AIGC EMPOWERS LIBRARY FAIRY TALE THERAPY SERVICES: OPPORTUNITIES, CHALLENGES, AND COPING STRATEGIES

ABSTRACT

The rapid iteration of AIGC provides technical support for innovation in library fairy tale therapy services. Combining the technical characteristics of AIGC with the realities of library services, this paper sorts out the potential opportunities it offers for empowering fairy tale therapy services, analyzes the challenges faced in the application process, and proposes targeted coping strategies, aiming to help libraries better fulfill their public mental health service functions.

АННОТАЦИЯ

Быстрое развитие технологий AIGC создаёт технологическую основу для инновационного развития услуг сказкотерапии в библиотеках. В данной статье, объединяя технологические характеристики AIGC с реальной практикой библиотечной работы, систематизируются потенциальные возможности расширения услуг сказкотерапии с помощью AIGC, анализируются вызовы, возникающие в процессе применения, и предлагаются целенаправленные стратегии реагирования, направленные на содействие библиотекам в более эффективном выполнении функций общественного психического здоровья.

Keywords: AIGC; library; fairy tale therapy

Ключевые слова: AIGC; библиотека; сказкотерапия; услуги психического здоровья

Introduction

At a time when social psychological needs are becoming increasingly prominent, libraries, as important hubs for public cultural services and social psychological services, are gradually expanding their psychological care service scenarios. Fairy tale therapy is one such service form with great feasibility and effectiveness [1]. Using fairy tales as a medium, through the roles, plots, and metaphors within stories, fairy tale therapy guides service recipients to express their inner emotions and sort out psychological confusion. It is particularly suitable for groups prone to psychological barriers, such as minors and disadvantaged groups, and represents an important manifestation of libraries' people-centered service philosophy [2].

As a new generation breakthrough in artificial intelligence technology, generative artificial intelligence (AIGC) can autonomously generate multimodal content including text, images, audio, and video based on training on massive datasets. It possesses core characteristics such as high efficiency, personalization, and interactivity, and has been widely applied in fields such as education, culture, and healthcare [3]. Integrating AIGC technology into library fairy tale therapy services can address pain points in traditional services, such as insufficient content supply, lack of personalized adaptation, and limited service scenarios. However, it also introduces new challenges due to inherent issues with the technology itself, including copyright, content quality, and data security. Based on this, the research objectives of this study are: to combine the technical characteristics of AIGC with the realities of library services, systematically review the potential opportunities for AIGC to empower library fairy tale therapy services, analyze the core challenges faced during technology application, and propose targeted coping strategies, thereby helping libraries better fulfill their public mental health service functions and promoting innovation and high-quality development of library psychological services. The research tasks of this study are: first, to clarify the specific application value of AIGC technology in enriching the content supply and enhancing the precision of fairy tale therapy services; second, to identify the various practical challenges and their causes in empowering library fairy tale therapy services with AIGC; and third, to construct a scientific and operable system of coping strategies to achieve deep integration of AIGC and library fairy tale therapy services.

Research Materials and Methods

This study primarily adopts the literature research method and the analytical induction method. By systematically reviewing existing research and practical materials in related fields, and combining the core characteristics of AIGC technology with the actual needs of library fairy tale therapy services, it analyzes the internal logic of technological empowerment, summarizes the potential opportunities and practical challenges of applying AIGC to library fairy tale therapy services, and constructs an adapted system of coping strategies based on a problem-oriented approach.

