PDA Summer Digitization Series: Integrating AI into Digital Collections: Strategy and Practice at Yale Library

Mike Appleby, Director of Software Engineering, and Jonathan Manton, Director of Digital Special Collections and Access at Yale Library, will explore the thoughtful integration of artificial intelligence into Yale Library’s digital collections ecosystem. 

Mike will introduce a prototype application, Digital Collections AI, which leverages large language models (LLMs) to analyze OCR-transcribed texts from Yale’s digitized collections. This tool can rapidly summarize content, extract entities such as people, places, and subjects, and even perform stylistic analyses, thereby enhancing researchers' ability to explore and interpret vast amounts of digitized material.

Jonathan will provide strategic context, outlining how this tool aligns with Yale Library’s broader goals for responsible innovation and sustainable stewardship of the library’s digital collections. Together, they will reflect on the opportunities and challenges of embedding AI in cultural heritage workflows, offering insights for institutions navigating similar paths.

This webinar begins the Summer Digitization Series, a joint effort of FLVC and CARLI to share digitization programming on Wednesdays in June and July.

Speakers: 

Michael Appleby is the Director of Software Engineering in Library Information Technology at Yale University Library.  His previous roles at Yale include Head of Information Technology at the Yale Center for British Art, and Associate Director in Yale's Information Technology Services unit.  He is also an editor of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) technical specifications.  Michael has an M.Phil. in Classics from Yale.

Jonathan Manton is Director of Digital Special Collections and Access, for the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, at Yale University. In this role he leads a unit that provides leadership, services and strategic direction that facilitates access to digitized and born digital special collections content across Yale Library. Jonathan’s previous roles include Associate Director for Special Collections at the Gilmore Music Library at Yale University. In this role he oversaw Music Special Collections (including Historical Sound Recordings and Oral History of American Music) at Yale, including arrangement and description, preservation, digitization, access, research services, and exhibits. Before joining Yale, Jonathan was Sound Archives Librarian at Stanford University's Archive of Recorded Sound. Jonathan serves on the Executive Committee of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) consortium. Jonathan received his MSc in Information and Library Management from the School of Computing, Engineering, and Information Sciences at the University of Northumbria, UK and MMus in Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Arts from the University of East Anglia, UK.

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Hosted by FLVC