How Can Artificial Intelligence Help Librarians, Curators, and Archivists?

I’ve been asking myself this question in March. I keep seeing talk about generative AI in new call for proposals like for ACRL 2025. I saw another call from the University of Belfast that literally asked for proposals to contemplate the question: will humans be replaced by machines?

AI poses interesting questions for decolonization across all sectors. When you think of AI, do you view it as a data issue? Does AI have to be relevant to your JOB if you use it for your LIFE? How do we remind ourselves that that “intelligence” in “artificial intelligence” is really a human being who designed a machine?

It’s Just Clippy?

The information and technology sectors are captivated by artificial intelligence (AI) right now. AI isn’t new. Perhaps we haven’t sat down and thought about all the ways that AI has already been integrated in our lives since the 2000s.

So many aspects of technology have a ancestor that we can look to. When I browse the Internet and hear about AI, I think back to that bizarre, endearing paperclip character in Microsoft Office products named Clippy. He lived for a short time (2000 - 2003). This annoying pop-up character would prompt users to fix spelling and offered advice.

We all already been using AI - since Clippy! It’s our chatbot for reference, it’s that dating app, it’s in your tax return software, and it’s an RPG video game character simulating combat.

I’m hearing my peers and institutions say that they want to use AI to search across collections. This would be great for us because we collected digital repositories like Pokémon - and they’re not interoperable and the metadata schemas often don’t match.

Underneath the math and machine learning, we need data for AI to be relevant to the work that librarians, curators, and archivist do. One of the biggest challenges to our field/sector is TIME. We don’t have to time to digitize most materials. We don’t have time to catalog most materials. We don’t have time to make a website, an organized list, a virtual presence for all our collections. Without that data, AI is not relevant yet to the ways we want to be.

What do you think? Do you buy into the craze that AI is going to replace humans?

Decolonizing in The News

I picked three cool decolonizing things to share with you!

Decolonizing Education Certificate

I came across this international professional development and training certificate program recently. It’s over Zoom and you take an individual module or the entire program. Module 5 (of 8) is happening now in April). It looks good! You’ll learn about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the history of colonization to contemporary realties in Canada.

Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones, “Farmer’s Song”

Amirtha Kidambi is a New York-based vocalist and composer whos work is centered around decolonization. She came out with a new song last month about the labor movement in India.

Listener Picks: Indigenous Communities Want Sovereignty Over Their Data

Listen to this podcast about improving Indigenous communities health through decolonizing data. Guest speakers include members of The NativeBio, the first Indigenous-led biodata repository and research institution on the tribal lands of the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation.

My Byte-Sized Letters

Being a data professional has it’s up’s and down’s. If we radically accept people for who they are, situations like this don’t use up our valuable energy.

Let’s Create.

I’m open to collaborations, freelance gigs, and conversations about the ideas I shared.