analysis as a tool to identify problems of AI in libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 50(5), 102943.

Chen, C. C. and Chang, C. C. (2025). AI-enhanced reference services in special libraries: a case study of the Hakka Literary Museum. The Electronic Library, 43(5), 715-732.

Conwell, C., Prince, J.S., Kay, K.N. et al. (2024). A large-scale examination of inductive biases shaping high-level visual representation in brains and machines. Nat Commun 15, 9383

Corrado, E. M. (2021). Artificial Intelligence: The Possibilities for Metadata Creation. Technical Services Quarterly, 38(4), 395–405.

Dwivedi, Y. K., Hughes, L., Ismagilova, E., Aarts, G., Coombs, C., Crick, T., ... and Williams, M. D. (2021). Artificial Intelligence (AI): Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy. International journal of information management, 57, 101994.

Dyke, K. (2026). Historical GeoAI: The Promise of Unlocking Analog Spatial Data. Journal of Map & Geography Libraries, 22(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/15420353.2026.2628590

Engel, J. Y., Do, D. T., Salem, B., and Cunningham, T. A. (2025). Artificial intelligence in library cataloging: A review of literature. Journal of Library Metadata, 25(4), 261-276.

Esh, M. and Ghosh, S. (2024). AI in libraries: subject mapping and interpreting bibliometric laws with contemporary metrics. The Serials Librarian, 85(5-6), 99-116.

Falegnami, A.; Tomassi, A.; Corbelli, G.; Nucci, F.S.; Romano, E. (2024). A generative artificial-intelligence-based workbench to test new methodologies in organisational health and safety. Appl. Sci. ,14, 11586.

Fernholz, Y., Freidank, J., Zhu, J., Ivanov, I., &Kox, T. (2025). Ethics in GIS: A Systematic Analysis focusing on Privacy and Surveillance. GI_Forum2024, 12, 1-14.

Griffin, T. M. and Janz, M. (2024). Research data management sustainability: Services, infrastructure, accountability, and planning. portal: Libraries and the Academy, 24(2), 305-342.

Guo, R., Pang, Y., Xu, Y., Liu, Z., Chen, Y. and Guo, Y. (2025). Application of artificial intelligence technologies in library services at the top 100 US universities. The Electronic Library, 43(4), 619-648.

Guy, J., Zhang, S., & Truong, R. (2025). The Geospatial Data User Experience: Examining Approaches and Challenges in Canadian Academic Libraries. Journal of Map & Geography Libraries, 21(3), 87-106.

Hackett, C., and Kim, J. (2024). Planning, implementing and evaluating research data services in academic libraries: a model approach. Journal of Documentation, 80(1), 27-38.

Halilali, M. S., Gouardères, E., Gaio, M., and Devin, F. (2022). Geospatial Web Services Discovery through Semantic Annotation of WPS. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 11(4), 254. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi11040254

Hassan, D., and Becker, B. (2025). The Rise of AI and the Evolution of the Academic Librari-an. Journal of Information Ethics, 34(1), 30-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.irmvd.2023.04.004.

International Organization for Standardization. (2014). ISO 19115: Geographic information — Metadata. ISO.

Jabeen, M. (2025). Assessing the readiness for the adoption of artificial intelligence and related technologies in academic libraries of Pakistan. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 51(6), 103161.

Jaillant, L., and Caputo, A. (2022). Unlocking digital archives: cross-disciplinary perspectives on AI and born-digital data. AI & society, 37(3), 823-835.

Janowicz, Krzysztof, Song Gao, Grant McKenzie, Yingjie Hu, and BudhendraBhaduri. (2020). “GeoAI: Spatially Explicit Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Geographic Knowledge Discovery and Beyond.” International Journal of Geographical Information Science 34 (4): 625–636.

Jhariya, O. P., Bajpai1, R. (2025). AI-powered library revolution: overcoming tribal student's e-literacy challenges. IP Indian Journal of Library Science and Information Technology, 10(2), 120-125.

Jyoti Kumar, P. (2024). Reshaping the library landscape: Exploring the integration of artificial intelligence in libraries. IP Indian Journal of Library Science and Information Technology, 9(1), 29-36.

