Scott Rakestraw – SaveYourBreath.org

March 22, 2025March 23, 2025

The AI Trust Crisis

A Strategic Opportunity for Libraries

Society is at a crossroads. Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping (or going to reshape) virtually every industry. Yet, in the latest poll by You.gov, the public trust in AI is Plummeting like circulation stats during the pandemic closures. This isn’t just another tech wave— it’s a defining moment for libraries to step up as trusted guides in an era of digital uncertainty.

The Big Picture

After three decades in library tech, I’ve seen plenty of trends come and go. The March 2025 survey results from You.Gov paints a striking picture:

Public skepticism of AI has jumped from 36% to 44% in just three months.
58% of Americans fear deep-fakes; 53% worry about privacy.
41% want stricter AI regulations.

Here’s the paradox: trust is declining, but AI adoption is accelerating. People voice concerns but they’re already using AI tools for resumes, research, and creative projects—whether our institutions acknowledge it or not. And the more often people use AI, the more positive their outlook about it’s effect on society.

If this feels familiar, you may have been around for the early days of services like Wikipedia. Internet users embraced it long before traditional institutions did and oddly enough it wasn’t the end of more scholarly, authoritative services. In fact, it significantly enhanced their status.

Why This Matters for Libraries

Libraries have always been champions of knowledge, privacy, and digital literacy. Here in this moment is the opportunity for us to lead again—not just as information stewards, but as AI literacy centers. Our communities need reliable voices to cut through the hype, fear, and misinformation surrounding AI. In an era where libraries are increasingly under fire, this specific pivot would seem obvious, important and maybe essential.

What Library Leaders Can Do

For directors and senior managers navigating this shift:

Position libraries as AI literacy hubs
Train staff on AI tools
Develop AI education initiatives
Form AI local advisory committees

For technology teams, the shift to AI requires thoughtful planning:

Assess AI integration standards
Strengthen data governance
Build AI-ready frameworks

The Workforce Evolution

Let’s also address the giant pink elephant in the room: job displacement fears. A full 48% of workers worry AI will replace them. Some will be correct. Knowledge workers in the library are not immune. But history and my own life experience suggests other options are possible and even more probable. Libraries didn’t disappear when we moved from card catalogs to online catalogs, when services like Google or digital downloads came along.

We adapted.

AI won’t replace libraries; but it can transform them. Our goal should be to harness the leverage AI offers to boost our efficiency, enhance services, and expand our impact.

“Quick Start” Action Steps

For Directors & Managers:

Audit your library’s AI readiness.
Develop an AI integration roadmap.
Invest in staff AI training.

For Technology Teams:

Evaluate infrastructure needs.
Review AI capabilities in vendor services.
Establish AI governance frameworks.

For Front-Line Staff:

Begin AI literacy training.
Gather patron feedback on AI use.
Share real-world AI applications and concerns.

The Path Forward

Libraries have always been more than a collection of books. We are community anchors, advocates for privacy, and champions of access and inclusion. From offering internet services to leading digital literacy programs, we’ve guided our patrons through every major technology shift.

AI is the next chapter and it’s time to turn the page.

What is the AI strategy in your library?

Are you leading the way or waiting on the sidelines?

Share your thoughts below and let’s shape the future together.

March 16, 2025March 23, 2025

The ‘Subversives’

They speak of radical ideas like privacy, literacy and inclusiveness.

They live and work in our community and very often, they are activists and advocates.

Today’s librarians teach seniors to navigate tablets, guide job seekers through career transitions, and nurture creative expression through community arts and STEM programs.

In a world drowning in data and starving for truth, librarians serve as a sort of guardian protecting core American values. They fight against bad source material, deep-fake videos, ‘fake news’, and more.

Far from simple bookkeepers, librarians are digital revolutionaries—bridging our past and future with a mission more critical than ever before. More than fighting falsehoods, professional librarians strengthen our democracy through literacy campaigns, voter registration drives and by simply creating neutral spaces for conversation in an increasingly polarized America.

