Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Digital Preservation
Organizers: IFLA Information Technology Section, Artificial Intelligence Special Interest Group, and IFLA Preservation and Conservation Section
Digital preservation is the safeguarding and maintenance of digital content to ensure its accessibility and usability over time. In the era of rapidly advancing technology, preservation of digital records and artifacts becomes crucial for retaining our cultural, historical, and scientific heritage.
The concept of digitally born documents refers to information that originates in a digital format, rather than being a digital representation of a physical document. This includes emails, blogs, social media posts, and other content created and disseminated solely in the digital realm. Ebooks represent a significant shift in how we consume literature, and their preservation is vital for future generations. Preserving these documents (as well as grey literature and other special formats) requires proactive measures to address format obsolescence and data integrity.
Preserving digital arts (including performance and immersive art) involves overcoming unique challenges presented by constantly evolving technologies and formats. Artificial intelligence (AI) plays a role in the curation and restoration of digital artworks, ensuring that the essence and intent of the artist are maintained, even as the underlying technologies change.
AI is increasingly becoming a valuable tool in digital preservation initiatives. AI algorithms can aid in the automatic categorization, tagging, and metadata creation for digital content, making it easier to manage and retrieve information. Additionally, machine learning models can contribute to the identification and mitigation of digital decay or obsolescence and can act as aids to making sense, finding and summarization and synthesis of large earlier era knowledge . AI can assist in the organization and cataloging of vast digital libraries, helping users discover and access diverse literary works with greater efficiency.
While AI presents new possibilities for digital preservation and especially now multimedia archives, it also brings challenges such as ethical considerations, biases in algorithms, and the need for continuous adaptation to emerging technologies. Striking a balance between innovation and ethical responsibility is crucial in leveraging artificial intelligence for the long-term preservation of digital content.
Programme
- Keynote speaker: William Kilbride (Exec Director, Digital Preservation Coalition)
- Panel with 4 presentations
- Herbert Menezes Dorea Filho: “Artificial Intelligence: Situational Analysis and Digital Preservation of Archives at UFBA” (Brazil)
- Pablo Gobira and Emanuelle Silva: “Using AI as Part of the Recreation Strategy in Digital Preservation” (Brazil)
- Holly Chan and Lau Ming Kit Jack: “Beyond Pixels: AI-driven Image Processing for Enhanced Contextualization of HKUST’s Digital Images (1988-2000s) through the Applications of AI Models for Image Tagging, Object Detection, and Facial Recognition” (Hong Kong)
- Filippo Mengoni: “Like Never Before: AI for Oral Sources. How ASR and LLMs Can Revolutionize Our View of Oral History” (Italy)
The webinar will provide Q&A opportunity and will be recorded.