Librarians must strengthen creativity to face the AI era

The Head of the National Library of Indonesia (Perpusnas), E. Aminudin Aziz, has encouraged librarians to strengthen their creativity and abilities that cannot be replaced by machines as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to develop.

According to him, several technical library tasks such as cataloguing, classification, processing library materials, and metadata creation can be performed increasingly faster with the help of technology. Therefore, librarians need to move beyond technicalities by developing creativity and thinking skills.

“What must be done by humans, in this case, librarians, is to go beyond technicalities; it must be what follows those technical tasks,” he said while opening the 2026 National Working Meeting of the Indonesian Librarians Association (Rakernas IPI) in Semarang, Central Java, on Tuesday.

He described the capacity of machines in technical work as being able to far surpass humans. At the same time, while a human can manage approximately 25 tasks, a machine is capable of reaching 1,000 tasks.

“For highly technical matters, we replace them with machines, but for other things that cannot be done by machines, we continue to use humans,” Aminudin stated.

He noted that the development of librarian competence, including through the Indonesian National Work Competency Standards (SKKNI), competency tests, and professional development, needs to be directed towards strengthening creativity.

Aminudin also emphasised that humans possess aspects of feeling, values, and morals that machines do not possess. This is crucial in maintaining the role of librarians who are oriented towards the needs of the community.

Meanwhile, the General Chairman of the IPI, Joko Santoso, stated that AI further underscores the importance of the human dimension in library services.

“Machines may be able to find trillions of data points, but only humans—librarians—possess the empathy to listen to the concerns of library users and understand their inner needs,” said Joko.

The 2026 IPI National Working Meeting is taking place from 6–8 October under the theme “Librarians Involved, Synergised, and Impactful,” and is attended by over 200 participants from various regions.