CALMA Round Table : Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Metadata: Possibilities, Limitations, and Ethical Implications
Friday, May 22, 2026
10:00-11:30 PDT
Online
Zoom
Event Webpage
Registration Link
Metadata (data that defines and describes information resources) has been used by human beings for information retrieval for millenia. As our information recording technologies mature–from ancient cuneiform tablets to scrolls of paper, to cabinets of catalog cards to relational databases and semantic web data–individuals, libraries, museums, archives, and corporations strive to advance knowledge, streamline workflows, and improve efficiency. Each technological advance represents possibilities for improvement, limitations on those improvements, and ethical and practical pitfalls where sacrifices must be weighed against benefits.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence represent very new advances in information technology. Information professionals must understand enough about how these technologies work in order to make the best decisions for the advancement of human knowledge.
An expert panel including Morag Boyd, Charlene Chou, Jeremy Nelson, Philippe Saadé, Osma Suominen, Denny Vrandečić, and Crystal Yragui will join CALMA on Friday, May 22 from 10:00 to 11:30 PDT to discuss how libraries, library vendors, and open knowledge projects are approaching machine learning and AI in their metadata work. After answering questions about the possibilities, benefits, drawbacks, limitations and ethical implications of machine learning and AI in their work, panelists will take questions from attendees.
This session will be recorded and sent to attendees after the event.
Have a question you want to submit in advance? Email Crystal Yragui (cec23 [@] uw [dot] edu)
This event is part of CALMA's Careers, Cataloging, Climate: AI + LAMs series.
Panelists
Morag Boyd is the Director of Metadata Applications and Engagement at OCLC, where Morag works with libraries to create tools that make WorldCat data easier to use and share. With a passion for helping libraries connect their communities to information, Morag focuses on practical solutions for description and management of library resources. Before joining OCLC, Morag spent more than 20 years in academic libraries, starting as a project cataloger and later serving as Acquisitions and Discovery Strategist at The Ohio State University Libraries.
Charlene Chou is the Head of the Knowledge Access Department at New York University Libraries, where she oversees cataloging and metadata services. She has contributed to national and international metadata standards through active service on various committees, including the PCC (Program for Cooperative Cataloging) Policy Committee and the Joint RDA Board and RSC Working Group on Artificial Intelligence. She is committed to leading pilot projects on emerging trends and technologies.
Jeremy Nelson is a software developer at Stanford University Libraries. He is currently technical lead for the Blue Core project and as technical lead for the LD4P Sinopia linked-data editor. He is part of the team at Stanford that is responsible for the deployment and support of FOLIO and involved in developing AI enhancements to FOLIO workflows. He is co-chair of the ai4lam Metadata Working Group and co-convenor of the FOLIO AI/ML Special Interest Group.
Philippe Saadé is an AI/ML Project Manager at Wikimedia Deutschland, where he focuses on integrating vector embeddings and AI technologies into Wikidata. With a background in Computer Science and a specialization in Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing from the Technical University of Munich, he works at the intersection of linked open data and AI.
Osma Suominen is working on automated subject indexing, in particular the Annif tool and the Finto AI service, as well as automated descriptive cataloguing and the publishing of bibliographic data as Linked Data. He is also one of the creators of the Finto.fi thesaurus and ontology service and is leading development of the Skosmos vocabulary browser used in Finto. Osma Suominen earned his doctoral degree at Aalto University while doing research on semantic portals and quality of controlled vocabularies within the FinnONTO series of projects.
Denny Vrandečić is Head of Special Projects at the Wikimedia Foundation and visiting Professor at King's College London. He leads the Abstract Wikipedia project, which aims to give many more people the ability to contribute to, collaborate on, and read knowledge in their own language. Previously, he was an ontologist for the Google Knowledge Graph and researcher in Google AI, founder of Wikidata, co-creator of Semantic MediaWiki, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation. He received his PhD from KIT on the topic of Ontology Evaluation. He previously worked at KIT, CNR, USC ISI, Wikimedia Deutschland, and Google. He received the Knowledge Graph Conference Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.
Crystal Yragui (moderator) is a Science Cataloger at the University of Washington Libraries, and Guest Faculty teaching Catalogs, Cataloging, and Classification at the iSchool. She Co-chairs the PCC Identity Management Advisory Committee and the Homosaurus Collective's Implementation Board. She serves on the IFLA Bibliographic Conceptual Models Review Group, and Co-coordinates the LD4 Wikidata Affinity Group. Crystal's work is at the intersection of library metadata creation and design, linked open data, and library entity management.
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Crystal Yragui
Science Cataloger
University of Washington Libraries
She/Her/Hers,They/theirs,They/Them/Theirs
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