Kausika, B. B., and van Altena, V. (2025). GeoAI in Topographic Mapping: Navigating the Future of Opportunities and Risks. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 14(8), 313.

Kautonen, H., and Gasparini, A. A. (2024). B-Wheel–Building AI competences in academic libraries. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 50(4), 102886.

Kavak, A. (2024). Ethical considerations and privacy concerns in AI-enabled libraries. In Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Libraries (pp. 45-77). IGI Global Scientific Publishing.

Khan, Z. I., Hossain, Z., Biswas, M. S., and Islam, M. E. (2025). Mapping AI Literacy Among Library Professionals: A Cross-Regional Study of South Asia and the Middle East. Journal of Web Librarianship, 19(3-4), 189-220.

Kijewski, S.; Ronchi, E.; Vayena, E. (2025). The rise of checkbox AI ethics: A review. AI Ethics, 5, 1931–1940.

Kim, J., Li, Z., Lin, Y., Namgung, M., Jang, L. and Chiang, Y. Y. (2023). The mapKurator system: a complete pipeline for extracting and linking text from historical maps. arXiv preprint

Kirilenko, A.P. (2022). Geographic Information System (GIS). In: Egger, R. (eds) Applied Data Science in Tourism. Tourism on the Verge. Springer, Cham.

Kuhn, W. (2012). Core concepts of spatial information for transdisciplinary research. International Journal of Geographical Information Science, 26(12), 2267–2276.

LeCun, Y., Bengio, Y. and Hinton, G. Deep learning. Nature 521, 436–444 (2015).

Li, D., Shao, Z. and Zhang, R. (2020). Advances of geo-spatial intelligence at LIESMARS. Geo-spatial Information Science, 23(1), 40-51.

Li, W., Arundel, S.T., Gao, S., Goodchild, M.F., Hu, Y., Wang, S. Zipf, A. (2024). GeoAI for Science and the Science of GeoAI. J. Spat. Inf. Sci. 29, 1–33.

Li, Z., Ning, H., Gao, S., Janowicz, K., Li, W., Arundel, S. T., … Hodgson, M. E. (2025). GIScience in the era of Artificial Intelligence: a research agenda towards Autonomous GIS. Annals of GIS, 31(4), 501–536. https://doi.org/10.1080/19475683.2025.2552161

Li, Z., Guan, R., Yu, Q., Chiang, Y. Y. andKnoblock, C. A. (2021, November). Synthetic map generation to provide unlimited training data for historical map text detection. In Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on AI for Geographic Knowledge Discovery (pp. 17-26).

Liu, R., Li, Z. and Kazazi, A. K. (2025). Towards intelligent geospatial data discovery: A knowledgegraph-driven multiagent framework powered by large language models [Preprint]. arXiv.

Lo, L. S. (2024). Evaluating AI literacy in academic libraries: A survey study with a focus on US employees. College & Research Libraries, 85(5), 635.

Lo, L. S. (2023). AI policies across the globe: Implications and recommendations for libraries. IFLA journal, 49(4), 645-649.

Mahmud, M. R. (2024). AI in automating library cataloging and classification. Library Hi Tech News.

Mahowald, J., and Lee, B. C. G. (2024). Integrating Visual and Textual Inputs for Searching Large-Scale Map Collections with CLIP. arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.01190.

Mai, G., Xie, Y., Jia, X., Lao, N., Rao, J., Zhu, Q., ... and Jiao, J. (2025). Towards the next generation of Geospatial Artificial Intelligence. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 136, 104368.

Mannheimer, S., Bond, N., Young, S. W., Kettler, H. S.,

Marcus, A., Slipher, S. K., ... and Sheehey, B. (2024). Responsible AI practice in libraries and archives: A review of the literature. Information Technology and Libraries, 43(3).

Mansourian, A. and Oucheikh, R. (2024). ChatGeoAI: Enabling Geospatial Analysis for Public through Natural Language, with Large Language Models. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 13(10), 348. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi13100348

Martinez, A.R. (2010), Natural language processing. WIREs Comp Stat, 2: 352-357.

