Public libraries confronted with influx of AI-generated audiobooks

BIRMINGHAM — Some Baldwin Public Library patrons may have been disappointed recently while using Hoopla, a free resource for library card holders to rent audiobooks, e-books, comics and more. Nationwide, public libraries that use Hoopla are seeing low-quality AI-generated books infiltrate their collection. This was brought to light by a 404 Media investigation.

On Hoopla, patrons are given a large selection of books to choose from. The recent issue that is arising is that there are now AI-generated books that appear similar to other popular books.

However, they will say in small print, “summary.” Instead of being the full-length book a patron is expecting, it is a much shorter summary of it.

“(On these books) the cover art is not the cover art from the actual book. It’s just another illustration that is kind of similar, but not, so if you have never seen the book cover before, you wouldn’t know,” Baldwin Public Library Director Rebekah Craft said.

Adult Services Librarian Mick Howey said that after he was notified about this issue, he went looking for these summaries and found about 400 of them on the first try.

“They didn’t check out much, but every checkout was a patron not getting what they thought they were getting, and then the library getting charged for it,” Howey said.

 

The impact of the issue
This problem is an issue for libraries because it causes them to be charged for books that patrons did not intend to check out.

When patrons rent a book from Hoopla, the library is charged a varying amount. The Baldwin Public Library offers 20 credits a month to each patron.

Other than being an annoyance to patrons who accidentally check out these books, it also wastes one of their credits.

 

Moving forward
A couple days after beginning the process of manually suppressing certain books so they do not show up for their patrons, Hoopla sent out an email stating that they removed thousands of AI books. Howey said he has noticed a difference in the number of AI content they are seeing.

“The problem has been greatly diminished,” Howey said.

However, it is still possible that a patron could encounter an AI-generated title.

“It’s at the stage now where Hoopla asked us and other libraries that if we see any of them, to let them know about it,” Howey said.

He said Hoopla is now trying to get publishers to either not include any AI books or mark that the book was created by AI.

Since AI-generated books could still be on the platform, Howey offered some advice in identifying if a book was created by AI. He said it is important to check the length and make sure it is a reasonable amount of time for the size of the book. He also said patrons should look up the cover of the book they intend to check out and make sure the cover they see on Hoopla is comparable.

In the Birmingham City Manager Report for March 2025, the library also thanked substitute librarians Julia Eisenstein and Amber Davis for helping identify and flag these books.