The library of tomorrow isn’t merely a building— it’s one of the last places where you can simply sit, browse and belong. You can visit with friends and neighbors, hear and share stories and nobody ever expects (or demands) payment or a tip.

As our libraries evolve, so does the toolkit- AI for personalized learning, blockchain for data preservation, and immersive technologies that bring history to life.

As a Library Technologist,
I’ve been able to see these transformations firsthand.

While the tech overlords continue to treat our private data as a saleable commodity, librarians consider patron confidentiality to be sacred. Library Technologists work to embed this core library value in all of our services to make sure the technology provides accessibility rather than data extraction.

What makes librarians remarkable isn’t superhuman ability, but rather their unwavering commitment despite budget constraints and digital overwhelm. Looking ahead, they aren’t just preserving knowledge— they’re building a future where truth remains accessible, innovation becomes inclusive, and communities stay connected.

Supporting your local library, particularly now, means defending freedom, opportunity, and equal access for all.

What’s your library story?

How has a library or librarian influenced your life or career.

March 8, 2025March 23, 2025

Disrupting the Disruptors

There’s a little company out there with incredible influence on popular music and you might never have heard about them. A dedicated team of researchers is spying on radio stations, listening and recording every title played. When I worked there many years ago, we didn’t really realize it was a technology company.

We just loved the work.

– Can you imagine getting paid to listen to music or watch MTV and VH-1 all day?

The company is now called Mediabase 24/7 and I was very fortunate to work for them when they were based in Michigan. Our team of researchers monitored radio airplay on four formats in about 65 cities across the US. Each week we published our data in a magazine (and later pioneered an online data service).

Like Billboard magazine, we tabulated ‘charts’. Only our charts were fact based, disrupting an industry practice known as “paper adds” which made other industry charts of the era unreliable slop, factually speaking.

Billboard was decidedly not happy about us.

Shortly before Mediabase relocated to California, I got a call from ‘the Billboard Guy’. He bragged about their new [AI like system] that used automation to count ‘musical finger prints’ from radio airplay.

“Genuine rockets scientists created this.” he said smugly. “BDS is going to dominate this business.”

I never really knew exactly why he called me: to boast and brag. Was it a warning?

I only knew this: Their ‘sh*t’ didn’t work.

I’d seen the data: hallucinations, missing elements. BDS was incoherent and incomplete. Our human researchers crushed their automation. It wasn’t even close.

~ We had more data, were more accurate and our charts were significantly more reliable.

10 years later, Medibase was still there.
~ I was working for Paramount Television, a division of MTV parent VIACOM. They never asked about my previous life as a music industry spy.

Probably because MTV was already dying.

20 years later, Mediabase 24/7 was, you guessed it– still there. Humans still identify songs on the radio [and other places]. The wiki isn’t clear on this point but Mediabase, now a small division in a corporate behemoth partnered with [or began using or buying– seriously, BDS –FIX your Wiki!] the BDS automation system [now called “Luminate”].

And Magic Happened.

Technology had improved the monitor collection process dramatically. And the talent of the small but very skilled team was able to leverage the BDS AI to achieve productivity increases of 10-12x {maybe more}. The company used this value add to expand into global markets and generate the kind of revenue we could only dream about in 1992.

Almost 30 years have now gone by and Mediabase Charts have displaced Billboard almost everywhere, including on the beloved radio show “American Top 40 Countdown” (now with Ryan Seacrest) created by Casey Kasem. MTV is a relic, stuck in an 80s trivia category known as “TVLand that Time Forgot“.

Life Lesson:
“Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars.”

AI didn’t replace the people— it empowered them. Technology improved, but the real game-changer was the fusion of human talent and AI. Now, AI is coming to virtually every industry. In a NYT Interview, Ben Buchanan, the former special adviser for artificial intelligence in the Biden White House forecasts that the time to “Artificial General Intelligence, may only be two or three [and not 10] years away.

The real stars of the next 30 years will use AI to leverage talent, skill and knowledge and not just to replace humans.

What are you doing to prepare for the next wave of disruption?

