NNLM seeks to empower hospital and health sciences librarians with the resources and skills necessary to offer robust biomedical and health information services. This guide provides a clear, practical introduction to where and how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being used in hospital libraries. It includes links to existing high-quality guides to support learning and avoid duplication of effort, an exploration of where AI is already embedded in the tools librarians use and support, and links to webinars for librarians who provide instruction or informal guidance on AI use.
Introduction
About this Guide
During the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Hospital Library Advisory Group for NNLM Region 7, hospital librarians expressed a need for a dedicated forum to discuss artificial intelligence and its implications for library services. In response, NNLM Region 7 launched an AI Community of Practice (AI CoP) in March 2026 to foster peer learning and resource sharing.
To encourage active participation and shared ownership, the AI CoP was limited in size, and members committed to contributing a deliverable. Deliverables included participation in peer exchange meetings to share their work experiences, guest blog posts to be distributed through the Region 7 weekly newsletter, 20-minute presentations to be recorded and added to a NNLM YouTube Playlist, and the development of this Resource Guide.
AI CoP Members: Margot Malachowski, Adwoa Boateng, Carol Cave-Davis, Tom Cummiskey, Jill Daby, Maureen Dunn, Kate Erwin, Johanna Goldberg, Karen Goodman, Bridget Gunn, Wendy Herman, Anne-Marie Kaminsky, Judy Lee, Melis Lydston, Dina McKelvy, Megan McNichol, Elizabeth Merkle, Robin O’Hanlon, Stacy Posillico, Laurie Regan, Carly Schanock, Mary Shah, Celine Soudant, and Elaina Vitale.
Considerations for Hospital Librarians
AI offers librarians many opportunities to incorporate emerging tools into their work. While many librarians have successfully adopted these technologies, some hospital librarians face barriers to implementation. One of the most significant challenges is hospital policy, which may restrict AI use or limit it to specific applications.
It is incumbent upon Hospital Librarians to communicate with the policy makers. Is there an existing AI governance body? Are there institutional guidelines in existence?
Many of the platforms/resources that we currently subscribe to have developed AI capabilities and promote them as an added value feature. At this time, we have an option to say no; however, this may not be the case in the future.
Bare bones documentation about each product's AI capabilities will have to address HIPAA Security Rules and cyber security. These new features may have an impact on renewal costs and budgets. This is especially relevant for library point of care resources which are incorporated into Electronic Medical Records or are remotely accessibly via institutional VPN.
While we may not be sitting at the decision makers' table, we are librarians and we can establish a relationship with the decision makers by providing useful solicited and unsolicited information about AI.
Blog Posts from Hospital Librarians
- Keeping Up with Generative AI by Johanna Goldberg, Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center
- AI Tools in the Medical Library: NotebookLM by Maureen Dunn, Concord Hospital
- Consensus AI Trial at Yale University by Carly Schanock, Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library
- Doctor AI, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Free Market by Beth Merkle, University of Rochester Medical Center
- The Self-Fulfilling Algorithm Feedback Loop Bias in Healthcare AI by Robin Hanlon, Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center
Presentations by Hospital Librarians
NNLM Artificial Intelligence for Hospital Librarians YouTube Playlist
Selected LibGuides
Baystate Medical Center, Library & Knowledge Services – ChatGPT and Other AI Tools
- FAQs and discussion around ChatGPT use, benefits and limitations
- Provides lists of other tools for research, literature mapping and summarizing
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Health Sciences Library – AI in Health Sciences
- Comparison of closed-source versus open-source systems
- Description of several AI tools for literature searching
- AI citation guidance according to publication style manual
- AI literacy and fundamentals; citation guidance
- AI tools for literature retrieval and mapping
- Links to autogenerated feeds on AI related to medical education, research and synthesis
- Discusses risks and issues of using AI in medical research (i.e. transparency, hallucinations, detection, etc.)
