“How Do I Make This Work for Me?” Utilizing Transcription Tools to Enhance Collection Discoverability

“How Do I Make This Work for Me?” Utilizing Transcription Tools to Enhance Collection Discoverability. 

Offered as part of the ACA 2026 Virtual Conference, this workshop is ticketed separately from conference registration.

Monday June 8 at 1:30 - 3:00 EST

Instructors: Caitlin Bakker, Crista Bradley, Alyssa Hyduk 

Gladys Arnold, a teacher turned journalist, worked for the Regina Leader-Post before travelling to Europe in 1935. After working as a freelance journalist for the Canadian Press, she became their Paris correspondent, ultimately serving as the sole Canadian correspondent in France at the start of the Second World War. Her correspondence and memoirs, now preserved at the University of Regina’s Dr. John Archer Library & Archives, offer a vivid picture of a time of great historical significance. 

Yet, for all this primary source material, there is still a disconnect. While many of her materials have been digitized, the digital copies have not been made publicly available due to the lack of transcription and metadata, both of which require a sizeable amount of staff time. Making Arnold’s work more discoverable is essential to ensuring that her voice can be heard, and that these first-person accounts can be studied and shared. While open-source machine learning tools can generate preliminary transcripts, human review is essential to correct errors and omissions, and the volume of material makes in-house review impractical.  

To address this challenge, we explored different platforms to assist with AI transcription of these materials, with the hopes of not only transcribing many of Gladys Arnold’s letters, but also to raise awareness of this signification Saskatchewan resource. 

This workshop aims to introduce learners to different transcription tools, highlight the benefits and drawbacks of each, and offer best practices for using AI for transcription projects.  

Learning outcomes for this workshop will be: 

1: How to identify collections which will benefit from transcriptions tools and what to prioritize 

2: Knowledge of some of the more accessible transcription tools and their benefits/drawbacks 

3: Tips and tricks for building AI prompts to suit your project 

Zoom link will be provided to registrants the day before the workshop. 

Instructor Biographies

Alyssa Hyduk, MLIS, CNA Alyssa has been involved in the archival community in Canada since 2015 and is the University Archivist at the University of Regina where she oversees private records, collection development, reference and research. Her interests include cultural memory acquisition, digitization and preservation, AI in archives, and archival appraisal.

Caitlin Bakker, MLIS, PhD Caitlin Bakker is the Discovery Technologies Librarian at the University of Regina, where her portfolio includes the Library Services Platform, discovery and publishing systems, metadata, and authentication services. Her interests include research and publishing ethics, open science and scholarship, metadata and systems interoperability, and evidence synthesis.

Crista Bradley, MA (Archival Studies) Crista Bradley is the University Records & Information Management Archivist and an Adjunct Professor in History at the University of Regina. She oversees the Archives’ outreach, instruction and records management programs and collection development for university records. Her research interests relate to the extension of archives to specialized groups.