December 4 – 6, 2019 at Stanford University
Stanford Libraries will host the 2nd International Conference on AI for Libraries, Archives, and Museums over three days, December 4, 5 & 6, 2019. The first ‘Fantastic Futures’ conference, which took place in December 2018 at the National Library of Norway in Oslo, initiated a community-focused approach to addressing the challenges and possibilities for libraries, archives, and museums in the era of artificial intelligence. The Stanford conference will expand that charge, adding to the plenary gathering a full day of workshops and a half day ‘unconference’ shaped by the interests of those assembled.
What role will libraries, archives, and museums play, as trusted sources of information, when more and more of the information we consume is algorithmically generated? How will the values of neutrality, privacy, authority, and preservation that these institutions advance help shape AI. How will our institutions adapt these values to a changing landscape? How can we put AI to work for us, to transform and elevate our services beyond 20th century modalities?
The AI Initiative at Stanford Libraries has been, from its inception, purpose-driven rather than technology-driven. The potential for the implementation of AI technologies to transform how we do our work requires that we bring everyone, in all roles across our institutions, into the conversation, the planning, and the design. In that spirit, Fantastic Futures 2019 encourages participation from administration, acquisition, archives, curation, cataloging, conservation, design, engineering, and any other area that might benefit from, or contribute to, technology change. We hope that this conference will be an opportunity to learn together, work together, and begin to build a LAM community of practice that will bring our content and subject expertise together with engineering talents to make the most of AI.
December 4th, 2019 Plenary Sessions 8:30 – 17:30
The conference day will convene thought and practice leaders from academia, libraries, industry and society to address these questions and help shape the future of AI in libraries, and the role of libraries in AI.
December 5th, 2019 Workshops 8:30 – 18:00
Organized in multiple tracks over one full day, the workshops will provide practical instruction on a range of topics appropriate for individual across libraries, archives and museums, whether administrators, content experts, catalogers, designers, or engineers.
December 6th, 2019 Unconference 8:30 – TBD
A core mission of this conference is to encourage and support international collaboration around efforts to apply AI within libraries, archives, and museums. The third day will provide an opportunity for self-organizing around interest groups, demonstrations of works in progress, and extended workshop sessions that grow out of day 2. Open to attendees of the Plenary Sessions (Dec. 4) and the Workshops (Dec. 5).
For further information please go to Stanford Libraries.