The technologies today known as artificial intelligence (AI) have taken the world by storm in the past few years. Given growing speculation on AI’s potential to transform lives for the better, ongoing extreme environmental concerns also cast doubt on how AI’s unmitigated consumption of resources and the use of human labor may not be purely beneficial for all. As with many other new technologies and practices, libraries, museums, and archives (LAMs) should prepare themselves and their patrons to engage with AI by paying attention to the benefits and drawbacks for our work, the communities we serve and the materials we steward. In particular, technology infrastructure’s impact on climate change poses unique threats to LAMs institutions – many of which provide vital human-centered services and house irreplaceable historical and cultural resources, and function as vital community resource hubs.

Unfortunately, considering how quickly the field must address constantly changing realities, AI’s acceleration of the climate crisis can be pushed aside as an afterthought in LAMs conversations. To build off of other ongoing thoughtful, insightful conversations among library, archives, museums, and information science professionals, CALMA invites you to listen to a panel of field insiders to better think about the many ways AI is changing the way we access, preserve, and share information, and what that means for the future of the field and our natural environments. This roundtable brings together several expert panelists in conversation about AI’s impact on climate change. the impact of AI and the climate crisis on LAMs institutions, workers, and communities, and what responsibility we as information professionals have to each other, our institutions, and the warming planet.

Participants

Itza A. Carbajal (moderator) is a New Orleans born Texas raised North American settler pursuing a PhD in Information Science at the University of Washington Information School focusing on children and their records. Her dissertation focuses on the role of archival records in disaster education using both youth-centered learning and educator and archivists teaching perspectives. Carbajal also works on the intersection of youth education and environmental issues specifically through the use of memory and future making. Over the last few years she has taught K-12 classes on Fashion & the Environment, Disaster Preparedness, Human Migration and Belonging, Local History through Digital Storytelling, and Clothing Upcycling. In the Autumn of 2025, Carbajal joined the faculty at the University of Washington Information School as Teaching Faculty.

Sarah Tribelhorn (MS, MMLIS), is the Sciences and Sustainability Librarian at San Diego State University. Sarah has been instrumental in leading sustainability initiatives in the University Library, and increased campus and community engagement in sustainability projects, critical AI literacy, and citizen science programming.

Amelia Lee Doğan (she/they) is a PhD candidate at the University of Washington researching how data systems and tools can be used for co-liberation.  Amelia’s doctoral research focuses on stuyding how technologies built for social change and planetary health are used, challenged, and reshaped by marginalized communities and advocates for more just futures. Additionally, Amelia is a research affiliate of the Data + Feminism Lab at MIT. This work is supported by an NSF GRFP and a University of Washington GSEE award. Previously, Amelia has interned at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Google, and Charles River Watershed Association. Amelia received an undergraduate degree in urban planning with computer science and American studies from MIT.

Andrea Baer is an associate professor of practice in the School of Information at the University of Texas–Austin, where she teaches courses in librarianship, academic librarianship, information literacy, library instruction, and scholarly communication. Prior to joining the iSchool, Andrea worked in academic libraries and instruction librarianship for over a decade. She also taught academic writing, source-based research, and literature. Her research interests include critical and digital literacies, inclusive pedagogies, affect and learning, critical reflective practice, and instruction librarians’ teaching roles and practices. For more about her research, please see her ORCID page (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6361-948X). Baer holds a master’s in information sciences from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Washington.