The year 2026 marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Maribor Declaration on the Importance of Libraries for the Quality of Universities, which was adopted at the COBISS 2006 conference and emphasized that there can be no high-quality higher education without good library information systems. This presentation addresses the question of whether the role of academic libraries has strengthened during this time and how it manifests itself in practice today.
Using the Maribor University Library as a case study, this paper presents an assessment of the availability of academic literature for the study programmes at the University of Maribor, which was conducted following the implementation of the Regulations on the Conditions for the Provision of Public Library Services. Extensive and inconsistent lists of academic literature were transformed, with the help of generative artificial intelligence, into a working structure that enabled a more time-efficient mass verification of material availability.
This case does not illustrate the replacement of librarians’ assessment, but rather the use of AI as a support tool for organizing input data, standardizing processes, and organizing collaborative work. At the same time, it raises broader questions about the quality and reliability of bibliographic data, the currency of reading lists, the availability of materials in e-classrooms, and the role of libraries in ensuring the quality of the learning process. At the same time, the findings point to the need for more integrated and coordinated management of data on study materials, the strengthening of the University of Maribor Library Information System (KISUM), and solutions such as Skriptarnica, which provides users with more uniform access to study materials at UM.