Nawaz, N. (2021). Artificial intelligence chatbots for library reference services. Available at SSRN 3883917.

Oladokun, B. D., Abduldayan, F. J. and Akanbiemu, A. A. (2025). Leave no one behind: empowering librarians with AI skills and competencies in the libraries of 5IR. New Review of Academic Librarianship, 31(4), 391-409.

Paige, C. and Finn, J. (2025). From Student Project to Research Agenda: How Libraries Facilitate GIS Education and Collaboration. College & Research Libraries News, 86(11), 468.

Petit, P. and Vuillerme, N. (2025). Datagraphy: toward a systematic approach to dataset discov-ery. GigaScience, 14, giaf134.

Pillai, A. S. and Tanev, H. (2026). Exploring large language models. In Challenges and Applications of Generative Large Language Models (pp. 1-22). Morgan Kaufmann.

Plassche, K. A. (2022). Evaluating map and geospatial academic library position descriptions. College & Research Libraries, 83(4), 631.

Research Planning and Review Committee. (2024). 2024 top trends in academic libraries: A review of the trends and issues. College & Research Libraries News, 85(6). https://crln.acrl.org/index.php/crlnews/article/view/26379/34322

Rich, E. and Knight, K. (1991). Artificial Intelligence. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill

Russell, Stuart J. (2022). Artificial intelligence: a modern approach. 4th ed. Global ed. Harlow: Pearson

Schmidt, L., Fruehauf, E. and Beman-Cavallaro, A. (2025). Becoming a leader in AI literacy instruction by not reinventing the wheel. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 51(5), 103117.

Schreur, P. E. (2020). The Use of Linked Data and Artificial Intelligence as Key Elements in the Transformation of Technical Services. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 58(5), 473–485.

Scupola, A. (2025). Applying AI to Increase Cultural Accessibility: The Postcard Project at the Royal Danish Library. In AI Innovations in Public Services: The Case of National Libraries (pp. 13-24). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.

Shoitan, R., Moussa, M. M., Tawfik, N., Cho, Y. I., and Abdallah, M. S. (2026). Exploring generative artificial intelligence: a comprehensive guide. PeerJ Computer Science, 12, e3276.

Sousa, N. (2025). Ethical and practical implications of AI in academic library research. IFLA Journal, 03400352251391753.

Sun, Z., ten Brink, T., Carande, W., Koren, G., Cristea, N., Jorgenson, C., ... and Duzgun, S. (2024). Towards practical artificial intelligence in Earth sciences. Computational Geosciences, 28(6), 1305-1329.

Taniguchi, S. (2024). Creating and evaluating MARC 21 bibliographic records using ChatGPT. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 62(5), 527-546.

Tecuci, G. (2012). Artificial intelligence. WIREs Comp Stat, 4: 168-180.

Torres Jr, E. M. and Peñaflor, J. D. (2026). Mapping artificial intelligence research in LIS: A scoping review. Journal of Information Science, 01655515261432507.

Vahdat, A., Badard, T. and Pouliot, J. (2025). A Semantic Collaborative Filtering-Based Recommendation System to Enhance Geospatial Data Discovery in Geoportals. ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 14(12), 495. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi14120495

van den Brandhof Elina L., A.M. Madelein van der Stouwe, Jelle R. Dalenberg, Inge Tuitert, Marina A.J. Tijssen, Michael Biehl. (2023) Chapter Two - Machine learning basic concepts for the movement disorders specialist. Editor(s): Alvaro Sánchez Ferro, Mariana H.G. Monje In International Review of Movement Disorders, Academic Press,Vol.5, p. 21-47

Zareef, M. and Jabeen, M. (2025). A systematic review of digital curation services in academic libraries: navigating policies, skills and challenges. Digital Library Perspectives, 41 (3), 518–543.


Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item
Contact us
Send email Sponsors
Sponsor: AIMS Sponsor: D&P Sponsor: UniNa CAB Get connected
Facebook Facebook Twitter Twitter Linkedin LinkedIn RSS RSS