Archivists

We think that responsible use of AI tools requires avoiding the cognitive black box of purely algorithmic metadata generation, but rather using AI to surface data to which professional human archivists can apply their judgment.

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The role of archivists is thus transformed, as they need to learn to make use of machine reasoning for appraisal and selection and to assess the assessments of machines. The archive becomes a big data organisation and like all big data organisations needs to at least partly put its trust into Artificial Intelligence (AI), mostly in the form of machine learning, to deal with the transformation.

Sample of reported job titles: Accessioning Archivist, Archivist, Digital Archivist, Film Archivist, Museum Archivist, Records Manager, Reference Archivist, Registrar, State Archivist, University Archivist

Wellesley College becomes the fifth Oberlin Group and second Boston Library Consortium institution to join JSTOR’s Tier 3 charter program, advancing responsible, AI-assisted collections stewardship with JSTOR Seeklight.

The Editorial Board recognizes ... potential to contribute to archivists’ professional work, including creating summary documents for finding aids and facilitating data analysis for large projects....

After a collection arrives at an archive, processing archivists create an inventory of everything acquired. The original order of the materials is maintained when possible. Throughout this process, the preservation needs are assessed and damaged items are cleaned or repaired when possible.

Archivists appraise, process, catalog, and preserve permanent records and historically valuable documents. Curators oversee collections of artwork and historical items and may conduct public service activities for an institution.

The AI for Access project has presented participant comments from its survey work that the authors call “visceral reactions as data.” They include blunt thoughts: “AI is injurious to the human spirit.” And blunter: “[AI] tools are SLOP.” Still others compress multiple concerns into a single verdict, describing AI as “environment-destroying, labor-devaluing, untrustworthy garbage.” · Those words are fired up, but they are not only rhetorical heat; they are likely also professional memory. They reflect a pattern that archivists and librarians have experienced repeatedly: technology introduced as a substitute for labor, tools procured without adequate governance, and efficiency narratives used to justify disinvestment.

A lot of an archivists job is organizing and preserving physical documents so unless we see light speed advancements in robotics I doubt this job will be automated any time soon.