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Artificial Intelligence: For Students

When to Come to the Library

The library can assist you at several stages of your AI exploration. Here are a few instances when you might consider using library resources, such as visiting subject Research Guides, stopping by the Research Desk in Ryan Library, filling out our Contact a Librarian Form, or using our collections:

  • If you need assistance in using and accessing AI tools (as permitted by your coursework)
  • If you need assistance evaluating AI responses
  • If you need assistance citing AI
  • If you want to learn more about AI 
  • If you want to locate a source cited by AI (this may be a good time to check out WorldCat and our databases)

Using Database and Copyrighted Content with AI

Iona University students, faculty and staff should not upload copyrighted materials into generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools. Users must comply with Iona University's AI Use policy.  When the library subscribes to a database on behalf of the University, the community must adhere to that database's licensing agreements designed to protect the intellectual property of content found in that database.

Most database vendors prohibit the sharing of their resources with those who do not have authorized access. Because users have very little control over how their input will or could be used by an AI tool, this also applies to inputting content from licensed databases into most AI platforms. 

Use of content from Iona University licensed databases is subject to the Iona University Computer Use Policy. Iona University online databases are to be used for academic purposes only. Copyrighted materials extracted from licensed databases may not be published, redistributed, or made available to third parties (including AI platforms) unless explicitly permitted by the licensed database's terms of use.  

Moving Between AI Tools and Library Databases

AI is just one tool in our research toolbox. It is often a great place to start your research. You could use an AI chatbot to generate topic ideas or search terms, or you might use a search or literature review tool to find articles that relate to your research.

However, you may encounter a point with AI where you aren't able to access an article or other type of resource that seems key to your research interests, either due to subscription firewalls or incorrect citation information. This is where our library databases can come in handy. 

  • If an AI tool has provided you with a citation for an article you'd like to use in your research, it is essential to confirm that the resource actually exists. You can do this in Iona WorldCat or with a tool like Google Scholar.
  • If you've confirmed that the article is real and would like to access a copy of the article, you can use our Full-Text Citation Finder to see if we have the article for free in our databases.
  • If we don't have the article, you can use request the item through Interlibrary Loan. 

The relationship with databases is more than just getting full-text. There is content in the databases that isn't used to train AI tools, so it's always a good idea to add a database search once you've identified topics and keywords and done some initial research. For example, the New York Times, available to Iona students via the NYT Academic Pass and through our U.S. Major Dailies database, updated its Terms of Service in 2023 to restrict AI tools from using its content as training data.

Wetherbed, J. (2023, August 14). The New York Times prohibits using its content to train AI models. The Verge. www.theverge.com/2023/8/14/23831109/the-new-york-times-ai-web-scraping-rules-terms-of-service 

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