February 17, 2025February 22, 2025

“AI-generated GARBAGE has flooded our digital collection!”

An email like this made me spit coffee all over my carefully cluttered desk.

My first thought?

“Great, another tech apocalypse to add to my to-do list, right between ‘crippling AI privacy leaks in Adobe and Windows’ and ‘reminding patrons that headphones exist’.

I get it. Library professionals —and everyone who values knowledge and creativity— has a visceral reaction to “AI Slop”. AI stirs the dystopian cauldron, conjuring images of demonic robots drowning out the human voices and making everything feel a lot less human. Feelings we have long before we talk about ethical landmines like plagiarism, copyright, bias, misinformation and job displacement.

If that makes you uneasy— you’re not alone.

For those just tuning in, I’m currently a public library technologist. Over the years, I’ve worn many hats: broadcaster, IT wrangler for the media and publishing industries. I’ve modernized more than one library system. One memorable day I was summarily drafted as an unofficial bat rescuer (THAT story involves a giant Tupperware bowl and a children’s librarian with nerves of steel, so I’ll save it for another post.)

My point is that I’ve seen technology spark both wonder and fear. And I’ve learned after decades of technology panic cycles that the very things we fear most, often become the tools we can’t live without.

What if AI is less “evil book-burning robot” and more “that eager & clueless new hire” who:

– Shows up with bizarre ideas that occasionally lead to brilliant opportunities
– Needs constant supervision and persistent ethical guidance
– Makes ridiculous mistakes we can laugh at and very often, learn from

AI tools aren’t just about automation—they’re about leverage for human labor and inspiration for our educational and creative endeavors.

Question: What was the technology that terrified you most when it first appeared? How do you feel about it now?

For me, it was free, public WiFi. I was convinced we’d be returning endless calls to fraud investigators and spam hunters.

Spoiler Alert: I was wrong.

Libraries have been here before. From the vanishing card catalogs to automation systems and from Wi-Fi to Chatbots, libraries adapt and continue to thrive with every change.

– Rising cost for hardware, software and massive increases in power consumption (Sound familiar?)
– Internet terminals, Wi-Fi hotspots, and digital collections that changed the profession entirely. (All risking Piracy, Privacy & Plagiarism.)
– Wikipedia (Definitely going to destroy research forever.)

Yet, with each innovation, libraries adapted because we stayed true to our mission:

Providing a coveted “third place”, connecting people with knowledge and each other. If we don’t engage with AI, others will shape it without our values, we’ll leave our communities vulnerable to:

– Commercial interests over public good
– Digital divides becoming even wider chasms
– Information access determined by who can pay

Sitting on the virtuous sideline isn’t advocacy or even neutrality— it is the very definition of surrender.

I’m NOT suggesting generative AI is perfect for library uses.
It’s clearly not.

It’s messy, problematic, and evolving too fast for comfort. But the pace of change is different now. Television took 30 years to reach mass adoption; smartphones did it in five. Considering where AI is in 2025, our world may be unrecognizable by 2030.

I am simply suggesting we bring our public service superpowers to the table, to “Use Our Magic”, so to speak. We lead with our values, our commitment to privacy and intellectual freedom:

– Our passion for equal access
– Our discernment between quality information and, well, garbage
– Our habit of asking annoyingly good questions

Here’s what’s actually happening with AI in libraries around the world right now:

– – In a small [rural] Library, a solo librarian uses AI to create personalized reading lists for patrons, doubling the quantity and quality of their outreach without working overtime.
– – In an [Urban] High School, educators use AI tools to build highly personalized lesson plans flipping student comments from “I hate this assignment” into “can I stay late to finish this?”
– – University Libraries train AI chatbots to help students when reference librarians are unavailable.

Our fate is what we make from the work we do today. The future isn’t humans OR machines. It’s humans AND machines in libraries, creating communities where everyone has the tools, knowledge, and support to thrive— even when the world changes faster than we can update our policies.

Has your library tried any AI tools yet?
~ Please drop a comment—success stories AND horror stories welcome!

