International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) AI Special Interest Group: “The purpose of this working document is to set out considerations relevant for libraries developing a strategic response to Artificial Intelligence. The text is organised around developing a set of questions that prompt reflection and action (section 4). It is hoped that the document can support local decision making about AI. Authorship: This working document for discussion was prepared by Andrew Cox, as convenor of the Artificial Intelligence SIG. Comments for further iterations of the document are invited (link to comment form – if you have difficulty accessing this form send comments to [email protected] )…

The most powerful applications of AI for libraries are of “descriptive AI” which can be used to make all kinds of material (photos, videos, sound, manuscripts) in collections machine readable data through such techniques as computer vision or sound to text, and provide description at scale for information retrieval (Cordell, 2020). Some libraries have special collections that could be made more accessible using these means; for others it may be more relevant to have access to an infrastructure around licensed or ) open content. Many technical challenges remain with digitization and attempts to automate description of historic collections. But there is already considerable experience of the issues especially in the national library and archive community (Lee et al., 2023)…”