Should universities build their own LLMs for academic research?

Taking bold steps A recent THE article by Sorin Adam Matei proposes that academia could invest in building its own LLMs to consume data from verifiable sources. I’m wondering if the UK university community thinks this is something we should invest in to ensure we feel confident that this valuable technology fulfills sector requirements. Governments […]

Join our next webinar to discuss AI ready library collections; the practicalities

Back in November we were joined by about 180 people to discuss how the Higher Education library community might be bolder in providing machine ready collections, in support of research, and to feel more confident with the impending introduction of AI into the community. You can see a recording with transcript of that session, but […]

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Machine ready collections, more data from libraries please!

  As reported in a previous post A couple of weeks ago we were pleased to be joined by 180 people for our Getting Your Collections AI Ready webinar. The focus of the session was on how academic libraries can get their collections online in forms consumable by people and machines. Though AI was in […]

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Machine ready collections and fighting the AI hype

  Recent podcast draws the crowds Last Wednesday we were pleased to be joined by 180 people for our Making Your Collections AI Ready webinar. The focus of the session was on how academic libraries can get their collections online in forms consumable by people and machines. We heard from Ines Byrne of the National […]

New episodes of, Is AI for me? Perspective from the humanities

Is AI for me? Perspectives from the humanities, is a mini-series that is part of the Jisc Research Talk podcasts. There’s been an outburst of AI talk over the last year, but it’s not often that we hear about what it means to engage with AI in the context of the humanities. Over six episodes, […]

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Critical skills are vital as AI technologies become embedded in day to day working

  Map data and developing a critical gaze I was pleased to talk with Prof Leif Isaksen, Professor in Digital Humanities at the University of Exeter, about computational approaches to research and some of the potential impacts of AI on Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS). The research talk podcast forms part of a miniseries […]

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Some thoughts on AI policies for librarians

The fear of AI The focus of this post is the fears we have of AI technologies and what we might do about them. Having spoken to lots of librarians about AI, it is clear that many are concerned about the technologies but do not have time to address their fears in practical ways. Policy […]

Developing policies and infrastructure for data-centric research

“Artificial Intelligence: Where does it fit into your library strategy?” Back in April five UK library sector leaders debated this topic. The debate was followed by a workshop at which participants proposed nine potential strategic actions to address skills and knowledge gaps for librarians to help prepare the sector for AI. Following on from the […]

Want to do some interesting research? Why not learn to code?

Tobias Blanke, Professor of Humanities and AI at the University of Amsterdam, suggests that everyone can benefit from learning to code. As digital skills are becoming ever more vital, we worked with the Programming Historian (PH) and The National Archives to develop tutorial articles focused on computational skills for digital collections. A partnership to support computational […]

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Academic libraries and archives – engaging with computational methods

This post forms part of our signposting series for collections as data, AI and computational approaches to Arts and Humanities for libraries and archives. Nice clear AI information Here’s a nice simple guide to AI from the BBC and you can also try our very own Explore AI site to try your hand at some […]

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Podcast series on Artificial Intelligence and the humanities

Is AI for me? Perspectives from the humanities is a new podcast mini-series that is part of the Jisc Research Talk podcasts. There’s been an outburst of AI-talk in the last few months, but it’s not often that we hear about what it means to engage with AI in the context of the humanities. Over six episodes, […]

The National Library of Sweden embraces AI

  Why are we only talking about ChatGPT? This post is part of a series about approaches academic libraries in the UK might take in response to the emergence of AI. Their purpose is to signpost to relevant initiatives and to encourage debate about the way ahead. As ChatGPT is not the only Large Language […]

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Investigating the uses of AI in libraries and for humanities research

Some tips for academic librarians wanting to make sense of AI This the first in a series of posts about Collections as Data, AI, computational approaches to Arts and Humanities, signposting to resources, networks, reports and events How should academic libraries respond to the maturing of Artificial Intelligence? Analysis of recent interviews with five librarians […]

Is AI for Me?

Outcomes of task and finish group investigations into the preparation of datasets for Artificial Intelligence (AI) Recently we established a short-form task and finish group, made up of senior academics and librarians to explore the question: Are universities sufficiently prepared to support the development of datasets and computational methods for data driven research in the […]

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UKMHL on Historical Texts: a search for ‘female’ on international women’s day

I thought it might be interesting to look at some material for those out exploring during International Women’s Day. I ran some searches on the UK Medical Heritage Library collection on Historical Texts and I found three texts which are interesting for the amateur, but they could start a whole new area of research for the […]

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Science

Hunt through the Wiley Digital Archives BAAS Collection this Rare Disease Day

This post, by our colleague Dr. Hannah Woodward-Reed, forms part of a series on the Jisc-Wiley history of science digital archive. It is notable that this resource is free to Jisc members in the UK. February 28th marks Rare Disease Day, raising awareness and working towards equity of healthcare and access to diagnosis, healthcare and […]

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British Association for Advancement of Science; documenting the achievements of women

This is the second of a series of posts on the Jisc-Wiley history of science digital archive by our colleague Dr. Hannah Woodward-Reed. It is notable that this resource is free to Jisc members in the UK. Ahead of this year’s International Day of Women and Girls in Science, we are exploring the archive of […]

Jisc-Wiley history of science digital archive nears 1 million items

This is the first of a series of posts on the Jisc-Wiley history of science digital archive by our colleague Simon Bell of Wiley. It is notable that this resource is free to Jisc members in the UK. Wiley Digital Archives Goes Radioactive As part of the development of the major Jisc-Wiley history of science […]

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Collaboration Participation opportunity

Author event: computational analysis skills for humanities data

Further to my earlier post about the special Programming Historian series we have developed in partnership with the National Archives, I thought you might be interested in the author briefing event. It will take place on 23 September. Please register via this Eventbrite page. During the call, the Programming Historian team will explore the invitation […]

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Boost your skills in working with digital collections!

Researchers often tell us that they have problems when they want to use digital methods to interrogate large archives, special collections, masses of catalogue records or aggregations of metadata. We are therefore pleased to announce a new partnership between Jisc, the Programming Historian and The National Archives (TNA) to publish a series of articles to […]