When large language models such as ChatGPT entered the mainstream, one thing became immediately clear: the starting point for academic research had shifted. Students and researchers were no longer heading to Google or library discovery tools as a first step. Instead, they were starting conversations with AI.<\/p>\n
Nexus Extend was born out of that moment of change. The original vision was simple: make the library visible and relevant while users are discovering information inside tools like ChatGPT. As researchers use chat tools to explore ideas, Nexus Extend would meet them there, connecting those conversations to trusted, subscription based library content.<\/p>\n
In a survey of 500 students by the ProQuest User Experience team, 62% reported validating sources cited by ChatGPT or other large language models. As students increasingly relied on AI tools, many struggled with uncertainty. They didn\u2019t know whether the sources cited by AI genuinely existed, whether they were suitable for academic work, or whether they could be referenced. Verifying sources became a manual, time consuming task that users didn\u2019t always complete.<\/p>\n
This insight fundamentally reshaped Nexus Extend. Rather than focusing only on recommending relevant library resources, it evolved to tackle a much bigger pain point: trust.<\/p>\n
Libraries consistently emerged in user research as a powerful trust marker. If a source was owned or endorsed by their library, students immediately felt confident using it.<\/p>\n
Today, Nexus Extend uses that trust to do two things while users are working in AI tools such as ChatGPT. First, it scans and validates AI generated citations, clearly signalling which sources are verified, questionable, or potentially unreliable. Second, it connects users directly to full text library resources and recommends additional scholarly content relevant to their conversation \u2014 even when those sources weren\u2019t cited by the AI tool.<\/p>\n
Watch the 1\u2011minute behind\u2011the\u2011scenes clip featuring how an early Nexus Extend prototype turned into its current version.