Robot Librarians Instruct Young Generations

In our rapidly changing digital world, what does the future of young generations look like? And how do they perceive such developments? With the ReadICTed to Robots project, the library of the Dutch province Gelderland-South aims to encourage information and communication technologies (ICT) and digital knowledge in education. To achieve this goal, the organization decided to employ two social robots, Bibi and Robin, to work in the library. Students in secondary education will be taught to interact with robots in order to increase their knowledge and digital skills.

This is not the first time robots are employed in libraries. In 2014, Connecticut's Westport Library acquired two robots, Vincent and Nancy, to help teach coding and computer-programming skills. And let's not forget about robo-librarians; these "shelf-aware" bots are used in Singapore to help track missing or replaced books. To learn more about our robotic future, make sure to keep an eye on our upcoming project HUBOT: the first job agency for humans and robots, or read the Robots at Work series.