Oh, and about that bat rescue, compared to the Microfiche Crisis of ’87, it was simply a no brainer.

April 20, 2024April 20, 2024

Blue Books

You might be surprised to know that when some folks ask for books at my library, there are times when they only remember the color of the cover and not the title. I’m sure the reasons for this vary widely.

I’m simply more interested in the ‘value equation’. ~ What can I learn from this extremely common customer service experience.

As it turns out, there are times when folks want books based specifically on the color of the cover. In fact, Hollywood CA is home to at least one “studio prop store” where set designers and prop masters can buy racks of books, sorted by shape, size and yes: color.

Now consider “home décor”. It seems reasonable that home designers and interior decorators might also benefit from a similarly organized point of purchase display.

If your library accepts book donations and routinely offers up ‘Friends of the Library’ book sales, you might suggest they consider setting up a specialty section, just like this one. I’m willing to bet that any number of donated items appearing to have no useful purpose but might easily be ‘re-positioned’ under the banner “Inspired Design”.

Are you getting the most from your patron interactions?

Are you really hearing what patrons are telling you?

Many times, opportunities for success can be found in unlikely places. But you must know where to look. And be willing to look for uncommon solutions to everyday problems.

February 24, 2024February 24, 2024

“AI Sherpa”

If you love and listen to radio anytime (almost anywhere) over the last 20+ years, I can almost promise that you’ve been exposed to the creative genius of Fred and Paul Jacobs. These gentlemen have been thought leaders and top level consultants to the industry since I was a little baby DJ at Central Michigan University.

Fred Jacobs founded Jacobs Media in 1983. He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018 and is widely credited with creating the “Classic Rock” format. Brother Paul Jacobs joined the firm in 1991; is an expert in all “rock formats” and is indeed a “sales savant”, helping radio stations “ring the cash register” for decades.

When these guys talk, the smart radio executives (and the ones who win consistently) pay attention. Jacobs Media has been talking about disruption in the radio industry for years. They take radio executives on a carefully guided tour of the CES Show in Las Vegas annually. In 2020, Jacobs Media added an app development team .

You won’t find Jacobs clients among the cast of characters in my post about ‘Larry the Liquidators List of Losers‘. Now, they’ve just announced a new free service to help the industry better understand the most impactful technology disruption broadcasters have ever faced: AI. AI Edge: A Practical Guide to AI for Broadcasters.

~ Of course, you can always continue to make ‘buggy whips’.

November 24, 2023November 26, 2023

Who’s “Watching” Radio?

If you are or have been employed in the entertainment business, it might be you. Tens of thousands of industry employees, particularly those who work for media companies who have exposure radio properties with stock as part of the compensation plan have watched these accounts implode in recent years.

Six years ago, Audacy Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Field proclaimed the radio business was “massively undervalued”. This wildly incorrect presumption literally cost the Field family their fortune. Sadly, they are not alone. Shares of iHeart Media, the nations largest radio chain, have fallen from a peak of $27 and change to below $5, now sitting at about $2.79. The drop for the nation’s second largest radio operator Cumulus Media have not been as dramatic, but share prices here are also below the $5 threshold.

It’s not necessarily, doom and gloom for everyone in radioland. Satellite radio operator SiriusXM received a much needed endorsement from Warren Buffett as Berkshire-Hathaway reveled they’ve taken a small ownership position. Cox Media began shedding it’s terrestrial broadcast properties in 2012 lifting their fortunes to become one of the top three wealthiest families.

So what went wrong? Market analysts will tell us that despite projected audience growth, revenues are down since the pandemic. Technology has disrupted the business, fragmented the audience and the revenue streams and like the proverbial ‘buggy whip makers’, old school radio broadcasts and the traditional ways of consuming audio are simply less relevant in people’s lives.

