Document Type

Presentation

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Publication Date

12-4-2025

Disciplines

Library and Information Science

Description, Abstract, or Artist's Statement

High download counts are a good thing -- right? But what happens when those numbers become unusually -- even alarmingly -- high? Are there truly human users at the other end, or is this an indication of AI bot activity? When the Digital Initiatives team at the University of San Diego noticed a sudden and substantial uptick in download numbers, we began asking questions: What's really going on? Is this cause for concern? How do we address this? Will our users be impacted?

To explore and answer them, we consulted with the library’s Scholarly Communications Committee and corresponded with our Digital Commons representative. We enrolled in DC’s pilot program for anti-bot blocking, designed to reduce the number of suspicious downloads from targeted regions. Although these efforts helped us learn more about the situation, they also generated even more questions, such as long-term planning by commercial IR platforms to effectively address these issues, and what it means for open content more broadly, especially as it impacts authors and creators. As AI bots become more and more sophisticated, how will IRs rise to the challenge?

Download

Share

COinS