librarypunk Live: Critical AI Takes Too Hot For the Mainstage!

Sarah Appedu, M.S. LIS (she/her) is a Ph.D. candidate in Information Science & Technology at Syracuse University. She received her Master’s in Library & Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is a former academic library worker. Her backgrounds in philosophy, critical cultural studies, and library and information science inform her research on the complex intra-actions between technology, human beings, society, and the natural world and their manifestations in the scholarly and professional fields of LIS. Her work on critical AI studies in librarianship has been published in Library Trends and presented at international conferences, including the iConference.

Kailyn "Kay" Slater, M.S. LIS, MA (any/all) is a public library worker and independent scholar at the intersection of critical librarianship, science and technology studies, and energy humanities, whose scholarship on AI refusal in Library Trends was the winner of the 2025 Annual Library Juice Paper Contest. Kay is currently researching the intersection of information labor and data centers for the Library Futures Research Network. Kay has a MS in Library & Information Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and a MA in Communication from the University of Illinois Chicago.

Emily Zerrenner, M.S. LIS (she/her) is a Research and Instructional Services Librarian at Salisbury University in Maryland. She received her Master's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and has worked in libraries in some capacity since 2016. At Salisbury, she is the liaison to subjects such as Exercise Science, Environmental Studies, Data Science, and Mathematics. She is a regular ACRLog contributor and has written posts like "ChatGPT Can’t Envision Anything: It’s Actually BS-ing." She has also presented on critical AI studies at conferences like Generative AI in Libraries and LOEX Fall Focus. Emily is also working on a co-written book chapter with Sarah that addresses AI refusal in LIS.