- Links to searches in PubMed and Google Scholar on more than 50 AI tools
- Publishing, citation and copyright guidance
Mayo Clinic, Mayo Clinic Libraries – Artificial Intelligence (Generative) Resources
- AI tools for literature searches
- Guidance for verifying AI-generated content
- Another helpful Mayo guide: Artificial Intelligence: Clinical Resources – AI resources by specialty area
McGill University, McGill Libraries – Artificial Intelligence
- ROBOT test (like the CRAAP test) for evaluating AI applications
- AI family tree and AI literacy
- General tips for using generative AI as well as its use during research
Memorial Sloan Kettering, MSK Cancer Center Library – Artificial Intelligence
- Ethics, publisher policies, best practice statements, reporting standards
- Using AI in evidence synthesis, systematic reviews and clinical trials
- Comparison of various generative AI research tools
NYU Langone Health, NYU Health Sciences Library: AI in Healthcare
- Introduction to AI; discusses its use in teaching and the clinical setting
- Links to automated searches on various trends for AI in healthcare
- Essential readings, guidelines and latest journal feeds
- Benefits and risks regarding how AI can contribute to “whole person” medicine
- Links to AI datasets, databases, ebooks, journals and online training
Stanford Medicine, Lane Medical Library – AI Tools and Resources for Biomedical Research
- Six-minute introductory video on OpenEvidence, Elicit & Speechify
- In-depth look at six tools and their effective use in information services
- Key definitions; guidance around responsible use and how to craft prompts
Stony Brook University, Health Sciences Library – Artificial Intelligence in the Health Sciences
- Discusses appropriate, responsible use of AI in evidence synthesis (RAISE)
- Compiles RSS feeds for each step of the evidence synthesis process
- Highlights AI ebooks and journal resources
- Describes strengths & challenges of searching with AI
- List of several recognized tools for literature searching
- Features a PubMed automated feed on health policy and AI
University of Rochester Medical Center, Edward G. Miner Library - AI
- AI tool evaluation checklist, glossaries, federal advisory policies
- Sample MeSH search strings for AI literature
- Suggested readings
University of Texas, Dell Medical School Library – Artificial Intelligence
- List of AI tools, guidance for prompt creation
- PDF of a previously delivered instruction session on AI for literature searching
- Manuscript writing and citing AI
- Search strings, prompt engineering, risks/benefits
- Use of AI in clinical practice, medical education, and research
- AI’s place in the research cycle; citing, publishing, copyright and plagiarism
Weill Cornell Medicine, Samuel J. Wood Library – Artificial Intelligence
- AI use in research & scholarship – publisher guidelines, sample citations and disclosure statements
- Prompting, responsible use, policy and ethics
AI in Library Tools
AI Features in Databases, Journals and Discovery Tools
AMA Journals, Artificial Intelligence Topic – Explore the latest in AI in medicine, including studies of how chatbots, large language models (LLMs), natural language processing, and machine learning are transforming medicine and health care. (Part of JAMA Open Network; mostly free)
ClinicalKey AI – A "closed-loop" system that searches Elsevier Journals, abstracts from additional journals such as New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA, and several textbooks. ($$)
Dyna-AI – Using retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)-based AI, Dyna AI delivers answers to natural language queries from within DynaMedex, DynaMed, and Dynamic Health, clearly indicating the origin and providing direct source links. ($$)
EBSCO AI Insights – Highlights 2-5 key points from a full-text article by summarizing key concepts, outcomes, and relevance. AI Insights is available in CINAHL, MEDLINE, and other databases. This feature can be turned off by library admin. (Free with subscription)
EBSCOhost – Natural Language Search - This search mode uses Claude Haiku 4.5 to help better understand the user's search intent while continuing to use its high-relevancy search technology. It can be turned off by libraries at the admin level. (Natural Language Search is also available in EBSCO Discovery) (Free with subscription)
OVID Journals – AI Article Summaries – Short, plain language summaries of a full-text article that highlights the key elements including main findings, methods, and clinical relevance. This feature is currently only available on HTML full-text articles from proprietary Lippincott journals on Ovid. (Free with subscription)
OVID Discovery AI – AI-powered search and contextual matching; a single, centralized hub where users can quickly locate all library resources. Powered by cutting-edge models from OpenAI. ($$)
PubMed – Artificial intelligence behind the scenes: PubMed's Best Match algorithm "This article focuses on PubMed's Best Match sorting algorithm, presenting a simplified explanation of how it operates and highlighting how artificial intelligence affects search results in ways that are not seen by users." J Med Libr Assoc. 2022 Jan 1;110(1):15-2
UpToDate Expert AI – An add-on feature ($$), Expert AI is a generative tool which links every answer directly to trusted, expert-authored content within UpToDate.
AI Language Models and Resources for Research and Writing
Generative Tools for Basic or Initial Searching
- ChatGPT – developed by OpenAI, this model generates human-like text based on input; used for conversations, answering questions, and tasks like writing or searching across various fields.
- Claude – trained by Anthropic, Claude is best for tasks requiring high accuracy, reasoning, and advanced coding capabilities.
- Copilot – advanced conversational AI model from Microsoft that is designed to assist users with a wide range of tasks, from synthesizing information to completing productivity-related activities
- Gemini – developed by Google and capable of generating human-quality text in response to a wide range of prompts and questions. Good for topic development and initial search for citations.
