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Welcome to the Advanced Information Collaboratory (AIC)!

What we do

EXPLORE the opportunities and challenges of "disruptive technologies" for archives and records management (digital curation, machine learning, AI, etc.).
LEVERAGE the latest technologies to unlock the hidden information in massive stores of records.
PURSUE multidisciplinary collaborations to share relevant knowledge across domains.
TRAIN current and future generations of information professionals to think computationally and rapidly adapt new technologies to meet their increasingly large and complex workloads.
PROMOTE ethical information access and use.

Featured Initiatives:

IEEE Big Data 2025: CAS #10

IEEE Big Data 2024: CAS #9

IEEE Big Data 2021: CAS#6

Piloting an Online National Collaborative Network for Integrating Computational Thinking into Library and Archival Education and Practice (aka “Piloting Network”)

The application of computational thinking to archival theory and practice which provides the foundation or building blocks for a Masters’ educational curriculum (CAS-Computational Archival Science) focused on computational treatments of large, complex digital collections.

Webinar

Exploring the potential for applying computational treatments to the Maryland State Archives Legacy of Slavery Projects through the ditial study of: (1) Runaway Slave Ads, (2) Certificates of Freedom, (3) Manumissions, and (4) Burial Records.

Machine Learning Strategies for FDR Presidential Library Collections (ML-FDR)

IEEE Big Data 2020: CAS#5

Digital Repositories At Scale that Invite Computation (DRAS-TIC)

A $240K IMLS-funded partnership with the UMD Libraries, the Smithsonian Institution, and Amherst College to research, develop, and test software architectures to improve the scalability of the Fedora Repository.

CAS Portal

Exploring the conjunction (and its consequences) of emerging methods and technologies around big data with archival practice and new forms of analysis and historical, social, scientific, and cultural research engagement with archives.

Computational Thinking to Library and Archival Science Education & Research (CT-LASER)

Computational Thinking to Unlock the Japanese American WWII Camp Experience

We explore computational treatments of World War II Japanese-American Incarceration Camp Records, through the application of Computational Thinking with respect to: (1) Detecting personally identifiable information, (2) Developing name registries, (3) Integrating vital records, (4) Designing controlled vocabularies, (5) Mapping events and people, and (6) Connecting events and people through networks.