News Release: Pandorabots launches Cybersphinx for Libraries

A Virtual Assistant Librarian for Patrons

By Dr. Doubly Aimless

Posted 10-13-2013

Pandorabots has been providing cloud-based natural language and artificially intelligent virtual assistants (chatbots) since 2002. The company’s software is open source, has won numerous awards and is more widely used than all other companies offerings combined. The Pandorabots website is primitively simple - and appears as the “craigslist” of chatbot companies.

Cybersphinx for Libraries is a virtual assistant librarian for patrons that focuses on providing commonly sought-after low-level information - such as hours of operation, library location, special events, etc - and functionally automates the routine tasks performed by a traditional librarian. Questions about specific book or author availability can easily be added by developing connections with library-specific catalogs.

Libraries adopting Cybersphinx first choose a name for their virtual assistant librarian. Next they “teach” their library-specific information to the virtual assistant librarian. Patrons interact with the virtual assistant librarian through mobile devices and web browsers. Patrons may talk or type inquiries to the virtual assistant librarian. Libraries may customize their virtual assistant librarian with almost any kind of personalization option. Libraries may create features for specific classes of patrons - such as story-telling for children. Because interacting with virtual assistant librarian is fun, libraries may use it to help build relationships with patrons.

Dr. Richard Wallace, the Pandorabots Chief Science Officer, told me earlier this week that Pandorabots worked closely with Librarians David Newyear and Michele McNeal for three years to develop the “brain” content for this project. David and Michele have published portions of their work in [...]. The content is available as open-source. Cybersphinx consists of a librarian-specific ontology that permeates the foundation, supports library-specific inquiries and story-telling features.

Dr. Wallace provided a demo of a virtual assistant librarian that has yet to be customized for any particular library. You may ask it questions like: what is the location of the library? or What are the hours of the library?

Because this demo is not for any specific library, it lacks connections to book and author catalogs. So asking the virtual assistant librarian about specific authors or books will fail because the assistant remains unconnected to catalogs. But you may ask information related to the library. According the David Newyear, the virtual assistant librarian can easily be connected to reference catalogs and other special collections.

Cybersphinx Demo

Meet Cybersphinx