BONUS "DEEP DIVE:" Google's New "Deep Research" Personal AI Research Assistant (and honestly, wow)

Yesterday Google made some huge AI announcements, including Gemini 2, AI agents, and a prototype personal assistant. There is a LOT to unpack, but for the purposes of this communication, I'm focusing on the new Google Deep Research mode now available in Gemini.

For those who sign up (or are already signed up) for our workshop tomorrow, "Research & AI: Principles and Practices for Using AI Tools," we're adding a bonus a one-hour recorded in-depth look (available early next week) at Google Deep Research. We hope you'll consider joining us.

More on Google Deep Research:

As Ethan Mollick has said, the cost of getting to know AI is "at least three sleepless nights." I've personally had more than three nights where I've been in deep conversation with one or large language models, but last night was the first time with Google Gemini. I couldn't stop crafting research prompts, getting responses, then refining the prompts. 

In a (hyphenated) word, Google Deep Research is game-changing. 

I certainly have felt similarly about Google NotebookLM's podcast generator (called "audio overviews"), but this is a much more robust tool and intellectually just as captivating. It seems to take from the playbook of Perplexity.ai (my go-to AI tool for the last several weeks, since it is unparalleled for being able to ask pragmatic or technical questions and then getting researched responses with links to original sources) and ChatGPT's canvas feature (an updating document-like response rather than length repetitions of slightly altered updates). Like Perplexity, it shows you what sites it's searching, plus gives a plan of action for it's research that you approve or modify. 

We'll talk more about this tomorrow and next week, but to note: this is a part of Google's paid Gemini Advanced model, and it's going to have huge implications for how we think about student research projects and how we assign and evaluate research work.

Sample Headline Quotes Today (see here):

• Google’s ‘Deep Research’ AI can write a college-level paper in minutes
• I just saw the future of the web — Google's new Deep Research tool unleashes swarms of AI agents to do in-depth research for you
• Google's Gemini Deep Research tool is here to answer your most complicated questions
• Google's Gemini Can Now Do Research in Minutes That Would Take a Human Hours
• Google Gemini’s New ‘Deep Research’ Tool Is Great

From Google's Blog:

Doing research online isn’t always easy. Imagine you’re a grad student preparing for your upcoming robotics presentation. You want to get smart on autonomous vehicle sensor trends and understand how different technologies stack up, along with what’s on the horizon. A project like this might take hours of research and cross-referencing a sea of open tabs, that is if you can even find that link you know you put somewhere…

Under your supervision, Deep Research does the hard work for you. After you enter your question, it creates a multi-step research plan for you to either revise or approve. Once you approve, it begins deeply analyzing relevant information from across the web on your behalf. 

Over the course of a few minutes, Gemini continuously refines its analysis, browsing the web the way you do: searching, finding interesting pieces of information and then starting a new search based on what it’s learned. It repeats this process multiple times and, once complete, generates a comprehensive report of the key findings, which you can export into a Google Doc. It’s neatly organized with links to the original sources, connecting you to relevant websites and businesses or organizations you might not have found otherwise so you can easily dive deeper to learn more. If you have follow up questions for Gemini or want to refine the report, just ask! That’s hours of research at your fingertips in just minutes.

Earlier this year, we shared our vision of building more agentic capabilities into our products; Deep Research is the first feature in Gemini to bring that vision to life. We’ve built a new agentic system that uses Google's expertise of finding relevant information on the web to direct Gemini's browsing and research. This, coupled with the Gemini model’s advanced reasoning capabilities and our 1M token context window, creates comprehensive reports with helpful, easy-to-read insights.

Deep Research is the perfect tool if you’re an entrepreneur launching a small business and want to quickly gather a competitor analysis and recommendations for suitable locations, or if you’re a marketer researching recent AI-powered marketing campaigns to benchmark for 2025 planning.

Deep Research is rolling out today in Gemini Advanced (starting in English) on desktop and mobile web, and will be available in the mobile app in early 2025. To get started, toggle the model drop-down to “Gemini 1.5 Pro with Deep Research” and enter your research question. 

Again, we'll do a deep dive on this next week as a bonus for tomorrow's Research & AI session. 

Cheers,

Steve 

 

 

New Library 2.0 Mini-Conference: "AI and Libraries: Literacy, Ethics, and Responsible Use

 

OVERVIEW:

Our first Library 2.025 mini-conference (and our third mini-conference on AI and Libraries), "AI and Libraries: Literacy, Ethics, and Responsible Use," will be held online (and for free) on Thursday, March 13th, 2025, from 12:00 - 3:00 pm US-Pacific Time.

