Digital platforms in Finnish libraries

During covid pandemic the whole world took a big step in digitalisation, and so did Finnish public libraries. Digital platforms were used when remote work became a mandatory part of everyday life. Many libraries also developed new ways to reach customers remotely: live broadcasts, videos, and podcasts. Libraries wanted to remind people that they also offer e-materials, even though physical books were not available for a while. However, the digital leap of libraries was only seen as one way of working, and it did not ultimately change the basic task of libraries, i.e., offering (physical) materials, spaces and events to everyone. During the pandemic, both customers and employees seemed to just wait to return to normal. After the worst pandemic years, we have seen that “Library 2.0” is not a multi-service operating online, but a living room for the whole nation. Think of your own living room: internet, social media and digital platforms are not necessary, but they can expand the movie and tv show selection and bring distant friends to a remote movie night. People can choose how they want to use their living room – or their library – and whether they want to participate on-site or remotely. The increased digitization of the library also brought, for example, remote reading circles, which busy performers can participate in from their sofa in just their underwear. No camera or even microphone required!

I believe that in the future we will offer services more and more online. Constant use of social media and a decrease in concentration may also cause libraries to become messengers of silence and perseverance. Libraries are no longer completely quiet, but perhaps they will organize cell phone-free quiet evenings in the future. Reading books increases concentration compared to the fast pace of social media. However, grabbing a book and immersing oneself in it now requires practice and self-discipline from people of all ages. Perhaps the library can help by organizing events where people leave their cell phones home and read books together in silence. People’ own quiet reading circles can meet in the library. In the future, it may be trendy to disconnect for an evening or a whole weekend from the phone and the internet and immerse oneself in a book, board games, or music. The library can help tame digital overload and take back the control of the brain.

A pessimistic view of the future would be that digitalization makes libraries unnecessary in the future. Information and entertainment can be obtained from the internet, and people do not need any other space or events than their own home and their own everyday life. Time will tell.

GDPR and cookies 🍪

The general data protection regulation (GDPR) has caused that for every digital platform we use and the data we collect, there must be privacy statements. In addition, the city of Kuopio assesses the security of each digital service we use, for example, based on where their servers are located, i.e., what information the service collects about its users (our customers) and in which country the information are stored.

All websites ask to accept or reject cookies, but often rejecting cookies is more difficult than accepting them. All cookies cannot be disabled due to the functionality of the site. If the user does not want to give the site permission to collect cookies, for example for advertising purposes, they often have to open separate settings from the cookie query and make changes from there. The accept button is often distinctive, large, and easy to click, but the reject button is inconspicuous, if it is even directly available.

In the example above, Microsoft offers also the option to disable all cookies. (Usually “all” doesn’t actually mean all, since the websites use cookies for performance purposes.) Microsoft also tells the number of partners it shares the information with: 728.

Yes. 728.

Here is another example. This one is from a fandom.com website, specifically phasmophobia.fandom.com:

Again, accepting cookies is easy, but rejecting can be found after clicking “learn more”:

All the options are opted out as default, which is not always the case. The user can just click “save and close”, but it’s still a bit more time consuming and complicated than clicking “accept all”.

As a third example I’ll show the cookie settings of sanakirja.org. The website is under Sanoma Group, which the user might not know beforehand, since the sanakirja.org is seemingly independent online dictionary. Allowing these Sanoma’s cookies give the website permission to collect and send user data to 63 Sanoma’s partners, including i.e. Amazon and Adobe.

Not to mention the option to reject cookies is once again hidden behind cookie settings:

Notice how the options are all opted in as default. The user can allow or deny all cookies from the buttons above or choose what cookies and permissions they give. But realistically: who has time and patience for this when they just want to use the dictionary?

ChatGPT and Copilot

ChatGPT 3.5 does not have access to the internet, which makes it hallucinate worse than Chat-GPT 4 or Copilot. Artificial intelligence hallucination refers to when the AI thinks it is speaking the truth, but makes up facts and even sources from its own imagination. Copilot can search for information on the internet, but it may also invent things from its own imagination. It marks sources in its text, but it is the user’s responsibility to verify them.

I asked both ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot about public libraries and their regional development tasks. ChatGPT 3.5 (which has information only up until January 2022) provided general information related to libraries and their significance in society, while Copilot (whole internet access) truly understood what the term regional development task means.

Copilot, too, hallucinates and provides false information and sources. I asked it if there have been any studies on RDT and if so, what they are called and where to find them. Copilot just rambled on about general possible research topics related to the subject, and the source links it provided only led to general pages about public libraries regional development tasks in Finland, not actual studies. It also refused to acknowledge that there were no studies on the topic. It felt like it believed there are studies and that it had just given me links to them. If you tell Copilot that it is wrong, it will apologize for its mistake and thank you for the correction. However, until then, it does not know that it might be wrong and it still might not learn from it’s mistakes.

Self evaluation

The topic was interesting, and I would like to explore it further in the future. I have studied and used artificial intelligence and GPTs as a part of my job. Big data and its potential uses in everyday life were partly new, partly familiar. For example, in his TED talk Kenneth Cukier said that what if we could use data to invent a car that could identify driver’s fatigue. It was eye-opening and funny tu realize we already have! There are cars equipped with systems that monitor the driver with facial recognition technology and/or eye tracking to detect signs of fatigue and monitor driver behavior. Well, the video is ten years old. Well, things change and technology evolves, fortunately.

I left my comments on https://blogi.savonia.fi/hannaahtiainen/digi-society/ and https://blogi.savonia.fi/hannabjorklof/digi-society/.