Academic libraries globally are battling swarms of AI data-scraping bots that slow or crash sites meant for students and researchers. These bots, used by AI companies to feed large language models like Claude and ChatGPT, are overwhelming digital archives with millions of requests. One university reported over 11,000 searches for Finnish music in a single day.
Libraries, museums, and cultural institutions are prime targets due to their high-quality, publicly accessible content. The surge began in late 2024 and has worsened across North America, Europe, and Oceania. Experts warn that bot traffic now competes with legitimate users, threatening public access to vital academic resources.
Some institutions face complete site outages due to the relentless scraping. Critics call this extractive, noting private firms profit from free public data while degrading access for everyone.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing