Carolyn Caizzi
Senior IT Project Manager
Harvard University
Amy Deschenes
Head of UX & Digital Accessibility
Harvard University
Stu Snydman
Associate University Librarian and Managing Director, Library Technology Services
Harvard University
In the spring of 2024, the Harvard University Library launched the Reimagining Discovery project, an ambitious initiative aimed at uncovering new ways to surface and enable discovery of Harvard’s vast and distinctive special collections. The first phase focuses on developing a platform called Collections Explorer, which leverages semantic search and generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to allow users to explore Harvard’s collections through natural language queries. Collections Explorer aims to make these collections accessible to both the Harvard community and researchers worldwide. In addition to highlighting Harvard’s collections, the project seeks to experiment with new search modalities, challenging conventional thinking about library discovery. This collaborative effort between the Library and Harvard University IT builds upon the success of the “Talk with HOLLIS” pilot, which enabled conversational search of the Harvard library catalog. The presentation will highlight key milestones, including collaboration with Mozilla.ai to shape a user-centered strategy, lessons learned from implementing semantic search, and insights from initial usability testing. Additionally, the presentation will include discussion about the project goals for building and sharing open-source components and open methods with the broader cultural heritage community, and it will include a demo of Collections Explorer.