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From AI Literacy to AI Fluency
Learning, Teaching, and Creating with Purpose
A collection of essays and practical experiments for educators, librarians, and curious learners who want to move from knowing about AI to knowing what to do with it.
Cover, author portrait, and press copy · ZIP, 4.1 MB · Updated October 22, 2026
Book overview
From awareness
to purposeful practice.
AI can help you write, research, make music, and build a website. But what is worth making? When should you trust an answer? And how do you help someone else begin?
In From AI Literacy to AI Fluency, librarian and technology writer Kyle Bylin explores these questions through twenty-two complete essays about learning, libraries, creativity, and technological change. The journey begins with a phone call to his dad and moves into classrooms, creative experiments, and the futures that educators and librarians are already preparing for.
The experimental AI Fluency Loop gives readers a process for developing skill and judgment through practice. A short Try This prompt after each essay invites them to explore an idea, investigate what has changed, or build something small. Working projects, a selective tools guide, and a linked bibliography connect the reading to things people can do. The free online edition also includes an interactive timeline of AI milestones and forecasts through 2045.
A process for learning
The AI Fluency Loop
- 01Define your purpose
- 02Choose your approach
- 03Experiment with AI
- 04Check and improve
- 05Apply what you learned
An experimental framework for developing skill and judgment through practice. Explore the framework →
About the author
Kyle Bylin
Short bio
58 wordsKyle Bylin is a librarian, writer, and creative technologist exploring AI literacy, learning, and technological change. He is the Research and Assessment Librarian at Saginaw Valley State University and participates in the university’s AI task force. A former Hypebot editor and Billboard writer, he earned his Master of Science in Information at the University of Michigan in 2024.
Extended biography 179 words
Kyle Bylin is a librarian, writer, and creative technologist whose work connects music, technology, and higher education. He is the Research and Assessment Librarian at Saginaw Valley State University, where he participates in the university’s AI task force. He writes for Choice’s LibTech Insights and contributed to Choice and Clarivate’s generative AI literacy course for academic library workers. His projects—including the AI Guide, Music 2045, and Libraries 2045—give people places to explore, experiment, and put ideas to work.
Before entering academic librarianship, Kyle was an editor at Hypebot and a writer for Billboard, and worked in user research at Live Nation Entertainment and SoundHound. He earned his Master of Science in Information at the University of Michigan in 2024 and a bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music. Raised on a farm in North Dakota, he brings a personal interest in curiosity, access, and the unexpected paths people take into learning. He is the author of Promised Land and editor of Divergent Streams and Song Stories. His insights have appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and NPR.
Ready to download
Cover, portrait, and copy.
For image credits or reuse questions, contact Kyle. Download asset notes.
For a story, interview, or classroom conversation
Three ways into the book.
Beyond the prompt
Using a tool is only part of the work. Explore the judgment involved in choosing a worthwhile task, checking the result, and applying what you learned somewhere else.
Read The Intelligence Gap →Libraries as places to experiment
What happens when a library helps people make things with AI? Consider the role of guidance, access, and learning through design in classrooms and communities.
Read Building the Imagination Lab →From streaming to generative AI
Music offers a personal way into questions about authorship, discovery, and technological change. Kyle connects his earlier music-industry writing with his own creative experiments.
Read When AI Brought My Songwriting Dreams to Life →Questions to start with
- What is the difference between understanding AI and becoming fluent with it?
- Why begin this book with a phone call to your dad?
- How can an educator tell whether a student learned something, rather than simply produced a polished result?
- What can libraries offer people who want to experiment with AI but do not know where to start?
- What did the music industry’s digital transformation teach you about the changes happening now?
- If anyone can build something with AI, how do we decide what is worth building?
Music. Technology. Human experience.
Praise for Kyle’s earlier books.
Responses to Promised Land and Song Stories, with press coverage of Divergent Streams. These excerpts recognize Kyle’s earlier writing and edited collections.
On Promised Land
“Bylin combines scholarship and gut instinct in a rare way that produces new insights. These may not be the answers that save the music industry, but I wouldn't bet against him.”
On Song Stories
“Written authentically and often touchingly … this book will strike any reader with a love of music as simultaneously strange and familiar.”
On Promised Land
“Bylin's unique perspective sets him apart. … Bylin delivers a guide to what the music fan thinks, feels, and does.”
More praise & press coverage 4 more excerpts
On Song Stories
“Music makes meaning for people in ways nothing else can touch.”
On Promised Land
“a fresh look at where the music and technology industry is headed.”
On Song Stories
“Song Stories reminds us of the power of song.”
Press coverage of Divergent Streams
“each offers an informed and thoughtful look at the modern music industry today, and more importantly, tomorrow.”
Excerpts from the original endorsements and coverage; each links to its source.
Interviews, speaking, and media inquiries
Start a conversation.
To discuss the book, arrange an interview, or explore a conversation with your library or learning community, contact Kyle directly.
Updated October 22, 2026 · About the working edition