Research Results and Discussion

1. Opportunities for AIGC to Empower Library Fairy Tale Therapy Services

(1) Enriching Content Supply and Lowering Creative Barriers

The content of traditional library fairy tale therapy services relies primarily on library collections of fairy tale books and adaptations of classic fairy tales. This presents challenges such as content homogenization, slow update cycles, and high creative costs—professional fairy tale creation requires both psychological expertise and literary merit, demanding a high level of skill from creators, while librarians often lack specialized abilities in fairy tale creation and psychological counseling, leading to an insufficient supply of personalized and targeted fairy tale content [4]. AIGC technology can effectively address this pain point: on the one hand, AIGC can be trained on vast corpora of classic fairy tale texts and psychological counseling cases to rapidly generate original content suitable for fairy tale therapy needs, including targeted therapeutic fairy tales and personalized story scripts. It can also adjust the story's difficulty, plot, and metaphorical direction based on the service recipient's age, psychological state, and interests—for example, generating a fairy tale about companionship for a lonely child, or a fairy tale about courage for a child with low self-esteem—achieving precise content delivery. On the other hand, AIGC supports multimodal content generation, capable of not only producing textual fairy tales but also simultaneously generating accompanying illustrations, audio narrations, animated shorts, and more. Furthermore, AIGC can retell and reinterpret classic fairy tales from multiple perspectives, integrating modern psychological themes into traditional fairy tale frameworks, thereby enhancing the timeliness and psychological relevance of the fairy tale content.

(2) Achieving Personalized Adaptation and Enhancing Service Precision

A core requirement of fairy tale therapy is "personalization"—different service recipients, varying in age, psychological state, and developmental environment, have distinct needs regarding fairy tale content and guidance methods [5]. Traditional library fairy tale therapy services often adopt a "one-size-fits-all" model, making it difficult to address the individual needs of each recipient and significantly diminishing service effectiveness. AIGC technology can achieve personalized adaptation of fairy tale therapy services through big data analysis and algorithm optimization: libraries can collect data on service recipients' basic information, psychological needs, reading preferences, etc., and utilize AIGC models to construct a personalized service recommendation system, delivering suitable fairy tale content and guidance plans to different recipients. For instance, young children could receive fairy tales with simple language, vivid plots, and accompanying illustrations and audio; adolescents could receive fairy tales with deep metaphors relevant to the psychological confusions of puberty; and individuals with psychological trauma could receive gentle, healing fairy tales with therapeutic functions. Simultaneously, AIGC supports real-time interactive adjustments, allowing recipients to provide feedback on their preferences regarding fairy tale content, enabling AIGC to quickly adjust the story's plot or ending direction, making the therapy more attuned to the recipient's inner needs. Additionally, emotional intelligent agents developed with AIGC can transform fairy tale characters into interactive companions, allowing recipients to communicate with these agents via voice or text to receive personalized emotional support, further enhancing service precision and empathy.

(3) Extending Service Scenarios and Expanding Service Coverage

Traditional library fairy tale therapy services are primarily confined to library physical spaces, limited by time, location, and staffing, resulting in restricted coverage. They struggle to reach remote areas or special-needs groups with mobility issues, and fixed service times cannot meet recipients' immediate psychological needs. AIGC technology can break through temporal and spatial limitations, extending the boundaries of library fairy tale therapy service scenarios: on the one hand, libraries can leverage AIGC to build online fairy tale therapy service platforms, delivering AIGC-generated fairy tale content, hosting online story-sharing sessions, and providing intelligent psychological guidance. Recipients can access these services anytime, anywhere via smartphones, computers, or other terminals, overcoming the spatial and temporal constraints of offline services. For example, rural children can access AIGC-generated healing fairy tales and electronic picture books through online platforms, supplementing the lack of rural psychological service resources; individuals with mobility difficulties can participate in fairy tale reading and interaction online, receiving psychological care. On the other hand, AIGC can be combined with libraries' mobile and community services, extending fairy tale therapy to community centers, schools, nursing homes, and other settings. For instance, AIGC fairy tale interactive terminals could be installed in communities, allowing residents to access personalized fairy tale content at any time; AIGC fairy tale creation activities could be conducted in schools, guiding students to express their inner emotions through fairy tales.

