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The organizer of the XLI Problem Conference of Medical Libraries was the Main Library at PUM. The conference, held annually at a different medical university, was hosted within the walls of the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin for the third time. This year, it was held under the slogan “Artificial Intelligence and Medical Libraries – Are We on the Threshold of Transformation?”. It gathered almost 120 participants, because the topic turned out to be interesting not only for librarians from universities educating in medical fields, but also for librarians from other types of universities from all over Poland and even from Germany.

The opening ceremony of the conference was attended by the university authorities: His Magnificence Rector Professor Leszek Domański; Professor Jerzy Samochowiec, Vice-Rector for Science; Professor Violetta Dziedziejko, Vice-Rector for Teaching and Krzysztof Goralski, Chancellor at PUM.
An extremely welcome guest was Danuta Jaworska – Director of the Main Library of the Pomeranian Medical University in the years 1992-2003.

The theme of this year’s conference focused on artificial intelligence tools and the possibilities of their use in libraries. The inaugural lecture entitled “Artificial Intelligence and the Brain – What Challenges Await Us?” was given by Ernest Tyburski from the Department of Health Psychology at PUM, introducing the participants to the functioning of the human brain and the development of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence-based solutions in libraries are most often used for promotional activities, collection management, information retrieval, analysis of reader preferences and analysis of data on the use of library collections, while chatbots and virtual assistants answer users’ questions.

Part of the conference was a poster session, during which the authors presented their ideas, experiences and artistic visions realized using artificial intelligence tools.

An extremely pleasant accent was the trip to the Marine Science Center, where one could see not only exhibitions, but also a show in the planetarium, and the view from the terrace of Wały Chrobrego delighted all the participants and guests of the conference.

Representatives of companies cooperating with university libraries participating in the conference provided an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the latest technologies and offers from publishers, information source providers and technological solutions supporting the work of libraries.

The conference materials in the form of articles will be published in the journal Medical Library Forum ISSN 1899-5829, E-ISSN 2450-0437.