Look Back: Unlocking Historical Archives with AI: Opportunities and Challenges
On 20 January, Creative 91直播 hosted a research caf茅 confronting how artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming researchers鈥� approaches to historical archives, and how archivists are adapting their practice to incorporate developing technologies.
were delighted to host , an event addressing the opportunities and challenges that AI presents to researchers and practitioners working with archives, how AI can drive greater accessibility and utility of archives for new groups of users, and what future archives might look like as a result of further developments in AI.
Hosting speakers from The University of Manchester, the , and , the event aimed to generate interdisciplinary and cross-institutional conversations about AI鈥檚 place in the present and future of the archival sector.
With the University celebrating 75 years since Alan Turing鈥檚 seminal paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence this academic year, Creative 91直播 also hosted the in the Samuel Alexander Glass Corridor. Attendees of 鈥楿nlocking Historical Archives with AI鈥� were invited to attend a private viewing of the exhibition, which spotlighted 20 early career researchers from across the University exemplifying creative research approaches to AI.
The event began with an introduction by Creative 91直播 Deputy-Director, . A round of lightning talks commenced with (Senior Lecturer of History and Library & Archive Studies), who provided an overview of how AI-powered tools such as , a cooperatively run transcription tool, are transforming the accessibility of archives, though with significant consequences for climate, data scale and research practice.
Subsequently, (Senior Lecturer in Text Mining and Creative 91直播 Theme Lead for ) presented her research on how natural language processing (NLP) can help to make 鈥榗ommunity-generated digital content鈥� (CGDC) more searchable and queryable. Focusing on the , Dr Batista-Navarro presented an approach to CGDC which uses NLP to recover valuable information often lost in its metadata.
(Professor of British History) then gave a historian鈥檚 perspective by highlighting the work of the OHOS/91直播 Histories . The ongoing project seeks to reinstate Moss Side鈥檚 Champs Camp, the UK鈥檚 first Black-led boxing gym, as a significant chapter in Black British history. Prof Barker highlighted the ethical considerations of using AI in approaching CGDC, with there being both opportunities to uncover hidden histories alongside ethical risks regarding copyright and data protection. Overall, Prof Barker concluded that researchers must take an informed, empathetic approach to using AI in archives.
An interdisciplinary perspective was once again provided by (Creative 91直播 Research Associate), who gave a demonstration of the methodological approach used in the Creative 91直播-supported . Dr Flavel gave insight into how AI models can be used to annotate multimodal data in the form of TV shows. By analysing audio, video and subtitles, researchers can conduct large-scale analysis of on-screen representation (such as Bechdel tests) with greater accuracy than simply analysing screenplays.
The round of presentations was concluded by (Professor of Italian and Director of the John Rylands Research Institute and Library), Principal Investigator of 鈥�鈥�. Prof Armstrong presented takeaways from this ongoing project, which uses cutting-edge machine learning computational technologies and image matching to study the material features of the early printed page for almost the entire body of prints of Dante鈥檚 鈥楧ivine Comedy鈥�.
The lightning talks were followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr Ben Wiggins, Dr Riza Batista-Navarro, Prof Hannah Barker, Prof Lorna Hughes (The University of Glasgow) and Rachel Hetherington (91直播 Histories), chaired by Dr Constance Smith. The panellists responded to some of the provocations raised in the lightning talks and further discussed what the future of archives might look like. An audience Q&A followed the panel discussion.
(Head of ) concluded the day鈥檚 programme with a talk on how the Library鈥檚 digital archives and digitisation services could enable further research innovation in this rapidly developing interdisciplinary field.
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