(4) Optimizing Service Experience and Enhancing Service Appeal

Traditional library fairy tale therapy services often rely on a relatively monotonous "reading + sharing" format, with weak interactivity, making it difficult to attract active participation. This is especially true for minors, who may find simple reading formats uninteresting, affecting service outcomes. AIGC technology can enrich the service formats of fairy tale therapy, optimize the user experience, and enhance service appeal: firstly, through multimodal content presentation, textual fairy tales can be transformed into illustrations, audio, animations, interactive games, and other forms, making the content more vivid and engaging. For example, AIGC-generated interactive fairy tales allow recipients to participate in choosing the story's direction, increasing engagement. Secondly, leveraging AIGC's voice synthesis and virtual character technologies, virtual fairy tale guides can be created. Using cartoon images and gentle tones, these guides can lead recipients through fairy tale reading and sharing, lowering psychological barriers, which is particularly beneficial for introverted individuals or those uncomfortable with direct interaction. Thirdly, AIGC supports recipient participation in fairy tale creation; it can serve as a creative aid, helping recipients transform their inner thoughts and emotional struggles into fairy tales, enabling self-expression and psychological relief through creation. For example, guiding minors to use AIGC to generate their own fairy tales can help them express their joys and sorrows, enhancing agency and engagement in the service. Practice by a team from East China Normal University in rural elementary schools found that AIGC-generated interactive picture books and emotional intelligent agents significantly captured children's attention and increased their motivation to participate in psychological care activities.

2. Challenges of AIGC Empowering Library Fairy Tale Therapy Services

(1) Inconsistent Content Quality and Risks of Psychological Misguidance

The quality of AIGC-generated content depends on the quality of training data and algorithm optimization. However, current AIGC model training data may contain vulgar, violent, or value-distorting content. Additionally, algorithms themselves may exhibit "hallucination" issues, potentially generating content that does not meet the core requirements of fairy tale therapy or even has negative orientations. The core of library fairy tale therapy services is psychological relief and positive guidance. If AIGC-generated fairy tale content contains violence, negativity, incorrect values, or inappropriate metaphors, it could psychologically mislead service recipients (especially minors). This would not only fail to achieve therapeutic effects but could also exacerbate psychological confusion, contradicting the fundamental purpose of fairy tale therapy. Moreover, AIGC-generated fairy tale content often lacks human warmth and emotional resonance, often being a mosaic of algorithmic logic that struggles to accurately grasp recipients' psychological needs and achieve "empathetic" psychological guidance. In traditional fairy tale therapy, the emotional guidance and interactive communication provided by librarians are crucial elements, which AIGC cannot replace. Over-reliance on AIGC-generated content might cause fairy tale therapy services to become superficial, lacking humanistic care and diminishing effectiveness. Furthermore, the accuracy of AIGC-generated content is difficult to guarantee; issues like plot inconsistencies or vague metaphors may arise, failing to effectively convey the core concepts of psychological relief.

(2) Ambiguous Copyright Ownership and Risks of Infringement

Clear legal norms and industry standards regarding copyright ownership for AIGC-generated fairy tale content, illustrations, audio, etc., are currently lacking, posing a significant bottleneck for AIGC application in library fairy tale therapy services. AIGC-generated content relies on vast training datasets, which often include existing fairy tale works, literary works, and image materials. Using these without authorization from copyright holders for training AIGC models may constitute copyright infringement. Simultaneously, when AIGC-generated content bears similarity to original works, it becomes difficult to determine if infringement has occurred, potentially leading to copyright disputes. Libraries, as public cultural service institutions, must strictly comply with copyright laws and regulations. Using AIGC-generated infringing content for fairy tale therapy services could result in legal liability. Furthermore, the copyright ownership of content generated by libraries using AIGC remains unclear—whether it belongs to the library, the AIGC technology provider, or falls into the public domain—with no current regulations, making it difficult for libraries to confidently use AIGC-generated content for service promotion and long-term preservation, thus limiting the application value of such content.

