This post is by Dr Valentina Vavassori, Digital Curator for Automatic Text Recognition.

At the British Library, one of our core values is to "collaborate to do more than we could by ourselves."

In my task to research options for our Automatic Text Recognition (ATR) pipeline, it was clear from the start that it was necessary to talk with different cultural institutions about their own work and processes in ATR and how they integrate it into their digitisation projects.

As part of this research, I have come to realise that the field is full of innovative ideas, with a strong focus on solving problems and learning from one another. 

Therefore, I am now asking people from cultural heritage institutions to complete this survey on how they work (or plan to work) with Automatic Text Recognition.

In the spirit of open access and sharing, the anonymised results will be published so that other institutions can use them.

Additionally, one question at the end of the survey asks if other institutions are interested in taking part in a working group on ATR and, if possible, to share their email so we can kick-start having meetings and discussions.

The survey will only take 5-10 minutes to complete, and it is available here:

https://online1.snapsurveys.com/AutomaticTextRecognition 

I hope you will be able to answer the survey, and I look forward to meeting with anyone who is interested!

Fantastic Futures 2025: AI Everywhere, All at Once 

AI4LAM’s annual conference, December 3 – 5, 2025, British Library, London 

The British Library and the Programme Committee for the Fantastic Futures 2025 conference are delighted to invite proposals for presentations and workshops for the Fantastic Futures 2025 conference.  

Fantastic Futures is the annual conference for the AI4LAM (Artificial Intelligence, for Libraries, Archives, Museums) community. Submissions are invited from colleagues around the world about organisations, collections, interest and experience with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies applied to or developed with cultural, research and heritage collections. This includes practitioners in the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) sector and Digital Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Data, Information and Computer Science researchers in Higher Education. 

Key dates 

• Call for proposals shared: Thursday 13 March 2025 

• Conference submission form opens: TBC 

• Proposal submission deadline: midnight anywhere, Sunday 18 May 2025 

• Notification of acceptance: 14 July 2025 

• Conference dates: December 3 – 5, 2025 

• Location: British Library, London, onsite – with some livestreams and post-event videos 

FF2025 Theme: AI Everywhere, All at Once 

We invite presentations on the theme of 'AI Everywhere, All at Once’. While AI has a long history in academia and practice, the release of public language models like ChatGPT propelled AI into public consciousness. The sudden appearance of AI ‘tools’ in the software we use every day, government consultations on AI and copyright and the hype about Artificial Intelligence mean that libraries, museums and archives must understand what AI means for them. Should they embrace it, resist it or fear it? How does it relate to existing practices and services, how can it help or undermine staff, and how do we keep up with rapid changes in the field? 

There are many opportunities and many challenges in delivering AI that create rich, delightful and immersive experiences of GLAM collections and spaces for the public, and meet the needs of researchers for relevant, reliable and timely information. Challenges range from the huge – environmental and economic sustainability, ensuring alignment with our missions, ethical and responsible AI, human-centred AI, ensuring value for money – to the practical – evaluation, scalability, cyber security, multimodal collections – and throughout it all, managing the pace of change. 

Our aim is to promote interdisciplinary conversations that foster broader understandings of AI methods, practices and technologies and enable critical reflections about collaborative approaches to research and practice. 

Themes   

We’re particularly interested in proposals that cover these themes:   

• Ethical and Responsible AI 

• Human-Centred AI / the UX of AI 

• Trust, AI literacy and society 

• Building AI systems for and with staff and users 

• Cyber-security and resilience 

• Interoperability and standards  

• Benchmarking AI / machine learning 

• Regional, national, international approaches to AI 

• Environmental sustainability  

Formats for presentations (Thursday, Friday December 4-5) 

• Lightning talk: 5 mins 

• These might pitch an idea, call for collaborators, throw out a provocation or just provide a short update 

• Poster  

• Perfect for project updates – what went well, what would you do differently, what lessons can others take? 

• Short presentation: 15 mins   

• Long presentation: 30 mins 

• Panel: 45 mins, multiple presenters with short position statements then discussion 

Formats for workshops or group sessions (Wednesday December 3) 

• Formal, instructor-led sessions, including working groups, tutorials, hands-on workshops – 1 or 2 hours 

• Informal, unstructured sessions, including unconferences, meetups, hacking – 1 or 2 hours 

• Digital showcase (demo): 30 mins 

We value the interactions that an in-person event enables, so the default mode for this event is in-person presentations. However, if your proposal is accepted for inclusion in the conference but you are not able to travel to London, we can consider arrangements for making a virtual presentation on a case-by-case basis. Please contact the Programme Committee at FF2025@bl.uk to discuss. 

The conference will be held over three days: one day of workshops and other events, and two days of formal sessions. The social programme will include opportunities for informal networking.  

Plenary sessions on Thursday and Friday will be livestreamed, recorded and published. 

Find out more and get updates 

• Join the AI4LAM Google Group https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/ai4lam  

• Join the AI4LAM Slack for regular updates on the #ff2025 event channel: https://ai4lam.slack.com Join: https://join.slack.com/t/ai4lam/shared_invite/zt-1omthldn8-9vrGySjIRdija1nKQm0ltA  

• Check the AI4LAM website for updates 

• Send inquiries to FF2025@bl.uk   

• Organisers: Rossitza Atanassova, Neil Fitzgerald and Mia Ridge, British Library
  

Further details about the conference submission process and registration will be supplied soon. 

We’re excited to announce the release of Universal Viewer (UV) version 4.1.0, packed with new updates and features. 

New image manipulation controls in UV 4.1.0

 

This version builds on the momentum from our community accessibility sprint, where the wider UV community came together to address key usability challenges. Highlights of the new release include: 

Accessibility Improvements:

• Easier navigation for keyboard-only users.
• Better support for assistive technologies such as screen readers.
• Improved contrast and visibility of page elements.

New Features:

• Image Controls: Adjust brightness, contrast, and saturation directly within the viewer.
• Index Panel Configuration: A new setting allows the index panel to open by default when viewing collections. 

Bug Fixes & Security Updates:

• Several bugs resolved to enhance stability and performance.
• Dependency updates to ensure the Universal Viewer remains secure and up to date.

For the full details of what’s new, check out the release notes on GitHub.

Interested in joining the Universal Viewer community? To get involved join us on Slack, or follow UV on Bluesky or Mastodon to stay connected.