Why innovate in digitisation?
The Bodleian Libraries has been digitising parts of its collections for decades, and we continue to digitise so that our readers, whether they are researchers, students, or members of the public, can access the knowledge and information in our collections.
The core work of a library – to collect, curate, preserve and share the world’s knowledge – has been the same since we were founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, and continues to drive us today. The fact that we can digitise and make available our unique collections to readers beyond the physical bounds of our libraries, the city of Oxford, or indeed the UK, gives us new ways to connect our readers to information.
But our collections are vast. We have approximately 14 million printed items, and each item might have hundreds of pages. So we are looking for ways to scale up the digitisation of millions and millions of pages and make our collections more widely available.
Working with AI
The Bodleian Libraries began a pilot research project in February 2025 to investigate how to digitise parts of our collection at scale. OpenAI has funded the project as part of their 5-year partnership with the University of Oxford and as part of their NextGenAI consortium of Higher Education Institutions.
At this event we'll present some of our early findings as part of our research project. Including asking whether generative AI be used to enhance metadata and full text records for areas of our collection, how we have estimated how much of our collection could be digitised at scale and how would we prioritise digitisation activities, and our research on AI in the libraries sector.
For further information, please email the Centre for Digital Scholarship: cds@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
Registration
Registration is required for this free online event. Registration closes at 17.00 on Wednesday 26 November 2025.
Date and time: Friday 28 November 2025, 14:00-15:00 (UK time)
Location: Online via Zoom.
Register for the event 'Digitisation and AI'
Centre for Digital Scholarship
The Centre for Digital Scholarship (CDS) at the Bodleian Libraries is a space and place for engaging, leading and shaping discussions around digital scholarship practice and research within and beyond the University of Oxford.
Contact: Centre for Digital Scholarship: cds@bodleian.ox.ac.uk.