(3) Severe Challenges to Data Security and Privacy Protection

Empowering library fairy tale therapy services with AIGC requires collecting a significant amount of personal data from service recipients, including basic information (age, gender, family background), psychological state, reading preferences, emotional feedback, etc. Much of this data involves personal privacy, especially sensitive information concerning minors and individuals with psychological struggles. Improper data management could lead to data breaches, misuse, or tampering, infringing upon recipients' privacy rights and causing psychological distress and security risks. Currently, some libraries lack comprehensive data security management systems. The processes of data collection, storage, use, and destruction during AIGC application often lack standardization. Moreover, AIGC models themselves may have data leakage vulnerabilities, risking the exposure of recipients' private information. Additionally, some AIGC technology providers might collect library service data for model optimization or commercial purposes, which, without recipient authorization, constitutes privacy infringement.

(4) Insufficient Librarian Competence Hindering Adaptation to Technology Integration

The deep integration of AIGC with library fairy tale therapy places higher demands on librarians' competencies. Librarians not only need traditional skills in guiding fairy tale reading and providing psychological support but also require basic operational skills related to AIGC technology, content filtering, algorithm optimization, etc. They need to be able to effectively utilize AIGC-generated content and optimize service processes based on recipients' needs. However, currently, most librarians lack knowledge and skills related to AIGC technology, have limited understanding of AIGC model functions and operation methods, and are unable to effectively filter or optimize AIGC-generated fairy tale content. They also struggle to design personalized fairy tale therapy service plans incorporating technological features. Simultaneously, their professional psychological counseling abilities may be insufficient, making it difficult to accurately assess recipients' psychological needs or effectively integrate AIGC-generated content with psychological guidance, thus preventing full utilization of AIGC's advantages. Furthermore, some librarians may have low acceptance of AIGC technology, exhibiting resistance or lacking initiative for learning and innovation, further hindering the integrated application of AIGC with fairy tale therapy services.

3. Coping Strategies for AIGC Empowering Library Fairy Tale Therapy Services

(1) Establishing Content Control Mechanisms to Ensure Service Quality

Content quality is central to library fairy tale therapy services. A three-tier content control mechanism of "technical screening + manual review + dynamic optimization" should be established to ensure the positivity, professionalism, and appropriateness of AIGC-generated content. First, optimize AIGC training data by selecting high-quality, positive data that meets fairy tale therapy needs, excluding vulgar, violent, or value-distorting content. Simultaneously, construct a specialized training dataset incorporating library fairy tale collections and psychological counseling cases to enhance the professionalism and appropriateness of AIGC-generated content. This can draw on the practical experience of the East China Normal University team, which "used classic fairy tales as blueprints and customized content based on psychological needs." Second, establish a manual review mechanism where professional librarians and psychological workers review AIGC-generated fairy tale content, focusing on values, metaphorical expression, and psychological orientation, removing unsuitable content to ensure alignment with core fairy tale therapy requirements. Concurrently, establish a content feedback system to collect recipient evaluations and suggestions, dynamically optimizing AIGC model generation parameters to improve content quality. Third, clarify the application boundaries for AIGC content, prohibiting the use of AIGC to generate negatively oriented or emotionally misleading content. Adhere to the principle of "humanistic guidance + technical assistance," retaining the elements of emotional guidance and interactive communication by librarians to avoid over-reliance on AIGC, ensuring the humanistic warmth of fairy tale therapy services.

(2) Clarifying Copyright Norms to Avoid Infringement Risks

To address the issue of ambiguous copyright ownership, efforts should focus on three aspects: legal compliance, collaborative models, and content originality, aiming to clarify copyright norms and avoid infringement risks. First, strictly adhere to copyright laws and regulations. When using AIGC technology to generate content, libraries must ensure the legality of training data, prioritizing the use of openly licensed or authorized materials. Unauthorized use of copyrighted works as training data is prohibited. Simultaneously, clarify the copyright ownership of AIGC-generated content by signing cooperation agreements with AIGC technology providers, defining the rights and obligations of each party, and stipulating that the generated content's copyright belongs to the library or is jointly owned, thereby avoiding disputes. Second, strengthen cooperation with copyright holders and creators, establishing copyright collaboration platforms to obtain legal authorization for fairy tale works, image materials, etc. Encourage collaborative creation between librarians and AIGC to generate original fairy tale content, enhancing originality and reducing infringement risks. Third, promote the development of industry standards. Collaborate with library associations, AIGC technology companies, and legal institutions to jointly formulate copyright usage standards for AIGC in library services, clarifying relevant criteria for training data usage, copyright ownership of generated content, and infringement determination, providing legal support and industry guidance for libraries applying AIGC technology.