- Perplexity – powered by OpenAI, searches the live web to provide more current, comprehensive and transparent answers that include in-text citations and links to sources used in its responses.
Advanced Research and Summarizing Tools
- Connected Papers – focuses on the relationships between papers to find similar papers.
- Consensus – finds and synthesizes answers to your questions, focusing on the authors’ findings in each paper.
- Elicit – uses language models to help you automate research workflows, brainstorm, and summarize information. Find Papers produces an annotated list of papers on your topic, while Research Report provides an in-depth literature synthesis.
- Humata – summarizes lengthy papers, turns complex technical papers into simply explained summaries, and automatically creates new writing based on your uploaded document.
- Inciteful – uses AI algorithms to generate a map of articles related to your seed paper.
- Litmaps – similar to Inciteful, creates a dynamic visual map of citations connected to your seed paper.
- NotebookLM – synthesizes information from your uploaded papers or documents.
- OpenEvidence – a medical search platform designed for point-of-care questions; provides a synthesis of peer-reviewed literature with in-text citations. [Note: only users with a National Provider Identifier or health sciences librarians have free, unlimited access; all others are limited to three searches per week.]
- PubTator3 – from the NIH, uses advanced text mining to identify relationships between key biological concepts (e.g. genes and diseases) for semantic-based searching and large-scale analysis.
- ResearchRabbit – citation-based mapping tool that focuses on the relationships between papers to find similar papers and provides a visual map.
- Scholarcy – summarizes key points from uploaded papers and creates flashcards that can be shared and annotated.
- SciSpace – finds papers on your topic and provides summaries and simple explanations for parts of a paper, such as the methods used or data analyses.
Writing Tools
- Grammarly – best for comprehensive writing assistance, provides grammar checks and plagiarism detection.
- Jenni AI – best for researchers and students, supports academic writing with citation support.
- Paperpal – tailored to academic writing, provides plagiarism detection, grammar check, and citation support.
- Wordtune – best for enhancing clarity and style, suggests paraphrases and alternative tones based on context.
- Writefull – tailored to both academic and technical writing, assists with paraphrasing and copyediting; provides widgets to help create titles/abstracts, academic tone, and LaTeX code.
Access Considerations
- Free models
- Subscription-based models
- Institutional policies
Topics to Explore
AI Literacy for Nurses and Health Professionals (presented April 2026)
Dr. Steph Hoelscher, from Texas Tech U HSC, introduces the N.U.R.S.E.S. AI Literacy Framework, which uses a nursing-centered approach for understanding and responsibly using generative AI.
Applying AI: Risks and Benefits in Health Science Education (presented October 2025)
Librarians from University of Kansas Medical Center discuss foundational knowledge of AI, ethical concerns and risk mitigation for librarians and other information professionals.
Generative AI in Health Sciences Libraries: What to Do Now (presented February 2024)
Dr. Lauren Hays, from University of Central Missouri, introduces generative AI, including a list of best medical advice GPTs in 2024, and discusses its current and potential future impact and challenges facing health sciences librarians.
Navigating Systematic Reviews with AI & Automation (presented April 2025)
Margaret Foster and her team from Texas Tech A&M U discuss how AI can play a role in evidence synthesis work. The webinar explores challenges and ethical use during the review process.
From PubMed to TrialGPT: Exploring the Impact of AI & Large Language Models in Medicine (presented May 2025)
Dr. Zhiyong Lu, PhD FACMI, FIAHSI, is a tenured Senior Investigator at the National Institutes of Health, leading research in AI, machine learning, and multimodal data analysis. This presentation explores the role of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) in transforming biomedical discovery and healthcare.
Understanding & Using Generative AI: For Health Sciences Librarians (presented November 2024)
This webinar introduced a six-week online training offered by Nicole Hennig from UArizona Libraries. While the course isn’t currently offered across the NNLM regions, the webinar covers introductory concepts that hospital librarians may find helpful.
Disclaimer: The tools mentioned on this Resource Guide are presented for informational purposes only and do not constitute endorsement by NNLM. Most of these resources are currently free, but some restrict the number of searches and/or access to more advanced features to paid subscribers only. With the fluid nature of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the rapidly changing technology involved, please use this guide carefully. Please adhere to any guidance from your professional associations regarding the use of AI in the workplace or in the creation of content or professional articles for publication.
For an exploration of AI’s environmental and human effects, please review this U.S. Government Accountability Office Report (2025).
Reviewed 09/09/2026