The Ins and Outs of Artificial Intelligence

November 17, 2023, 12:00-1:30 p.m.

Heads-up – here comes Artificial Intelligence! How can generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard, Poe, ChatPDF and others help advance our work?  Are they difficult to use?  Can they be fun?  Which are the most reliable sources for chatbots? What are some examples of how AI can help with administration, fund-raising, programming and the many other tasks that keep librarians and cultural heritage workers hopping?  Join us for a conversation and demonstration with Joanne Riley (Healey Library Archives and Special Collections, UMass Boston) and Jane Stimpson (Massachusetts Library System) about using AI creatively and productively at libraries, historical organizations, and small museums. Join us with your questions and experiences, good and bad, as well as with your ideas and practices, and start bending the arc of the future to our advantage.

Registration is free. REGISTER HERE!

We will do our best to monitor your questions and comments during the conversation. A recording will be publicly available in the Conversations on the Commons Archive.

Questions? Email commons@masshistoryalliance.org

About our Panelists:

As University Archivist and Curator of Special Collections at UMass Boston, Joanne Riley managed Healey Library’s archival research collections and related academic and community-based initiatives between 2010 and 2017, followed by a five-year stint as Interim Dean of Healey Library. She now enjoys serving as the library’s Digital Initiatives Archivist, which calls on her long experience in digital humanities, especially the design of structured data models to store and retrieve cultural heritage information. Joanne was the founding director of the “Mass. Memories Road Show” program at UMass Boston, an early participatory archiving initiative, and she conceived and directed the “1919 Boston Police Strike Project” that engaged a team of volunteers in researching the lives of those who participated in that historic event. Joanne’s work is centered on empowering researchers, faculty, students and community members to apply digital technology to advance humanities initiatives within academia and in the cultural heritage sector.

Jane Stimpson (she/her) is a Consultant with the Massachusetts Library System and consults in areas related to library instruction and educational technology. Before joining MLS, Jane was a librarian for 13 years in community college and joint-use libraries, focusing on instruction, reference, and outreach. She holds a BA in Spanish and Political Science from Williams College and an MS in Information Studies from the University of Texas at Austin School of Information. In her spare time, she enjoys baking, crosswords, and yoga.

Conversations on the Commons

Where people from Massachusetts history organizations get to vent, empathize, laugh, complain, think, collaborate, brainstorm, plan, and in general be up to no good.