Radio will always be special to me. I grew listening to the truly great ones like Paul Harvey, Don Imus, & JP McCarthy. My career began in on-air, doing sales and then moving with the technology explosion, into research. Radio lost it’s luster for me when technology became the easy replacement for talent. It was clear then and it is more obvious today, that removing talent from the mix does not improve the product. You can’t fight technology using antiquated business strategies and out dated tools. Scaling up the business to a bloated, unmanageable size simply means gaining an increasing share of a shrinking market. We don’t need ‘Larry the Liquidator’ to tell us that is a proven formula for failure.

I don’t spend much time with commercial, terrestrial radio these days unless I’m on the freeway at rush hour and need a traffic report [Thank you WWJ-AM!]. Honestly, I used to get traffic from SiriusXM, but they recently decided to drop this content. [Who do I talk to about that?] I digitized my personal music collection years ago. When I get tired of the ‘chatter’ on SxM, I punch up my own playlist, or an audio book, or a podcast and enjoy the ride. My music collection hasn’t grown much these last years but when I want new music, SxM has me covered there too- commercial free. I am not alone.

Can radio ever recover?

I’m not going to give out stock picks here but I dumped my company provided VIACOM stock years ago. If you’re looking for places in entertainment stocks to hold your nest egg, APPLE would have been a much better bet than any company heavily exposed to broadcasting. These days, you need growth companies. Innovators. Places that seek, hire and employ TALENT.

Radio will recover only when it’s leadership begins to think and function like an innovator. This key pivot requires an ability to develop a culture that rewards creativity over conformity. Old rules do not apply and must intentionally be broken. The ‘global village’ is now omni-present.

Broadcast 101: “the medium is the message”
– Marshall McLuhan

If this theory is still true, it must be re-examined in context because the tools of the trade (delivering audio content) have changed at a fundamental level. What is the true value of a broadcast license? What does a tower and a transmitter do well that can’t be done with wifi, 5G Cellular or whatever platform comes next?

Radio needs to better understand the competition and their audience. When Rich Meyer founded Mediabase/MMR, he wasn’t trying to disrupt the industry. Instead, we were dedicated to disrupting the dreaded practice of ‘paper adds’. Our mission was all about problem solving, not simply to be the last one standing. Technology innovators today don’t concern themselves with media theory. They focus on ‘making meaning’ and fabricating a new paradigm with the game solidly tilted to favor their platforms, their licensing rules and their way of thinking. ‘Scorched Earth’ isn’t just a strategy- it’s an objective.

Finally, someone in the C Suites (or someone capable of earning that corner office) needs to start asking much better questions. Tech companies are notorious for asking the impossible or unsolvable interview questions. They don’t care about the answer as much as they seek to deconstruct a candidate’s way of thinking.

How you define a problem significantly improves your ability to solve it. Content “Code Cruncher” Harry Kovsky built a lasting legacy on the principle that once you ‘separate reality from perception’, the path forward becomes clear. Radio will not survive in it’s present form. Are you bold enough to try and break the mold?

Passing Thought…

The big reason radio stations can’t just ‘bolt-on’ a podcasting division, is the misperception about what the audience wants from pre-recorded audio. Yes, they appreciate professional grade production values, but they also want to be stimulated in new ways. New stories and new story telling styles offer a glimpse into the mind of millennials and Gen Z. And they don’t conform to the conventional wisdom or navigate the traditional doors of perception.

Consider these offerings from our friends at the Public Radio Alliance and Pacific Norwest Stories:

TANIS – EPISODE 101 “Seeking Tanis. Runner Available.”

The Black Tapes – EPISODE 109 “Name That Tune”

July 29, 2023February 4, 2024

Strategic Partnership with Kovsky Media Research

We are please to announce we have formed a strategic partnership with globally recognized Kovsky Media Research.

Harry Kovsky is often cited as one of the most insightful media researchers in America. Since 1971, Harry has been leading the field with ground breaking systems and methodologies for evaluating communication strategies. Kovsky pioneered monitor based media content analysis. Kovsky studies and surveys have been leveraged for success by leading news, broadcast and entertainment companies for decades.

We are proud to have been invited to support Kovsky “News Rate: Fast Track” clients. We are committed to delivering the quality and reliability of the Kovsky legacy well into the future.

