Expanding Our Mission: An Open Call for Collaborators
Today, we’re pleased to announce an open call for institutional collaborators as new support expands the research capacity of the Institutional Data Initiative.
With this expansion, we’ll also undertake new digitization at Harvard Law School Library to increase access to its unique collections, such as the Supreme Court Records and Briefs that are critical to understanding decision-making at the highest U.S. court yet remain largely inaccessible.
IDI is a team of data scientists and community builders who collaborate with knowledge institutions to publish their collections as data. We work to amplify the long-running missions of institutions while bringing new technical capacity to extend their reach—and impact—into AI. Through this open call, we aim to collaborate with institutions worldwide to build a collection of large, impactful, and widely available datasets to increase AI’s accessibility and diversity while reaffirming institutions as stewards of knowledge. We welcome partnerships with a wide range of knowledge institutions—from libraries and museums to cultural groups and government agencies—on collections spanning formats and languages.
IDI’s work began with nearly one million public domain books from Harvard Library and millions of pages of newspapers from Boston Public Library. In addition to building datasets, we believe there’s immense potential in building bridges that span the knowledge institution and AI communities. This spring, we’ll host a symposium to explore areas of alignment and build lasting collaborations between them. This new support comes to IDI as one of the Harvard-affiliated beneficiaries of OpenAI's new NextGenAI consortium, alongside other efforts in the biomedical sciences, information sciences, and across the university.
Greg Leppert
Executive Director, Institutional Data Initiative