New York Public Library: Positioning AI Enhanced Search
Enhanced search is an AI-powered research tool launching on NYPL's website, giving people anywhere in the world free, instant access to all scholarly books in their collections. Through a client engagement at Parsons School of Design, this digital newsletter series was developed as a positioning strategy to help NYPL introduce AI integration while staying true to its mission of lifelong learning and access to knowledge.
CONTEXT
4-week client engagement · Parsons School of Design · Speculative strategy, prototyped
YEAR
2026
INDUSTRY
Culture, Arts, and Education
TECH STACK
Figma
Claud (research)
ChatGPT (mockup generation)
Miro
MY ROLE
CREATIVE STRATEGY
POSITIONING STRATEGY
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
CLIENT COMMUNICATION
DECK DESIGN & PRESENTATION
The Challenge
For 130 years, the NYPL has built its brand as a steward of knowledge. Integrating AI poses risks to this brand, especially amid concerns for privacy, accuracy, gaps in AI literacy, and devaluing of human expertise. How NYPL positions Enhanced Search will not only shape institutional trust but can also demonstrate what responsible, public-serving technology looks like.
Project Brief: How might we position the AI-powered Enhanced Search in a way that preserves the trust the NYPL has spent 130 years building?
The Strategy
Our strategic discovery led us to position Enhanced Search not as a technology launch but as an extension of the Library's mission and digital experience: a new way into the collections. Rather than build a promotional campaign concept, we created a rollout that is gradual, simple, and familiar, so trust can be earned at every touchpoint.
The Solution
Our solution revives a simpler time on the internet: a six-month opt-in newsletter series from the NYPL that gradually introduces Enhanced Search. Written in a plain, first-hand voice and designed in a simple, spacious style using NYPL's visual identity, each issue explains how the tool works and what material it makes accessible — a slower, nostalgic digital experience to introduce a technology associated with speed and automation.
RESEARCH METHODS
Exploration
Client discovery, stakeholder mapping, audience segmentation, review of product features and existing brand materials, research on public perceptions of AI and similar rollouts
Validation & Iteration
Presented insights and concepts to client and iterated based on feedback
6+
hours spent meeting with clients at NYPL
INSIGHTS
Trust is earned gradually. Concerns about privacy, accuracy, and AI literacy mean people need time and context, not a launch moment.
Public perception of Al in 2026 is shaped by certain associations: hallucinated facts, buzzwords and jargon, black-box systems, data harvested without consent, automation that displaces human judgment.
The Library's existing cultural capital is a valuable asset to build on. NYPL's visual identity, editorial voice, and archival collections are already trusted, so the introduction could draw from what already signals public trust, credibility, and institutional confidence.
WHY A DIGITAL NEWSLETTER?
Gradual pacing
Direct patron access
Extends the open-access philosophy
Reflects existing forms of communication
Accumulates into the archive
WHO IS THIS FOR?
PRIMARY
Existing NYPL newsletter subscribers
SECONDARY
New subscribers opting-in through NYPL's digital channels
TERTIARY
Publications, writers, researchers, and organizations in the library, cultural, design, and technology worlds
WHAT IS INSIDE?
ISSUE 01: INTRODUCTION
Key message: We're building something with great potential and want to bring you along with us
ISSUE 02: WHAT THE ARCHIVES HOLD
Key message: There's an extraordinary amount of material here. You don't need to know what you're looking for — you can just explore.
ISSUE 03: HOW THE TOOL WORKS
Key message: This tool can only point you to things inside our collections
ISSUE 04: BUILT ON THE MISSION
Key message: The library is always a bridge between people and knowledge
ISSUE 05: RESEARCHER WALKTHROUGH
Key message: Here's what the tool looks like in practice
ISSUE 06: WHO THIS IS FOR
Key message: You don't need to be a scholar to use this, you just need a question
ISSUE 07: GUARDRAILS/LIMITATIONS
Key Message: Each constraint is a deliberate decision on what Al should and shouldn't do in a library context
ISSUE 04: OUR COMMITMENTS
Key message: The tool upholds our belief in free access, learning, institutional neutrality, and patron autonomy. We took this seriously because you trust us, and we intend to keep earning that.
HOW OFTEN?
We presented the research and concept in person to the NYPL team, who responded enthusiastically to the strategy. With Enhanced Search currently still pre-launch, this remains a proposal offering a research-backed model for introducing Enhanced Search in a way that builds trust.
OTHER PROJECTS
Reimagining Sushy Glow Cosmetics
BRAND IDENTITY
MoodHaus: A Complete Brand System
BRAND IDENTITY
CREATIVE STRATEGY
