Burlington Public Library trained 18 AI leaders across every role.

BPL wanted AI for productivity, not programming. ENGR built a three-day program that worked for librarians, IT, collections and administrative staff alike.

18AI leaders trained

3training days

1custom training manual

4+staff roles covered

The challenge

BPL staff needed to use AI in their everyday work, like drafting communications, supporting research and automating processes, rather than learn to build it.

With librarians, IT professionals, collection managers and administrative staff in the room, a one-size-fits-all course wouldn’t work. Staff also needed clear guidance on ethics, citing AI-generated content and legal considerations.

What we did

ENGR ran consultation sessions with BPL, including a technology consultation and several feedback rounds, and produced a custom AI training manual.

The three-day program mixed seminars with hands-on tutorials: AI foundations (May 6), AI literacy and practical tools including ChatGPT, NotebookLM and AI agents (May 13), and ethics, law and community (May 20). Assignments had staff apply AI in their own departments.

Ongoing support

After training, ENGR provided follow-up evaluations, a resource library and a community of practice to support continued learning.

The result

Each AI leader built an implementation plan for their own department. BPL is now positioned as a community resource for safe AI use, from spotting deepfakes to small business AI toolkits.