We invite librarians, educators, technologists, and thought leaders to explore the critical role that libraries can play in addressing both the opportunities and ethical challenges of AI. From encouraging digital literacy and ethical awareness to guiding the responsible use of AI, libraries are potentially at the forefront showing how emerging AI technologies can be used equitably and responsibly in their communities.

We will explore actionable insights to help navigate the complex ethical questions relating to AI and the unique role of libraries and librarians in addressing them. We will discuss practical strategies for integrating AI tools into library and education settings using ethical best practices while empowering users with the knowledge and skills needed to thrive in an AI-driven world. And we’ll focus on how libraries can not only adapt to this rapidly changing landscape but can also act as catalysts for knowledge diffusion, shaping a more informed, and innovative future for all of our users.

Our special conference chair is Chad Mairn, an Information Services Librarian, Assistant Professor, and founder of the Innovation Lab at St. Petersburg College.

We look forward to gathering online with you for this event!

REGISTRATION:

This is a free event, being held live online and also recorded.
REGISTER HERE
to attend live and/or to receive the recording links afterward.
Please also join the Library 2.0 community to be kept updated on this and future events. 

Everyone is invited to participate in our Library 2.0 conference events, which are designed to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among information professionals worldwide. Each three-hour event consists of a keynote panel, 10-15 crowd-sourced thirty-minute presentations, and a closing keynote. 

Participants are encouraged to use #library2025 and #aiandlibraries on their social media posts about the event.

CONFERENCE CHAIR:

Chad Mairn
Professor and founder of the Innovation Lab at St. Petersburg College
OPENING KEYNOTE PANEL & SPECIAL ORGANIZER

Chad Mairn is a Professor, and founder of the Innovation Lab at St. Petersburg College. While an undergraduate studying Humanities at the University of South Florida (USF), Chad was awarded a Library of Congress Fellowship helping archive personal papers and other items in the Leonard Bernstein Collection. During his Library and Information Science graduate work, also at USF, Chad became a technology liaison between the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Florida public libraries. Chad is also a faculty member in the School of Information at San José State University. Here is a link to Chad's SJSU faculty page.

CALL FOR PROPOSALS:

Proposals for 30-minute concurrent presentations are now being accepted. Proposals will be evaluated and accepted in the order received. The link to submit proposals is HERE.

We encourage conference session submissions that: 

• Provide a foundational understanding of literacy, ethics, and the responsible use of AI in libraries and beyond.
• Apply strategies to foster AI literacy among library staff, patrons, and students, empowering them to critically assess and effectively use a variety of AI tools.
• Communicate ethical issues surrounding AI, including privacy, bias, and transparency, and understand the libraries' role in addressing these challenges.
• Share ways for libraries to serve as hubs for public discourse on AI, facilitating inclusive and informed community conversations, while maximizing the benefits of AI for their community.
• Demonstrate how to build partnerships with educators, thought leaders, technologists, and community organizations to address literacy, ethics, and responsible use issues in your community.
• Provide examples of how to create and advocate for policies that guide ethical and equitable AI use in libraries and other educational settings.
• Promote the unique opportunity libraries have right now to lead in our AI-driven world by fostering critical thinking, ethical awareness, and equitable access to technology.

To see the currently submitted proposals, you can go here.

SPONSORS:

The School of Information at San José State University is the founding conference sponsor. Please register as a member of the Library 2.0 network to be kept informed of future events. Recordings from previous years are available under the Archives tab at Library 2.0 and at the Library 2.0 YouTube channel.

 

Also sponsored by:

New Webinar: "30 Library Service, Safety, and Security Tips: Making a Better Facility in One Month"

30 Library Service, Safety, and Security Tips:
Making a Better Facility in One Month
Part of the Library 2.0 Service, Safety, and Security / Essential Librarian Series with Dr. Steve Albrecht

OVERVIEW: 

Small changes can make a really big difference over time. Implementing useful practices at your library can help create safe, secure, and service-oriented policies, procedures, and operations that will improve staff motivation and morale and result in more satisfied patrons.

