Honored to have received a 2-year IMLS National Leadership Grant: “Harnessing Generative AI to Support Exploration and Discovery in Library and Archival Collections (GenAI-4-Arch)”, our first HERITAGE-AI project. See: https://www.imls.gov/grants/awarded/lg-256565-ols-24
Co-INVESTIGATORS:
Richard MARCIANO, Lori A. PERINE, Rajesh Kumar GNANASEKARAN & Mark CONRAD
ABSTRACT:
The University of Maryland iSchool, with the Maryland State Archives (MSA with Chris Haley) and Kennard African American Cultural Heritage Center (KAACHC with Clayton Washington), will explore the potential for incorporating genAI into future library and archival services while ensuring trustworthiness and mitigating potential bias and harm.
This two-year applied research project will develop a user-centered chatbot to enhance exploration and discovery within library and archival collections. Other activities will include community-driven AI design and evaluation, as well as studying how to make archival collections AI-ready, comparing the results of AI queries with those produced from non-AI methods.
The approach will be tested and evaluated through focus groups to develop generalizable approaches for collections. Expected outcomes include improved access to collections, enhanced user interfaces, and guidance on AI use in libraries and archives. The project will strengthen the ability of libraries and archives to serve the public and research communities by unlocking new dimensions of access, discovery, and understanding within their collections.
Our work will result in new insights for contextualization, participatory design, stakeholder evaluation, and metadata extensions for generative AI used with culturally sensitive data and related applications. [Lori Perine]
HERITAGE-AI Inititiative 