(3) Improving Data Security Systems and Strengthening Privacy Protection

Data security and privacy protection are prerequisites for AIGC-empowered library fairy tale therapy services. A comprehensive, end-to-end data security management system must be established to effectively safeguard the privacy rights of service recipients. First, standardize the data collection phase by clarifying the scope and purpose of data collection, only gathering essential data necessary for recipients' participation in fairy tale therapy services, and avoiding the collection of irrelevant information. Obtain explicit authorization from recipients (or their guardians, for minors), informing them of the methods and scope of data collection, use, and storage, respecting their right to know and choose. Second, strengthen data storage and management. Employ encryption technologies to securely store recipients' private data, utilize dedicated data storage servers, strictly control data access permissions to prevent leakage, misuse, or tampering. Establish data destruction mechanisms to promptly destroy data no longer needed according to regulations, mitigating privacy risks associated with data retention. Third, enhance technical protections. Collaborate with AIGC technology providers, requiring them to strengthen their technical protection systems, patch data leakage vulnerabilities, and conduct regular data security testing and maintenance. Establish an emergency response mechanism for data security incidents to promptly take countermeasures in case of a data breach, minimizing the impact on service recipients.

(4) Strengthening Librarian Capacity Building to Meet Technology Integration Needs

Librarians are the core facilitators of integrating AIGC with library fairy tale therapy. Their comprehensive service capabilities should be enhanced through specialized training, talent recruitment, and practical exchanges. First, conduct specialized, tiered training programs covering AIGC technology application, professional knowledge of fairy tale therapy, data security management, etc. This will improve librarians' AIGC operational skills, content filtering abilities, and psychological counseling capabilities, enabling them to skillfully use AIGC to optimize service processes and generate suitable content. Invite AIGC technology experts and psychologists to give lectures, sharing practical experiences and broadening librarians' perspectives. Second, recruit professional talent, hiring interdisciplinary professionals with expertise in AIGC technology, psychological counseling, fairy tale creation, etc., to enrich the librarian workforce and enhance the overall service capability of the team. Establish talent incentive mechanisms to encourage librarians to proactively learn AIGC technology and engage in service innovation practices. Third, enhance practical exchanges. Organize exchanges and collaborations between librarians and professionals from other libraries, psychological institutions, and AIGC companies to learn from advanced practical experiences and explore new models and methods for integrating AIGC with fairy tale therapy. Encourage librarians to engage in service practice, continuously optimizing AIGC application plans based on recipient needs to improve service outcomes. Additionally, a librarian communication platform can be established to share service cases and experiences related to "AIGC + fairy tale therapy," promoting mutual improvement of librarian capabilities.

Conclusion

The rapid development of AIGC technology presents new opportunities for innovation and enhancement in library fairy tale therapy services. Its advantages in enriching content supply, achieving personalized adaptation, extending service scenarios, and optimizing service experience can effectively address the pain points of traditional fairy tale therapy, promoting high-quality development of library psychological services. However, simultaneously, AIGC empowerment of library fairy tale therapy faces challenges related to content quality, copyright ownership, data security, and librarian capabilities. Collaborative efforts from libraries, industry associations, AIGC technology companies, and other stakeholders are needed. By adopting strategies such as establishing content control mechanisms, clarifying copyright norms, improving data security systems, and strengthening librarian capacity building, the deep integration of AIGC with library fairy tale therapy can be advanced.

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