Last fall, WashU Libraries offered a workshop series called Future-Ready Scholars: Generative AI in Library Research. This workshop series is the result of a highly successful workshop presented by the Library in previous years introducing Generative AI. The library worked over the summer to develop a series of workshops that could be offered to students, faculty, and staff.
Generative AI is used by many people in many aspects of life, but the library wanted to focus on understanding how students could best utilize it in their coursework.
The following workshops are offered and are now available for viewing on the WashU Libraries YouTube channel.
- Prompting Power: Use CLEAR Strategies to Get Effective Results in GenAI: Discover how to get the most out of generative AI tools like ChatGPT using the CLEAR prompting framework. In this hands-on session, learn how to create targeted prompts that improve AI output for research, instruction, and everyday library work. Whether you’re new to AI or looking to refine your approach, this workshop provides practical strategies for creating prompts that are clear, logical, explicit, adaptive, and reflective.
- Research like a pro: Validating AI-generated content: Navigating the complexities of academic research while ensuring the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated data is rapidly emerging as an essential research skill. This session will provide practical strategies for cross-referencing AI content with trusted sources, highlight the importance of human oversight, and provide tips for developing critical evaluation skills. Stay equipped with the tools to evaluate AI-generated information and use it in academic research.
- Citation, Attribution, and AI: Disclosing the Use of AI in Research: The leading citation styles provide guidance when citing artificial intelligence, and publishers and organizations are also looking for narrative explanations of the use of AI. Join this session to learn more about citing and disclosing AI-generated information, data, and images in academic research.
If you have any questions about the content of the workshop, please contact the library or the librarian who hosted the workshop.
The Library is currently working on a new AI workshop series for Fall 2026, which will be held the week of September 21, 2026. If you have ideas for what you would like to include in the next workshop series, please contact Theresa Mastrodonato at tmastrodonato@wustl.edu.
