I am delighted to be the Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded project LUSTRE (Unlocking our Digital Past with Artificial Intelligence). LUSTRE seeks to better understand how AI can help improve the preservation, access to and usability of government archives produced in digital form. Much public good could be derived from the analysis of government records, particularly records in digital form. Yet, accessing these data is a complex challenge that requires collaboration across multiple fields and professional sectors to overcome issues including confidentiality, privacy, national security, copyright, technological constraints, and the existence of a multiplicity of different structures, systems and applications. The input of computer scientists who specialise in Artificial Intelligence (AI) is essential to tackling this challenge. Indeed, AI can be used to identify sensitive materials in a mass of born-digital records to make non-sensitive materials accessible. AI can also serve
The next MLA (Modern Language Association) Annual Convention will be held from 5 to 8 January 2023 in San Francisco. The presidential theme is Working Conditions. As always, SHARP (the Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing) will organise a guaranteed session. We are inviting papers on the theme "Women and Book History." Nearly a quarter of a century ago, Leslie Howsam encouraged scholars to "make use of the powerful theory and flexible methodology of feminist analysis when we think about and investigate the history of books" (SHARP News, Vol. 7, number 4, Autumn 1998). This short article on "women and book history" still resonates today. We invite papers on (but not limited to): the theory and methodology of feminist book history; the study of women in the book trade and women book collectors; the analysis of women readers. All periods and geographical areas. Please send your abstract (250 words) and CV (2 pages) by Wedn