Critical AI Literacy Librarian

About MacEwan University

MacEwan University is where caring faculty help people connect their passions to their future paths. Located in the heart of Edmonton's diverse and dynamic downtown community, and on the traditional lands of Treaty 6 First Nations and homelands of the Métis people, MacEwan is known for exceptional undergraduate learning. With its dedication to teaching excellence, informed by scholarly research, innovation, and creative activity, MacEwan provides an exceptional collaborative and supportive learning environment with a commitment to human rights, environmental sustainability, and opportunities for community engagement. We are committed to creating an equitable, diverse, inclusive, and welcoming community for all peoples, cultures, and identities.

Our comprehensive undergraduate university offers 55 programs to more than 20,000 full- and part-time students in business, communications, community and human services, design, fine and performing arts, health, humanities, natural science, nursing, public safety, and social science. Through a wide array of experiential learning opportunities, and strategic relationships in the community, we partner with others to produce graduates of stature. Along with a robust grounding in their chosen disciplines, MacEwan students are given durable life skills that prepare them to take on the world.

Opportunity

The Library invites applications for an entry-level, full-time, tenure-track appointment [in Critical AI Literacy] at the rank of Librarian I, commencing July 1, 2026, subject to final budgetary approval.

As the first Critical AI Literacy Librarian at MacEwan University, you will help ensure students know how to use AI responsibly, ethically, and appropriately within their own disciplinary context. Generative artificial intelligence presents great possibilities; it also has limitations and challenges. These include issues such as the inherent bias in AI-generated content, the lack of transparency in the origin of information or the functioning of the tools, built-in surveillance, disparities in access to the most robust versions of the tools, ethical concerns around intellectual property ownership of training data, and the environmental costs associated with the computing power required for AI. Critical AI literacy ensures that we, and our students, learn about these concerns, understand what AI tools can and can’t do, and recognize the consequences of relying on them.

Critical AI Literacy is an extension of information literacy, a well-established program in the library. Critical AI Literacy expertise is found in many Faculties and Schools, and to be successful, the incumbent will need to be collaborative.

This new position will focus on developing outreach and instruction to improve the critical AI literacy of students across MacEwan University, including in existing and new credit courses, expanding the current information literacy program, and collaborating with campus partners (e.g. academic integrity). With your knowledge and expertise, you can help the Library implement AI tools, but that is not the primary role. The subject liaison area will likely be with the School of Business.

You will demonstrate:

• A primary commitment to undergraduate teaching, diplomacy, and excellent communication skills.
• The ability to translate complex AI concepts into accessible learning experiences.
• Success and ongoing interest in a variety of areas relevant to this posting, including the use of AI in different educational contexts, AI competency frameworks, including the intellectual property and environmental concerns surrounding AI, and the ability to customize AI tools to support diverse educational needs, including classroom integration and research support while maintaining ethical and transparent practices.
• Success in collaborating with teaching faculty, librarians, instructional designers, educational developers, and others.

Additionally:

• You may have experience in training and fine-tuning small language models (SLMs) to support discipline-specific learning, research, and information literacy needs in post-secondary education will be an asset.
• Ideally, you will have an additional post-graduate degree in a relevant discipline.
  Scholarly activity is an optional component of your workload, but an ongoing research program is an asset.
• You must have, or be close to completion of, a terminal degree in Library/Information Science from an ALA-accredited program and a minimum of two years of relevant experience, ideally working as a library professional in a post-secondary institution.