Another talk done! This talk was about how AI in archives introduces a depersonalized mode of collection processing and interaction that sidelines human connection which ironically intensifies emotional labor demands. This theme of my research/writing explores the dichotomy between “new” tech that isn’t actually new and how it affects cultural heritage sector labor.
Archivists have been using AI for years often in the form of built-in database or DAM tools like:
- automatic transcription
- file naming upon upload
- image recognition
While AI is not new to the profession and archivists are not developers of the technologies, AI is being pushed upon us. Archivists are challenged with how to meaningfully apply AI when the tools aren’t built for us or by us. I find this aspect of tech isn’t considered or talked about often.
For the last few years, I presented different aspects of a Bloomsbury Publishing chapter I co-wrote about the “hidden” emotional labor in archival work. I pre-recorded a talk titled “Books, Bodies, and Bots: The Overlooked Emotional Labour of Women Archivists - From Humans to Machines” for the 2025 Experimental Archives Conference at Kingston University, UK.