Abstract:

[Purpose/Significance] The rapid advancement of digital and artificial intelligence (AI) technology is profoundly transforming the functional positioning and service models of university libraries, shifting them from traditional resource management institutions to smart academic service hubs. This study aims to analyze the opportunities and challenges posed by digital and AI technology to university libraries, exploring how they can uphold their educational mission in the transition toward digitalization, ecological sustainability, and academic excellence, achieving the unity of technological empowerment and value preservation to promote sustainable library development. [Method/Process] The research followed the logical framework of "technological empowerment-risk assessment-value orientation," and conducted progressive and dialectical analysis. In the dimension of technological empowerment, it focused on three core transformation directions - resources, space, and platforms - to explore the ecological restructuring pathways of university libraries driven by digital and AI technologies. In the dimension of risk impact, it analyzed potential risks and value deviations arising from the application of digital and AI technologies across four aspects: reading cognition, service essence, resource development, and ethical privacy. In the dimension of value adherence, based on the core mission of university libraries, it proposed five value adherence dimensions: "people-centered, content-based, education-oriented, fairness-guided, and staff-focused". [Results/Conclusions] Digital technology has given university libraries new impetus in terms of resource integration, spatial reconstruction, and service upgrades. However, it has also brought risks and challenges, such as shallow reading, the instrumentalization of services, the homogenization of resources, and ethical and privacy issues. In the process of digitization, there is a close internal logic between technological empowerment, risk challenges, and value preservation in university libraries. Technological empowerment is the driving force for transformation, providing tools and paths for transformation, but its application requires value preservation as a prerequisite. Risk challenges are inevitable accompanying problems in the process of technological application, and they are a concrete manifestation of the contradiction between technological empowerment and value adherence. They need to rely on value adherence to guide technological direction and achieve dynamic balance. Value adherence is the key to maintaining the essence of a library, providing guidance for both technological empowerment and risk challenges, and ensuring that the library adheres to its original intention of "serving education and knowledge dissemination". University libraries need to find a balance among the three, using technology as a means, value as a guide, talent as support, and fairness as the bottom line, to construct an academic service model of "technology ecology value" collaborative development. This will enhance service efficiency and innovation potential while demonstrating the value of libraries in the high-quality development of higher education and the cultivation of talented professionals.

Key words: digital and AI technology, university library, ecological transformation, risk assessment, value orientation, AI ethics