July 4, 2022February 22, 2025

First Amendment Audit: Survival Guide

The video below is very difficult for public service employees to watch. Citizen Journalists have been performing ‘1st Amendment Audits’ of public sites and touring public buildings to see how well, or poorly the community will “embrace American 1st Amendment protected activity”. Videos of the confrontational exchanges are showing up across the web with views that can far exceed your own website or even page views of your online catalog.

Recently, the Plymouth District Library experienced one of these visits. Since filming in a library without express permission is a core belief held closely by libraries across America, the battle here is typical of the reaction when library staff encounter a videographer inside their ‘limited public forum’ space.

I encourage you to watch as much of the video as possible to get a better understanding of these situations, should an auditor visit your library.

The first thing to wrap your mind around with an audit is that the videographer is specifically NOT interested in violating the privacy rights of staff or patrons. It’s very unlikely that they will ever focus their camera on patrons who do not approach or confront the camera operator(s). Next, and most important: your reaction to the camera will be the determining factor in whether the visit is quick and mostly painless or if it will become an ever-lasting legal probe of the highest order.

In Michigan libraries, the key to surviving an audit is to focus on your mission and simply ignore the camera. The Michigan Library Association points out that libraries in our state have ‘limited public forum’ status’ which offers some level of control. I would strongly suggest staff be trained to respond properly to unapproved recording. Otherwise, your team will spend the next year responding to FOIA requests & potential lawsuits that will only tarnish your hard earned institutional reputation and can lead to serious financial judgements against the library and/or the municipality and/or law enforcement officials who also seek to protect and serve.

If you’d like to review our ‘Survival Guide’, please email us from your official library account. Our approach to responding to the audit is prescient, unique and will be a corner-stone for training staff. The guide and the presentation are free for all public libraries.

Wishing you the best,
Scott –

February 7, 2022October 10, 2023

The Customer Service Personality

We’ve all been there. Standing in line, waiting our turn. You ask for help and the only employee in sight frowns and says “I’ll be right with you”.
Or you have to repeatedly explain the same problem to multiple customer service reps before anyone offers some help. These customer service failures happen all the time and they’re completely avoidable.

Customer service isn’t about making the best of a bad situation (even though that’s how many customer service reps are trained). It’s about human relations. It’s about relating to people on a personal level, even when you’re busy, frustrated, or under pressure yourself.

So, how do you get there? How do you train yourself and others to manage their emotions and provide great service? Turns out, there are a few tricks to the trade. After many, many years of providing high-level technical support to everyone from CEOs to senior citizens, I’m happy to share a few hard-earned life lessons to help you be happier and more successful in the customer service role:

Storytime — Lifelong Learning Start Early

Practice active listening. One of the most important things you can do is to really listen to the person. Pay attention to what they’re saying, and try to understand their needs and concerns. Don’t interrupt, and don’t assume you know what they’re going to say.
Be empathetic. Put yourself in the that person’s shoes and try to see things from their perspective. This will help you to understand their needs and respond in a way that is sensitive to their feelings.
Be proactive. Don’t wait for a person to come to you with a problem. Be proactive in identifying and resolving potential issues before they become major problems.
Go the extra mile. Do something extra special for people to show that you appreciate their patronage. This could be something simple like sending a thank-you note or offering a suggestion for their next visit. Customer service is not just about resolving problems or answering questions. It is really about understanding people and making sure they feel valued and appreciated.

Want More Tips…
Be polite and professional. Treat people with respect, regardless of their situation or behavior.
Be knowledgeable. Have a good understanding of your products or services so that you can answer questions and resolve issues quickly and efficiently.
Be responsive. Respond to inquiries and requests promptly.
Be helpful and supportive. Be willing to go the extra mile to help people resolve their issues and have a positive experience.

Helping Others Is Easier Than It Might Seem.

You can download my full presentation right now and learn exactly how to become and to teach others how to develop a winning “Customer Service Personality.

Wishing you the very best.

Scott-