Bookbot: AI assistant for personalized book suggestions

Whether you are a novice reader or a seasoned bookworm, Bookbot helps you find the right book. The AI assistant, presented during Dutch Design Week, is an initiative of the collaborating libraries in the Brainport region. The assistant uses artificial intelligence, but, according to its creators, it does so while protecting the user's privacy and the authors' copyright.

The library sector faces major social challenges: declining reading skills, a growing digital divide, and the need to facilitate lifelong learning. At the same time, the way people consume information and stories is changing. A complicating factor is that young people aged 15-25 are turning away from traditional library services.

Personalized advice

The eight Brainport libraries have therefore joined forces in the program Building the Library of the Future. To this end, they have received Regional Deal and Pica Foundation funds. One of the first concrete results of the program is Boekbot, an AI assistant that gives readers personalized book recommendations.

The idea for this AI tool arose during several brainstorming sessions with young people. Ultimately, it was decided to make the app accessible to a wider audience.

The idea arose from the observation that many people struggle to find a book that suits them. Boekbot can help them with this. Users of the tool can start a conversation with this ‘book buddy’.

Think of questions such as: ‘I'm looking for a book for a rainy day’ or ‘I want to learn about the current political climate in the Netherlands, what do you recommend? 'Boekbot then comes up with appropriate or surprising, but always objective advice,’ according to the initiators in an explanation. 'The AI tool is not influenced by commercial interests.

Reliable information

Unlike many other AI tools, Boekbot does not create user profiles (unless users prefer it), and all answers come from its own sources, supplemented with reliable, public information available on Wikipedia, for example.

After a test phase, Boekbot has now been officially launched. The festive opening ceremony was held at Natlab by Eindhoven mayor Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Director-General for Culture and Media at the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, Barbera Wolfensberger, and the representative of Brainport Libraries, Albert Kivits (director-administrator of Eindhoven Library).

Boekbot is accessible to everyone. Membership of a library is therefore not required. The app can be downloaded free of charge from both the App Store and Google Play.