When Books Are Smarter Than AI.

Cashel Library is a very tech savvy and is up to date in this modern age of AI and downloadable books. It is also the place where you can find an old fashioned, newly published book. In fact, Cashel Library is the place where the noted Professor Bernard Goldbach, Digital Transformation Lecturer at the Technological University of the Shannon, was to discover that ‘Books are smarter than Artificial Intelligence’.

Ms Maura Barrett, Branch Librarian in Cashel Library has been working with Transition Year Students since last September on a Women’s History Project. Ms Barrett explains ‘Libraries by and large are matriarchies’ Maura explains, ‘and therefore we feel duty bound to record the deeds of women as HER Story as opposed to what is already recorded in HIS story.

Mr Seamus Carr, Cashel Community School’s history teacher was wholly supportive, feeling there is an imbalanced and skewed syllabus for Junior and Leaving Certificate.
Mr Carr said, ‘Primarily students are studying the great men of the world and women are being sidelined’. he said. He even cited Nurse Kathleen Farrell who was literally airbrushed out of the 1916 Rising, stating ‘everybody knows about Padraig Pearse, very few people have heard of Kathleen Farrell.’ He was delighted that his TY students were able to be exposed to some women’s history in a non-school, self-directed learning sort of way.

In total, 10 students took part, both male and female. Students conducted some primary research on local women with the view to getting them to think in terms of HER Story as opposed to HIS Story. They explored mythical women, Viking women, medieval women, enlightenment era women and women of 1916 and Cuman na MBan; right up to women of the 21st Century.

All women researched had a link to Co. Tipperary. They then moved onto genealogy and the tools available to students, via the library service, but with a difference. They researched the matrilineal line and this led to some interesting and fascinating discoveries about their personal heritages. Then each student settled on three women each, with which they wished to showcase and set about recording about 1,000 words each, per woman researched.
After Christmas last, Ms Barrett asked Professor Bernie Goldbach of TUS Digital Arts fraternity, if he could possibly show her, a Generation X person, how to podcast their research so that it could be a transferrable action and create content for Tipperary Studies.
Professor Goldbach went one better. He turned up with very high-tech Podcast suites, Ray Ban Meta SMART Glasses and a portable journalist kit, and together with a whole load of free applications (apps), he created alchemy.
He was very taken with the students, the level of their research and their overall enthusiasm.
Professor Goldbach was to discover that the primary research conducted by the teens was smarter than the AI tools. Having reviewed the original research, (asking CHATGPT and Gemini about some of the research findings, consulting Meta to verify some of the images, whilst viewing them through Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses), they discovered that Artificial Intelligence returned inaccurate research results. So, they decided to stick with the study conducted from the books and manuscripts contained within the library service.

The story doesn’t end there, because students did achieve some interesting results. When using artificial intelligence to create content in other formats, they were able to create audio from handwritten documents for example. Spoken audio clips were able to be generated as video clips and machine learning helped to convert handwriting to digital text. Students recorded short audio summaries of their research, using the Spreaker Studio app.

Digital literacies have become an important skill for everyone who wants to join the fast-moving workspace of today. It is important to know that some tools, like AI, will not be fit for every purpose, but increasingly employers do expect Gen Z’s to be au fait with tools that can increase their productivity.

This research was showcased to parents and students and teachers in Cashel Library and the School Principal, Mr Brian Moran, presented them with certificates of recognition. The 21 Audio clips can be found wherever you find your podcasts by playing ‘Tipperary Heritage and Stories.’

Ms Maura Barrett explains, ‘One of the lovely incidental benefits of this Women’s History Project was the extra skills students gained from Professor Goldbach’s expertise’. Ms Barrett said the students not only went away much more historically informed, they also left with greater confidence and the ability to think independently and approach their research from different perspectives.