This article considers “flow theory” as both a basic scaffolding for AI literacy initiatives in Library and Information Science (LIS) education and a workplace strategy that can empower practitioners in galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAM) to prioritize human-centered agency in the development of AI-enhanced stewardship practices. In contrast to one-off workshops or general AI classes, this article explores how “learning in the flow” promotes an approach to AI literacy that centers continuous, embedded microskilling with responsible stewardship practices. With practitioner-focused, values-aligned literacy frameworks, GLAM practitioners can navigate AI adoption against the backdrop of collection care practices, institutional values, and professional codes of ethics. This approach to AI literacy aligns digital transformation, ethical stewardship, and values-based, context-aware learning with those closest to the work of collections stewardship. Finally, this article explores how microskilling and an ethics of care can be integrated into hybrid skill development paths that reflect the complexity of the ever-evolving AI training needs of GLAM practitioners.
This article equips readers with processes to identify ethical artificial intelligence solutions that may benefit libraries, archives, and museums. It provides definitions of common artificial intelligence concepts and terms. It then describes existing and potential use cases for artificial intelligence solutions. It concludes with an in-depth discussion on how to interrogate artificial intelligence models for potential ethical issues and how to remediate those issues before implementation.
The presence of artificial intelligence (AI) in academic and professional work is becoming increasingly prevalent. AI is no longer a technology that GLAM practitioners can ignore or disregard. Practitioners must be at the heart of considerations regarding AI integration into GLAM institutions to safeguard the profession’s core values of equity, fair access, intellectual freedom, and social responsibility. This thematic review encompasses professional publications and peer-reviewed articles. It serves as a “syllabus of understanding” that will empower GLAM practitioners, students, and emerging professionals to assess and define ethical stewardship in the time of AI integration.
Models depicting normal human anatomy have been a feature of Western medical teaching since the Renaissance. Some were collected by McGill University’s medical museum after its founding in 1821. In 1907, a fire in the medical building destroyed virtually the entire collection. Many models were purchased to replenish it during the following sixteen years. The majority of these, as well as those acquired after 1923, were consolidated in the Maude Abbott Medical Museum (MAMM) in 2012. We undertook a review of all models acquired by McGill’s Medical Museum/MAMM since the start of medical faculty calendar records in 1852/1853. A total of 433 were identified, of which 323 are still present. We discuss the uses of this collection and speculate about how 110 models have been “lost.” The review provides an understanding of the use of models in anatomy teaching in one North American university during the past 175 years.
In 2025, the University of Idaho Library’s Special Collections and Archives accepted a donation of nearly 2000 political buttons, a collection type traditionally not held by archives. This case study documents archivists’ experiences processing and providing access to this artifact collection using existing archival infrastructure and expertise, including ArchivesSpace for item-level artifact description, standard archival supplies for storage, and CollectionBuilder for digital access. The project required adaptation and problem-solving at every step, from developing a flexible numbering system to imaging artifacts with flatbed scanners. Our experience illustrates LAM (library, archives, and museum) convergence as a matter of stretching archival practice rather than formal collaboration with museum experts. Despite encountering challenges such as time-intensive processing and limited experience handling artifacts, we have found the collection to be a valuable resource for instruction, exhibits, and research. This case study demonstrates both the possibilities and limitations of adapting archival practice to three-dimensional artifacts.
Descriptive metadata is essential for discovery in audiovisual archives, yet many collections remain minimally described due to limited resources. Beginning in 2024, the University at Buffalo, University Archives launched an ongoing pilot project exploring the use of consumer-level generative AI tools to streamline audio description workflows. Archivists tested ChatGPT and Copilot on transcripts from over 2,000 hours of institutional radio content, using A/B prompt testing to refine outputs and generate concise summaries resembling traditional archival descriptions. The project prioritized free or low-cost AI tools that could be readily adopted by archives with varying resources. To date, 1,230 programs have been described using this approach. While achieving significant efficiency gains, the project also raised ethical questions around privacy, copyright, and professional practice. The pilot demonstrates the potential for AI-assisted description to enhance discovery while highlighting the need for ongoing evaluation of ethical and practical implications in archival work.
This article is a scholarly reflection on using the AI tools Transkribus and AntConc as part of a digital humanities PhD Placement within the British Library to extract metadata from printed catalogues for the online catalogue. This project focuses on BMC XI, the catalogue of English Incunabula at the British Library published in 2007. Transkribus is a “comprehensive platform for the digitization, AI-powered text recognition, transcription, and searching of historical documents” while AntConc is a “freeware corpus analysis toolkit for concordancing and text analysis”. Together, these tools can be used to extract information en masse to be uploaded to the specialist databases MEI (Material Evidence Incunabula) and the ISTC (Incunabula Short Title Catalogue) as well as pick out patterns and trends within incunabula descriptions. This project followed FRAIM (Framing responsible AI implementation and management) principles.