Making changes to your operational policies or Code of Conduct can take months and require a lot of stakeholder input. Sometimes it’s just faster, easier, and better to make day-by-day adjustments. After all, the little tugboat moves the big ship a little at a time, and soon enough, it’s going in another direction. The hot sun melts the huge iceberg a bit more each day until the difference is noticeable.

Plan for changes in your library using the calendar. What can you do in just one month? Quite a lot, actually. The new owner of a McDonald’s franchise is given an operations manual that covers an entire year’s worth of important tasks, beyond just the day-to-day work.Examples might include: on Day 73 - Powerwash all the windows; on Day 126 - Replace the speaker at the drive-through menu box; on Day 322 - Restripe the parking lot.

Setting guideposts and meeting big goals are important to every business. We can do a lot for the safety and security of our library, our employees, and our patrons, in just one month. Join Dr. Steve Albrecht as he provides a one-month template, using practical ideas to help library leaders and staffers create a safer, more secure, more service-driven library.

LEARNING AGENDA:

• Service Keys: Service Blueprinting; the Patron’s Customer Value Model; Social Media Policies; Four Workplace Cultures; Photo and Video Policies; Preventing Service Fatigue.
• Safety Keys: Parking Lot Perils; First Responder Lists; First Aid Kits; Code Pink Drills; Space Re-Designs; Domestic Violence Civil Orders.
• Security Keys: Visitor Policies; Safe Room Kits; Lockdown Drills; Locking Door Hardware; Parking Lots; Panic Alarms.

This 60-minute overview session on is another in our “Essential Librarian Series,” designed to be shown to new staff and leaders and to provide a refresher for all who work in the library. The presentation slides will be available to all who participate.

DATE: Thursday, December 19th, 2024, at 2:00 pm US - Eastern Time

COST:

• $99/person - includes any-time access to the recording and the presentation slides and receiving a participation certificate. To arrange group discounts (see below), to submit a purchase order, or for any registration difficulties or questions, email admin@library20.com.
• FREE for those on individual or group all-access passes for the Dr. Albrecht Safe Library Series (see below).

TO REGISTER: 

Click HERE to register and pay. You can pay by credit card. You will receive an email within a day with information on how to attend the webinar live and how you can access the permanent webinar recording. If you are paying for someone else to attend, you'll be prompted to send an email to admin@library20.com with the name and email address of the actual attendee.

If you need to be invoiced or pay by check, if you have any trouble registering for a webinar, or if you have any questions, please email admin@library20.com.

NOTE: please check your spam folder if you don't receive your confirmation email within a day.

SPECIAL GROUP RATES (email admin@library20.com to arrange):

• Multiple individual log-ins and access from the same organization paid together: $75 each for 3+ registrations, $65 each for 5+ registrations. Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
• The ability to show the webinar (live or recorded) to a group located in the same physical location or in the same virtual meeting from one log-in: $299.
• Large-scale institutional access for viewing with individual login capability: $499 (hosted either at Library 2.0 or in Niche Academy). Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.

ALL-ACCESS PASSES:

• This program qualifies for free participation by Safe Library / Dr. Albrecht all-access pass-holders and pass-holding organizations.
• All-access annual passes include unlimited access to the recordings of all of Dr. Albrecht's previous Library 2.0 webinars, plus live and recorded access to his new webinars for one year. These are hosted either at Library 2.0 or Niche Academy (if preferred).
• For a $499 individual all-access annual pass to all of Dr. Albrecht's live webinars and recordings for one year, please click here. 
• Inquiries for all-access organizational contracts should be directed to admin@library20.com.

DR. STEVE ALBRECHT

Since 2000, Dr. Steve Albrecht has trained thousands of library employees in 28+ states, live and online, in service, safety, and security. His programs are fast, entertaining, and provide tools that can be put to use immediately in the library workspace with all types of patrons.

In 2015, the ALA published his book, Library Security: Better Communication, Safer Facilities. His new book, The Safe Library: Keeping Users, Staff, and Collections Secure, was just published by Rowman & Littlefield.

Steve holds a doctoral degree in Business Administration (D.B.A.), an M.A. in Security Management, a B.A. in English, and a B.S. in Psychology. He is board-certified in HR, security management, employee coaching, and threat assessment.

He has written 25 books on business, security, and leadership topics. He lives in Springfield, Missouri, with six dogs and two cats.

More on The Safe Library at thesafelibrary.com. Follow on X (Twitter) at @thesafelibrary and on YouTube @thesafelibrary. Dr. Albrecht's professional website is drstevealbrecht.com.