This paper discusses teaching an upper-division art history undergraduate course within a special collections and university archives unit of the university’s library. It highlights using primary source and rare materials to align the course learning outcomes with the practical cultural heritage work of archives, work that is done across libraries, archives, and museums (LAMs), and underscoring the synergy between academic teaching and archival practice.
This paper examines optical character recognition (OCR) through the lens of archival ethics as outlined in the Society of American Archivists (SAA) Core Values Statement and Code of Ethics, given the current debates surrounding artificial intelligence (AI). A literature review highlights persistent challenges of authenticity and integrity, transparency and accountability, access and equity, and responsible stewardship and sustainability, as well as new concerns about bias, sustainability, and accountability using large language models (LLM). A case study describes systematic testing of LLM, transformer model (TM), and neural network (NN) architectures and examines the challenges in creating a reliable, scalable in-house OCR tool named Opticolumn. This case study finds that NN approaches better align with archival ethics than do LLM tools, which may generate fabrications, but that OCR tool choice will depend on the capacities and preferences of individual institutions.
This article introduces the concept of Dynamic Collaborative System (DCS) as an evolutionary model for digital libraries, designed to foster adaptability, user participation, and enriched knowledge ecosystems. Drawing on a critical review of literature spanning organizational complexity, digital literacy, artificial intelligence ethics, and technology acceptance frameworks, the DCS is conceptualized as a platform that integrates curated digital collections, collaborative tools, and AI-powered management features. Digital libraries are reframed as sociotechnical systems in which users actively contribute to the interpretation, enrichment, and dissemination of content. The article outlines key design principles supporting the DCS architecture and examines its broader implications, including the need for institutional resilience, ethical data governance, and inclusive metrics of impact. Proposed future research directions address the sustainability and scalability of the model across various library contexts. Ultimately, the DCS is presented as a viable and necessary approach to reimagining digital libraries as dynamic spaces for knowledge production, community engagement, and ethically grounded technological innovation.
Current research into AI tools in archives has primarily focused on their utility in technical services and supporting collections management. Studies on using AI in search systems have largely focused on digital materials. However, archival reference practices have largely been developed with the assumption of guiding users to analog collections. Simultaneously, researchers are increasingly exploring AI tools for research and archival discovery and may be relying on chatbot suggestions without ever consulting archivists’ descriptions directly. Archivists, we believe, have a responsibility to understand how AI tools change reference interactions. We explore the ethical implications and archivists’ central role in continuing to support researchers as they develop “archival intelligence” in the context of generative AI.
What happens when a multitude of communities unite for a common cause? In an era of American politics marked by funding uncertainties, the active exclusion of marginalized stories, and censorship of museum exhibitions, does the future look bleak, or does it signal a call for a heightened sense of creativity? This case study highlights a multi-institutional partnership in which professionals from various disciplines collaborated with the local Black descendant community to plan a Memorial Ceremony honoring some of Evansville, Indiana’s earliest Black residents. This collaboration helps to minimize the erasure of Black history and ensures that these narratives are included in America’s historical tapestry.
Museums continue to face challenges in maintaining collections as digital offerings expand. Embracing object-based analysis prompts museums to reflect on gaps in object descriptions. This article focuses on two commemorative handkerchiefs from the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, England held in the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) online collections. Recommendations include describing the history of textiles manufacturing in England as well as the use of imagery on commemorative handkerchiefs symbolic of control, unity, and loyalty to the British Crown at this event. This research fills a gap in existing literature on memorabilia at the international exhibitions during the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century. It also highlights how prioritizing research in online collections management and improving transparency regarding institutional challenges can bring renewed focus to online record-keeping and educational opportunities.
As archives continue to face threats from global climate disasters and increased institutional pressure to accomplish more with fewer resources, there is a need to evolve archival practice through a sustainability lens. While archival literature has frequently discussed sustainability practices such as eco-friendly building standards, how to reduce energy consumption, and other green initiatives, less focus has been placed on the underlying structures of unsustainability. This article proposes degrowth as one framework for considering archival sustainability. Degrowth is an ecological, economic, and political theory that advocates for the deliberate reduction of activities that rely on non-renewable resources. This article draws on degrowth literature and archival theory to outline a three-part framework for archival sustainability based on the ideas of minimizing consumption, promoting community, and putting individual well-being first. Together, these principles interrogate archival assumptions and provide archivists with a means to center their work on ethical and sustainable stewardship.
This case study explores play-based approaches to digitization as innovative strategies for enhancing user engagement with special collections. The article discusses how traditional digitization often fails to capture the tactile nature of physical archives, especially three-dimensional objects. The authors, librarians at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library, discuss how they incorporated aspects of play into the curation, digitization, and description of physical collections. They outline their approach as illustrated in the creation of digital collections for the Historical Board Games, the Gwendolyn Brooks Collection, and the Ricker Materials Collections. Incorporating play and experimentation further promotes the discovery and use of materials beyond traditional methods of physical access.
